"You. I need you."
Her honesty breaks whatever remaining control I'd been maintaining. My hand slides lower, fingers finding the heat between her legs where she's already slick with want. The first touch makes her cry out, hips rising to meet pressure that circles and teases until she's trembling beneath me.
"So ready," I murmur with wonder, exploring her folds that part under gentle pressure. "So wet."
She's tight around my finger when I ease inside, inner muscles fluttering with sensitivity that makes me desperate to feel that sensation around something much larger. But I force patience, working her slowly until she can take two fingers without discomfort, preparing her body for what comes next.
"I want all of you," she says suddenly, voice carrying determination that cuts through my careful ministrations. "Stop being so gentle. I won't break."
"You're small," I point out reasonably, though my cock throbs with need that makes rational conversation nearly impossible. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't." Her gray-green eyes meet mine with trust that makes my chest tight. "I trust you completely."
The faith in her voice destroys whatever patience I'd been clinging to. I position myself between her legs, tip of my cock pressing against her entrance that feels impossibly small despite preparation. But she wraps her legs around my hips, urging me forward with movements that leave no room for misunderstanding her desires.
I enter her slowly, watching her face for signs of pain while her body adjusts to my size. She's incredibly tight, inner muscles gripping me with pressure that makes coherent thought nearly impossible. But her expression shows wonder rather than discomfort, lips parted as she breathes through sensation that's apparently as overwhelming for her as it is for me.
"Okay?" I manage through gritted teeth.
"More than okay," she whispers, hips rising to take me deeper. "You feel perfect."
Perfect. The word resonates through my chest as I sink fully inside her, our bodies joining with rightness that transcends physical compatibility. She fits around me like we were designed for this moment, complementary pieces of some cosmic puzzle finally clicking into place.
When I begin to move, slow withdrawals followed by careful thrusts that let her body adjust to rhythm and depth, she meets every motion with enthusiasm that makes stars burst behind my eyelids. Her hands map the muscles of my back while I support my weight above her, careful not to crush her smaller frame beneath my bulk.
"Is this what you needed?" I ask against her ear, voice rough with strain and sensation.
"Yes," she breathes, nails digging into my shoulders. "Exactly this."
We move together with increasing urgency, finding rhythm that builds heat between us like forge fire. Her body responds to mine with sensitivity that makes every touch feel amplified, pleasure feeding back and forth until I can't tell where my sensation ends and hers begins.
When her inner muscles start to flutter with an approaching climax, I angle my hips to hit the spot that makes her cry out with surprise and desperate need. Her pleasure becomes my obsession, driving every movement as I work to give her exactly what she craves.
"Kai," she gasps, back arching as tension builds toward breaking point. "I'm going to..."
"Let go," I encourage roughly. "I've got you."
Her climax breaks over her like a storm surge, inner muscles clenching around me with force that drags my own release from depths I didn't know existed. I follow her over the edge with surrender that feels like drowning and flying simultaneously, pleasure so intense it rewrites fundamental understanding of what connection can feel like.
We collapse together afterward, breathing hard while aftershocks ripple through oversensitive nerves. Her head rests on my chest where my heart pounds against ribs like a cagedanimal, evidence of how completely she's undone every defense I'd constructed against exactly this kind of vulnerability.
This changes everything. The recognition settles in my bones with certainty that feels terrifying and inevitable in equal measure. Whatever walls I'd built to protect myself from caring too deeply have been completely demolished, leaving me exposed in ways I swore I'd never risk again.
But looking down at Saela's face, relaxed in post-climactic peace while firelight paints golden patterns across her skin, I realize I don't want those walls back. Whatever happens next, whatever political complications arise from choosing personal happiness over clan duty, this moment is worth every potential consequence.
She's worth everything.
13
KAI
Iwake before dawn, body accustomed to rising early despite the exhaustion that should keep me unconscious for hours longer. Gray light filters through the window, painting familiar longhouse walls in soft shadows that feel different somehow—charged with the memory of what happened between Saela and me just hours ago.
She sleeps curled against my side, one hand resting on my chest where her breathing creates gentle rhythm against my ribs. Her face looks younger in sleep, tension lines smoothed away to reveal the vulnerability she guards so carefully when conscious. Dark lashes cast delicate shadows across windburned cheeks, lips slightly parted as she breathes with the deep steadiness of someone finally able to rest completely.
Watching her feels like a privilege I haven't earned. The trust required for her to fall asleep beside me—someone she barely knows, in circumstances neither of us chose—speaks to exhaustion that goes bone-deep. But also to whatever connection sparked between us last night, electricity that transformed everything I thought I understood about my own emotional capacity.
My chest tightens as fragments of our lovemaking surface in vivid detail. The way her breath caught when I touched her. How perfectly her smaller body fitted against mine, complementary strength that made physical differences feel like design rather than obstacle. The absolute trust in her gray-green eyes when she told me to stop being so gentle, that she wouldn't break beneath my attention.
