He laughs, the sound a vibration against my skin. “Once I steal you, I may never let you go.”
When he moves his fingers inside me in a rhythmic counterpoint to the motion of his tongue, I tense, clutching his hair, whipping my head back and forth on the pillow. My muscles tense, and my back arches, my entire being focused on the waves of feeling threatening to wash me away.
When he puts his lips on me andsucks, I fly off the bed and into space, sparkling bursts of starlight and moonlight turning cartwheels in my dazzled mind and body, with only a tiny corner of my brain functioning well enough that I stuff my fist into my mouth to keepfrom screaming his name.
“Too much,” I rasp out. “Too much sensation, too much—”
“Not enough,” he growls. “Never enough.” But he raises his head at my words, though I can see his eyes burning with need. He gently strokes my side until his hand curves around my hip, waiting for me to settle enough to say yes again. If it’s possible, his restraint makes him even sexier to me. I can tell he wants to plunder—wants to relinquish himself to the animalistic urges within—but he’s waiting for me. For my agreement.
Waiting for our mutual surrender to this whirlwind of sensation.
Bit by bit, my body relaxes back onto the bed, the rigid, spasming pleasure washing gently through me like the tide from the shore. I don’t know how to look at him. I’m not embarrassed; it’s just wonder, pure wonder, and even awe.
“Still yes?” He moves up to position himself over my body, his long, muscular legs nestled between my trembling thighs.
“Always yes,” I whisper.
“Soli, I need you,” he rasps, and I see how much he does. I take his face between my hands and kiss him with every bit of that wonder and awe, and all the wanting, so much wanting and need. Then he moves, and he’s inside me, all of him, so hard and long and thick I spare a moment to wonder how he can possibly fit.
Feeling deliriously happy that he does.
He thrusts into me as far as he can go, his hips slamming into mine, and I urge him on with words and hands and lips and even my legs wrapped around him, holding him, feeling every bit of him in me and on me and around me until I’m going to come again. The almost unbearable pleasure swirls inside me, building strength before it crashes home.
“Soli. Come for me.Now,” he demands, his voice hoarse with strain.
I dig my fingers into the muscles of his strong back, and I let go, open up to the physical sensation threatening to hurl me off the edge of the Indigo Cliffs into the unknown depths of the Thalassian Sea. Above me, Kaelen tenses, his rhythm quickening as he drives into me harder and deeper until I’m sure I must explode—and then he says my name.
Just“Soli,” as he falls into sensation with me.
I close my eyes and soar into the moonlit dark, but not alone.
Finally, not alone.
We soar together.
When his breathing steadies, Kaelen rolls us over until I’m lying on his chest, still shuddering with aftershocks. He wraps his arms around me and, though the room is chilly without a fire and I’m entirely naked, I feel warmer than I have since we began this journey. I twist around to grab the quilts and pull them up over us, then snuggle back into the curve of his arms. We doze off together in a delicious haze of sated contentment.
When I wake, I’m on my side, and Kaelen is stroking my back and pressing kisses to my scars.
“Did you sleep?”
“A little,” he murmurs. “I didn’t want to miss this, though. Finally, being able to hold you like this. Just the two of us. I feel a peacefulness I haven’t felt for a long time.”
“Maybe we could light the fire,” I offer drowsily. “I know how now.”
“I know. Soli?”
“Hmm?”
“Not now, but someday, I need for you to tell me about the scars.”
He feels me flinch and swears beneath his breath.
“I’m sorry. Now was not the time to bring that up. Forget I said anything. I’m an idiot.”
I pull the quilts back up over us and snuggle into the curve of his arms. “No. It’s fine. You know about the scars on my cheek, hand, and wrist from the accident. The ones on my back are … The first Inquisitor they sent decided I was lying about Gray Mind.”
Closing my eyes, I shove sense memory away, determined not to allow it to enter this perfect space and time. “When I remember it, I feel that same trapped helplessness. That same hopeless, powerless sensation of someone else having complete control of me, being able to hurt me as much and as often as he wanted. It’s not … It’s a memory I try to avoid.”
