He couldn’t tell if she was asking for more or less. But then her eyes blinked open, and she met his gaze.
“I need to catch my breath. I—” She groaned as he pressed his fingers harder against her.
Her pussy clenched around him, sending an aftershock of pleasure through his whole body. The bond in his chest was pleasantly warm, soothed by being connected to her in every way.
She squirmed, trying to escape his touch, but Teddy didn’t relent. He kept stroking her.
He nipped at her earlobe. “I like you like this,Minyha. Dripping down your thighs. So wet and needy. So afraid you have more to give me.” She gasped and her pussy twitched again. “One more. Let me feel one more.”
Her eyes pleaded with him, but she pressed into his fingers. She looked gorgeous—her hair wild, eyes hooded, cheeks flushed. He wanted to see her like this every day.
The thought startled him, but he didn’t have time to react. Stella’s hand came over his, trying to direct his pressure on her clit. He ripped her hand away and pinned it behind her back.
Teddy clicked his tongue. “What did I say, Stella? I’m in charge here. You take what I give you.”
She shuddered, cursing into the pillow as he rubbed her harder and faster. Then she froze and her whole body spasmed, a guttural moan spilling from her lips as she surrendered to one more orgasm. It rolled through her in waves. Her thighs trembled violently, and when he slid his other hand up to pinch her nipple, her whole body seized, gripping his cock so hard it was just on the edge of painful.
As she came down from the high, she shoved his hand away from her sensitive clit. “No more,” she rasped.
She blinked her eyes open and smiled at him. Teddy liked the glazed, satisfied look on her face too much.
He pulled back and instantly missed the warmth of her soft skin. These stolen moments in the treehouse were a fantasy. He could not keep this. She was in love with someone else, for the love of the gods.How quickly he’d forgotten she didn’t really belong to him. It just felt like she did.
Stella had plans that didn’t include him. He’d wanted to be there for her in the worst moment of her life, and he’d been the one sucked into the escapist fantasy. She was the one who would go home to someone else.
He was angry at himself for forgetting. He’d lost control and gotten sucked into the vortex of Stella, likely for the same reason he’d avoided her. She was joyful and imaginative and gentle with him, and he was falling for her.
This cosmic joke by the goddess of love could easily become a cosmic curse if he wasn’t careful. Stella didn’t want him. She was in this tournament to fight for someone else.
“We should head out soon,” Teddy said.
Stella laughed and flopped onto her back. “You just fucked me senseless, Your Grace. I think you’re going to have to wait a few minutes for my legs to work again.”
She stayed sprawled on the bed as Teddy rose to get dressed. He considered bathing, but the thought of reliving the previous night’s trauma was unappealing. He wiped the sweat from his skin with a damp cloth, watching Stella out of the corner of his eye.
Her expression had morphed from pleasant satisfaction to serious contemplation. She rose from the bed, her energy shifting to match his as she rifled through her bag for something to wear.
The fantasy was over. It was time to get back to the fight.
30
TEDDY
The cave mouth stretched before Teddy, dark and wide, like the mouth of a great beast waiting to swallow him whole.
He was finally going to retrieve his piece of the memory challenge. All he had to do was walk in and watch whatever horrible memory was waiting for him.
“I think you should wait until I’m finished so I can go with you,” he said.
Stella shook her head. “We’re losing daylight. We don’t know how long the memory will be, or how long it will take you to pull yourself out of it. We already lost too much time in the river and the recovery and this morning.” She blushed and looked away.
Funny that she felt suddenly shy when she’d been so wild and uninhibited earlier. But everything was different in the light of day, staring down the second challenge. Their momentary escape was over, and now it was time to face their futures.
She looked down at her feet, her hands subconsciously running over her vest to check that her blades were still there.
“I hate that you’ll be alone, but I know you can do it,” Teddy said.
Stella smiled, but her eyes were full of apprehension.
