He caresses my thighs with tender kisses before gripping them with his rough hands. We lock eyes as he plants a kiss on my most sensitive flesh. I gasp at the abrupt touch. As soon as it’s there, it’s gone. All warmth gone with it. I want to fight him for it, demand he bring his mouth back to me. But his eyes silence me. Again, he buries his face in my groin, kissing and licking my inner thighs and teasing my soaking slit with heavy breaths.
He licks me up my center and my core contracts. I pinch my eyes shut. The sight of his coal eyes staring up at me from between my legs is too much.
“Look at me,” He says.
I pick up my head and force myself to watch as Darius begins his ministrations with his mouth. He looks as if he’s feeding from me, drinking in the juices that pour out of my depths. His eyes roll back as he licks and sucks on me. My breaths are desperate. My hands wander to my breast, pinching my nipples as he grazes me with his tongue. He inserts a finger inside me and I clench around him.
“You’re so fucking tight, killer.” He groans and he adjusts my body’s position to give him more access. “It’s like you’re still brand new. Your body has been waiting for me, hasn’t it?”
“Please, Darius, I need you inside me.”
“You’ll get me, one finger at a time.”
I groan; a storm brewing inside me with every pulse of his fingers. He slips another finger inside, giving me a moment to adjust. I grind myself into his hand, forcing his fingers deeper inside but he pulls them back. I’m tempestuous. His touch does things to me Silas’ never did. He starts fires under my skin. I’ve never even known what to want from a man until now. I want all of him.
“Darius, I don’t want your fucking fingers. I want your cock.”
He slaps my thighs, punishing my rashness. But he wants to please me, he wants to give me what I want. It becomes unclear who is in control here. He sits back on his knees and licks his fingers, giving me a chance to sit up. I point at the ground beside me, silently demanding he lay down.
I push him down into the long grass and crawl over him. I begin to slowly grind my hips against the length of his rock-hard cock. I’ve only ever been with one man before him and I didn’t know what to do. But I’m not shy with him. All I know now is I want to move and feel every inch. He grips my hips and breasts, biting his lips as he watches me writhe. I’m off him in seconds and between his legs. I want to taste him and kiss him the way he did to me.
I kneel before him as he sits up on his elbows, I grip his member with both my hands before lowering my mouth onto him. He groans with pleasure but yanks me off by my hair again.
“What do you want to do to me?” Darius asks.
“I want to kiss you here. I want to please you the way you’ve pleased me.”
“Have you ever done this for your husband?”
The ‘h’ word sends a bolt of fire through me, but it excites me even more that I’m defying Silas and everyone else who has sought to control me.
I shake my head.
“Good,” he moans and pushes my head down abruptly. His cock breaks through my kiss and plunges into my mouth. For a second, I’m unsure how to move with his massive member blocking my airway, but I close my eyes and try. I take him in deeper and experiment with ways to move and lick and suck on him. It’s tricky and my jaw is beginning to hurt, but I taste him. His salty flavor fills my mouth. I get used to the pressure he creates on my throat and relax a little, making it easier. I swirl my tongue around the head of his cock and lick him up the sides of his shaft. I use my imagination and desperately try to conjure up memories of the pages from that damned book of sex and Hero’s scandalous stories.
I use my hands and mouth together to cover the entire length of his velvet shaft. Letting him touch the back of my throat, accidentally gagging. He doesn’t seem to mind. I’ve never been afraid of a challenge and this is a fun one. He pushes me down a little harder, forcing me to take in the entirety of him. I can’t. I can get most in though. Tears fill my eyes from the pressure. His cock pulses in my mouth and I know I’ve got the heart of him between my teeth. I allow my teeth to gently graze his sensitive flesh as I pull back, leaving only the tip of him entombed in my mouth. His abs contract and his breath catches. I guess I’m doing a good job.
He shudders, pushing into my mouth again and again, desperate for more. I allow him to thrust into my mouth, fucking me between my lips. He drops his head back, knotting his hands in his curls. His coal eyes are closed, his face lined with what seems like determination not to finish in my mouth. This feels like magic. Like art. Making him weak for me.
“Up!” He jolts me. I shift over his body and he pulls me back onto him. He lets me take control as he finally readies himself for me. I position myself above him and slowly lower down. My heart is beating wildly against my ribs. My breath is ragged, my lungs desperate. Sweat beads on my brow as I try to relax, slowly allowing my body to open and adjust for him.
Darius sheaths himself inside me. I sink down until I feel he’s as deep as my body will allow him to go. Everything seems right from on top of him. I move and he moves inside me, and everything fits perfectly. As the rain washes over us, I use my legs to lift myself up and lower back down. Shifting my weight to allow my hips to control the depth and rate at which I fuck him. My rhythm is a little offbeat at first, but I move until I find a way that works for me. His cock brushes against a sensitive spot inside me, startling me.
“Right there?” He reads my expression and bites back his smile.
“Yes,” I rock my hips again, trying to bring him to that spot inside me. I’m so wet that every movement sounds like a kiss. He pulses his cock into me, matching my movements so we’re grinding against each other and he keeps hitting that fucking spot.
My body goes rigid and bucks against him as he continues stroking me from the inside. I feel my muscles locking and unlocking as my pleasure is growing into a wave. Cresting and pushing me over the edge. I buckle from the power of my orgasm, but he holds me still above him and thrusts up into me harder and faster. Drowning me in pleasure, keeping me afloat.
“Fuck!”
He flips me over onto my back and effortlessly reconnects our bodies. He enters me, allowing the length of his cock to fill me up, slowly, inch by inch. He grips my thighs and pulls my legs to rest atop his shoulders. Again, he’s moving inside me. My womb clenches, taking in more of him and holding him captive as I claw at his back. He fills my tight body, pulling out and pushing in repeatedly.
“You begged me for this,” His eyes light up with wicked pleasure as he slows his pace and steers his movements toward that spot again.
I lock on to his gaze as he watches me respond to his cock splitting me open from my center. I’m brimming with ecstasy. It overruns me; his power destroys and rebuilds me. His power is relentless. His prowess is eternal. His passion is endless, and his heat knows no bounds. I buck against him and scream as he fucks me raw. We fight each other. Fire against fire. Desire against overwhelming desire.
“Admit it, Keres.”
“Yes!” I can barely breathe. Between moans I confess, “You! Not him. I needed you. I need you to fuck me harder!” I drop my head back and let him take me. I scrunch the wet grass in my fists behind my head and hold on for dear life as he makes me moan with a voice I never knew I had.
Every inch of him within me reaches a depth Silas never could. He’s giving me everything and holding back nothing. He breaks me with bliss and cuts me open with every touch. He pulls my head back and leans forward over my shoulder to kiss me.
Every kiss steals my breath. Gentle in moments, he gives. Rough and smooth, devoted and reckless. I take and take and take from him until he’s given me all he can; and all that’s left to take is his willpower to be mine and only mine.
In the last ragged breaths, I thrash against him, but he pushes himself out of my body and explodes with pleasure, unleashing all over me. With a moan of satisfaction, he collapses onto me.
I want
nothing more than to lay there in the wet, scrumptious warmth of him. To rub myself against him with greed for more. More. I want more and more of him. I don’t know if I’ll ever stop. Stop? No. Not yet.
I allow him to rest but I cannot let this be over yet. I’ve waited too long; I’ve held out for a marriage I never wanted. No more holding back. No more obeying the rules or living by a vow I wish I could take back.
The world melts from awareness. It’s not raining. We aren’t on the ground beneath the faltering foliage of the orchard in autumn. We’re in paradise. Where no one can find us or drive us apart.
His eyes are closed, his breathing is steady.
“What should I call you?” He asks again.
“Yours.”
I creep down, placing myself between his legs. I take his cock in my mouth, and his eyes spring open.
“Keres,” he gasps. Once again, I use my mouth to bring him to the brink of needing me. He doesn’t protest. He can’t resist me. I’m everything he wanted me to be, and he’s everything I need. My inner little monster tries to convince me I can’t keep him. We can’t stay here. I’ll have to give it all back when I’m done and put a ring back on my finger. But I’m not done. More. Again.
Sheer animalistic desire takes over me as I make him ready to fuck me. It doesn’t take much. He’s wanted me since he first saw the unbridled power within me— a match to his own rage and passion. Whose lust is more powerful? It seems we are equal.
This time he has me on my knees, bent over and facing away from him. He spreads my legs open, pushing my back down until my face is buried in my hands on the ground. He splays my flesh, making way for his generous member. And he enters me from behind, angling to hit new places inside me. The pleasure is almost too intense. He holds onto my hips as he rides my body. I push back against him, throwing every ounce of power he pushes into me back into him. Darius spanks me, and his fingernails bite into me as he pulls me onto his cock and pushes me back. I throw my hips back into his, needy for more.
I wish I could see him, but he’s got me by my hair now. Yanking my head back, arching my back. My core throbs with need as he pounds into me. He’s driving his cock so deep inside of me, hard as fucking iron. Dominating me completely. My breasts bounce with every hit to my womb. I lick my lips, biting back a grunt.
“Do you like the way I fuck you?”
“Yes! Oh, Gods, yes.”
“You want more, don’t you?” He quickens his pace, intensifying each movement inside me. My body bounces off his, the sound of our skin slapping together echoing out into the night and imprinting in my mind. Drowned out only by his guttural growls of pleasure and my high-pitched moans.
“You love that I spread you apart and shove my cock deep inside you.” He taunts me. “You know I was supposed to be the only one inside you. Not Silas.” His words shouldn’t arouse me more, but they do. I grind myself against him, near to orgasming. “Yes!”
Darius reaches a hand underneath me and rubs my most sensitive bud of flesh as he fucks me, making me lose my mind. His other hand clutches one breast. My harsh intake of breath excites him. My sounds fuel his fire. He pulls out and rams back into me, “Say my fucking name again.”
“Darius!”
He is tearing me apart from the inside out. He’s claiming me with sex and I know we’re dabbling in some dark, dangerous magic. Stars explode in my eyes. Heat surges through me, mingled with pleasure. My body sucks him deeper in as he climaxes. He tears himself from me before he can fill me with his sweet cum.
He crashes onto the ground next to me, a lazy arm wrapped around my shuddering body. As my heartbeat settles down, I turn onto my side and look at him. He lays there with his eyes closed and curls a mess; naked and breathing heavily and perfect. We’ll stay like this for a little while longer, if the Gods are kind for once.
The rainstorm ends. But a new truth strikes me like lightning: I don’t know how we will go on living like this.
25. TO DRINK BONES
“We are supposed to meet Paragon Kade in an hour.” Darius juggles the long leg-bones of the Gnorrer with Pophis, the staff from Emisandre.
“So, we go there first,” I say.
“I don’t think we’ll be welcome in a brothel, towing a monster skeleton.”
“We don’t have time to return to the temple first if we want to meet with him tonight. Let’s just go,” I say.
“And leave Osira in a trance or whatever that was?” He asks.
I chew on my lip, weighing the options. Go help the girl I just promised my allegiance to, or detour and seek the answers I agreed to find for the Gryphon King?
“This is my only chance to see Paragon Kade. He’s one reason I came here. Osira can hold out a little longer. We’ll make it as quick of a visit as possible.” Guilt gnaws at my gut.
“Alright, we should wrap these in your shawl then. Make carrying them easier.”
“Good idea.” I go to remove my cloak and catch him watching. I smile at him, teasing him as I take it off.
He smiles back. “I’ve always wanted to know what you had going on under there.”
“And now you do.” He winks at me.
We pick our way back through the orchards, passing glances and the bundle of bones between us. Taking turns trying to fill the silence. If my feet could move as fast as my thoughts, I’d have made it to the other side of the seven-mile stretch in seven minutes. He seems preoccupied with his thoughts as well.
“Do you hate me now?” Darius asks.
“Why would I hate you?”
“I’ve watched other people make you do things you didn’t want to do. I see you resent them. Now, I feel like I’ve corrupted you somehow, even though you assured me of your choice. I feel I’ve led you into sin. I’m worried you’ll resent me too.”
“I could never hate you, Darius. I was already corrupted. I thought you knew that,” I add. “I chose you, Darius. It would have been a sin not to set myself free.”
He beams at me. “Good, then it’s settled.” He slings the make-shift sack over his shoulder and takes my hand.
“What is?” I ask.
“From here on, I go where you go.”
He says it like it’s so simple. “You’re only saying that because I’m going to a brothel,” I say.
He laughs under his breath. I glance at him out of the corner of my eye.
“I’m serious. We go together.” He squeezes my hand and gives me a boyish smile.
“Together,” I nod and smile back at him quickly before turning my attention to the far side of the orchard. Together until we go back home and can never be alone together again.
Women are loud when they’re drunk and half-naked. Swaying in her customer’s lap, a whore sings in a language I don’t recognize. One that makes her sound like she’s holding a lot of spit in her throat. He laughs as she serenades him and his comrades. They’re boisterous, clanking their tankards together as she raises her own. On the final note, they all drown her lyrics in alcohol, belch, and cheer.
“That’s him.” Darius draws my attention from the revelry to a lone soldier seated in the back of the brothel. A girl with her hair done up in a disheveled bun of wild golden curls slinks around the round wooden table. She leans forward to pour more ale from her pitcher into his glass, and the sleeves of her top fall off her shoulders. One of her breasts peeks out at him, and he smiles at her before noticing us approaching.
“You again,” he greets Darius before taking a swig of ale. It dribbles down his beard.
“Paragon Kade?” I ask in disbelief.
“The one and only, lass.”
Darius and I cross glances. Paragon Kade’s armor is scattered about his corner of the common room. I can’t believe it’s just lying around. The earnings from one stolen piece of it would feed a family. Its quality boasts his station: a gold-plated steel cuirass lies on the table next to the bones of his meal. The chest piece is connected to the back plate by leathers with solid gold buckles. He’s
still wearing his chainmail hauberk, gambeson, leather bottoms, and greaves. His gold-plated helmet sits beneath his left foot. And his sword—
“Is that a Cedenic blade?” Darius plops into the vacant chair at the table, dropping the shawl full of bones on the floor. He’s ogling at the unsheathed great sword P. Kade had stabbed into the floorboards.
“Aye, it is.” He belches as he looks at the blood colored blade with contempt. Darius’ jaw drops.
“There are only fifteen Cedenic blades in the world. Where did you get one?”
“From the same man who crafted the other fourteen.”
“You’ve met the Rift Crafter?” Darius looks like he could faint.
“Didn’t I just say I did?”
“Paragon Kade—” I try to interrupt. Darius grabs my arm.
“Fifteen Cedenic blades in the world. The rare metal doesn’t rust, conducts spiritual energy, and resists magic! Plus, it’s crimson. My favorite color.”
“I see.” I smile at him and look back at the repulsive man this exquisite sword belongs to.
“Do you know who I am, Ser?” I ask.
He looks at me from white haired head to bare toe. “Yer the dead Princess’s daughter.”
“How did you know that?”
“I know Resayla’s eyes in any skull.”
“My name is Keres—”
“I know yer damn name, lass. Not that I care to. The whole soddin’ kingdom’s been talking about the hound of Mrithyn keelin’ at the Queen’s side.”
Darius’ hand catches mine before it fists.
“Do you know why I’ve come here?”
“To bother me?” He lifts his drink back to his mouth. Then rakes a nasty look over my body. “Or to sit on my lap?”
I slam my free hand over his tankard, pushing it back down to the table. A little ale spills on him and he’s only upset by the mess because he didn’t make it.
The Sunderlands Page 29
