“Mpfh, well, it looks like you had the scalp scabies. Nicely shaped head you got though. Pity it’s empty of any common sense.”
“Fuck you!” I shouted while jamming a finger at his wide nose. “You come here when I don’t need you and…and wake up all the hurt that I worked to keep down. Why?! Why did you follow me?! Why does seeing you hurt like this?!”
“Aye, yeah, it does hurt. I know it does, little bird. When I woke up that morning to find you gone, it hurt fearsome bad.” I blinked at his softness, the raspy whispers. “I ain’t a man whotends to be flowery or tender most times. I don’t trust easy and I don’t give other men the chance to dance a merry jig on my heart. Did that once and paid a dear price. But you and me…that was different. You were—are—something I wasn’t expecting. This job got to be more important than just the stupid fucking gold Aelir is coughing up. It got to be…” Here he took a moment, brief, to find the bravery required to carry on, I assumed. “It got to be special. You’re special. To me. Fuck’s sake, Beiro,we’respecial. I guess if you don’t see that or feel it, then—”
“No, I…I do feel it. I just…my past is grimy. I don’t know how to feel right.”
“You feel right to me. Hell, Chirp, you feel perfect.”
Perhaps I should have been more stalwart. Perhaps I should have left the bathhouse like a professional shadow should to put the mission first. Perhaps I should have told him a hundred things.
I did none of those.
Instead of being brave and stoic like Fylson surely would be in this situation, I moved to him. His arms opened for me, and I dove into the wellspring of his embrace. Unable to say how I was feeling right now, I let my emotions out in other ways. Bending deeply, I showed him by gripping his head between my hands to kiss him with every feeling running rampant inside me. His reaction was instantaneous. He licked into my mouth. My tongue slid over his, tangling with it, as I warmed to the taste of bitter ale and tobacco that was his and his alone. With a deft hand, he pulled the towel free as he walked me back into an alcove, our mouths sealed.
“Asdren,” I gasped when the kiss broke and I went to one knee to even our heights. He nibbled along my jaw to my throat. “I need you so badly. I…it’s…I adore you.”
He lifted his head from my throat to stare into my lust-heavy eyes. “I adore you too, Vol’ka Dor. Love don’t come easy for me, but I do love you beyond reason.”
“Love me, now, right now,” I whimpered, grabbing at the bottles of scented oils as I writhed back against him and then spun to face the wall. “I need to feel your need for me. Have you inside me.”
“You’re a weakness for sure, little one. Hunker down a little, yeah, that’s good, sweetling. Hand me the oil. I need to get you ready.”
I planted my hand on the wall and lifted the bottle from the shelf. I heard the stool grind against the stone floor and then felt the hot press of his hips to my arse. A whimper escaped me.
I popped the cork with my teeth as he fingered my furl while lowering his head to suckle at my shoulder. One of his large hands found a stiff nipple and tugged it soundly. A cry of purest delight bubbled out of me as he tugged on the tight dark pink nub while he pressed at my hole. Spitting the cork onto the floor, I passed the vial back to him, rocking back and forth seeking friction for my aching prick. A slick finger found my opening. I pushed back onto the fat, rough digit as I grasped the wall for stability.
“Sweet Hearthmother, I surely missed you squealing and begging for my cock,” he said beside my ear.
“I missed you. All of you. All of this. Everything. Please fill me!”
“Pushiest little elfling I ever knew,” he grumbled and eased his fingers out and his fat cock in. “In the Stonefather’s name, there ain’t nothing like sinking into you, Vol’ka Dor.” Unable to speak for the burn of his possession, I moaned softly, pulling in slow breaths as my channel stretched to accommodate him. Glorious, even with the hot sting, him buried inside me was everything. Crown of my head now resting on the wall, Iwatched as drops of seed leaked from my cock onto the damp floor. “This is us. This is all us, and no matter where you run off to, I will find you because this is where I belong.”
“Yes, us, all us. I’m so sorry for…ungh…goddess.” He began to move slowly for just a moment then with hard, sharp jabs of his pelvis that stole my breath. “Yes, this is us. Love it…love you…sorry.”
“No need for sorry, Vol’ka Dor,” he groaned, kneading my buttocks as he rocked in and out of me. I cried out in pleasure. “You like that?”
“Love it…more…I need to…”
“Spend for me then, coat the floor and wall.” I came so hard my knees buckled. He linked an arm around my middle to keep me upright, grabbing my cock as he fucked me through my orgasm, his fat cockhead spearing that mystical knot inside over and over and over until I could take no more. Then he yanked me back onto his prick, and with a low snarl, pumped his spend into me. Fingernails grating over the stone wall, I begged him for it all. And all was what he gave me. Seed leaked out of me. Asdren held my hips, keeping me joined with him like two knotted dogs for several moments as he rubbed my back.
“You still with me?” he gruffly asked when our breaths were calmer.
“Yes, just…” I had no words to describe what I was feeling other than sore and spent. “Yes, I am with you. Always.”
He dropped a kiss to my spine and eased out, the stool creaking as he moved it aside and stepped in front of me. I went to my knees, unable to stand, and he captured my face in his war-torn hands. I gazed up at him, arms at my sides, ass slick with spend and oil.
“Always means always, Chirp. For me, it means forever.” Dark blue eyes searched mine. “If you make that pledge to me, know that it means until you lay me in the stone, you’re mineand I’m yours. No more gadding off like a fucking lightskirt alone.”
“I know no other way to be, Asdren,” I meekly confessed, shame over my upbringing, my heritage, my stupidity all rising up to choke me.
“You will. Your days of being alone in the world are over the moment you tell me you wish to be mine and mine alone.”
I found empathy and devotion in his eyes. Acceptance. Of me, my faults, my red hair, my freckles. He accepted all of me as I was, and I loved him for that. So very much it made me weepy. He thumbed away a tear.
“I wish to be yours alone forever,” I whispered then closed my eyes for a kiss that arrived with the gentleness of a moth alighting on my lips. It amazed me how a soul who had been a soldier and a sellsword could still have such a gentle manner. He tasted my mouth a dozen times, tender swipes of his tongue over mine, before pulling back slightly.
“Then so you shall be. Now, up off your knees. You need bathed and there is much to speak about.” His sight stayed on me as I eased off the floor with a wince. “Come along.” His fingers curled around my hand. To the primrose pool we went, easing into the hot, bubbling water with care. Seated at my side, beaded beard floating atop the oily water, he picked up the soap I’d left lying when I’d stalked off. “Slide down.”
