Page 25 of A Legacy of Stars (The Lost God Legacies)

25

STELLA

T he first thing Stella was aware of when she woke was the ache in her arms. Her hands were tied above her head. She yanked on the binding before her eyes were even open, and it was only when she heard the clatter of the buckle against the wood that she remembered why she’d been restrained.

Mortification froze her in place. She had thrown herself at Teddy. She’d begged him to touch her.

She stared at the ceiling, waiting for the feeling of utter humiliation to dissipate. Her cheeks burned at the memory, even as her body still hummed with desire.

The fever in her blood had broken and the effects of the herb had mostly dispersed. Her muscles were knotted with effort and anticipation, but she’d slept heavily and her mind was finally clear. Her sense of magic was still weak—a clear sign of how dangerously she had depleted herself to save Teddy.

The blankets had been pulled up over her legs. While she was still sore, her muscles ached less than they had the night before.

She had a vague recollection of Teddy’s warm body next to her—of him strapping her to the bed because she wouldn’t stop grabbing him. She remembered him leaving her to wear herself out, and then she had a foggier memory of him returning and lying down beside her.

Had he really done that or was it some fever-dream fantasy? The memory of writhing against him and his voice low and breathy, telling her to sleep now and he’d give her what she wanted later.

“I know you’re awake.”

She turned her head slowly to delay the humiliation.

Teddy sat in the chair by the fire. He was still shirtless, but his hair was damp and the cabin smelled faintly of his citrus and cedar soap. He smirked at her, as if reading the pattern of her thoughts.

“Sleep well?”

“How long was I out?” she asked.

“I think a few hours. I slept for a while too, but it’s still full dark outside. I’ve been up for a bit. I wasn’t sure how long the calla root would stay in your system, and I didn’t want to deal with you begging while I bathed.”

Stella’s cheeks burned, and he grinned wider and stretched, his muscles rippling as he moved.

“Not that I blame you.” He took a long sip of tea as if savoring her glare.

“I’m feeling much better. Clear of the influence that made me delusional,” she said.

Teddy arched a brow. “Oh, trying denial, are we?”

Stella huffed a breath. “There’s nothing to deny. I was under the influence.”

“Were you under the influence when you were gawking at me changing in the boarding house? When you were rubbing your ass against my cock and trying to get me to touch you when you woke up?”

Heat rose up Stella’s neck.

He crossed the room in a few long strides. “You’re really going to pretend that was all the work of the calla root and you feel nothing for me now?”

He yanked the blankets down, his ravenous gaze sliding up her bare legs to the hem of the shirt that skimmed the top of her thighs .

Stella chewed her lip and squeezed her legs together. “I feel nothing.” Her voice was airless.

Teddy cocked his head. “Well, if that’s the case, I’ll leave you to rest instead of finally giving you the relief you begged me for earlier.”

Stella’s mouth dropped open as he turned away and started back toward his chair.

“Wait,” she rasped.

He was back across the room in a second.

Teddy prowled over her, caging her in so that she was staring up into his eyes.

“I’m going to need to hear you say you’re clearheaded, Minyha . You really burned through my self-control earlier, so I need you to say you understand.”

He shifted, and his hardness pressed against her. Stella was suddenly aware of every nerve ending in her body, of the pulsing need that was less of a reaction to an herbal overdose than to the man whose good looks she’d been trying to ignore for the better part of her life.

Up close, it was impossible to overlook how compelling she found Teddy, especially shirtless. He was the exact right combination of handsome and roguish. His nose was straight, but a thin, pale scar on his lower lip and another on the left side of his jaw signaled a history of combat. The brown skin of his chest was muscled and smooth but for a couple of faint scars along his left ribs—his weak side in combat, from what little she’d seen of him fighting.

He leaned closer and his dark hair, normally so perfectly styled, messily fell over his forehead. Dark lash-framed eyes, a deep hazel that lightened to a golden ring around his irises, hooded with lust. The effect was devastating.

The air was tense with possibility. Teddy’s breath ghosted over her lips, smelling faintly of mint from his tea.

“Understand what?—”

He kissed along her jaw and scraped his teeth down her neck. The man literally had his teeth to her throat and all she could do was offer him a better angle .

He yanked on the ties at the top of her shirt, then pulled back to meet her eyes as he unlaced the shirt.

“Understand that if you say yes, I get to do whatever I want. I’ve been crawling out of my skin with anxiety. I have nothing but steam to blow off, and I want to make you scream and come until you cry.”

Stella shivered.

Teddy’s lips tipped into a smirk. “Oh, do you like that, Minyha ? When it’s so intense that you cry—so intense you can’t breathe because you need it so badly. So intense it blocks out everything else in the world. Something physical to match up to all those other big feelings.”

Stella was too embarrassed to say that she had no idea that was possible, but he seemed to read it on her face.

Teddy clicked his tongue. “I like you like this. Tied up and helpless to me. Fuck , Stella. There is so much I could teach you.” The hoarse desperation in his voice sent a pleasant shiver through her. “You’re killing me. Say yes.”

“Yes. I’m clear-headed.”

He barely let her finish the word before he kissed her. He tasted like mint and honey, and she’d never tasted anything so perfectly fresh and sweet. Teddy sighed into her mouth and it was as if he’d breathed fire into her. She rolled her hips, grinding against his hardness.

Teddy’s hand instantly moved to pin her in place.

“Slow down. I bet you just need a little more time. A little more patience with yourself.” He brushed his fingers up her right thigh, leaving a trail of goosebumps. “So soft. How do you like to be touched?”

He didn’t wait for her to answer. He brushed his fingertips over her clit. It was so gentle, but it might as well have been a lightning strike. She felt that touch through her whole body.

Teddy did it again with more pressure and she moaned.

He propped himself on one arm so he could study her every reaction. She’d seen this same intensity on his face when he studied an opponent. It was very compelling to be the subject of such focus, but it also frightened her. What would he see when she couldn’t hide anything from him?

It shouldn’t have felt so comfortable to have someone look right through her, and yet it did.

Teddy slid a finger inside her with agonizing slowness and she clenched around it immediately, like she’d been waiting for just that. He pumped his finger in and out in a smooth, practiced rhythm, adding a brush of his thumb over her clit as he moved.

“I knew you’d be ready for this. So ready . Gods, you’re so wet for me, Stella.”

His praise twisted the tension in her body a little tighter.

“More,” she rasped.

Teddy hesitated a moment before pushing a second finger inside her. The pressure increased along with his pace and he kissed a line along her collarbone, looking appreciatively at her breasts.

“Have to admit, I like seeing you all undone and wearing my shirt.” It was more a subconscious admission than actual praise for her, but it still made her shudder.

He kept up the steady, insistent rhythm, adding a little more pressure on her clit with the heel of his hand, until Stella’s heart was racing, her breath coming in and out in shallow, rapid gasps.

She was so close—right on the edge of her climax. If her hands weren’t still restrained by the belt, she would hold his hand in place right where she wanted him. She lifted her hips, desperately chasing a little more pressure, but Teddy stopped.

Stella let out an outraged cry, and Teddy chuckled against her neck. “Not so fast, Stella. I have to take you up slow.”

“ Fuck slow,” she whined. “I don’t want to go slow.”

She felt Teddy smile against her pulse point. “I’ll make it better.”

He yanked the opening in her shirt wider and kissed down her pale skin, his teeth nipping at the soft curve of her breasts. Finally, he started to move his fingers again, and pleasure sparked to life across her skin.

He sucked her nipple between his lips and dragged his teeth over the peak. Stella’s whole body clenched. Teddy hummed his approval, and she was pathetically desperate to hear the sound again.

Stella was frightened of how good it felt—of how eager she was to sink deeper into this consuming pleasure. Teddy touching her felt equally novel and normal. This was territory she’d never even thought of exploring with him, but now that he was touching her, it seemed like they’d somehow always been heading here.

He started to kiss lower, dragging the hem of his shirt up her skin. His fingers skimmed the rough terrain of the new scar on her right side, and Stella went rigid.

Teddy scraped his teeth over her hipbone, and she twitched. He drew back and pressed her legs wider, continuing to pump his fingers lazily in and out of her and brushing his thumb over her clit.

Teddy was always so uptight. She hadn’t expected him to be so wild now, but he descended on her like he was ravenous. She writhed away from him reflexively, but he pinned her hips to the bed with an arm as he licked her clit. He sucked hard, and she gasped as chills raced over her skin.

She’d never seen someone so unrestrained and singularly focused on her pleasure. He was as skilled with his tongue as he was with his fingers, and she didn’t know something so filthy could feel so good.

Teddy varied his pressure and rhythm, using his mouth and fingers until her muscles were clenching seemingly at his will and she was gasping and muttering curses.

It was too much. Too intense. There was so much pent up in her body. The fear of the fight, the anger at Kate and Grace, the desperation to survive. It all broke at once, the climax bursting like sparks behind her eyes.

A hoarse cry scraped up Stella’s throat, something guttural, as if the pleasure was pulled from the deepest part of her. It rolled over her in wave after wave until her thighs shook violently and her feet cramped and tears streamed down her cheeks.

Teddy kept his fingers moving even as she twitched and tried to escape his grip .

He clicked his tongue. “Poor Stella. Is that too much?”

She nodded frantically, but he sucked her clit harder and her body felt fractured between too much and not enough. She tried to squirm away, to get just one moment of reprieve, but Teddy was in the grips of their bond or the remnants of the calla root. He had no mercy—only hunger.

“Teddy,” she whined.

He bit her inner thigh and grinned up at her. “I like you like this. No clever comebacks. So wet and needy for me.”

Stella tipped her head from side to side. “No one has ever touched me like this.”

He froze, heat flaring in his eyes and rushing through her chest. “Grim’s gates! You’re killing me, Minyha .” He bit her other thigh, and she gasped. “One more. Give me one more and I’ll let you rest.”

Part of her wanted to say no, to rip her hands free and shove him away and have one blessed moment of feeling nothing, but a greater part of her wanted whatever was building. She was afraid of this—afraid of the way the first climax had shaken loose all of her emotions. Another might break her into someone who could not survive him.

The bond hummed in her chest. She pressed her heels harder into Teddy’s shoulders and gripped the leather of his belt tighter. Teddy’s arm across her hips pushed her into the mattress more firmly.

He added another finger and pumped them faster as he scraped his teeth over her clit and the tension in her body snapped so suddenly that she couldn’t even make a sound. The orgasm tore all the air out of her lungs. Her body was suspended, arched off the bed as she gasped and clawed at the belt around her wrists.

He watched her with hooded eyes, his fingers moving at their same insistent pace, his tongue flicking against her. Her chest was so full of pleasure—both the feelings in her body and Teddy’s through their bond. He was enjoying this as much as she was, and that made her even hotter. She shouldn’t have cared how he felt, but she really, really did .

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the waves of ecstasy settled into ripples and she collapsed to the bed. Teddy knelt between her thighs, unbuttoning his pants.

Stella watched in stunned stupor, straining against the binding on her wrists. “Let me?—”

“No, I just need—” He stroked himself with his soaked fingers. It was so filthy but so hot to see him helpless for her. He slid his drenched hand up and down his length a few times until a guttural groan tore out of him and he cursed as he came on her stomach.

He fell forward onto one arm, breath sawing out of him. He cursed and stared at her spread wide for him and Stella flushed and started to close her legs.

Teddy pressed a hand to her inner thigh. “Don’t be shy now. Seeing you like this is doing something to me.”

Stella knew what he meant. She felt a strange, wild possessiveness. She liked that he’d marked her in such a primal way—liked that he couldn’t contain himself. She even liked the way he’d groaned and cursed when he came on her.

He brushed a thumb over her cheek, swiping away a tear. “Guess I got those tears out of you after all.”

She didn’t like that he saw something in her that she’d missed in herself. It made her feel exposed and raw. She’d craved that level of intensity, the complete lack of mercy he’d shown when she needed to be pushed, but she hated that Teddy had been the one to give it to her.

Stella didn’t know her body could feel so good. Sex with Arden was fun, but it never felt like this—this feeling of being a slate wiped clean. Her body was suddenly a revelation. She’d never felt transformed by pleasure, and she had the strangest feeling of lightness from it.

Now Teddy looked like he wanted to do it again; if Stella wasn’t so wrung out with pleasure, she would have let him, but as it was, she could barely keep her eyes open.

Instead, he released her hands from the belt, gently wiped her clean with a rag, and settled into the bed beside her. He tugged the blankets up to cover them and threw his arm across her waist, nuzzling into her neck.

It felt at once both strange and like the most natural thing, but she was too exhausted to question the new shift in her feelings for him. What she was feeling was alarmingly close to affection, and not just because he had made her climax harder than ever.

It was because he’d trusted her in the river. Because he’d carried her miles to the cabin and had chewed a poultice for her wound. Because he’d murmured comforting things to her as he worked and because he’d curled up beside her so she wouldn’t be cold or afraid when she woke.

Stella’s limbs were heavy as rocks. “Teddy?”

He hummed softly.

Stella could barely keep her eyes open. “What does Minyha mean?”

He was quiet for a long moment. “Go to sleep,” he whispered.

Stella wanted to argue, but she was fighting a losing battle with her exhausted body.