“Fuck,” he murmured, coming closer to me, so close his tip brushed against my aching core. “You’re already soaking wet for me, Daella. But I need to know how you taste.”
He knelt between my thighs and gripped my hips. I sucked in a breath, my entire body coiled so tightly I felt like I might shatter into a million pieces if he so much as breathed on my skin. But Rivelin wasted no time. He leaned in and caressed the inside of my thighs with his lips. I shuddered against him, clutching the side of the anvil behind me. Sparks of pleasure filled my eyes.
“That’s right,” he murmured against my skin. “Spread your legs for me like a good girl.”
I eagerly obeyed his command and spread them wider, enjoying the bite of the metal against my backside. Rivelin’s fingers dug into me, then he flicked my clit with his tongue. A moan escaped my throat, and I nearly broke just from that small touch. Shaking, I couldn’t breathe as his tongue swept across me once more.
Fates be damned.Was this what I’d been missing all my life?
“Your taste is intoxicating,” he said in practically a growl. As if he’d been unleashed, Rivelin drove his tongue across me, licking my opening as if he wanted to lap up every last drop of the wetness I’d conjured just for him.
The pressure in my core built. Everything within me narrowed to that point, where Rivelin was devouring me. I gasped as my very soul itself seemed to crackle like flames. And then suddenly, the roar of it consumed me, burning through me, tearing me up like fire. I shuddered, coming hard against Rivelin’s mouth as the moans spilled out of me.
My tremors slowed, and as I tried to catch my breath, I finally noticed the dense fog swirling through the shop. It was as thick as a cloud on a stormy day now, and I could barely see Rivelin’s face as he rose to stand before me.
“Rivelin,” I murmured, light-headed from my climax.
He took my hand and wrapped it around his cock. I shuddered as he dragged my fingers along the hard length, stopping only when my thumb brushed the tip that was coated in his need for me.
“Turn around,” he said roughly. “And hold on to the anvil.”
I swallowed and turned, presenting my backside to him as I palmed the cool steel of the anvil. A moment later, his swollen tip pressed against me. The quakes nearly started anew.
He gripped my hips and slowly inched inside me, not stopping until he filled me to the hilt. My walls spread for him, taking him in eagerly. With a soft groan, he pulled back, then thrust inside me once more. I lifted my hips and ground against him, desperate for more of him.
Having him inside me, this man who had somehow stolen past the walls around my heart, made me come undone. I was his to take however he wished, at least for this one night. My moans mingled with the thickening fog as he thrust harder into me. My thighs knocked against the steel.
Rivelin’s pace quickened, and his primal groan captured my breath and held it in my throat. I curled my fingers against the anvil, my nails scraping the steel, as that delicious pleasure built inside me once more. I wanted to hold on, I wanted to feel his cock inside me for hours more, but it felt too good. Every single thrust brought me closer to the brink of combustion.
“Let go, Daella,” Rivelin said as his fingers dug into my skin. “Come for me.”
He plunged his cock inside me once more, releasing his own grip on his pleasure. As his groans filled my ears, everything within me shattered. I came even harder than I had before, and wave after wave of intoxicating heat flowed through me. I couldn’t breathe or think or even feel anything other than Rivelin and the way he held on to me as I shuddered against him.
When the internal flames finally died, I slowly breathed and released my grip on the steel. Soot stained the anvil in the shape of my hands.
23
DAELLA
“Good morning.” Rivelin’s voice cut through my dreamless sleep, and I awoke curled against his chest, my hip cushioned by a blanket that hadn’t been there when I’d fallen asleep on the workshop floor. Another blanket was draped across my body, soft against my bare skin.
Memories of the night before rushed through my mind, and my cheeks heated. I didn’t regret one moment of it, but…what did we do now? Did we discuss what had happened between us? Or did we ignore it and return to how things had been before? I’d fought battles against Draugr, and had dispatched monstrous trolls twice my size, but I was lost on how to navigate this.
Almost certainly, this had been one night of hazy lust and nothing more.
Rivelin seemed to note my silence, and he slowly extracted himself from our makeshift bed on the floor. He ran his fingers through his mussed hair, his jaw tightening. I opened my mouth to say something, but I didn’t know what. I’d never been in this situation before.
“Thank you for the nice time. I, ah, should get dressed.” As soon as I spoke them, I instantly regretted my words. They sounded so distant and hollow, so devoid of warmth. But what else was I to say?
“Of course.” He held the blanket around his waist while he gathered his clothes, avoiding my eyes. “Best get up, then. We have a few pieces to finish up before the Fildur Trial ends tonight.”
And that was that.
* * *
Awkward silence supplanted the blissful routine of the past few days. Rivelin and I moved carefully around each other, like a dance where neither party was allowed to touch. Any time I got close, he found something else to busy himself with, even if it was rustling some papers on his worktable. When it was clear we were mostly done with our preparation and he didn’t need my help anymore, I excused myself to take a bath before tonight’s event.
I hated how unstrung I felt, like I was a pool of tangled ribbons with no beginning or end. Truly, I needed to get it together. I still had a few weeks left here, and that was only if I couldn’t find a way to stay permanently. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my time in Wyndale on constant edge just because I didn’t know how to act around a man who’d seen me naked.
