“I mean in here,” he murmured, placing a kiss on her forehead and shifting to plant a more lavish one between her breasts, over her thudding heart.“And here.Can’t you trust me, just a little?”he asked almost wistfully.
“I’m here aren’t I?”she returned.“In your evil fae lair letting you have your way with me.”
“Evil, hmm?”He mused over that, humming in that lovely tenor and brushing light kisses over her breasts.He seemed particularly fascinated by them, loving to play with her nipples, along with her belly button, likely because he didn’t have either.“I’m not evil.”
She wrapped fingers around his thumb claws, drawing the pads of them along the lethally curved edge, and shimmied against the wing membranes draped lavishly over her skin.“Gothic,” she whispered.“My violet prince, pretty as a devil.”
“You haven’t seen many actual devils if you think that,” he said with a slight smile, “but I’ll take the compliment as intended, my beautiful, sacred, and thorny lover.”He settled more deeply against her.“Spread your thighs for me, Arantxa,” he urged quietly.
Though she kind of wanted to defy the order for form’s sake, she also wasn’t going to cut off her nose to spite her face, so she obeyed eagerly, wrapping her legs around him.He sheathed himself in her, slickly, seamlessly, both of them shuddering at the final click of that lock and key fitting together.As if that key unlocked something deep inside, she unraveled, coming apart in slow increments too gradual to be called climaxes, too intense to be anything else.
The sensation rolled through her, ongoing, shredding every last boundary, Azul’s face poised above hers, indigo eyes sparking amethyst and locked on hers, body similarly riveted to hers, his wings spreading huge and high, violet night shrouding them from the world.As he crested, they opened to full expanse, radiating magic that poured into and through her, infusing her with wellbeing she’d never before experienced.
He released and relaxed, burying his face in the side of her throat, wings folding to embrace her, along with the arms he wrapped around her.Safe and protected, entangled in every way, even the dangerous ways, she fell into blissful rest.
~38~
On the Road Again
Azul woke hersome time later, by raining kisses on her face.“Feeling better?”he asked on a laugh when she swatted at him.
“I don’t feel like a beautiful butterfly emerging from that cocoon,” she informed him groggily, sitting up and stretching.Her body felt amazingly good, however.“I’m the caterpillar that got stepped on by the big bad fae.”
He actually rolled his eyes at her before striding naked into the bathing chamber.The sight of his adorably tight ass framed by the deep purple points of his partially mantled bat wings did a considerable amount to wake her up.
“What was that?”she called, following him, but not quite hearing what he’d muttered in response.
“I said you’re more like Katu in animal form, lacerating me with your claws,” he answered, glancing at her in amusement as he went to an open corner of the room with a lacework floor.
“You’re the one with the claws,” she replied, but absently, quickly forgetting the thought as purple rain commenced showering over him.Amethyst water drenched him as he stood, his head tipped back to allow it to sheet over his body, his wings stretching and angling to be evenly rinsed.She wanted nothing more than to lick every drop of moisture away.
He cocked a brow at her and curled a wing in a come-hither gesture.“Care to join me for round five?”
“Do we have time?”she asked, knowing the answer.Even she could tell dusk had gathered outside the shaded windows.As she asked, the shades lifted themselves, baring windows that revealed a landscape illuminated by pearly twilight.“No,” she answered for him, being her most responsible self.The choice wasn’t even difficult—worry for Dy chewed at her and her lustful self sprawled in satiated somnolence, like a drunk after a five day feast.
“I’ll let you shower alone,” Azul agreed ruefully, “as I don’t trust myself to keep my hands off of you.”The water stopped and he shook himself, wings rustling musically.As he passed her, he paused and framed her face in his hands, wings arching in an echo of the embrace.He kissed her softly, even affectionately, then searched her eyes.“It’s been an honor and a true pleasure, Arantxa,” he said solemnly.“I’ll never forget this interlude.Or you.”
“Yeah, well,” she extracted herself lest she give into the craving to hold onto him, “you can’t, right?That life debt and permanent connection and all.”
“Not what I meant,” he said quietly.
“How do I turn on the water?”she asked, ready to be done with the uncomfortable conversation.“Oh!”she exclaimed as the water sheeted down the moment she stepped onto the lacework flooring.“Thank—” she started to tell him, turning back to smile.
But he had already left.
*
Azul delivered onthe clothes, though they were—why didn’t she see it coming?—all deep shades of that dark purple that looked black in most lights.Form-fitting to the point of hugging every line and crevice of her body, the pants, shirt and jacket clung to her skin with a sensual warmth that reminded her far too much of the feel of Azul’s skin.Cha also couldn’t tell what they were made of.Nothing that existed in the human realms, that was for sure.
“What is this?”she demanded, plucking at the decidedly low neckline.“Fairy skin?”
“Disgusting concept,” he chided her, batting her hands away and adjusting the neckline, hands casually brushing her breasts as he did.“Leave it now.You look incredible.”He circled her.“Coming and going.”
“Yes, well, I still need a sword,” she reminded him.She’d fetched Monat’s nose ring from the shreds of her former clothing and pocketed it.
“I haven’t forgotten,” Azul replied lightly.Suddenly, a sword lay across his outstretched palms, glowing with golden light, a distinctly orange-red quality to the metal.
She peered at it, hesitant to touch.“Is that…”
