by Larissa Ladd
“Enough stalling,” she murmured playfully. Aiden laughed and kissed her quickly on the lips, a deep sweetness that made Aira smile to herself in the gesture.
He thrust into her slowly, taking his time, allowing Aira to feel every inch of him. He felt her body yielding to his, her muscles flexing as if it didn’t want him to leave her. They both moaned, beginning to move together almost instantly, their hands touching, teasing, and caressing. The lightning and thunder intensified and Aira was briefly almost alarmed, aware in a moment of the fiery scent rising from their bodies.
“God, Aira,” Aiden said, panting slightly as he picked up his pace. “This… this is even better than it was before.” Aira nodded, unable to speak, moaning as she felt her pleasure mounting every moment from the friction between them. She held onto him tightly, feeling their energies not only flowing into each other but merging; she could feel what Aiden was feeling, knew that he could sense her pleasure as well. Sensation—almost overwhelming in its intensity—coursed through her as she came closer and closer to climax, writhing and twisting beneath him.
They reached their pleasure together—a certain sign that they had achieved the bond that they were looking for, though neither of them was thinking of that in the moment. Aira was only dimly aware of the intense smoky smell of the room, the booming, cracking, air-shredding sound of the lightning storm their combined energies had created around her building as she cried out and moaned. Her whole body convulsed in spasms of pleasure, her ability to think utterly obliterated by the intensity of the climax that raged in her. She was left panting and utterly wrung out, aftershocks of pleasure twitching along her arms and legs even as Aiden collapsed onto her, holding her in arms balmy to the touch, his face buried against her neck.
They made love once more almost without thinking, their bodies moving in automatic seeking before their brains had regained the ability to function beyond basic needs. Aira almost felt as if she were in a dream as she felt Aiden inside of her again, heard his moans of pleasure, and heard her own cries. She opened her eyes without realizing when she had fallen into a daze, without even knowing if she had reached her third climax before she had gone unconscious, and Aiden was no longer on top of her but to the side, holding her body against his in a carelessly possessive embrace.
“You’re mine,” Aiden murmured musingly, reaching up to brush a lock of her hair away from her sweat-slick face. “Completely and totally mine.” He smiled faintly, his face still flushed from exertion, his bright blue eyes mellower than Aira had ever seen them in all of the months she had known him.
“Hey, that goes both ways, you know,” Aira said with mock severity. She turned into her side to face him, unable to fight the smile that tugged at her lips. “You belong to me, too. You can’t be going off with some other woman.” Aiden laughed, pulling her around and settling her on top of him.
“Please. As if I would even ever want to go off with another woman. Christ, at the rate we’re going I’ll be lucky to even keep up with you—I’ll be too exhausted to even think about the fact that other women exist.” He pulled her in for a hungry kiss. “The bad news is we may have ruined your bed.” Aira pulled back, startled, and stared down at Aiden.
“What?” she said, struggling to get up.
Aiden chuckled.
“Look where we were a few minutes ago,” he said, pointing idly. Aira glanced in the direction he indicated and saw long, uneven scorch marks along her bed, down to the mattress; they were almost artistic in their random placement, where their arms and bodies had been. Aira groaned, burying her head against Aiden’s shoulder and neck with a sigh.
“You are the worst,” she said without any malice. “We’re going to have to get flame-retardant sheets or something.”
Aiden laughed.
“At least a mattress pad that’s immune to fire. It’s all your fault you know.”
Aira pulled back and looked down at him with a raised eyebrow. “How is it my fault? You’re the fire elemental.”
Aiden grinned up at her, settling her hips against his, and Aira could feel his arousal growing once more.
“Yes, but air feeds fire—it makes it hotter, more intense. Surely you remember that from your earliest lessons.”
Aira made a sound like a growl, kissing Aiden quickly and deeply, pushing her hips down against his. “Yeah, well… shut up.” Aira let out a soft moan as Aiden filled her again, thinking that if the bed was already ruined, it wasn’t as though she should be concerned about new damage.
Aira and Aiden finally stopped when they could no longer continue. They got dressed and headed downstairs. Dylan was watching TV and drinking a beer. He looked up when they came into the living room together.
“Oh, so you finally figured your shit out, I see,” he said without any surprise.
Aira blushed and laughed, letting Aiden lead her over to a chair. He sat down and settled her on his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist casually.
“We’re going to have to go to IKEA,” Aira told the two brothers cryptically. “Also, we should research flame retardant bed sheets and mattress pads. Because I am not going through thirty beds per month. My budget won’t allow it.”
Dylan raised his eyebrows. “If you two have sex every day, you’re both going to die from exhaustion. Give it a rest every now and then.”
Aira couldn’t help the sense of profound excitement and giddy joy that welled up in her; she was suffused with orgasms, feeling so good that nothing at all could perturb her—and everything seemed irresistibly funny.
“He’s got a point, you know,” Aiden told her, running his thumb against the curve of her waist. “I don’t think we could do what we just did every day—we’d never get anything else done.”
Aira rolled her eyes.
“We could try,” she insisted, amused.
Aiden mimicked her eye rolling with a smile.
“And you’d end up setting the house on fire and downing all of the electricity in the city,” Dylan said.
“Well, fine,” Aira replied, turning to look at the other brother and sticking her tongue out. “Spoilsport.”
“So what are you two going to do about—well, everything other than your sex lives?” Aiden’s amusement faded slightly and he looked at Aira in seriousness.
“We’ll work it out. Neither of us particularly wants to be fettered.”
“If I become the ruler of my element,” Aira said, thinking about the situation they were in, “I’m going to be a lot more involved in elemental affairs.” She licked her lips and sighed. “Maybe I could work with you guys. Since I kind of feel like my translation job is going to be pretty rocky in all this.” She realized suddenly—something she hadn’t really considered before—that her whole life was changing as a result of coming into her powers, being so potent an elemental and becoming a contender to rule her element. She had known intellectually that everything would be different, but the subjective reality of it hadn’t hit her until that moment. She sighed and leaned against Aiden, mourning the simpler life she’d once had.
“You’d make an excellent addition to the team,” Dylan said gently. “Besides, Aiden and I don’t do languages. You could still translate stuff—and when we have to go to other countries, it would be helpful.”
“I won’t let you be pinned down—by anyone but me that is,” Aiden whispered in her ear, pulling her around to kiss her briefly but hungrily. Aira was aware of the constant hum of low-level desire running through her lover’s body, waiting to break into full, incandescent flames at any moment. She knew too that her bond with him—her energy—increased his ardor, not only making his natural abilities stronger but intensifying the lusty part of his fiery essence.
“At least the freaking elders should be satisfied,” Aira said with resignation.
Aiden chuckled.
“Oh, they’re going to hate it—but they can’t say anything against it.”
*
Aira stood before the elders once m
ore, meeting their gazes without a single iota of fear for them. Aiden was in the gallery, waiting for his moment—everything stood on what would happen next. “Have you found a mate?” The elder spokesperson asked after the preliminaries were concluded. Aira smiled slowly.
“I have. I have bonded with and taken Aiden as my mate,” Aira said proudly. “And I will accept your nomination for the position of Regina Sylphaea, but I have conditions.” The elder looked at her, startled.
“What conditions could you possibly have?” The elder asked gruffly.
“I will work closely with Aiden and his brother Dylan—I will not allow the elders to interfere with my work. I will do my job as the ruler of my element, but I refuse to be fettered by it.” Aira crossed her arms over her chest. “You required me to kill a man, you required me to find a mate. I have done both of those things. You said that if I had a mate, I would be the ruler of my element. Since I am now the ruler, I will make my own damned choices.” The elders looked appalled. Aira didn’t have to look to know that Aiden was making his way down to her side.
“We haven’t named you the ruler yet.” The spokesperson for the elders said firmly.
Aira felt Aiden approaching, felt the tingling of power as he rested a hand on her shoulder.
“Oh, but you will,” Aira said. She held out one hand, feeling Aiden’s energy flowing through her steadily, and began to form a crackling ball of electricity. It was something they had figured out in the days following their bond—not only did the mingling of their energy cause lightning, but the electricity that built up between them could be harnessed, focused to a specific point. “And you will let me conduct my rule my way.” The elders’ eyes widened at the sight of the white-hot electricity dancing along her fingers. There was murmuring, a buzzing of low-voiced conversation.
“Very well. We name you Regina Sylphaea—the ruler of the element of air. We give you freedom to conduct your rule as you please, provided you don’t disobey the tenets of our society.”
Aira shrugged indolently, glancing barely at the sight of Aiden in her peripheral vision. He was right—looking at their faces, Aira could see that the elders were appalled by her choice of a mate; it wasn’t that Aiden wasn’t suitable. It was that the two of them together were even more powerful than either was alone.
The elders closed the ceremony, performing a ritual to name her as the ruler of her element. After so much trouble and distress, it almost seemed anticlimactic for Aira. She and Aiden left the building, Dylan following them out to the car.
“So,” Dylan said, going for the back seat without any argument. “What’s our first case?” Aiden chuckled, and Aira gave him a sardonic glance as he moved for the driver’s side immediately, forestalling an argument about who would drive.
“Earth elemental—stirring up trouble in China, causing earthquakes,” Aiden said, unlocking the car. They all got in. “Do you know Chinese, Aira?”
Aira grinned.
“I know both Mandarin and Cantonese. Let’s get this show on the road.”
*
DID YOU ENJOY THIS STORY? If so, I’d really love it if you could leave a review for me.
OTHER BOOKS BY LARISSA
ALPHA HYBRID – CAVERN OF LIGHT SERIES
The Becoming: Novella 1
The Magistrate: Novella 2
The Captured: Novella 3
The Pentagram: Novella 4
THE WITCH’S LOVE SPELL SERIES
The Witch’s Love Spell: Novella 1
The Witch’s Love Spell: Novella 2
The Witch’s Love Spell: Novella 3
ABDUCTION – A PSYCHIC ROMANCE SERIES
Abduction: Novella 1
Abduction 2: Novella 2
EYE OF THE COVEN SERIES
Eye of the Coven: Novella 1
Divulged Secrets: Novella 2
The Sacrament: Novella 3
STAND ALONE NOVELLAS
Cambion
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LARISSA LADD IS A DREAMER with insights fresh as the frost newly formed on the twig whose snap echoes through the moonlit forest. Since as a child she discovered the storybook world of ghouls and goblins, she's been a devotee of the eerie, the supernatural, and all that raises the hairs on the back of the neck. Her spine still shivers with delight when she huddles fearfully in a darkling corner, enthralled in suspenseful tales from her favorite authors Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and John Saul. Feast your eyes on the scintillating flashes of garish color dabbed forth from her pen.
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