Page 29 of A Legacy of Stars (The Lost God Legacies)

29

TEDDY

S tella’s pale skin took on an ethereal glow in the morning light cascading through the treehouse window. Teddy knew he should wake her. They had more ground to cover today, and they needed to complete the memory retrieval and start the journey back if they wanted to make the deadline.

Still, he couldn’t bear to disturb her. He knew what it would be like. She’d wake and for one blessed moment she’d forget what she’d done and then he’d have to watch her remember again. It was part of the reason he’d barely let her sleep. He didn’t want to let her have a single moment alone with her thoughts.

He’d been a comfort to her. He’d helped her through what was probably the worst night of her life, and he felt guilty for enjoying it.

It wasn’t just the sex, though, that had been mind-blowing. It was the way he’d intuitively known exactly what to do—the way she’d let him help. The softness of her looking at him with so much relief and trust. Gods, he did not even trust himself that way, but when she looked at him like that, he thought maybe he should.

He was too aware of her now—her proximity, her scent on the air like fresh rain on wildflowers mixed with salted sea air. He could get addicted to that—and to the way she slept pressed against him all night.

She sighed and shifted, her green eyes fluttering open. She smiled, and it was half-shy, half-wicked. Her skin had already healed, no remnants of the bite marks he’d left all over her when they got into things. He would have felt bad, except when he’d done it, she came so hard that she’d needed a full minute to lie still and recover.

Stella was pent up in the way he was, in the way that only the two oldest children of the most famous families in the two kingdoms could be. He liked that she needed it as badly as he did.

Teddy slid his hand down her side and lust warmed their bond, along with the dregs of grief and disappointment. Last night was supposed to be an ending. It felt too soon, but it was for the best. He knew he should just get up and start his day, but his cock was already hard from the memory of the previous night, and he wasn’t ready for it to be over.

“Did you need something this morning, Minyha ?”

Mischief flared in her eyes. “I can still feel you inside me.”

“Fuck,” he groaned. It was so stupidly possessive, but he loved it. He loved how quickly she understood what to say to make him crazy.

He flipped her onto her back. He wanted to make sure she felt him in every movement, all day—that she was so thoroughly fucked that, even though she didn’t want to be with him, she would at least feel his presence in her body for a day or two.

He shoved her knees up toward her shoulders, bearing her to him. He stared at her for a moment, feeling half mad for her. Then he pushed into her slowly, watching the pleasure on her face.

She moaned, and the sound vibrated through his whole body.

The night before, she’d been desperate for a distraction and then wild for release, but in the light of day, she was slow, clearly studying him in the way he’d studied her.

He moved his hips, hard and insistent, kissing her neck, nipping at her skin, running a thumb over her nipple. He needed this violent affection as much as she did. He wanted to touch her everywhere, consume her, breathe in nothing but the scent of her .

Her clenching became more rapid, her nails scoring his back. She was close. He pumped into her one more time, then pulled out.

Her eyes snapped open, and she glared at him. “Not yet, Minyha . I don’t just want you to come for me. I want you to feel the aftershocks of this climax for days.”

She whimpered as he slowly pushed back inside her. She was still twitching. Her pussy was so tight and wet, gripping him like she wanted to take him deeper into her body.

He didn’t understand what came over him, but he felt possessed by this need for her. He clicked his tongue in admonishment, and she shivered.

“You’re so greedy for me now. Do you feel that?” he murmured into the skin of her neck as he bottomed out inside her. “Do you feel how deep I am? If you were mine, I would remind you of this all the time. I would make you feel this good every night and every morning.”

She clenched so hard around him that he worried he might go over the edge. He dragged himself back at the last second.

“Not yet. You don’t come until I let you.”

He fucked her hard, pumping in and out of her, dragging his teeth over her nipples, listening to her whine and protest when he slowed his pace. He brought her to the brink twice more before she flipped him onto his back.

It was so unexpected that all Teddy could do was lay there, staring up at her. Her dark curly hair was wild, some of it partially covering her perky tits, some draping down behind her back so far that when she arched, the ends tickled his thighs. Her neck and breasts were red from him nipping at her skin, and the sight made his cock twitch.

Stella sank down on him and started to move. Her left hand came up to tweak her nipple, and the right rubbed her clit in time with the pace of her hips. She was miraculously unselfconscious and so beautiful.

Teddy had never been so happy to be used. He was going to fuck her even harder when she was done, just to remind her who was in charge of her pleasure, in some sick attempt to prove himself once more.

He gripped her hips, helping her keep pace as she rode him. Then her whole body seized, her mouth falling open in a rasping groan.

She climaxed, her back arched as his thumb stroked her clit. He loved the sound she made—like someone rent from her old self—like someone he’d made new with his touch.

When the aftershocks finished rippling through her body, she stopped her rocking and gave him a lazy smile.

“I was tired of waiting.”

Teddy’s laugh was cut off when she lifted off him and began to kiss down his stomach. Then, she took his cock in her mouth and he was entirely at her mercy.

Good gods, the wicked things he had no idea she could do with her tongue. He fought not to thrust his hips, to seek out more of her hot mouth. She must have read it in his movement because she took him deeper into her throat, and Teddy’s eyes rolled back.

He had to pinch himself to keep from coming instantly. He used to have the same meticulous focus in the bedroom that he did everywhere else, but now he’d been humbled by their bond. It made everything so much more intense to feel the pleasure she got out of making him feel so good.

She brought him to the brink three times with the kind of knowing that only came from being directly and magically connected to someone.

Then, he couldn’t take it anymore. Teddy knew he should move slowly, savor this, but the frenzied fever of her was still burning through him. He pushed her off of him, flipping her onto her hands and knees, facing away from him. Stella just braced her hands against the headboard as he slapped her perfect ass.

Teddy took her hips and pushed into her hard. She moaned loudly. He was happy they were in the middle of nowhere, so no one could hear the way he was going to make her scream and cry. He wanted those sounds to himself. He wanted all of her to himself. He wrapped her hair around his fist and yanked her head back, nipping at her ear.

“Tell me what you want,” he rasped.

“I want to feel it.”

“Thank gods,” he groaned, then thrust into her harder.

He had not been quite so rough with her before, but this was for him. This was what he needed—for her to know that this was the thing only he could do for her. Only he could help her find this kind of intense release.

She pushed back against him. Gods, he wanted to teach her filthy things. He slapped her ass again, and she cursed and clenched around him.

His time was running out. Stella was frantically meeting his thrusts, bearing down so hard on him that he could barely do more than rock against her.

He slapped her ass harder. “Stop moving and just let me be in charge. Your only job is to take what I give you and come on my cock.”

He fucked her savagely, with every remaining remnant of fear that lingered from the previous night driving him. He lost himself in her body until she gripped the headboard and screamed. She clenched so hard that Teddy had to stop moving. Her thighs trembled and her head fell back.

Finally, her muscles relaxed enough that he could fuck her through the end of the climax. As soon as it was over, she fell forward, her torso resting on the bed, hips still in the air, thighs spread wide for him.

That was all it took. He gripped her hips with bruising strength and came with a grunt. His body moved in a frenzied rhythm, the climax so intense he almost collapsed on top of her. He caught himself on a forearm at the last minute. He slid his other arm around her body, his hand slipping between her legs.

He leaned over her, watching her lips part as she realized what he was doing. She gasped and twitched as he stroked her too-sensitive clit .

“Please,” she sighed.

He couldn’t tell if she was asking for more or less. But then her eyes blinked open, and she met his gaze.

“I need to catch my breath. I—” She groaned as he pressed his fingers harder against her.

Her pussy clenched around him, sending an aftershock of pleasure through his whole body. The bond in his chest was pleasantly warm, soothed by being connected to her in every way.

She squirmed, trying to escape his touch, but Teddy didn’t relent. He kept stroking her.

He nipped at her earlobe. “I like you like this, Minyha . Dripping down your thighs. So wet and needy. So afraid you have more to give me.” She gasped and her pussy twitched again. “One more. Let me feel one more.”

Her eyes pleaded with him, but she pressed into his fingers. She looked gorgeous—her hair wild, eyes hooded, cheeks flushed. He wanted to see her like this every day.

The thought startled him, but he didn’t have time to react. Stella’s hand came over his, trying to direct his pressure on her clit. He ripped her hand away and pinned it behind her back.

Teddy clicked his tongue. “What did I say, Stella? I’m in charge here. You take what I give you.”

She shuddered, cursing into the pillow as he rubbed her harder and faster. Then she froze and her whole body spasmed, a guttural moan spilling from her lips as she surrendered to one more orgasm. It rolled through her in waves. Her thighs trembled violently, and when he slid his other hand up to pinch her nipple, her whole body seized, gripping his cock so hard it was just on the edge of painful.

As she came down from the high, she shoved his hand away from her sensitive clit. “No more,” she rasped.

She blinked her eyes open and smiled at him. Teddy liked the glazed, satisfied look on her face too much.

He pulled back and instantly missed the warmth of her soft skin. These stolen moments in the treehouse were a fantasy. He could not keep this. She was in love with someone else, for the love of the gods. How quickly he’d forgotten she didn’t really belong to him. It just felt like she did.

Stella had plans that didn’t include him. He’d wanted to be there for her in the worst moment of her life, and he’d been the one sucked into the escapist fantasy. She was the one who would go home to someone else.

He was angry at himself for forgetting. He’d lost control and gotten sucked into the vortex of Stella, likely for the same reason he’d avoided her. She was joyful and imaginative and gentle with him, and he was falling for her.

This cosmic joke by the goddess of love could easily become a cosmic curse if he wasn’t careful. Stella didn’t want him. She was in this tournament to fight for someone else.

“We should head out soon,” Teddy said.

Stella laughed and flopped onto her back. “You just fucked me senseless, Your Grace. I think you’re going to have to wait a few minutes for my legs to work again.”

She stayed sprawled on the bed as Teddy rose to get dressed. He considered bathing, but the thought of reliving the previous night’s trauma was unappealing. He wiped the sweat from his skin with a damp cloth, watching Stella out of the corner of his eye.

Her expression had morphed from pleasant satisfaction to serious contemplation. She rose from the bed, her energy shifting to match his as she rifled through her bag for something to wear.

The fantasy was over. It was time to get back to the fight.