Apollo commanded wolves?
She turned to Apollo. “Do you think that will work here, honey?”
“Regrettably, my poppy, I have the feeling we shall see,” he answered heavily.
She turned again to me, now curiously not concerned in the slightest that her husband might have to command wolves due to our circumstances which might be dire. “He might not command dragons and elves, but he’s still badass.”
Badass?
Maddie studied my face then asked, “Have you heard of Minerva?”
I reared back. “The malevolent she-god of Hawkvale who was vanquished some years ago?”
She smiled. “Yes. Her. Well me and Finnie vanquished her. With Circe and Cora, who are on their way with Lahn and Tor, and a little more help from friends.”
I stared at her, mouth agape.
“We’re pretty badass too,” she shared.
“You’re witches?” I whispered.
“Well, I wouldn’t call myself a witch. But if the shoe fits…” She shrugged.
I had heard tales of these powerful witches who had vanquished the she-god Minerva and her triumvirate of evil-doers.
And now one of them was bickering with her man three feet from me and the other one was babbling at me.
I thought this should be good.
But they were so odd, I worried it was bad.
“I am also witch,” I shared.
She smiled largely. “Awesome!”
“If you want to row, row, for heaven’s sake!” Finnie cried, got up, cast a longsuffering glance at Maddie, then stomped down the beach to their boat.
“We’ll be back,” Frey murmured, rising and following her much more slowly.
“Do you have any more of this mango juice?” Maddie asked. “It’s delicious!”
I had a servant bring her more juice. I then asked another to change the sheets and tidy Aramus and my tent for Finnie and Frey and see to it that Maddie and Apollo had appropriate accommodation. Last, I had another bounden pack a small bag with things for myself and my husband that we could take to The Finnie.
Frey and Finnie came back and Aramus loaded up the bag and rowed us to The Finnie.
And now we were there.
In the captain’s cabin.
After nearly a year of marriage.
Ready to consummate it.
I had the desire to rush back up the steps onto the deck and jump into the sea.
I quelled this by staring out of the paned window at the back of the cabin. Aramus had one like that on the Siren’s Scream, including the bench under it covered in pillows and cushions for lounging.
“Princess Seoafin and Lady Madeleine are lovely, aren’t they?” I asked.
“Ha-Lah.”
“Though odd. I can’t put my finger on it—”
“Ha-Lah.”
“But they’re charming. Just… peculiar. Though not in a bad way.”
“They’re from a parallel universe.”
My head swiveled around to my husband.
“Pardon?”
“They are not of this world. They’re of another one. A world that has all the same people as here, but different. Twins. All of the witches who defeated Minerva are from that other world. I did not know this, but while you were seeing to our tent, Apollo shared he’d noted our reactions and he told me.”
“They…they’re from another world?” I whispered.
“Yes,” he confirmed impatiently.
“By the seas,” I breathed.
“I have promised Apollo, thus we cannot speak a word of it to anyone. Particularly about Finnie. She is not strictly of royal blood. It would put the whole House of Wilde, which is the ruling House of Lunwyn, in disarray, and her son, who is to assume rule very shortly, in peril.”
“Those Lunwynian Houses don’t seem to get along very well,” I muttered, for I had heard some stories and not many of them were fairytales.
“I do not care about Lunwynian Houses. I care that my wife has situated herself all the way across the cabin and gives every appearance of wishing to avoid me while alone in a room with me, this along with being terrified of me.”
I realized then that I had done just that.
Far from him.
And far from the cozy, cocoon of a bed that was situated against the side wall.
A bed my husband was standing in front of.
I drew in breath and found his gaze.
Then I drew in courage.
When I had it, I said quietly, “I am not terrified of you, Aramus. I’m terrified that I will not please you.”
His powerful body gave a sudden jerk.
And then his face grew gentle.
So gentle, the very air in the cabin felt a velvet.
“I fear I must break our pact, my Ha-Lah, even though we have not had it for long,” he said in a voice as gentle as his face. “Thus, I must ask, how much is your ‘not much?’”
“Very much not much, my husband,” I whispered.
And at that, his face grew downright tender.
“Come here, my queen.”
On slow feet, I walked to him.
When I came near, with careful arms, like he was gathering a wounded kitten close, he pulled me to him and held me there.
“I very much wish to end what has felt like years of wanting you and not having you, and do it swiftly,” he said softly. “But instead, first, and I will warn you, it might take all night, I will endeavor to enumerate the many, many ways you please me, my queen.”
“Aramus,” I breathed, his words causing me to melt into his big, strong, solid, warm frame.
And thus, he began.
“Your beauty. I could gaze on you for hours, days, years, millennia, until this planet falls from the sky, and I would not tire of it.”
By Medusa.
“Husband.”
“Your wit. The way you tease me. It makes me smile and entices me, all at once.”
I slid my arms around his waist and whispered, “Darling.”
“You have the voice of a siren.”
He thought that?
“I could lose my sight, and just be able to listen to you and be a very happy man.”
He thought that.
But he was wrong.
This would not take all night.
For already, I could not take more.
“Please, you must—” I tried.
“Your power,” he continued “Knowing you, I should have known it would be naught but the magnificence it is. And it is, my queen. It’s magnificent.”
I felt tears welling in my eyes. “My king, you really must—”
“And you found it in your heart to forgive me. I spoke cruel words, lashing out in a way that was worse than feeling the tip of a whip. Unforgiveable. But you did not make me go to the ends of the earth to prove my remorse. You did not make me shower you with jewels and gold. You did not force me to my knees and make me beg and kiss your feet. You took yourself away, as I deserved, and gave yourself back, because your heart is just that kind.”
Now I’d definitely could take no more.
“Please be quiet, my husband, and—”
“I will hunt no more whale, for they are your friends and you please me so much, my queen, I would never harm a creature who is friend to you.”
I stood frozen in his arms, staring up at his beautiful face.
He took one hand from about me in order to cup my jaw and he dipped his head close to mine.
“Would you like more?” he queried.
I could not imagine he had more.
I did not mention that.
I asked, “You will not hunt the whales?”
“It will be added to the proclamations. It will be forbidden. No one will hunt the whales, for they are Companions of the Queen. If they do, they’ll answer to the King of the Sea.”
I could not believe he was saying this, and it meant so very much that he was, I felt a tear trace down my cheek.
Aramus captured it with his thumb an
d dipped his face even closer.
“You could never not please me, Ha-Lah, that’s how much you please me,” he whispered.
“Do you love me?” I asked.
“I did not know it, until recently, but I fell in love with you kneeling at your side in the sanctuary of Leuthea. I fell more in love with you when you appeared before me in your wedding gown, so regal, it was not like you were not yet queen, but you had been for centuries. And I fell more in love with you later, when you were standing by our marital bed and you stated your case with passion and strength, utterly unafraid of me.”
I stared up at my husband.
He grinned. “Though, I would have preferred you stated your case in the morning over breakfast after we’d had a night where we were both very naked and we did very pleasant things to each other while were that. Not to mention, done it in a much quieter tone.”
I felt a tremulous smile hit my lips.
Then I admitted, “I’m falling in love with you too.”
His head dipped that much nearer so when he said the words, “Thank the gods, I know,” his lips brushed mine.
Another tear traced down my opposite cheek as a frisson chased up my spine.
“Let us make magic together, wife, aboard The Finnie,” he whispered.
I nodded, and with us so close, my nose brushed against his.
That was when my husband kissed me.
It was gentle, and it was sweet. He took a great deal of time exploring my mouth, then gave more, allowing me to explore his.
The taste of him…
Sublime.
Then he turned us, so I had my back to the bed, and slowly he lowered me there, lowering himself on top of me.
His weight was like the heavens had landed atop me.
He rolled us though, so I was on top, as if he feared his weight would frighten me.
I showed him by kissing his mouth, his jaw, his neck, his throat that I was not afraid.
But kissing his mouth, his jaw, his neck, his throat, I smelled the salt of him, the aroma of sea and man and husband.
And I tasted the same things too.
Therefore, when I kissed his mouth again, I tried plundering.
It worked.
I was rolled, and my efforts ceased for my husband was plundering me with mouth and with hands.
That frisson I had felt strengthened. My skin felt strange. Needy for his touch just as my hands itched to give the same to him.
I pulled at his shirt to free it from his trousers in order to find skin.
Stymied by his waistcoat, I mentally cursed it, planted my foot in the bed and heaved him.
Now I was on top and he was on the bottom. I shifted to straddle him, but my damnable fingers did not work for desperation at trying to release the dratted, confounding buttons.
“You wear too many clothes,” I complained.
“You wear just enough,” he murmured, his fingers gripping my short gown and pulling up, my arms going with it.
Leaving me in nothing but panties.
He tossed it to the floor, his eyes hit my body and grew hungry.
Thus, there I had it.
He very much liked what he saw.
That expression on his face, I felt a spasm at the core of me, and I grew wetter.
“Sirens, your beauty,” he growled.
I then gasped, for Aramus flipped me and got to his knees between my legs.
In a trice, gone was his waistcoat.
In a blink, he’d pulled off his shirt.
His wide chest with that expanse of smooth, dark skin, the swells, the dips, the peaks of his nipples.
Phenomenal.
But too far away.
I pushed up to take a nipple in my mouth.
Before I succeeded in this endeavor, my husband pushed me down and did what I wanted to do to him to me. He fed my nipple into his mouth with a stroke of his tongue and then he drew.
The searing sensation that fired from nipple to between my legs had me arching off the bed, lacing my fingers at the back of his head, holding him to me, demanding more.
“Aramus,” I moaned.
He lifted up, taking possession of my mouth, his tongue sweeping inside, as he grabbed my hand and pressed it flat against his crotch.
Oh.
My.
All of that was mine?
I whimpered into his mouth.
“See what you do to me,” he growled in mine.
I didn’t see.
I felt.
But I wanted to see.
And so much more.
“Aramus—”
“Yes.”
“I want to see—”
“Yes,” he grunted.
He then pulled away and I scrambled to my knees, raining kisses on his shoulders, the back of his neck, running my hands down his sturdy arms as he sat on the edge of the bed and tugged off boots, socks…
He stood and turned to me, his hands at the belt of his trousers.
I reached out, running my fingers over the silken, heated skin of his chest, but my head was bent.
I so very much wanted to see.
He unbuckled then unbuttoned his trousers…
And then he sprang free, long, thick, proud.
By Medusa.
So, so beautiful.
And all mine.
The heat of me saturated, my mouth watered, my head dipped…
He kicked his trousers away and I had his hands under my arms.
I gave a mew of protest when I was up for nary a second before I landed on my back.
And my panties were gone.
I stopped protesting.
His hands ran down the insides of my thighs, spreading them, and I quivered, staring at the hunger on his face as his eyes roved all over me.
“Please, please, please,” I chanted.
“Please, fuck, please,” he gritted, his fingers drifting back up and trailing through my wet.
Oh, that felt nice.
I whimpered.
At the feel of me ready, the hunger in his face bloomed and I hooked the back of his thigh with my heel in an effort to bring him to me.
He put a hand to the bed beside me, arm straight…
And his eyes to mine.
“I wanted to make this more,” he grunted.
“It’s perfect,” I assured.
“I want to make it splendor.”
“Aramus—”
“Ha-Lah, it needs to be—”
I lifted both hands and caught him at the back of his neck, pulling myself up, my eyes locked to his.
“Husband, take…your…wife,” I commanded.
He growled unintelligibly, I felt that noise drive up inside me like a physical thing, and thankfully I also felt him shift.
He was at my entrance.
So close.
So very close.
And then with a sure, smooth glide, he filled me.
Oh, how he filled me.
And we were one.
One.
Complete.
Perfect.
“Yes,” I breathed, using my hands to pull him down to me.
He lowered at my pull, took my mouth, and I had his shaft and his tongue.
Divine.
He glided in and out, oh gods, beauty, and I wrapped my legs around his arse, digging in, holding on.
He glided faster, harder.
Better.
“More,” I begged against his lips.
He nipped my bottom one and growled, “I live to please my queen.”
He was doing that.
By the all the bounty of the seas, he was doing that.
He gave me more.
“Faster, darling,” I entreated.
My husband went faster.
By the gods.
Faster.
By the gods.
With one hand clamped to the back of his neck, my nails on the other one digging into his spine, the walls of me pulsing around his shaft as I took him and took him,
and more, and faster, I heard the animal noise he made just as I cried out, all that he’d built inside cresting.
And I broke through, surfing an ecstasy I did not know was to be had.
And then it scoured through me, like a cleansing, sheer bliss so pure, so intense, it was excruciating, it was rapture, and it felt like the entire boat rocked with it.
“Husband,” I whispered, clenching him to me every way I could.
“Wife,” he grunted, thrusting fiercely, then his head jerked back, teeth gritted.
He seethed between them before his hips pounded into mine, stayed there, grinding deeply.
And the King of the Sea roared.
Frey Drakkar
Beach Beside the Triton Sea
OFF THE WEST COAST OF FIRENZE
“What on…”?
Frey Drakkar turned his head to his wife.
He then turned his head to the direction where his wife was staring.
That was when he stared.
It started with drifters.
But then it became crowds.
Finnie and he joined them.
He felt Apollo and Maddie fall in step at his side.
They stopped with the others at the tips of the waves and stared in awe at The Finnie, surrounded by dolphins, multiple pods of them, leaping and flipping all around his ship.
He felt another presence on their other side, and Frey looked that way to see Aramus’s man Tintagel standing there.
“Should we be worried about this?” he inquired, even though he knew he needn’t.
Tint was grinning like a madman.
“No,” Tint gave him the response he expected.
“Does this happen every time they make love?” Finnie asked, awe in her voice.
“I hope we’ll see,” Tint replied, and when his eyes got wide, Frey looked back to the galleon.
He did this just in time to see two whales some ways farther out than The Finnie break the surface, leap entirely out of the water, and land with massive splashes on their sides.
“Not expecting there’ll be sand drills tomorrow,” Tint noted strangely, and still grinning, he turned and walked up the beach.
The rest stayed where they were, and it started slow, but then it built until the cheering and clapping rent the air.
He felt his wee wife’s eyes and looked down into their ice-blue beauty.
“I think I like it here,” Finnie declared.
His Finnie. His adventuress.
She found something to like everywhere.
He smiled at her.
Then he decided he didn’t care how close the other tents were.
The Plan Commences Page 34
