Page 37 of Flameborne: Fury (Emberquell Academy #2)

SOUNDTRACK: Tether Me by Galleux

~ DONAVYN ~

I’d been with women since before I was Chosen.

I’d had satisfying, thrilling sex many times.

But nothing equipped me for the full-body rush that shuddered through me the moment Bren opened my leathers and reached for me.

When she freed me, stroked me, I felt it in prickling rushes over every inch of my skin.

My fingers tightened in her hair, holding her into my kiss.

My body shivered and my hips thrust forward, pressing into her grip of their own accord.

For several, panting breaths, I owned her mouth, unaware of anything but her hands on me, and our tongues dancing. I scrambled for her, that cord of light and need in my chest driving me forward, to have her, to take her, to possess her.

I fought it, desperate to shove out of its grip, unwilling to frighten her with the force of my need. But Bren didn’t fight at all—she pulled me closer, stroking, rippling against me, whimpering unhappily when she reached for my chest with the other hand and found the leather barrier of my jacket.

The seconds that followed were a disorienting cacophony of overwhelming thrill, desperate need, and the utter absence of rational thought.

There was, I knew, a reason not to give in to this. But I couldn’t conjure it. I needed her with a fire that threatened to crisp my skin. And when she touched me and breathed my name, when the bond throbbed between us, I was a slave to it.

With clawed grips, we stripped each other of jackets and shirts.

Buttons pinged, curses tore, the tiny, dim space filled with the echo of our twin breaths, and the rustle of discarded clothing being thrown aside.

But then, when my chest was bare and her shirt was open, when I had one hand full of her breast and the other in her hair, when our bodies trembled and the sounds in her throat called me closer, I flattened a palm against her stomach and slid that hand down, under the waistband of her leathers, reaching for that deep, slick heat between her thighs.

When I found her, she widened her stance and whispered “Yes!”

Too frantic even to open her leathers, I began to stroke, beckoning her to me in time with my panting breaths.

And when I found that bundle of nerves, sliding and pressing, Bren shuddered, then sucked in and broke the kiss.

Her head dropped back as her back arched—and that movement made her shirt fall open to bare her chest and belly to my eyes.

I moaned her name, drinking in the sight of her bowed backwards, pressing herself into my touch, her knuckles white where she gripped my elbow, her voice high and hushed as she begged me not to stop.

The sight of her, tears still drying on her cheeks, yet so abandoned in my arms was so erotic, I grew so hard it was painful.

Need didn’t cover it. I craved her.

Somewhere, deep in my head and heart, I heard the dragons roar. Bren trembled in my hands and I shuddered.

“Bren… fuck—”

“Please, Donavyn. Please!”

She gasped as I grunted and whipped her around so her back was to me, tearing that shirt from where it hung from her shoulders so she was bare to the waist, then sucked on her neck— too hard, too hard, my rational mind screamed—as I scrambled at her leathers.

It was a frustrating, quivering moment, Bren’s head tipped back against my shoulder as I leaned over her, desperate to get her naked—and only frustrated myself with my fumbling, trembling fingers.

Finally, with a wicked curse, I grasped the waistband of her leathers and shoved them down, scraping them past her hips and forcing her to bring her feet closer together so I could get them down her thighs.

But she didn’t resist. She urged me on, brought one hand back to bury it in my hair and held me against her neck until I finally wrestled her leathers free enough for her to kick them off.

They’d barely slapped on the floor before I whirled her back around and pulled her against me, kissing her so deeply it was a wonder I didn’t suffocate her with my tongue.

Bren arched, her head back and eyes screwed tightly shut as she grasped for my shoulders and pulled me to her, hands clawing, hips bucking to bring us closer as I pressed her down onto that tiny cot.

But when I tried to bring my knee up to brace on the bed, to position us, I was reminded that I hadn’t removed my own leathers. We tumbled together in a tangle of limbs.

Bren gave a small shriek, but when I dove for her to muffle the sound, she laughed into my mouth as I growled and first wrestled with my leathers, then gave up and wrapped her in my arms, flipping us both, and pulling her with me as I sat back against the wall and pulled her into my lap.

I opened my eyes, reaching for her hair, intending to reassure her—only to groan when Bren straddled me reached between us and positioned me, then looked up to hold my eyes, biting her lip as she dropped to take me, her eyelids going heavy as I slid home in a single, shuddering thrust that send pleasure coursing through my blood with such intensity, I almost came.

“Fuck!” I cursed, grabbing handfuls of her ass, pulling her against me as she let her head fall back and rose on her knees, then dropped onto me again.

I couldn’t help but drink in the sight of her, bare and jiggling, her eyes squeezed shut, and her jaw slack, but lips pulling towards a smile.

One of her hands clawed into my bicep, the other slapped to my chest and pressed me back against the wall as she leaned back to bring us closer and began to ride me.

“Bren,” I growled. “Fuck, Bren!”

“I need you!” she gasped, her hips rolling, shifting her weight so we bobbed together on the small bed. “Please, Donavyn—I need you!”

Those words singing in my head combined with the sight of her giving herself with such abandon left me in a mindless tangle of nothing but desire and delight.

I could resist and probably end this too soon, or I could take control and make certain we were both satisfied.

With a guttural snarl, I grasped her hips and pulled her down hard at the same time I thrust. Her eyes popped wide and locked on mine again. And as I gasped her name, the bond exploded—power, light, and need— leaving us powerless in the wake of that wave, carried by it, swirling in its heat.

Bren clawed her hands into my hair and pulled me down as I devoured her neck, then her throat, her breasts, bending her backwards so I could reach those soft, delicate places with lips, teeth, and tongue.

She quivered in my arms, her body clenching and pulsing around me as we moved together, gasping.

Every roll, every thrust, every joining pushed me closer to that edge—so close, I worried I wouldn’t bring her with me.

As delicious as her flesh was, as desperately as I needed to satisfy this hunger, I needed her to come with me.

Sucking her nipple in time with my thrusts, I waited until her gasps grew high and tense, then lifted my head, coming off her breast with pop. She twitched at the combination of pleasure and pain and her eyes flew open—and locked on mine.

“Come for me,” I rasped. “Come for me, beautiful.”

She opened her mouth to respond, but I grabbed her hips again and thrust hard. Her eyes glazed and her eyes began to roll back.

“No!” I growled. “Stay with me, Bren. Stay here with me.”

She swallowed convulsively, blinking, but did as I instructed, not dropping eye contact as we moved together faster and faster, the bed creaking quietly, rhythmically under the tearing rasps of our breaths.

She tightened on me, and I watched avidly as she bit her lip, her eyes glazing, rolling back as she went heavy in my arms, her body searching for that ultimate pleasure. Yet, though I could feel her thrill and need, something held her back.

Her fear? Her weariness? The swift nature of this joining?

A shudder rocked through me. I knew I didn’t have long, so I released one hip and took her hand that was clawed into my shoulder and pulled it down between us. “Touch yourself,” I croaked. “Let me watch you. Show me.”

“But—”

“I’m here, Bren. I’ll always be here. I want to watch you come apart. I need you with me. Please.”

I thrust into her again and her eyes hooded. She swallowed, but stopped resisting my grip and slid her hand between us.

I felt her, hesitant at first, fumbling, until she found the base of my cock, and then herself. I knew the moment she reached the spot she needed, because her body tightened and she sucked in a breath.

With a growl of delight, I reached for her hair and tugged her head back with a hoarse reminder. “Eyes on me!”

Her lower lip went slack and her body clenched again and again in an ever-increasing rhythm, until she was gasping, keening my name, tight around me.

One arm braced in the hollow of her back, the other hand fisted in her hair, I rasped her name and thrust quickly once, twice, three times, swearing when she shuddered, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she came apart in my arms.

We both moaned and gasped as she bucked and twitched, stiffening in her arch, nails digging into my bicep as she continued to stroke herself through the climax—and on that final pulse, she pulled me over the edge with her.

With a ragged bellow, I arched, still holding her to me, but both our spines bowed away from each other as I twitched, jerked, and shuddered while she whimpered and gasped in her final throes.

And when, finally, my body went slack, I pulled her forward as I leaned back into the wall and held her to me.

She came willingly, collapsed against my sweaty chest, her breath fluttering on my collarbones as both of us went limp, sweating and panting while reality and the awareness of the world around us slowly returned.

‘Donavyn. Donavyn, wake up.’

I stirred, only half-aware of soft warmth at my front, and cold, hard chill at my back. Then a deep, resonant rumble made the stone wall shiver against my spine.

‘Donavyn! They come for you—a meeting with the King? I cannot allow them in, but they’ll be suspicious if you don’t—’

With a gasp, I shoved upright, Bren sliding back against my hand braced on the bed, her breasts bobbing as she half-rolled against me, blinking and disoriented.

We’d fallen asleep!

I gaped down at her. “I’m late for my meeting with the King!” I hissed. Bren’s eyes flew wide. I grabbed her chin, kissed her swiftly, then growled, “Stay here and say nothing, do nothing. They don’t know I’m in here with you.”

Yet.

I had to pray that Kgosi had closed the door and they’d assume he was the one keeping me in, rather than her.

As I crawled over her to get off that tiny bed, she gripped the arm I braced on her other side, and I froze.

We stared at each other for a brief, quavering moment. She blinked once, searching my gaze, then nodded and leaned up to kiss me again—slightly slower, definitely softer, deeper—then slumped back down to the pillow.

My cock twitched and I cursed it, pushing all thoughts of her naked body from my mind. “You get your things packed. We’ll work this out. You’re not living here anymore!” I hissed.

She nodded once, but didn’t smile, which gave me a niggle of unease.

Still, I didn’t have time to address it.

I rolled over her, squeezing the hollow of her waist as I got my feet to the floor, then pushed off the creaking bed and hurried to dress, cursing the torn buttons, throwing my jacket on over the top of the dirty shirt and buttoning it as I ran out into the stable, bellowing at Kgosi to stop delaying my brothers.

Praying they hadn’t had time to get suspicious yet.

Kgosi’s reticence to allow any other males—even human males—near Akhane wouldn’t be faked. I was surprised he’d brought Akhane back to the stable at all.

‘You seemed like you could use the cover,’ he sent dryly, his voice puttering in a growl at the end.

I would have snapped at him, but it appeared he was right.

‘Thank you,’ I replied tightly as I grabbed a fistful of hay to run through my hair and let pieces stick in my collar like I’d been sleeping in it, then reached the stable door and threw it open, clawing a hand through my hair like I was trying to free it of the debris.

Thankfully, it was a messenger, not one of the Captains who would have been far more suspicious of the amount of time it had taken me to wake up.

The young lad opened his mouth, but I shook my head. “Tell the King I’m awake and on my way. Right now.”

The kid bolted and I followed him out with only a quick glance back before I closed the stable behind me, the massive door closing with an ominous boom.

But there was no sign of Bren—which was right and good.

We couldn’t afford any gossip. Still, my chest ached as I marched down the stable aisle towards the main entrance.

I didn’t want to leave her, even for a moment.

‘Please tell Akhane to encourage her to move her things. We’ll work out how to get her to and from the apartment without being seen. I can’t leave my mate in that dark little hovel.’

There was a beat before Kgosi answered. ‘Akhane believes she’ll move. She senses no resistance. Only fear.’

I pressed my lips tightly over the curses that wanted to come, but kept walking, though my heels hit the stone more sharply than before.

Fear? Yes, there was fear. Far too much fear in my mate’s life. And a wound I hoped to help her heal.

But when? When would we find time for the safety and intimacy needed to look so deeply and vulnerably at her life when we had invaders on our doorstep, she was about to be trained for the Fang, and both she and her dragon were so inexperienced?

In the end, she wasn’t raised to Furyknight as quickly as I had been, but then, her start had been slow.

So, while she’d barely had time to transition from being alone, to Chosen, to First, then Second Rank, as soon as we’d been sure she was Fang Wing, I’d known we had to get her trialed and raised—but that was when I thought we’d have time to settle her in as a Furyknight.

Before we’d known there were invaders. Before I’d known she was my mate and would have to navigate all those extra complications.

Now?

Now, I wondered if I’d done the right thing raising her. How the hell was she supposed to balance all these conflicting secrets and duties? Even I was overwhelmed by the picture spinning in my head.

Her training would be twice as intense as a knight in the Flight or Flame wing, though most Furyknights weren’t aware of that. She needed more time than others, but would get less!

I allowed myself the muttered curses and frustration for a few more paces, but then I set it aside. There was nothing we could do about what had happened now. The time had come. She was mine. And she was Fang. And we had invaders on our borders and an impatient King.

I started to jog.

Please, God, have mercy. She’s only one woman.