Chapter Thirty
Valkyrie woke the next morning to the swaddling warmth of Gideon’s arms, to the quiet patter of his heart beating against her shoulder blade and the soft whisper of his breath against her neck. His hand had found its way beneath her top at some point and lay flat over the expense of her abdomen. The heat of his touch, the absolute confinement of his embrace, soothed something inside her she had no idea was hurting. There was something so ... natural about being there in bed with him that she almost forgot why she shouldn’t be.
“You’re giving me a headache.” His husky grumble tickled the back of her neck. “Stop thinking so loud. It’s too early.”
A grin tugged at the corners of her mouth. “It is not that early.”
He hummed and the vibration of it skated down the length of her spine in shivers. “It’s early enough.” The pad of his thumb swept in slow circles just above her navel. His rough skin scratched the softness of hers and made the muscles under his palm quiver. “Feeling better?”
Valkyrie opened her mouth to respond and instead, blurted, “You said wife.”
The thumb never ceased its stroking. It never so much as faltered.
“I did,” he confirmed. “You are.”
She knew selkies didn’t get married. Once they found their mates, it was implied. Harvesters had a matching ceremony that involved the couple pledging their loyalties to the king and their trust in each other, but that was it. There was no lavish party like the humans had. There was no cake or gowns. It was all cold and critical. Valkyrie had always accepted that that would be her fate one day, matched to a man she had no feelings for in hopes of producing the next line of warriors. Not once had she ever guessed she would be the wife of a selkie. The wife of the one person she actually loved. It had never seemed possible.
“It’s too late to change your mind,” Gideon murmured. “Now that I finally have you, I’m not letting you go.”
The firm hold he had on her, the leg pinning her possessively to the mattress verified his words. His lips skimmed the sensitive stretch of skin connecting her neck to her shoulder. His stubble scraped on a particularly delicate spot and her entire body shuddered in response. An undignified groan escaped her that was followed by the sudden jerk of her arm as it flew up to grab the back of his head.
The hand on her stomach tightened. She was dragged deeper against him if possible. Teeth replaced his lips and the spot was brutalized by sharp nips that sent bolts of lightning zapping down the length of her body to sizzle just beneath her navel. Against the curve of her backside, the rigid bump that had been there since she’d awakened, pulsed. It hardened and pushed back against her. The feel of his desire drove her heart insane. It thundered against her breast, matching the one beating against her shoulder blade. Her fingers closed in his hair as the growing need built to unimaginable heights.
“What ... what are you doing?” Her breathy whimper broke into a sob when the hand on her abdomen dove without warning past the elastic band of her shorts.
His answer was the violent jerk of her waistband over the hill of her hip. He shoved the material down, followed it with her panties and left them stretched around her knees to cup her mound.
“I’m going to fuck my wife,” he hissed into her ear while his fingers pried apart the most sacred part of her and teased the swollen muscle in between.
Could she even process a protest, it was lost in the bells and whistles that shrieked to life between her ears. Her vision blurred as her eyes crossed. Her legs kicked desperately at the hindrance keeping them locked in place. Gideon paused his torture to help her thrust her shorts to her ankles. She freed one foot and he was there grabbing her thigh and twisting her leg back over his hip for better access to her hot, moist center. He released her just long enough to reach between them. A second later, something long and thick skimmed up the length of her and lay heavy between her legs. Valkyrie’s breathing quickened as anticipation and apprehension warred through her. She knew it was too late to worry about pain and discomfort, but as far as she was concerned, this was her first time, one she would actually remember.
Instinctively, her hand went to his hip, not exactly pushing him away, but not exactly pulling him closer. She wasn’t sure what she wanted and having him touching her and kissing her wasn’t helping her think.
“I’ll stop,” he murmured. “Just tell me what you want.”
Her head was shaking even before she could fully make up her mind. “Don’t stop.”
Without hesitation, he fisted a hand around the full length of his erection and aligned the head with her opening. Valkyrie held her breath as she waited to finally feel him inside her. He didn’t disappoint.
The head broke through her tight ring first, followed by the thrust of the rest of him. Then he was fully sheathed and stretching her in a way she never thought possible. Nothing had ever gone near her nether region, not a man, not even her own hand. Fear of disrupting the source of her power had always kept her at bay of doing more than the very necessary and always with great care. Having Gideon pulsing deep insider her was something she had only ever dreamed of. She didn’t think it could possibly get better than that.
“Don’t do that,” he warned in a growl that was followed by a hard thrust that sent sparks exploding across her vision.
“What?” she rasped, struggling between understanding him and tumbling into the shimmering void of lights calling to her.
But rather than answer her, he dragged his cock out of her with painful slowness. Then, with the same torturous pace, he eased himself back in.
Valkyrie swore into the pillow beneath her head. Her entire body rocked with the cruel invasion. Her walls clenched, hugging every beautiful inch of him when he settled in her to the hilt.
“That,” he groaned.
His hand was a brutal clamp on her hip, forcing her forward, mashing her into the mattress as he twisted his own body over her. His full weight settled against her back. His hands slid under her arms and anchored around the edge of the mattress just beneath the pillow she was clutching like a lifeline. He used his leverage to drive himself into her, faster and harder. The bed rocked beneath his thrusts. Valkyrie tried to lift her hips, tried to push back, but he held her firm beneath him.
“Not this time,” he hissed into the skin along the back of her neck. “You’ve had yours, many, many times. This one’s mine.”
She had no idea what he was talking about, not until she felt the hot rush of seed filling her and dribbling out to stain the sheets. The sensation threw her senses into a whirlwind of disbelief and insane arousal. It was heightened when he slid out and it all poured out with him over her swollen clit. The lazy tickle clenched all the muscles from the waist down and she almost sobbed in frustration.
His hands closed around her hips and she was forcibly flipped onto her back. Her knees were parted lewdly and then lifted to her chest. He made her hold them in place as he scooted so close, his knees were on either side of her body and she had no way to unfurl her legs without stretching them over his shoulders.
Coarse hands journeyed the length of her thighs from under the knees to junction, littering her skin with goose bumps and making her toes curl. He seemed unaware of everything, except the puffy, wet lips he was sweeping apart to reveal the mess he’d made.
“This has to be the sexiest sight in the world,” he mused in a tone that made the object of his fascination clench and expel more of his come that dribbled along the crevice of her ass. A dark grin turned up his mouth. “Definitely.”
Him watching was the thing that destroyed her. The feel of his hot gaze all but penetrating her, knowing her splayed before him was the cause of his reawakening erection, thrilled her like nothing else.
“Touch me,” she begged, knowing she was a mere stroke away from coming.
He shook his head. His gray eyes lifted to her face and the animal in them was almost her undoing.
“Don’t move,” was all he said as he slid
off the bed.
With his absence, the chill in the room grazed taunting fingers over her open sex. It was a horrible and exciting feeling that was interrupted by the sudden burst of light that made her flinch.
Steel hoops slid across a metal rode with a grating shriek as the blinds were torn open, flooding the room with a sharp torrent of morning. He did the same to all the other windows in the room until it glowed with a blinding white light. Then he was back, crawling onto the bed between her legs.
“What...?”
His grin was predatory. “You’re not the only one who likes to watch.” He took one of her hands, his eyes never leaving hers, and drew the fingers to his lips. He kissed each one lovingly. “Touch her.”
Valkyrie’s eyes widened, but it wasn’t shock or mortification that slammed into her. She didn’t even need to be told which her he was referring to.
She hesitated out of habit. In all the years that she thought about it, it was always followed by a surge of apprehension and fear that changed her mind. There was nothing stopping her now.
Licking her lips, she took the hand he held and slid the fingers over her mound. The neatly trimmed patch of dark hair tickled her palm before her fingers sunk between the wet folds. The tips grazed her clit and she moaned. Her eyes closed as it became so evident how simple it would be to put an end to the ripple of fire ants marching beneath her skin with only a few quick flicks of the hardened little bud.
“Don’t,” Gideon warned quietly.
Her lashes parted and she found herself caught in his eyes. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him she didn’t want to wait, but her fingers had already obeyed. They slipped past her pleasure button to the slippery pool of her juices and his nestled at the very core of her body. One finger eased through the puddle and traced the tight ring of her opening.
“How does she feel?”
Swallowing audibly, Valkyrie tried to find words to speak and only managed a feeble croak. “Wet.”
Gideon shifted, drawing back just slightly, just enough for her to see him between her knees as he reached down. Her body reacted with a violent jerk as it always did when watching him take his own cock in hand.
There was something so incredibly dirty about the gesture, something that made her want to urge him to put it inside her. She hadn’t known this side of her existed until the first time he’d touched her and then bathed her abdomen in his semen. She had wanted him to do it again, but slower. But more than that, she had wanted to touch him, to take him into her hands and feel the velvety weight of him cradled in her palm. That moment had changed everything for her. Literally.
“How does he feel?” she asked, watching the slow, even pumps of his hand from base to head with water pooling in her mouth.
Gideon smirked. “Fucking hard.”
A shaky breath left her that came out in a husky groan. Her fingers trembled as she continued to work languidly between her slit and her pleasure point in slow circles. Gideon had been right to make her wait. It was just so much better prolonging the release until the very last moment.
“Can I have him?” she asked, meaning inside her, but words had become a thing of novelty and she was oddly unable to create proper sentences as the pressure began to rise around her stroking fingers.
“He’s all yours, baby,” he promised.
“No!” she choked, a little too loud. “Now.”
His knuckles turned white and she vaguely wondered if it hurt him to grip that hard. “Where?”
God, why was he asking her that? He had to know. Nevertheless, she tentatively filled the space with one finger, pushing it along her slippery walls to the last knuckle. The sounds that came out of her were a mangled series of words even she didn’t understand.
The second finger stretched the tight channel. It ripped her back off the mattress and flung her head wildly from side to side with desperation. His hands closed around the back of her thighs, keeping her knees to her chest when her legs tensed and shuddered. The bones in her toes cracked as they curled.
“Gideon...” Her whimper dropped into a loop, repeating his name over and over again as she worked her fingers fast into the place he’d been only moments ago and she wanted again.
She came with a cry that locked every muscle in her body until she couldn’t breathe. Her walls sucked at her invading fingers like a hungry mouth and she swore viciously.
Her ears were still ringing when she finally freed her hand. Her pussy muscles continued to convulse even as she drifted back to consciousness and the man watching her.
“Next time,” he murmured. “You’re doing that with your boots on.”
Blissfully sleepy, Valkyrie laughed. “You and those boots.”
He moved over her, positioning himself. “You in those boots give me a hard on like you would not believe.”
A slow grin pulled her mouth as she slid her arms around his shoulders. “Why do you think I wear them?” She drew him down to her mouth. “And the leather.”
He slammed inside her without a warning, with a violence that tore a scream from her as volts of agonizing pleasure rocketed throughout her entire body and soul. The assault gripped him in her equally brutal orgasm that she had not been prepared for. Her nails ripped down his spine with a viciousness that elicited a roar from him.
“You fucking tease!” he snarled over the bells screaming in her ears as he pounded into her without mercy. “Fuck, I love you!”
Moaning and gasping into the mattress, she squeezed her eyes closed tight and waited for the world to rebuild itself. Her body continued to convulse with tiny shudders that refused to subside, not even long after Gideon had pulled out of her. His chest heaved against her back as he struggled to catch his own breath.
It was anyone’s guess how they wound up with her back on her stomach. The whole thing was a blur of hot, sweaty bodies and rough, mindless sex. Valkyrie had never been so happy.
“Okay?” he rasped in between kisses along the curve of her shoulder.
Valkyrie shook her head, face still buried in the sheets. “I can’t feel my feet.”
His chuckle tickled her ear. “They’re still there.”
He gently turned her over and captured her mouth. The kiss burned all the way down like she’d swallowed fire. Her arms hooked around his shoulders and kept him latched to her as she returned the passion. His husky groan deepened her drive. His hand pulled down her arching body and slid beneath her. He lifted her hips to him. Her knees parted to welcome him.
“I don’t think we’ll be leaving this bed today.”
Valkyrie’s response was to thread her fingers through his hair and pull his mouth back to hers.
He was wrong. They left the bed three times. Twice to shower and once to hunt up food from the kitchen. Maybe it was because of the size of the manor, but they came across no one as they made their way downstairs. Gideon released her hand only when they reached the fridge and he threw it open.
“There’s soup, something that looks like pie and a box of...” He pulled out a plastic container and pried back the lid. Inside was a series of flaky, green chunks that made Valkyrie cringe even before Gideon brought it to his nose. “Huh.”
“What?”
He sealed the container back up and returned it to the shelf. “That smelled exactly like it looked.”
Valkyrie broke out in a fit of giggles, and it wasn’t for the first time. He’d been keeping her lightheaded and giddy since waking up. If he wasn’t making her laugh, he was keeping her on the edge of intense passion and then shoving her over. It was the most she had ever laughed in more centuries than she cared to count.
He was topless since she had stolen his t-shirt. His pants were undone and his feet were bare. Valkyrie had one article of clothing more than him, and that was her shorts. But it was nice to see him so underdressed, especially when he moved. She liked watching him do things that required movement. Lots of movement. She liked how his muscles roped across his chest and how his biceps bu
lged when he lifted his arms. She definitely had a deep love for the mark that had been etched into the shoulder of his right arm. The delicately woven design mirrored the one burned into her forearm. She had spent a great deal of time earlier tracing the mark with her finger, lips, and tongue. It was incredible how quickly she had lost all inhibition. It was as though she’d been waiting her entire life for that exact moment when she would finally be one with Gideon Maxwell.
“Hey, you still with me?”
Valkyrie blinked and focused once more on the gray eyes watching her from beneath a single arched brow. “Sorry?”
One arm braced against the fridge door, Gideon straightened. His eyes narrowed as he studied her.
“You’re looking awfully smug over there.” He bit his bottom lip and her heart gave a wild kick in her chest. “And damn delicious.”
The fridge door cracked shut and she found herself pressed into the cool metal.
“Again?” Her arms went around his shoulders and she arched up on her toes to meet his lips. “I thought you were ravenous.”
He lifted her up and set her down on the preparation table. Her knees were parted and filled by his hips.
“Who says I’m not?” he murmured in between teasing little nips. “I’ve been starving for you for three hundred years. I’m making up for lost times.”
Her laugh was swallowed by his languid mouth working over hers. His fingers skimmed the length of her bare thigh to grip her hips. She was drawn to the edge of the counter, closer to him. And Valkyrie couldn’t have asked for more.
It had never made sense to her before. The whole Maxwell family had been one giant puzzle box and only they had the diagram. Their absolute devotion and need for each other had always irritated her, partly because she had always wanted to be part of it, but also because it was irrational. No one could love that much. It was impossible. Yet, oddly enough, she finally understood why Riley couldn’t stop touching Octavian. Why Kyaerin’s gaze automatically sought Liam the second she walked into a room. Why Reggie had spent almost every night for a year outside in the cold, watching over a human. It made sense why Gideon had spent the better part of three hundred years pushing her away. He had loved her, even then. Had loved her enough to live with the hole that Valkyrie felt inside her own chest whenever he wasn’t close enough to touch. It wasn’t even a conscious gesture. It was like breathing, something necessary and automatic. But what got her most was how different everything felt. How different she felt since the imprint. Maybe it was the fact that she no longer had to decide between what she had been raised to believe and what she wanted, or maybe it was because she finally found what she’d been missing her entire life, but for the first time ever, she felt free. She felt happy.
Gideon's Promise (Sons of Judgment Book 2) Page 43
