Because I can’t hold on much longer.
As we kiss, the slow slide of his cock turns to a rhythmic pounding, hard and deep, until the tension inside me—coiled so painfully tight—unfurls into mind-shattering ecstasy.
Alexus rips away from my mouth as my body seizes his, clenching him, wave after divine wave. “El om ze pera,” he utters between shredded breaths, eyes intent on mine. “Lohanran tu gra.”
His words are Elikesh, words he’s never spoken to me, but I sense their devotion along the bond, their significance as his restraint shatters.
With powerful thrusts, his orgasm spills inside me. I gasp with each burst of pleasure, the release only magnified by his magick. The pulsating surrender is a heart-stopping sensation I will crave for the rest of my days.
I hold him close through it all, kissing him as he groans into my mouth. I inhale every moan, reveling in the shudders rolling through this ancient, magnificent body.
A body that trembles just for me.
For several minutes, as his little starlights flare then soften and fade, Alexus lingers inside me, our heartbeats thrumming like the rhythm of a song. He presses tender kisses along my shoulders, across my face, over my eyes, and after a while, my racing heart slows and my quivering legs still.
“I think we should stay in this tent all day.” He nuzzles my neck, trailing his tongue over my pulse, then moves lower, playfully biting my nipple. “I could show you more of my skills.”
When he leans away, I shift my hips, moving on him, wet with our pleasure. “I am more than a little curious after that demonstration,” I sign.
He grins and nuzzles my neck again. “Don’t tempt me. We have a king and a world to save.”
There isn’t much to smile about in that last statement, yet my mouth curves a little anyway, even with Joran’s and Thamaos’s words still lurking at the edges of my mind. Alexus said we. Because we’re in this fight together.
Much to my displeasure, he withdraws from me and rolls to his back. I flinch at the emptiness, but he wraps his arms around me and tucks me into his side, and the empty feeling fades.
“Can I confess something?” he asks. “Without sounding mad? I’ve wanted to tell you since Winterhold.”
I nod and trace the sculpted muscles of his abdomen, wending my finger up and down the trail of dark hair below his navel.
“After we arrived at the castle, I dreamed of you. Of what it might’ve been like if we’d met some other way, in some other life. That dream was so vivid that when you came to my chambers the next night, and I finally got to touch you and kiss you the way I’d desired, you felt—and tasted—familiar. Like my body had been made for yours. Not because of what happened between us in the wood either.” He kisses my temple and pulls me closer. “It felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.”
My face warms as I rest my chin on his shoulder, meeting his gaze in the dim light. Still smiling, I run my fingers through his beard.
I send my answer along the bond, growing braver each time I use it. I don’t think he’s mad at all. From the moment he first looked at me, it was like he could see into my soul. And that night in his chambers, he’d told me how right I felt in his hands.
While I can’t say I understand it, I’m beginning to believe that maybe, just maybe, Fate has had her eye upon us for a while.
I rest in Alexus’s arms until the rising morning light reminds me that I must face the day. From his place on the fur, still naked save for the blankets draped across his thighs, he watches me with an affectionate smile as I clean up, shrug into my traveling clothes, and braid my hair, an attempt at making myself somewhat presentable.
As I work, I trace my gaze over his body. It’s impossible not to admire him, how his black hair pools beneath his head like a puddle of spilled ink, or the way the ancient scars on his sweat-dampened skin call to me in the faint light of early dawn.
If there must be a god in this land, it should be him.
Wind wheezes through the forest and whips the tent, fracturing the moment. It’s as though Neri means to push us further south, out of Frostwater and into the valley. In a matter of hours, after too many days of rugged travel, he will succeed, whether I’m ready to face what awaits or not.
Alexus rises on an elbow and brushes his knuckles along my jaw, reading my mind as he so often does, even without the bond. “Stop your worries and go, or someone will catch you, and we’ll have even more trouble to face today. It’s already taking all my strength to endure Joran.”
I roll my eyes and bob my head in agreement, though leaving him is becoming harder to do. Here in his tent, nothing and no one exists but us. It feels so good, yet it’s false contentment. Because out there, the enemy awaits, and the world is in chaos.
And we’re walking straight toward both.
“Fine,” I sign. “But before I go, what does El om ze pera, lohanran tu gra mean?” I messily spell the unknown words as best I can.
One corner of Alexus’s mouth curls as he leans closer. “After we reach the coast, if you still like me as much as you do right now, I’ll explain.”
“Promises, promises,” I sign, shoving at his warm chest. “I will ask Nephele.”
He laughs and keeps his voice down. “Ever impatient. But I want to be the one who tells you. I’m not sure Nephele could anyway. It’s a very old dialect.”
