Jonas swallowed. “I do feel compelled to protect the lands because of the magic of that oath, but I think there was a part of me that did not want you to be used by Arion.”
I kissed the hinge of his jaw. “I can take it. You do not need to be compelled, you can fight simply from the loyalty you have in your heart.”
“It is a powerful magic.”
“And it holds no chance against my affinity.” My palm flattened on his chest, the damp of my power coiled around my fingers. A burn was there, deep in his heart, a remnant of fierce magic.
Once, I thought he took the oath to do anything to protect the sea and earth fae because he craved glory, now I knew it was because of the beautiful heart in his chest.
“No.” Jonas took hold of my wrist, his brow dropping to mine. “No leave it. I don’t need it to fight for people I love, but . . . it brought me to you. For that, I will always want it.”
Bleeding hells. I kissed his lips gently, pulling back my affinity when my hand dropped.
“The same as I do not fear the magic of the oath in my blood,” he whispered. “I do not fear yours.”
My insides coiled, hard and taut. “You have not seen how unstablemy affinity can be when it overpowers me. I have trained tirelessly to never cause harm, but there is always a fear that it will not be enough.”
“I’m not afraid of you, Skadi. I am in awe of you.”
I clenched my eyes shut. “I think if you knew everything, you would not feel the same.”
His fingertips brushed the side of my neck. “I might’ve once been frivolous with heartfelt things, but I know nothing would change what I feel about you, Wife.”
The touch of his lips on the slope of my neck raced my pulse, but slowed my fears. Like my own magic, his touch swallowed them up, tossing them into the Nothing the longer he touched me, the more he kissed me.
Jonas slowly lifted my skirt up my legs. “How long until the guards send out a search for us?”
“I never intended to go to the watch point with so many others,” I said through a rough rasp when his fingers curled around the inside of my thigh. “You wanted a scheme to be alone, this was my scheme.”
Jonas paused, his fingers viciously close to my center. In the next breath, he drove into me with two fingertips, stealing my breath. “Woman, you are made for me.”
My body quaked under his touch. Jonas covered my mouth with his palm when I cried out his name. “The last thing I want is this place filled with guards, thinking I’m killing you. Scream all you want in the palace.”
We tumbled to the floor, clothes shredded in a frenzy. I pinned him beneath me, thighs on either side of his hips, and kissed the tender lines of his inked symbols.
Jonas let his eyes close, he gave up control, and allowed me to devour him. He let out a rough gasp when I aligned his cock to my core. I sank over him, agonizingly slow. Brow strained, he dug his fingertips into my hips, shifting with me every time I bucked on his length.
It was a stunning sight.
I took my time, adjusting to the fullness of him.
His verdant eyes locked with mine, reflected starlight burst in agreen prism. One hand abandoned my waist and slid up the divots of my ribs until he palmed the whole of one breast.
I bowed my spine, pushing into his palm. Jonas pinched and tugged at my nipple, then fell into his own frenzy. He sat upright and took the other side between his lips, sucking and licking until the peak hardened.
I cried out his name when he rolled the tip between his teeth while his fingers worked the other. I rocked against him, gasping when he bucked his body, striking a new depth.
Heat pooled low in my belly.
My head fell back, his name cascading over my tongue again and again; my body shuddered through my release. Jonas locked on my features, watching my face soften. He held my hips in place and rolled his body against my center until he went taut as he spilled into me.
Spent and breathless, Jonas tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “We didn’t feel there was a choice at the beginning, Skadi. But every day since, you’ve become the best choice I will ever make. I will never stop choosing you.”
I kissed him, deep, needy.
Flashes of white spilled over the small room. I looked up at the open flap in the top. “Stärnskott’s beginning.”
Jonas grunted—still sensitive from release—when I rolled off him, but settled the moment I curled into his side.
