Page 24
“Maardok…”
“Have ye decided to come with me, dkaar?”
Beloved
“I ken the journey will be arduous, but I’ll protect ye and Ewan.”
By now he’d reached my shoulders, and with a little tug, the soft wool was up and over my head, leaving me on the bed fully nude.
“I’ll keep ye warm and safe.”
I groaned in need—I was already so hot.
“I…I am less than a fortnight from birth, by my reckoning,” I managed to tell him.
He merely hummed, then slid his hands down my body, stopping to frame my stomach—the babe—in his huge green fingers. I shivered as he knelt over me.
“If ye’re so close, then the bairn must’ve been started no’ long after I left ye.”
He’d said it so casually, so accepting, that I sucked in a startled breath. He did think me a whore, then? Damnation.
I knew my voice was strained—both from the need of holding onto my fear and hurt and how aroused I was—when I stated, “I have had no other males in my bed since you left it, Maardok.”
The noise he made in the darkness could have been a scoff, could have been a hum—I wished I could see his expression when he leaned down and pressed his lips reverently to my stomach.
The babe, true to form, kicked him in the face. He chuckled as he glanced up at me along the length of my body, and I was surprised to see that strange green glow in his eyes was much more pronounced in the darkness.
“Yer son or daughter is a strong one, like their mother. If I can convince ye to stay in my world, I’ll cherish him or her more than their true father would have.”
My ire was up now, and I didn’t notice him shifting, moving further down my body.
“Oh? You are so certain this babe could not be yours?”
When he chuckled again, I felt his breath against my curls and realized his intent moments before he settled between my legs, lifting my thighs over his shoulders.
His tusk scraped against the sensitive skin as his tongue took a long, slow lap up my dripping cleft, causing me to gasp and arch from the bed.
The ridges of his tongue were thick and wide as it dragged through my folds, parting me with a slow, deliberate pressure that made my thighs tremble. I could feel every groove, every textured ridge as he lapped at me, as if he were savoring the taste of something…something rare and precious.
My fingers twisted into the blankets beneath me, my hips jerking upward instinctively, seeking more of that wicked, perfect friction.
“Maardok—” His name broke from me in a breathless plea, but he only hummed against my cunny, the vibration sending a jolt of pleasure straight to my core. His tusk caught, the scrape sharp enough to make me gasp, but never hard enough to hurt.
He was oh-so careful, reverent. As if he’d been dreaming of this moment for months—was it possible he had?
His thick fingers slid up to spread me wider, his thumbs pressing into the plump outer lips of my sex, holding me open for his mouth. I whimpered when his tongue circled the pearl of my pleasure, not quite touching, just teasing, before he finally—finally—slid the tip against the swollen bud. My back arched off the bed and I tried to swallow down my cry of pleasure.
If Ewan had woken in that moment, I might have died; not just of embarrassment, but to have to miss this.
“Fook, I’ve missed this taste,” Maardok growled, the words muffled against my flesh. His voice was rough, almost pained, as if he’d been starving for me. “Missed the way ye writhe, the way ye drip for me.”
I should have been embarrassed. I was still hurt—he’d just denied our babe, after all—but the way his tongue swirled around my entrance, dipping just inside before dragging back up to my clit, had my thoughts scattering like leaves in a storm.
My milk-heavy breasts ached, my nipples tight and leaking, and when his free hand slid up to palm one, squeezing just enough to send another rush of wetness between my legs, I moaned his name like a prayer.
But wasn’t I supposed to be angry with him?
“Well?” I managed, my voice trembling as his fingers finally pushed inside me. Thick, so thick, and callused from holding a sword for hours at end. Stretching me in a way that had me clenching around him immediately, my inner walls fluttering in desperate greeting.
