by Riley Storm
“You should try,” she said quietly. “Like, try really hard.”
Ahead, the storm cleared, revealing a cave set into the side of the cliff.
“Your lair, I presume?” she said, walking forward. “And I’m not letting you off the hook. You have to answer that question.”
“I just know,” he said quietly. “This is where you need to be. With me. We need to be together. My entire body calls for it. Tell me yours doesn’t. That you don’t feel better around me. Stronger, more dynamic. Smarter. Everything.”
“I don’t feel very smart right now,” she muttered. “I just got tricked into coming to a cave.”
“What did you expect?”
“I don’t know. A real lair? A secret hideaway maybe. Trapdoors and furniture. A secret room where you plot evil things. I don’t know, Damien! But I expected more than a small cave on the side of the mountain!”
Damien shrugged. “I only had two days to set it up. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.”
“You never answered my question though,” he pointed out as they went inside, both of them forced to duck low to avoid an overhang.
Once inside, she straightened, looking around. It was bigger than she’d thought it would be. As seems to be the case with everything about Damien.
“Well isn’t this cozy looking,” she remarked.
“It’s not much, but I did what I could. Rane smuggled a lot of stuff out for me.”
Off to the left was a large pile of blankets and other material piled to make a bed of sorts. At the front were the remnants of a fire, though it was still warm, meaning it hadn’t gone out long ago. Even as she watched, Damien shot sparks from his fingertips that reignited the flames. A minor gust of wind broke up the smoke and forced it out the exit.
“Must be nice having powers like that,” she said quietly. “I could think of a lot of good uses.”
“You still didn’t answer my question,” Damien replied in an equally soft voice.
“Which one?” she asked, trying to sound calmer than she was. It didn’t work.
“You know exactly which one. The one where I said that I feel different around you. And asked you the same.” He kept facing her as she walked around the cave, looking at the boxes of food supplies and water jugs.
“Maybe,” she admitted.
“We have to figure this out,” he pushed. “To prove to everyone else that there’s a reason we’re drawn together. That they should be letting us explore this, not trying to prevent it. There is something going on here, Anna. You know it. Not just attraction, though there’s that too, at least from my side.”
“I’m attracted to you as well,” she said, seeing no harm in admitting that. “Let’s not pretend otherwise. But what you’re talking about, I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do,” he said. “I know you do. I can feel it in you. I see it in your eyes. You’re just afraid, because you don’t know what it is. But neither do I. Yet it’s still there, Anna. We can’t change that.”
“You’re really passionate about this,” she observed.
“I’m passionate about you, Anna. I have been since the start. I didn’t know why, I still don’t know why, but I’m not hiding it. I’m not denying it. Not anymore! I want you. I need you, in a way I’ve never needed anyone, anything, before in my life. This is real, and I’m not backing down until everyone else sees it.”
“But what is it, Damien? What’s going on here?”
“Whatever it is,” he said, stepping closer. “Whatever it means. I want you to know that I’ll figure it out with you. We can do this. Together. All you have to do is say okay.”
“Then what?” she asked. “Say I do say ‘okay’. What next?”
“Next? Next, we explore it. Stop holding ourselves back and just let go, be free. And see where it takes us.”
“Damien, I don’t know,” she said, shuffling nervously from one foot to the other. “I like you. I can admit that now. But what you’re talking about, that’s something bigger. Something more. I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet,” she protested weakly.
“I’m not asking you to do anything,” he said quietly, coming close enough to take her free hand. “I’m just saying we need to stop holding back. That doesn’t mean we’re going to rush into anything, it just means we no longer stand still. We let whatever is going to happen, happen.” He was looking down at her, eyes wide, open, and for perhaps the first time, unguarded.
The scariest part of it all, was that Anna liked what she was seeing. What she was hearing. Liked it so much. Everything in her, even the core where she reached for her magic, was alive, beating with a frenzy that she couldn’t deny.
But acknowledging that, and letting herself explore it, that was two different things. Was she ready for the next one? For the next level?
“Damien…”
“Anna.”
She inhaled slowly.
Where was the harm in it? She’d been exiled, was likely going to be thrown in prison once the Coven caught up with her. Her life couldn’t get any worse. Maybe, just maybe, if she stopped resisting things, she would be able to enjoy at least a little bit of happiness before everything came crashing down.
“You had better kiss me before I realize what I’m doing,” she said, deciding that it was time she stopped being afraid.
Wind swirled at her feet, lifting her from the ground so that the tall shifter could kiss her without bending over. She wrapped her arms around his neck and fell into him, letting herself go completely.
“You had better be right about this,” she whispered as he took her over to the blanket-bed, lowering her down into its depths. “Because if you aren’t, I’m gonna whoop your butt and—”
“Shut up,” Damien said with a grin, and kissed her again.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Anna
They fell into one another there in the mountainside, fire roaring near the entrance.
It would have been romantic beyond belief if they weren’t fugitives, but Anna didn’t care. Here she could be free with him, even if just for a little while, and that was more meaningful to her than anything else.
Damien undressed her carefully, moving tenderly and with passionate care as he stripped her of her shirt and pants, taking his time while he divested her of the rest, until she lay naked beneath him, exposed and beyond turned on.
“No,” she said when he went to kiss between her legs. “I want to do you now.”
Damien paused, but he didn’t protest as she sat up, kissing him back while she grabbed the hem of his shirt and lifted it free, dragging her fingernails down his chest as he tossed the garment away.
“So much muscle,” she whispered, admiring his chest, tracing the outlines of his pecs, feeling the ripple of his stomach as she ran a hand down it, over his belt, and stopping just shy of what she knew lay behind.
Pulling loose his belt, she made him stand up, tugging the pants down to his ankles, leaving him clad only his boxers, which did little to restrain the hardness of his cock. The fabric was stretched to its max. Anna admired it for a moment, running her hand along its length, feeling the thickness, remembering what it was like to have it inside her.
Then she pulled his boxers down. Both of them were naked now, she on her knees, Damien standing. Her mouth went around the tip of his cock, swirling her tongue smoothly before dipping a little lower. A low groan filled the cave and turned Anna’s lips up into a huge smile.
Now this was power. She moved up and down his shaft, alternating between eyes closed and looking up at Damien, watching his face react to her actions. She liked to please, loved seeing him enjoy himself, that was a major turn-on for her. Damien wasn’t afraid to express himself either. His hands played with her hair, stroked her face and generally kept him involved while she sucked him.
“I think I’m ready for you now,” she said as she pulled his cock free from her lips. “If that’s okay with you.”
“Uh huh,” Damien grunte
d, eyes glazed over.
Anna smiled and lay back, letting him drop to his knees between her legs. He entered her slowly, like the first time, pausing every time he saw her face tighten, giving Anna all the time in the world to relax and accept him.
“Fuck.” She all but moaned the word. It had only been a few days, but somehow, she had forgotten just how intense it felt, taking his entire length. It was like he was perfectly molded for her, fitting just enough to stretch her, but not too painfully. Just a little twinge to know she was working to take him.
They rocked back and forth, neither one wanting to break the connection between their hips, yet both so very clearly desperate for more. Her entire body ached, and the throbbing between her legs growing stronger with every passing second.
“I need you to fuck me,” she said. “I need to come so bad.”
He wasted no time putting action to word, thrusting in and out of her with more gusto than she’d expected. Perhaps her mouth had left him needing release more than she’d thought.
Anna grabbed at her breasts as he went harder, holding them still, gently rubbing her nipples as well, enjoying the extra stimulus, but also enjoying the way Damien’s eyes widened as he watched her.
“Fuck, you look so hot touching yourself,” he rumbled, leaning more overtop of her than before.
Taking that cue, Anna pushed things to the next level by sliding one hand between her legs.
She thought Damien was going to come just from that sight alone, the way his eyes practically bulged out of his skull. It didn’t help that she was falling more into it, letting herself enjoy it all, the way his eyes roamed her body, the bliss his cock was inflicting on her entire body as he slid deep and then withdrew.
Toying her clit faster, she didn’t hold back. Her body tightened, eyes flying open, locked on Damien.
“Are you going to come?” he asked.
She nodded frantically, unable to summon any words as the throbbing built to a peak in a nanosecond, then exploded out from between her legs. Anna let go with her other hand, breasts bouncing wildly as she held on to Damien’s neck instead, frantically rubbing herself while he continued to fuck her.
“Don’t stop,” she gasped, somehow on the verge of climaxing again. “Just go. Just fuck me, Damien, holy shit!”
Her cries bounced off the walls and echoed around them, but she barely noticed, her world shrunk down to her fingers on her clit and his cock inside her. Nothing else mattered.
Anna shuddered and then something inside her released. Fresh wetness pulsed across his cock and her world went bright white for a moment as she came yet again, a thundering climax rendering her mind senseless.
The only thing that pulled her back was a growl as Damien lost control. She bit her lip, looking down between her legs as he pulled out, covering her stomach and even up to her tits with his warmth. She shivered, secretly enjoying being marked by Damien as his. There was something…exciting about that, that she’d never found with anyone else before.
When he was done, he collapsed over her, resting on his elbows and knees, gasping for breath. Anna, for her part, lay flat, limp and still. She had no energy, the frantic lovemaking having drained her entirely. The intensity she felt with Damien was unreal, demanding everything from her even for such a short period of time.
She lay there, trying not to smile, but also trying not to worry about what would happen next.
There was no point in that. Not yet at least. She could deal with those thoughts later. For now, she was trapped in the cave with Damien while the storm raged.
Only once it passed would she have to face the consequences of her most recent actions.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Damien
The storm was gone.
It had lasted most of the night, and only in the early morning hours had it finally begun to wane, having vented its fury over the valley below his mountainside home. Damien raised a hand to block out the sun’s light, looking way across the valley floor.
The Outpost was just beginning to dig itself out. One of the dragons was outside, winds swirling as they cleared rooftops and pathways between buildings with ease. There were many little ways in which control of the wind could be used to make life easier.
Damien had selected this particular cave on purpose. There was no way he was going to be out of sight of Anna, and so he’d picked a high vantage point where, with subtle manipulations of the air around him, he could refract the light and still see far enough to make out what was going on. Which meant line of sight.
“We have to go back,” Anna said quietly.
He jumped, not having heard her approach while lost deep in his thoughts.
“Sorry,” she said, coming up to nuzzle into his arm.
“I was just distracted.”
“By what?”
He looked down at the top of her head, and then using his left arm, condensed the air in front of her face and pointed. “That.”
“Wow,” Anna breathed, looking through the makeshift binoculars. “This is pretty neat. You can see the outpost from here.” She was silent a moment. “You were watching it. Waiting for me to arrive.”
Damien nodded. “I didn’t want to be away from you for a minute longer than I had to. When I saw you wander away, I rushed down and across the valley to meet you.” He smiled to himself, a memory of the thunder of his heart as he’d approached, eager to see her, but apprehensive of the greeting he would receive.
“We need to go back to it,” she said quietly. “We can’t stay up here.”
“Already?” he asked, knowing she was right, but having hoped that maybe she would stay up here with him for another day. Just the two of them, snug in the warm cave and in each other’s arms, nothing to worry about. Free to be together.
“Yeah, already.” Anna wrapped her arms around his waist from the side as she cuddled up to him. “You know that too.”
“They’re going to have issues with us,” he pointed out.
“We’ll solve them.”
“It might not be that easy.”
Anna shrugged. “Nothing worth having ever is.”
“They might try to imprison us.”
“Then we’ll have to make sure we have a reason for them not to do that.”
He grinned. “Your resiliency never ceases to amaze me, Anna. You are just a remarkable woman. Never change.”
“Thank you.” She squeezed him.
“But what kind of reason can we give them?” he wanted to know.
“The only reason. We find a way to close the portal.”
Damien had suspected that she was going down that route. He too could not think of anything else that would keep them out of further trouble. Not after the way he’d sent the mage packing. That was going to earn him a reprimand no matter what. But if they could close the portal before others arrived from Winterspell, then perhaps they could negotiate.
“You’re thinking if we can close the portal, they’ll just agree to call it equal? No praise or reward, but also no punishment?”
“That’s my hope. I can’t think of a better option,” she said. “Can you?”
“No,” he said softly. “Not for a lack of trying, though.”
“I know, Damien,” she said, unclasping her hands from around his waist so she could rub his chest with her right arm. “I know. But if we close it, one of the biggest issues facing our peoples will be gone. The witches will be able to rest easy and feel more comfortable providing shelter to the rest of your people as we find them.”
“Seems like a bold plan. I’m not sure I trust in your Coven enough for them to just relax once it’s closed, but it definitely should put them at ease, I’d say.”
“Exactly. And your people can relax, knowing that you’re safe. That the enemy you were fighting, that destroyed your planet, is gone. Never to return.”
Damien could see her logic. It made sense. He just hoped that the others would see it the same way.
“Master Lo
iner won’t rest easy,” he said. “She’ll make a big stink about it no matter what we do.”
“That’s a problem down the road,” Anna said. “We have to close the portal first. Do that, then we can plan from there.”
“Will the others let us come back?” he wondered, thinking of the other witches. He wasn’t worried about Rane or Altair, as they wouldn’t care a lick. They thought the witches were being ridiculous and uptight about everything. Anything to be a thorn in their side would please those two.
“I think so,” Anna replied slowly as she thought about his question. “Bowen was the biggest problem, but she’s gone now, back to Winterspell to tattle on us. The others…most of them are just resentful about being sent out here; they don’t really dislike me one way or the other. So, if we are nice to them…” she trailed off.
Damien sighed, knowing what she meant. “I promise I won’t beat anyone up unless they threaten us.”
Anna arched an eyebrow.
“I won’t strike first?” he amended.
She smiled happily. “Much better.”
Damien rolled his eyes but didn’t protest. “Well, I’m ready when you’re ready, I guess.”
Anna thought about it, then tugged his hand, pulling him back into the cave. “Maybe not quite yet,” she said. “What’s another half hour or so, right?”
Damien followed. He was going to cherish this time, because once they left his little makeshift lair, neither of them knew what the world would have in store for them.
Chapter Thirty
Anna
“It’s so small. I’d forgotten just how tiny it was,” she said as Damien set them down nearby the portal.
The little oblong shape measured no more than six inches across at any one spot, its silvery-purple shining light easy to spot from a distance, however, making it appear larger than it actually was.
Four large stakes had been erected around it before the snowstorm, cordoning off the area so nobody accidentally wandered into it.
Her boots crunched into the fresh layer of snow, sinking halfway up her shins before finding solid footing underneath. The storm really had dropped a layer of snow on everything in the valley.
