Page 23 of A Bond of Ice and Glass (Crowned By Wings #2)

His tongue moves back up, swirling around my sensitive clit again, and I widen my legs for him.

He groans in the back of his throat, an appreciative groan, and I love that sound.

It turns me on even more, if that’s even possible at this point.

He carries on with the slow, torturous licks, his groans only feeding my pleasure.

“Erax… I need…” I moan out, unable to finish my sentence.

“Yes, my queen,” he murmurs against me, while on his knees for me.

Gods be damned, his words alone could tip me over the edge.

He moves his tongue faster, sucking and biting in a perfect way.

A perfect way that sends me completely over the edge.

I cry out his name, and I feel like I see stars as I orgasm so hard, and he doesn’t stop.

He stays between my legs, sucking, embracing every bit of my orgasm until I’m a shaky mess.

He kisses up my stomach slowly, kissing my breasts and my sensitive nipples over his shirt before coming up to face me.

I reach for him, for the hard length I can feel pressing on my stomach, but he catches my hand, bringing it to his lips.

“No, not yet. I want to taste you, and I want to see you like this, your cheeks flushed, your eyes bright. I want…” He pauses, his eyes softening.

“I need to apologise for everything, Mist.”

“What?” The post-orgasm haze slowly starts to fade. “Apologise for what?”

“I promised on our wedding day that I’d protect you.

” He leans on his elbow at my side, and I turn to face him, pushing my hand up his chest. He covers it with his other hand.

“And I didn’t. I let them take you. I let them use dark ether on you.

I let all that happen, and it was the very opposite of everything I’ve ever promised you.

” His voice is more vulnerable than I’ve ever heard from Erax.

“I should never have… I’m sorry. You must…

I honestly thought when you got your memories back you might hate me anyway for breaking that vow to you.

The vow was to protect you. I thought making that vow could begin to make your childhood better because I fucked that up too.

I don’t want to keep fucking up your life, but I can’t let you go.

It makes me a total bastard, but I can’t let you go. ”

“Erax, please… it’s not on you.” My eyes fill with tears.

“How can you feel guilty for the choices other people make in your kingdom? You know it was their choice to use that magic on me, to get rid of my memories, to make me easy to control. It was Noble’s choice to…

” My voice breaks. “It was Noble’s choice to shoot those…

to shoot you, to nearly kill you and to try to take you from this world, to take you from me. ”

“I was never leaving, not without a fight.” He curls his hand into the hair at the back of my neck. “I’d do anything for you, Maelena. There isn’t a line I wouldn’t cross or a price I wouldn’t pay for you. Death must negotiate with the desperate, and I will beg for you.”

I know he would too. I would be begging too. “Listen to me, you don’t need to apologise or make anything up to me for the choices of other people. You’d never ask that of me, right?”

“Never,” he breathes, and I can feel his heart racing under my palm. “I will make a new vow right now. I am going to protect you forever, Mist. Forever.”

“Forever,” I whisper back, moving my hand up to his hair. “I like this. The hair. I liked your hair before, but why the change?”

“Dragon magic comes at a cost. Apparently, it’s my hairstyle.” He grins. “If they begin to call me the ancient great Dragon King for this, I’m cutting it off.”

I laugh, and he smiles. “I like hearing you laugh. I’ve missed it.

Missed you. We’ve not had it easy, you and I.

Not from the beginning when we were born, not any bit of our lives that we fought, but I want to make it easy.

I want us to have an easy life. We can be rulers.

This kingdom needs a good ruler who would never do anything like what our parents did.

You can be that, and I can be your growling, overprotective husband.

We can erase the sins of our kingdom with time, and we can live together in peace. An easy life.”

“An easy life…”

I think about that for a moment.

I grew up expecting nothing like an easy life, and it never once crossed my mind that I could have one.

I thought I was marrying a monster, and my entire life, I knew I’d have to fight for any bit of peace I found.

Yet, nothing turned out as I feared it would.

Instead, I found the love of my life in my husband.

An easy life for me means being with him.

“I want us to fight together for that. I can’t imagine it, because it’s never been easy, but it has always been worth it.

You have always been worth it.” He goes to ask another question, but I touch his lips with my finger.

He nips at it and I laugh. “It’s my turn.

I have questions to ask you before you ask me anything else.

” I look down for a moment. “My magic… the ice. I have no control over it. Will you train me?”

He smirks. “Of course I will, Mist. I thought you’d never ask.”

I narrow my eyes playfully at him. “Don’t be cocky about it.”

“I’m going to be a perfectly respectful trainer to you.

I’ll use every excuse to pin you down on the ground with my body.

” He drops his eyes down my body like he’s imagining it.

“Then I’ll command you to strip off. Just to examine you for any bruises, of course.

Just like a good, respectable trainer would do. ”

I laugh. “Will you kiss every inch of me just to double-check?” His returning smile is sinful. “You’ll make a terrible trainer!”

He laughs, and I love it. The ease that is between us. Because he’s mine. He was always meant to be mine. My smile fades as I remember what happened. What if I hurt Erax while training? “I lost control of my power and killed someone before. I don’t want to do that ever again.”

Not unless they deserve it.

Erax pauses. All laughter is gone now.

“I’ve done that more than once. It never gets easier to take a life.

Not when a soul is a soul and you feel it in here.

” He taps my chest. “Killing should be hard, and if it wasn’t, if it was forgettable, then you’d have no soul left.

You’re not judged for the mistakes that you make with great power that you do not know how to control yet. Did you choose to kill him? Or her?”

“Him. And no.” I shake my head. “No, I didn’t.”

“Would you have saved them if you could have?” he asks next.

“Yes,” I whisper.

“Then it was not your choice. I think it only matters when you take a life and you know the answer to those two questions would be the opposite. I’ve known men and women like that, and they feel nothing.

” He sighs. “You won’t forget, but you will remember that life as you train to control the magic.

You need Freyren awake and near you. At the moment, your bond is unstable, and so is your power. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I want my power to do good, to protect you,” I whisper. “I miss Freyren so much it hurts. When are we leaving to go home?”

“Home.” He copies the word. “At dawn tomorrow. I’ll always protect you, my queen. You don’t have to worry about your power for now. Whatever’s coming, we’ll face it together.”

“I love you.” It seems so easy to say, but for him and me, it took a while to get to this point.

For the I love yous to be so simple, to be so meaningful and real.

I mean it with every inch of me, and this conversation only deepens it.

He heard that I killed one of his men, and he never judged me once.

I can’t tell him about Loch’s involvement in it yet. I can barely face it myself.

“I love you, too.” He leans in and kisses me deeply. I can taste myself on him. I can taste him too, and it’s everything. I pull him on top of me, wanting more, needing him inside me before I shatter.

Tomorrow, we go home, and our future will begin.