It didn't take long for me to reach the edge, and I shouted Keoni's name as I came, filling his mouth as I shuddered and shook under him. His grip on my hip kept me from pushingdeeper into his mouth as he swallowed my load, and I blinked against the sudden darkness that filled my gaze.
Fuck.
We caught our breaths for a few minutes, Keoni resting with his head on my stomach, my spent cock lying inches from his face. He gave it a little pat-pat before sliding up in bed.
Leaning up on an elbow, he watched me with bright, twinkling eyes as his lips curled into a soft smile.
"Hey," he murmured, and I smiled back as my gaze drifted from his face to his pink, swollen nipples, and I licked my lips. I'd never thought nipple play could be that fun, especially on the giving side.
"I take it you enjoyed that," Keoni said as he reached up to push a few strands of hair off my forehead.
I hummed, not quite sure I'd be able to speak just yet. Keoni grinned, then cuddled into my side. He threw an arm over my stomach and pressed as close as physically possible, and I covered us with the blanket with a wave of my hand.
"Mmm, let's sleep. We've got a long day of doing as little as possible tomorrow," he joked, and I smiled as I pressed a kiss into his wild hair.
Under the blanket, I quickly removed my arm and stretched back to place it on the nightstand, and Keoni snuggled closer the moment I settled back down.
It didn't take long for me to drift off, warm, sated, and in the arms of the man I was without a doubt falling for.
Nineteen
Zephyr
"There. That should doit," Lord Fredrick said as he leaned back and eyed my crudely stitched-together hand. He'd sewn back the hand he'd cut off with magic, and I didn't know what he was hoping to accomplish. The pain in my arm was making my vision blurry, but I was sure whatever he'd done wouldn't help. He'd chopped my hand clean off, and there was no way he could fix that. Maybe a skilled healer could, but while Lord Fredrick was a powerful sorcerer, he was a lousy healer.
I spent the next few days in a feverish haze of pain, dreaming about Rei. About the day I'd found her as a puppy, aboutplaying with her and the way she made magic so damn easy. But all my happy memories of her were now stained with guilt. I couldn't save her. I'd had to watch her die, and I could do nothing.
Lord Fredrick should've lopped off my neck instead of my hand. Then I wouldn't be stuck here with Rei gone.
Once my head cleared a little, I tried to find something, anything I could use to hurt either Lord Fredrick or myself. I was exhausted. I didn't want to be here anymore. Death would be nicer than this life; I was sure of it.
"Yeah, it's infected. You should've called me."
I blinked up at the woman standing at the foot of my bed. When had she arrived?
It took me a minute to recognize her as the healer that sometimes visited. She was a friend of Lord Fredrick, and she didn't give a fuck about me, just like all his other friends.
"Do I go around messing with the wards you put up at my house? Men," she grumbled as she placed a hand on my forehead, and everything went black.
The next time I woke up, I was alone in my room, and the haze that had clouded my brain for the last few days had lifted somewhat.
I glanced down at my hand and sucked in a sharp breath as I raised the bandaged limb. Lord Fredrick had cut my hand a little above my wrist, but now... now everything from an inch below my elbow was gone. What the hell?
Remembering the healer, I tried to recall what she had said. Infection. My arm had gotten infected because that bastard had tried to stitch it back together.
I stared down at my arm, and slowly, the guilt gave way to anger. Lord Fredrick had taken everything from me. My family, my familiar, my hand.
I didn't know how, but one day, I was going to make him pay.
With a sharp gasp, I shot upright, my heart thundering in my chest. The dream clung to my mind, refusing to drift off into nothingness like dreams usually did, and I struggled to catch my breath as the remembered agony made my arm ache. I rarely got phantom pains these days, but when it happened, it lingered, and there was nothing I could do about it. Even healers with all the magic at their disposal hadn't figured out a fix for phantom pains.
"Zephyr? Everything okay?" Keoni mumbled, and I tried to tell him it was, that he could go back to sleep, but my lungs were still refusing to cooperate.
Keoni was silent for a moment; then I heard him move. I followed the clip-clop of his footsteps against the wood floor as he walked around to my side of the bed, then grabbed my shoulders and pulled me closer. He took my right hand in his and placed my palm on his chest.
"Breathe, Zephyr. Follow my lead, and breathe," he murmured, his chest moving under my palm in deep, even breaths.
I tried to follow along, ignoring the tightness in my chest as I breathed along with him in the dark room.
