Page 57 of A Storm in Every Heart (Enchanted Legacies #2)

The orgasm hits hard and fast, an electric bolt that leaves me gasping, crying out, shuddering so violently I almost slip off the seat. Kastian holds me steady, licking me through it, not stopping even as I beg him to.

I want to say his name. I want to curse him, but all I can do is whimper.

He finally pulls away, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and then he kisses me, deep and filthy, sharing the taste of myself on his tongue.

I should be horrified, but gods, I love it; I love him.

It’s not really a surprise , but it feels like it. I haven’t let myself think that in so long that now the thought makes me want to cry.

I lean forward quickly, wanting to lose myself again before that traitorous thought has time to take root.

I reach out, my hands scrabbling at Kastian’s waistband, fumbling with his belt. I want to feel him, all of him, inside and against and around me until I can’t tell where my body ends and his begins.

He grabs my wrists in one hand and pulls me back, raising my arms over my head. “Lie down.”

I glance behind me at the small boat, trying to figure out how this is going to work. Keeping my arms over my head, I lean backward, my head and shoulders rest on the bottom of the boat and my hips remain raised on the bench seat.

Kastian smiles down at me, looking satisfied. This time there’s no hesitation, no slow build. He rips open his trousers, freeing himself with one hand.

My eyes widen and I can’t help but gasp. He’s huge .

It was too dark the last time we slept together to know exactly what I was getting myself into, and while I remember feeling how big he was, how I was stretched to practically my limit, seeing it is something else entirely.

He slides a hand beneath my thigh, hiking my leg up around his waist. Holding his cock in one hand, he presses himself against my entrance, rubbing the head through my wetness until I’m whimpering shamelessly.

He leans down, his breath hot against my ear. “Tell me you want this.”

“I want you,” I gasp, and I mean it with every fiber of my being—with every desperate, ruined thought in my head.

He pushes inside me, slow and deliberate, and the sensation of him stretching me open is so perfect, so overwhelming, that for a moment I can only hang suspended in pure white heat.

Every muscle in my body clenches around him, and I arch up to meet him, my back bowing off the wooden slats of the boat.

“Fuck,” he gasps, pausing to let both of us adjust. “I knew once would never be enough with you.”

“I knew that too,” I admit on a gasp.

His eyes flash with hunger. “Yeah?”

I nod, trying to tell him with my eyes what I can’t say out loud.

He moves inside me, slow at first, savoring every inch, the head of his cock grazing places inside me I didn’t know existed.

My breath comes ragged and desperate, each thrust deeper, harder, until he finds a punishing rhythm, hitting that perfect spot inside me with every stroke.

I wrap my legs around his waist, locking him inside me, and the urgency ratchets higher and higher.

Kastian sucks his thumb into his mouth, before reaching down and finding my clit, rubbing small circles as he thrusts harder, deeper. I whimper and raise my hips, meeting him stroke for stroke, daring him to break me.

The boat rocks beneath us, water slapping against the hull, the thud of flesh on wood keeping time with the frantic pulse in my veins. I’ve never felt more alive, more real, more desperate to hold onto this exact moment and never let it go.

Spluttering a steady stream of curses, Kastian braces a hand on the seat behind my head, the other wrapping around my thigh and hoisting it higher, angling me open, until I swear I can feel every inch of him all the way up my spine.

The new angle is obscene—too much, and at the same time, not enough—and it rips a cry out of me and I see stars.

I bite the inside of my cheek and taste iron, but Kastian doesn’t slow down. Not when my body is shaking around him, not when my nails dig long red lines down his thighs. “Oh my gods.”

Kastian looks down at me, eyes gone molten and wild. “Look at me, Princess.”

I do. Our gazes meet and he thrusts into me again. He falters for a single shattering moment, grinding himself so deep inside me I almost scream. My breath catches high in my chest, and I gasp out his name. “Kastian.”

Kastian’s wings explode from his back: massive and gleaming, so dark the green tips appear black.

The force of them unfurling shakes the boat, the air around him seems to tremble, and for a moment, I’m terrified by the raw, impossible beauty of him.

But more than that, I am consumed by the way he looks at me: He holds my gaze, hard and unbreakable, as if daring me to say something.

To voice what I’m sure we both know is true.

“Des,” he rasps, “I—” but he doesn’t finish.

Because his next thrust is deliberate. Slow, raw and desperate and I clamp around him in a sudden, violent spasm, everything inside me coiling, tightening, then detonating.

My vision goes white at the edges, and I scream as I’m split open and remade, piece by piece.

Kastian groans, low and guttural, and I feel his own climax hit as he thrusts one final, brutal time. He shudders, wings flaring wide, and for a heartbeat we are a single, fused entity.

And at that moment, the impossible truth hits me all at once, and settles in my chest.

Bonded.

It’s impossible, and yet I know it’s true. I feel an ineffable…something blooming in my chest, strange and electric and terrifying, but before I even have a chance to examine it; before I can say something, the universe intervenes with cruel efficiency.

A shout cracks through the night, echoing over the water—followed by another, louder this time. The sound slices through the happy, blissful bubble around me, popping it and making me crash back to reality.

My body locks up and I sit bolt upright, a cold wave of terror rushing through my veins. I peer into the darkness and for a moment I’m not sure what I’m looking at. I can’t see anything clearly, just a smear of torchlight and movement at the edge of the swamp.

“Shit,” I whisper, because that’s about the level of eloquence I’m capable of at the moment.

Kastian is instantly alert, his wings snapping tight against his back. He’s off me in a split second, and yanking his trousers back on and jumping out of the boat.

“Who the fuck is that?” he asks, speaking more to himself than me.

The lights are closer now, bobbing and weaving through the trees. Shouts echo across the water, the voices multiplying—at least half a dozen, maybe more. I can’t pick out any words, but I know a search party when I hear one.

“Someone is looking for us,” I hiss, fumbling along the bottom of the boat looking for my dress. “Or they’re looking for someone else and are about to find us instead. Either way, I doubt we want to be found.”

“I don’t understand how, though,” Kastian hisses. “Unless, someone recognized me on the way to the inn. Or, you, I suppose.”

“We didn’t see anyone.”

“That doesn’t mean they didn’t see us,” he says grimly.

My mind is racing, but I can’t think through what he’s saying because I’m still completely naked. “I can’t find my dress!”

Kastian turns in a circle, then grabs my shredded, muddy dress from where it must have fallen among the reeds along the water.

He thrusts it at me, and I snatch it, fumbling to pull the fabric over my head.

My whole body is slick with sweat, and the dress sticks, halfway tangled over my chest and shoulders.

Dear gods, this is how it ends. I’m going to die in this boat with my tits out. It’s both tragic, and somehow, deeply, darkly funny.

“ Help me, ” I hiss through gritted teeth.

Kastian doesn’t hesitate, grabbing the fabric at the shoulders, yanking it hard enough to pop a seam. The dress falls into place, and I try to smooth my hair back.

There’s no time for anything else.

The lights are almost on us, and now I can make out the silhouettes—figures in dark armor moving with purpose toward us. One of them shouts again, something guttural and harsh.

Kastian stands rigid. His sword is somewhere on the ground near the boat, but he doesn’t seem to need it. Instead, his right arm is raised half in the air, and I can practically see the sparks of magic growing in the air near his fingertips.

“Don’t do anything stupid that will get you killed,” I whisper. “If they’re bounty hunters, they’ll want us alive.”

Kastian gives me a look. “Sure, for now.”

Before I can respond, a sharp, tinny whistling flies through the air over my head. There’s a sickening thump of impact, and Kastian lets out a bark of pain, then stumbles.

I scream, equal parts surprised and terrified, and bend to try and help him. I don’t know what that sound was, but Kastian is doubled over, still standing, but with a hand pressed to his shoulder.

“You should listen to the siren,” a condescending female voice shouts out of the trees. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

I look up just as a figure steps out of the trees, half a dozen more melting out of the darkness behind them.

They’re wearing familiar green jackets beneath pitch black armor, and moving toward us slowly in an organized formation.

At the front of the pack, the leader is carrying something in front of them.

I squint, and realize they’re pointing a crossbow at Kastian’s chest. A horrified gasp escapes me, just as Kastian reaches for the arrow I now see protruding from his chest and yanks it out of his flesh with a sound that makes my stomach roll and bile rise in my throat.

“Don’t move,” the soldier with the crossbow says, as if we didn’t get the message from her shooting at us . “The arrows are poisoned. Just one shouldn’t kill you, but if you try to fly, I’ll shoot you out of the air and who knows what a few more doses of poison will do.”

I gasp, and squint toward the soldier with the crossbow. She’s definitely female, but taller than average and packed with muscle. She’s wearing a well-tailored Hydrattan military uniform and her dark hair is braided tightly into a crown on the top of her head.

That confirms it. They’re not bounty hunters, they’re soldiers. The king’s soldiers.

My gaze darts to the other soldiers—also women. Apparently, King Magnus didn’t want the slightest risk that I might compel his troops to let us go. But how could he have known to send these women after us if he didn’t know where we were?

Something isn’t making sense, but I suppose it doesn’t matter while there are weapons pointed at us.

The crossbowman studies us, torchlight shining off her face. “Both of you, walk toward me with your hands up. Now.”

Kastian glances back at me, then toward the soldiers. Clearly, he’s thinking fast, and I don’t think I like whatever he’s planning. “Let her go, and I’ll come with you,” he says, his face twisted with pain.

“No!” I hiss.

The soldier scoffs. “Not going to happen. The king wants both of you.”

“ The king isn’t stupid,” Kastian snaps back. His hand is pressed to the wound in his shoulder and he looks to be swaying slightly, but his voice never falters. “Capturing us like this won’t get him the alliance he wants. Take me back to the capital. I’ll go without a fight, but if you touch her?—”

The soldier’s laugh is a single sharp note.

“You’re hardly in a position to bargain, prince.

In a minute you won’t even be conscious.

” She shifts her aim, pointing her crossbow directly at Kastian’s other shoulder.

“But don’t worry, we won’t touch the siren.

The king doesn’t want her damaged. You, on the other hand, are fair game so I’m not going to say it again; hands up, or I keep shooting and we’ll leave you here to die while we take the siren back to our king. ”

Kastian doesn’t move, doesn’t blink, doesn’t even flinch, his jaw set in a line so rigid it might snap.

I can tell he’s thinking about fighting anyway, and I can’t let him.

There’s too many soldiers, and Kastian already looks like he’s about to pass out from the poison on the first arrow.

What if he doesn’t survive the second one?

Adrenaline floods my system and self-preservation wins out over pride. I raise both hands into the air and stumble forward toward the nearest soldier.