Page 31

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

T he second the sound of Narissa’s laugh rang out, Solarius knew he was lost to her.

It was exactly as he remembered—a lush and sultry siren’s call—and he hated that he almost forgot it.

So long, he’d waited so long for her to laugh for him, and now that she finally had, he couldn’t get enough of her.

He wanted all of her.

All of her laughs, all of her snarky comments, all of her time.

Even when she was pissed off at him, even when she hated him, he wanted the entirety of her heart.

Her mouth was hot against his, a delicious inferno that tasted of sweetened mint and berries.

Their tongues clashed, and he enjoyed the scrape of her nails against the back of his neck as she desperately tried to deepen the kiss.

To fuse them together.

But the gardens were frigid and despite the heat radiating off their bodies, it was only a matter of time before the winter temperatures would sink into their bones and freeze them from the inside out.

Solarius smoothed his hands down the back of her ruined dress and cupped her bottom.

In one swift movement, he hoisted her up, anchoring her to him.

Narissa wrapped her legs around his waist, her mouth roving over his, her hands tearing at his jacket and shirt.

Each touch sent a bolt of energy through him.

His blood stirred.

His pulse hammered.

His cock ached.

He carried her through the garden and away from the house as snow started to tumble lightly from the sky, ready to show her the one place he knew she would love.

“Hold your breath,” he murmured against her mouth.

She didn’t question.

She didn’t argue.

But the moment her lungs expanded, he locked his arm around her back, cradled the back of her head with one hand, and jumped.

The warm springs of the faerie pool engulfed them.

Beneath the water, silence reigned.

The world above was muted and there was only a gentle rushing sound, two synchronous heartbeats, and the soft hum of magic.

Shock pulsed through the bond, followed by absolute delight, and their legs tangled as they kicked toward the surface.

Narissa gasped when they crashed through, and the second Solarius stole a gulp of air, her mouth was on his again.

Lips sluiced over one another, and she dragged her teeth across his own, sucking and nipping.

Her slender fingers raked through his wet hair, his hands molded against her curves, committing their shape to memory.

The faerie pool was too deep to stand and each time they clashed in a burst of fervent kisses, they sank below the water’s surface once more.

Underwater, Narissa was a siren.

The haze of moonlight splintered through the waves, casting her in an ethereal glow.

Her hair rippled around her like ribbons of golden silk.

The gown she wore floated around her, a harmony to the melody of her soul.

Fuck it.

If he drowned kissing her, then so be it.

But lucky for him, there was a submerged ledge of stone near the pool’s edge.

The perfect spot to ruin her like she so desperately wanted.

Solarius cut through the dark blue water where flecks of silver sparkled like starlight.

His knee found the ledge first and he winced, but the pain was fleeting, because then Narissa was straddling his lap, and tearing at his shirt like she was starving for him.

He yanked off his formal jacket, tossing the sodden fabric onto the mossy shore behind him.

Narissa’s fingers made quick work of his button-down shirt, then she was clawing it off him, raking those finely manicured nails over his chest to his lower abdomen.

His blood heated and she rolled her hips, rocking herself against his hard shaft, creating the most damning sort of friction.

She linked her arms around his neck, her warm lips pressing kiss after kiss along his jaw until she reached his ear.

“I’m wearing the new stockings I bought for you.” Her words sent a bolt of desire straight through him, and he grabbed handfuls of her wet gown, peeling it away from her body.

He wanted to see those stockings, but the shimmering water was so dark, it was impossible.

She nipped the lobe of his ear and whispered, “And perhaps a pair of pearls.”

Damn the stars, she was too much.

Narissa was too much.

“I want to see every inch of you.” Solarius tugged the sodden fabric over her head, popping off beads and diamonds, then threw it into a heap behind them.

“I want to see what’s mine.”

The wavelike tattoos on the tips of her ears glowed for him, and power thrummed beneath his fingertips as he traced the ones along her spine.

She was radiant, a beauty of the night as tiny snowflakes danced through the sky above them.

Beads of inky, starlit water slid from her shoulders to the tops of her breasts.

Wet hair tumbled around her in wild waves, and he loved the way her damp lashes framed her ocean eyes.

He loved the way she looked at him like he was all she ever wanted, and that ran deeper than his desire for anything else in this life.

More than anything, Solarius wanted Narissa to love him.

“Narissa, I—” he began, but she silenced him by placing a finger against his lips.

“Shh.” The corner of her mouth curved, and she reached below the water.

“Let me show you.”

Her hands expertly undid his pants, and when his cock sprang free, she stroked his length in long, fluid movements.

“Rissa,” he groaned, and then she was sinking below the water’s surface, disappearing completely.

His brows pinched together, but then he felt it, the distinctive glide of her tongue over his length as she took him fully into her mouth.

His head tilted back, and he rolled his eyes to the pitch of night.

But there was a new sensation too—the motion of water.

Each time Narissa pulled back, currents swirled around his shaft, surging and squeezing, while her tongue flicked over the tip.

She taunted and teased, controlling the springs, clenching his cock in a channel of warm water until she sucked him back into her mouth.

When bubbles tickled the underside of his shaft, he nearly lost his mind.

He fisted one hand and bit his knuckle to keep himself from bucking his hips and fucking that pretty little mouth of hers.

In the distance, a twig snapped.

Alert and ready to protect his wife from prying eyes, Solarius reached for Narissa to pull her out of the water, but she only took him deeper.

“Narissa,” he hissed through the bond.

“Someone’s here.”

Sultry laughter was his only response while she intensified her magic, so the pressure built low, and his cock throbbed with the need for release.

“There you are.” Ariesian’s voice cut through the sound of blood rushing in his ears, and it was likely the only time in his life Solarius ever considered murdering his brother.

“I was looking all over the ballroom for you.”

“Well,” Solarius ground the word out as Narissa scraped her nails down his thighs.

He flinched.

“You found me.”

Fucking stars, she’d have to come up for air soon, and if she popped up while Ariesian was here, Solarius would have no choice but to follow through with his previous consideration of bodily harm.

“What are you doing out here?” Ariesian tugged on the sleeves of his coat, adjusting the cufflinks winking at his wrist.

He scowled at the falling snow as though it had personally affronted him.

“It’s positively freezing.”

Narissa sucked harder this time, tightening the channel of water she controlled to compress his cock.

Solarius’s hips jerked, and he spasmed against the divine assault.

He dropped one hand in the water and tangled his fingers in Narissa’s hair, attempting to pull her off his length, while he propped his other arm on the sloping shore in an effort to appear casual.

“Oh, you know,” he drawled.

“Just trying not to die.”

Ariesian’s dark brow quirked.

“Relaxing. Just relaxing.” Stars above, Ariesian was a complete stick in the mud.

Bet he would never be caught dead in a faerie pool with a female sucking him off underwater.

“Relaxing without your wife?” he countered, his face cut of stony, impassive boredom.

“She’ll be coming soon enough,” Solarius bit out, and another bubble of warm laughter echoed in his mind.

Fucking minx.

She was driving him absolutely mad.

On purpose.

“Right. Well, I suppose our conversation can wait until tomorrow then.” Ariesian shoved his hands into his pockets, strolling back toward the gardens when he paused and said, “Oh, and don’t keep Narissa underwater much longer, we can’t have your wife drowning. Wouldn’t be a good look for the family reputation, you know.”

The bastard didn’t even fucking turn around.

He just kept walking.

And whistling.

Solarius plunged his hands into the faerie pool and hauled Narissa off him.

Magic erupted around them, the tantalizing scent of sandalwood, soft flowers, and the tang of sea air.

She laughed fully then, loud and rapturous, the sound of it like a song Solarius had known for the whole of his existence.

He raked a hand through his hair, shoving it back from his face.

“I thought you were going to drown!”

“I control water, Sol.” Again, her laughter sent another pulse of lust through him, but she shrugged as though it was the simplest concept in the world.

“Moonlight bends to your will. The tides answer my call.”

Her voice was soft, floating against his skin when she said, “Even when I want to suck your cock.”

“Fucking stars,” he growled, a dark thread of desire twisting through him.

He pulled her so she was straddling him again, and her squeal of surprise turned into a throaty moan as he hooked her panties with his thumb and tugged.

Giving the strand of pearls a gentle tug, he rubbed them back and forth between her swollen lips, dragging her close to the edge.

“Sol,” she murmured, burying her face in his neck as she bounced, desperate for him to fill her.

She threw her arms around him, clinging to him.

“Are you sure?” he teased, barely sliding an inch into her.

“It could be considered a bedroom activity.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Do be quiet. You’re ruining the mood.”

He chuckled, nudging the pearls aside, lining his head with her slit.

“How’s that? Better?”

“You’re teasing me,” she snapped, the tone of her voice slipping from frustrated annoyance to angsty desire.

“You started it,” he countered, easing into her a little bit more.

“My little underwater cocktease.”

Another tight inch, another barely there give of her walls as she clamped around him.

“Yes. Yes, please.” Narissa squirmed in an attempt to sink onto him fully, but he kept a firm hold on her hips.

“Please.”

“You’re so lovely when you want something, and you ask so nicely.” Solarius leaned forward slightly, letting his forehead rest against hers.

Theirs gazes met, locked, and his hands cupped her bottom, spreading her wider.

The tips of his fingers toyed with the pearls, stroking her with them.

“Solarius Starstorm Celestine, if you do not?—”

“Let me fuck you in the faerie pool, Rissa love.”

She inhaled, her nipples scraping against the wall of his chest, and on the next breath she whispered, “Yes.”

One good thrust is all it took to be seated fully inside of her, and he was already so wound up that fitting into her so deeply nearly caused him to burst.

“Rissa,” he groaned, moving her, guiding her in a painstakingly slow rhythm.

Any faster and he’d come before her, and well…

that simply wasn’t allowed.

After all, he was raised to be chivalrous, despite wanting to fuck her until she couldn’t walk.

So, he let her ride him, gradually building her up, enjoying the way the water churned between them, amplifying every sensation.

Each pump inside of her was cruelly snug, like she was made for him, and each steady withdrawal sent him closer to the edge.

He used the pearls she wore to tease her further, to apply the perfect amount of pressure to where she throbbed for him.

Narissa arched on a whimper, rolling and bouncing, taking him faster now.

She tightened her hold on him, shoving his face into the swell of her breasts, clinging to him.

Solarius allowed himself to be smothered, opening his mouth to lave, and suck, and bite.

He jerked his hips forward, crushing the pearls between them, and she arched as her climax ripped through her.

His name fell from her lips on a hollow cry.

She quivered then, her body convulsing as the swell of release crashed into her.

His cock surged, hot and heavy, and he emptied himself inside her.

Pump after heavy pump, she took all of him.

She collapsed against him, thoroughly spent, and he drew her in close, smoothing back some of the damp strands of her hair.

“Maybe we could do this again sometime.” He twirled the golden ribbons around his finger, liking how they shimmered in the moonlight.

Silver and gold.

“You know, in the bedroom. As an activity.”

Narissa snorted but he felt her smile against his neck.

“I hate you,” she mumbled.

And Solarius just grinned, because he knew that was the furthest thing from the truth.