Page 55 of Courting the Fae Captain (Romancing the Realms #4)
‘There is no greater gift than love. It heals even the deepest of scars. It gives us hope when all is lost. But I didn’t lose today, I won. I found a family, and I found my future. That’s all I’ll ever need.
Journal excerpt, Aeris Lockhart
T he sun’s rays streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, painting the room in a halo of buttery light.
I yawned, stretching my arms before nestling deeper against the warm body beside me.
An arm wrapped around my ribs, tugging me closer as Raithe roused from his sleep.
I smiled and pressed a kiss to the anchor tattoo over his forearm.
It had been a week since we’d overthrown the Pentad, and Raithe had claimed the castle as its next lord.
The battle had been short-lived once the soldiers received word that their master was dead.
They had thrown down their arms after that and surrendered.
They got to keep their lives, but Raithe sent them packing all the same.
As for the surviving males who’d come to see us die as mere entertainment?
They remained under lock and key in the cells below the castle proper, but Raithe would have to let them go eventually.
While they were despicable, wretched creatures who thrived off the pain and suffering of others, they hadn’t directly harmed anyone.
It would be a little too suspicious if any more blood were shed under the captain’s orders.
It would be seen as a coup for power over the entire court.
As for their wives and families? Akira, Sherai, and I might have sent missives in the mail detailing all their extracurricular activities.
Most of the females from the past Rites had returned home to their families.
Raithe had supplied provisions and protection for all on their journey home.
Some remained, still healing from their wounds or receiving care that would better prepare them to rejoin the outside world.
Others simply stayed because they had nowhere to go or no idea how to get there.
We would house all of those who needed shelter for as long as they needed.
We. The thought was still so alien, so new.
I wasn’t just Aeris, daughter of Lord Lockhart, Merchant Mariner, anymore.
I was the lady of Castle Cliffscote, even though I’d insisted on leaving the title off.
Raithe wasn’t having any of it, and I secretly loved him for that.
Loved that he didn’t want to place me on a pedestal, but instead ensured that we remained equal, side-by-side in all things.
“What’s going through that beautiful mind of yours?” Raithe said sleepily.
“Just thinking about you, actually.”
He curled my hair around his hand, playing absentmindedly with the golden strands. “Ominous,” he teased. “And what conclusion have you come to?”
I turned so I could see his beautiful face. The light gilded the planes of his cheeks and the striking cut of his jaw. The way the blue in his eyes turned a light shade of cerulean when the sun hit them just right.
“I’m thinking that I love you, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.
” I pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I’m thinking I want to know every part of you.
” A kiss to his cheek. “I want to explore the world with you.” A kiss to his other one.
“And I want to live every moment, knowing you will be by my side.”
He kissed me on the lips, long and deep and achingly perfect.
When he pulled away, he held my cheeks, then slid a hand down over my heart above the thin silk of my nightdress.
“You hold in your heart my every intention and my utter devotion. I am yours until the end of time and beyond. I love you, Aeris. It was only ever you. It will always only ever be you.”
Tears sprang to my eyes as his thumb brushed my cheek. I had never dared hope for such a love. Such an adventure as the one he promised me. “Show me,” I said on a breath. “Show me your devotion.”
His delicious mouth curved into a deadly grin, and he said seductively, “As my captain commands.”
The hand over my heart slid down to cup my breast, my nipple pebbling as he ran a gentle thumb over it before he shifted and took it in his mouth. I moaned as he sucked and nipped, then laughed as he grabbed me and pressed me flat against the silky navy sheets.
“Hands up, baby,” he whispered into my ear as he led a trail of kisses down my neck.
I arched my back at the touch, then giggled again as he slipped the nightgown up my body.
Which simply had to get stuck over my head, didn’t it?
I huffed as it finally tugged free and fluffed my hair.
But I stilled at the utterly free laugh that escaped him, at the joy lighting up Raithe’s eyes.
“There,” he said after he’d tossed the nightgown across the room. “All mine to satisfy and surrender to.”
“But you’re doing such a good job,” I teased as I opened my legs. I wasn’t wearing any panties, and his eyes darkened as he drank me in. “I want you, Raithe. I want all of you with no holding back.”
“And you’ll have me,” he said as he lowered his head.
“Right after I have my morning meal.” With that, his shadows grabbed my wrists and ankles and stretched me out until I was all but suspended at his mercy.
Then he was upon me, all lips and teeth and sweet, blessed heat as his mouth closed over my pussy and he began to feast.
I writhed, barely able to lean into him as his shadows turned me over and stretched me deliciously tight.
His tongue lapped at my sensitive clit, circling and swirling until my nerves were zinging with pleasure.
My body bent and arched, the silky sheets rubbing against my nipples only increasing my pleasure.
I was coming undone and being reborn all at once as he devoured me.
As he turned me over once again, his black tousled hair fell over his eyes, the muscles in his back rippling as he worked his tongue and lips on me.
I moaned, fisting a handful of sheets as the pleasure built and built, threatening to overflow like a dam.
“Raithe,” I breathed as he sighed into me.
“Fuck, Aeris,” he said, running a hand up my stomach where he pressed down. “You’re fucking beautiful.”
Oh, gods. I was going to come. I was going to?—
Pleasure rippled out of me in an explosive wave, my body shivering and pliant to his will.
I didn’t even have time to prepare before he moved up the bed and thrust into me.
“Oh,” I groaned as he slowly withdrew and slammed home again.
He repeated the motion several times, and my eyes practically rolled out of my head as he filled me up completely.
My inner walls stretched to his length, and his shadows eased enough for my legs to part even further and hook around him for a deeper angle.
He grabbed my ankles, kissing one tenderly before he raised them by his shoulders and seated himself deeper, moving achingly slow now as he hit my G-spot.
“Oh gods, Raithe.”
His shadows moved, curling over my body to rub against my nipples, then down to my ass where they stroked against my other hole.
I moaned at the sensation, my muscles flexing in response.
Raithe hissed as my inner walls clenched around him.
“Aeris, you’re going to make this too damn quick if you keep this up. ”
I grinned, tightening my ankles around his neck and squeezing my legs.
He groaned, the sound igniting a fire deep inside my core.
His cock pumped in and out, slow and steady and glistening with my wetness.
And it felt so good, so right, as we worshipped each other's very existence. As he pushed with just the right amount of pressure, a give and take of heady, sensual bliss. That wave began cresting again, ready to crash as heat filled my cheeks and a dizziness filled my head, like I was not on a bed of silk but a sea of stars. He looked at me, his eyes a mix of wonder and adoration, and his voice was like honey as he said, “Let go, baby. Let’s go together.”
My body obeyed, giving in to his thrusts as he pumped harder and faster, as our breathing quickened and our chests heaved, and we both came in a tangle of limbs and screams and shadow.
“Fuck, I love you, Aeris.” The words rumbled against my chest as he collapsed upon me. “I would die a happy male if life existed of only this. Only you.”
I stroked his hair, his arms, his back, tracing little pictures with my fingernails. “I’d prefer you breathing, if I have any say in the matter.” I smiled as he looked at me. “But I do want to start that life with you. I want so many things for us. For this court.”
“Then let’s start living it. We’ll build that world we’re dreaming of. Brick by brick. Stone by stone. Blood, sweat, and steel.”
I pressed a kiss to his lips. “To a better world, my love.”
He kissed me back, slow and lazy, like we had all the time in the world. And I supposed we did. It hadn’t really occurred to me until now, but we did have time and plenty of it. Raithe looked at me knowingly, the light in his eyes my beacon. My guide.
“To a better world, Aeris.”