13. Raia
RAIA
A FEW WEEKS LATER
“Ihonestly don’t know what I’d do without you.” Lucen’s dark blue eyes study mine, thumb stroking my cheek as we stand on his balcony. He presses a kiss to my forehead. “Our meeting was fate, sweetling.”
My heart squeezes. Sweetling. He uses the endearment often. Always insisting that I am sweet, despite my best efforts.
Lucen has taken me in and single-handedly nursed me back to some semblance of functionality, and throughout it, regardless of whether or not this male is my soulbound, I have fallen irrepressibly in love with him.
Just as I know that he has for me, even though we haven’t admitted such things yet. Nor have we acted upon them.
Lucen gave me my choice of spare bedrooms to choose from, and until recently, I’d been grieving too heavily to do anything other than just lie there and drown myself in sleeping tonics.
But thanks to Lucen, I’m beginning to make peace with this new, unacceptable reality.
And the closer I grow to him, the more desperate I am to act upon these new feelings.
To express my gratitude and love for him.
And to escape mourning Thessaly, however briefly.
Dressed in a silky nightdress with my hair hanging in dark, loose waves around my bare shoulders, I wait for him to return home from work—he works often and late, but he’s always eager to spend time with me when he returns.
I hope to seduce him, finally.
Leaning forward ever so slightly, my lips part. Lucen’s gaze drops to my mouth just as I lick my lips. One hand crawls into my hair to cradle the back of my head as his other hand curls around my waist, and he pulls me against him.
His words are murmured in the scant space between our lips. “You have no idea how badly I want you.”
I tilt my head to angle my lips more towards his. “I promise you, I do.”
His mouth lands on mine, soft at first, but quickly turns hungry.
A surge of sweet emotion hits me like a tidal wave—like all the yearning that’s been buried beneath my grieving is suddenly rushing to the surface.
My desperate hands tug his shirt up, and our kiss breaks only to pull it over his head. Lucen bends to scoop me up by the backs of my thighs. My legs wrap around his waist. Our kiss turns devouring as he carries me from the balcony to his bedroom and sets me on the edge of his bed.
Clumsy butterflies swoop and dive in my belly as I pull my nightdress off, and Lucen unbuckles his belt and removes his trousers. In my attempt to not stare, my eyes scan his room. It’s the first time I’ve properly seen it, having only ever briefly peeked or stepped inside.
My eyes snag on a peculiar-looking cane sitting in one corner. It’s too slender to be of any practical use, but its faded lacquer tells me it’s been well used anyway. “What’s that for?”
Lucen follows my gaze as he tugs down his undergarments.
“Just an old heirloom.”
His cock bounces free, causing all other thoughts to take flight.
Oh, fuck. That’s supposed to fit?
His eyes rake over me as he shakes his head.
“Fuck, Raia... You’re so perfect.”
An uncomfortable truth rises.
“Um... I think I should tell you something. Before we do this.”
He huffs a laugh as he climbs over me, laying me down beneath him as I neatly part my wings beneath me and my tail coils around his thigh.
“Whatever it is, it won’t change my mind.”
“I’m a virgin.”
Lucen grows very still before his forehead drops to mine.
“I won’t pretend I deserve to be your first, but I do plan to be the last.”
His words steal my breath and are swift to bring watery emotion to my eyes.
I nod against him. “Please.”
Lucen’s lips capture mine—the action so tender and sweet it makes the emotion in my chest pinch tighter. Bracing himself on one arm, his free hand lifts one of my legs over his shoulder.
A whimper escapes me as the crown of his cock prods at my entrance. He grunts, breaking our kiss as his muscles shudder with barely held restraint, as his hips give subtle thrusts, gradually working his way inside me. My core spasms at the intrusion of being stretched around his girth.
“Fucking hells..."
My nails sink into the muscled flesh of his ass, trying to drag him deeper inside me. “I need more..."
Lucen’s dark chuckle feels like a purr. “Take a deep breath for me, love.”
Heeding his guidance, I draw in a deep breath. Lucen’s hips punch forward, piercing my hymen, and I cry out from the sharp, stabbing pain. Lucen settles his weight on me, stroking the hair from my face as my body adjusts, and he peppers my face with kisses.
“You’re doing so well, sweetling.”
When the tension in my body diminishes, his hips start to move. We groan in unison at the sensation. I’m stretched so tightly around him, each deep, slow thrust forward tugs my clit towards his cock. My eyes roll back as I arch against him. “Oh, fuck, Lucen.”
His thrusts intensify, filling the room with the lewd sound of our coupling—the wet smacking of flesh. A sound that I now realize I like and further spurs my rapidly approaching orgasm.
Lucen’s words are growled so intensely that he almost sounds angry.
“Gods damn it, Raia... I love you.”
My heart swells to send tears streaking down my temples in time with the orgasm crashing over me. “I love you, too.”
Lucen’s features tense with emotion, and his hips slam harder before stuttering. A low groan of ecstasy resonates from his chest as his cock pulses inside me, turning his slowing thrusts obscenely wet.
I realize then that I have never felt so full, content, and safe. The joy of which is swiftly swallowed by the fear that it will all be taken away, but I refuse to let it creep in. Lucen slips out of me as he shifts to his side, only to thrust back inside and pull me against his chest.
The words he whispers against my shoulder are a balm to my frayed soul. “It’s you and me, always, sweetling.”