Page 12 of Forged By Malice (Beasts of the Briar #3)

11

Rosalina

D ayton pulls me against him with such force, I’m completely thrown off my feet and into his arms. What was it he had said to me once? That he wanted to crash beneath my waves. Well, now every part of us is colliding.

Rain slides down our faces as we kiss. His tongue parts my lips. I wrap my legs around his waist, and he holds me tight, one hand gliding up my back, the other firmly cupping my ass.

“Fuck, Blossom.” He peppers my jaw with sweet kisses. “You have absolutely no right to be this beautiful, this fierce, and this damn good a kisser.”

A feeling of absolute freedom washes over me, and I burst out laughing. I told Dayton I think he’s my mate.

He sits me on the edge of the bridge’s railing, his hips pressed between my legs. My body thrills at the feeling of his hardness. Blinking through the sheets of rain, I make out his signature cocky grin, golden hair a wet tangle.

“I once tried to escape over this bridge,” I say.

“You’re not going anywhere now,” Dayton growls. He grips my leather breastplate and tears it off in one swift movement.

“I liked that—”

“I’ll get you another one.” Darkness passes over his eyes as he takes in my body, clearly visible beneath the soaking wet fabric. A purely male groan sounds in his throat as he lowers his mouth to my neck and drags his teeth to my collarbone. “I intend to rip this thing to bits.”

“Do it.”

Tearing sounds through the air as my dress becomes little more than tatters, and the Prince of Summer desperately claws for my skin. Drops of water fall off his eyelashes as he blinks back the rain to take me in.

“You are more beautiful than all the goddesses in the Vale,” he breathes and kisses me, pressing our bodies together. My breasts push against the rock-hard planes of his chest. Then he leans me back, hands easily gliding down my slick body.

My breath catches as I realize he’s leaning me over the side of the bridge, nothing between me and the open air but his hand on my back. But I’m not afraid. He won’t let me fall.

He drags me back up, and I gently touch his jaw, the beautiful square shape. He’s so masculine, but at the same time, there’s a sculptured beauty to his features.

“What did you think the first time you saw me in the hot springs?” I ask.

“That you were the most beautiful person I’d ever seen.”

“Be serious.”

Dayton’s hand slips between my legs, and I cry out. He rubs tenderly, and my core clenches. So good. His touch feels so fucking good. “I am being serious.”

“I was just some human.”

“Come on now.” His fingers lightly dance over my molten core. “You were never just some human.”

“Day,” I moan, my hair catching in the wind.

He tucks a curl behind my ear and flashes a crooked smile. “Meanwhile, you thought I was just some staff member easy enough to manipulate.”

“That’s not—” My words are stolen when Dayton dips his head, kissing my breasts. He takes a nipple between his teeth and bites.

The smirk still plays on his lips when he lifts his head. “I get it. You were desperate to save Fare. Your bond must have been calling out to him even then.”

Frustration pushes through my pleasure. This isn’t about Farron right now, and I wish there was a way I could make the stupid Summer Prince see that.

“Dayton.” I drag a hand down his chest, feeling the muscles ripple beneath my fingertips. “You were the first of the princes to kiss me, you know.”

He bends to bite the point of my ear. “I was the first to taste you, too, if I recall,” he says, rubbing my pussy harder as if for emphasis.

I bite my lip, savoring the exquisite waves of ecstasy. “I’d never felt anything like that in my entire life. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“That I’m good at making you come?”

I let out an annoyed breath and take his face between my hands, forcing the stubborn prince to listen to me. “You were the first person to show me what love is supposed to feel like.”

He stills his hands, his breath. The only movement is a slight quiver in his lips.

Can you feel it now?

“Are you asking me if I love you?” he says. Says as if he heard my every thought.

I don’t answer because it is what I’m asking, and he knows it. He grips the back of my neck and pulls me into a deep kiss. He tastes like salt and sun. I feel like I’m drowning, but I don’t need air. All I need is him.

His wet mouth slides to my ear, where he whispers, “Come in my arms, Baby.”

Wordless whimpers escape me. I shake, then he slips a finger inside, and I’m lost. “Dayton,” I moan. “Please.”

He slips a second finger inside of me. I’m so wet. Pleasure spirals out of me in waves.

“Not yet,” he says, and places his thumb over my clit. “Not until I know you’re completely mine.”

“I am,” is all I can gasp.

He rubs me and I feel that delicious pressure building. I’m so close, so damn close.

“Look at you, outside on the bridge.” He strokes faster. “Naked and mine.”

Tears well in my eyes and I claw at his shoulders, as wave after wave of pleasure begins to wash over me, dragging me under. I can’t breathe, can’t think, can only feel. He keeps rubbing, keeps pushing me higher and higher until I’m shuddering and moaning and crying out his name.

“That’s it, Rosie,” Dayton says. “Come for me.”

He slides a third finger in, and I climax hard against his hand. The orgasm rocks through me, body trembling. Dayton doesn’t stop, doesn’t let me come down. He just keeps working me, his fingers thrusting in and out until I’m nothing but a quivering mess.

“Don’t stop,” I gasp.

“Never.” He kisses me. His mouth is relentless as he licks a path down the curve of my neck. His fingers continue to pump in and out of my aching pussy as my orgasm finally slows.

“Day,” I murmur against his lips. “Day, Day.”

“I can’t wait. I need to be inside you.” He pulls out and begins to work furiously at his pants, dropping them to reveal his massive cock. Dayton looks magnificent on a good day, but having him standing before me, wet and wanting …

Wanting me .

“I’m yours,” I gasp. “I’m yours, Dayton.”

He raises a dark brow and chuckles. “Well, that’s splendid, love, because I think it’s obvious how much I want you.”

I grasp his cock, not able to fit my fingers all the way around it, and stroke. “Thank the gods,” I say, adding a lilt of his accent and deep voice to my own, “because this is positively the most glorious cock that ever did hail from the Summer Realm.”

Dayton grabs a knot of my hair, tugs. “Are you making fun of my cock, Blossom?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Good.” He draws me closer until his lips are by my ear. “Because this cock is going to fucking claim you, going to make you scream my name, going to fill you with so much cum it’ll be leaking down your legs, and there won’t be a soul in the Enchanted Vale that won’t recognize my scent on you.”

I whimper, completely and utterly melting for him. “Yes, yes, I’m yours, I’m yours.”

“Spread your legs.”

I do, and he stares at me for a moment, sizing up how to best claim what belongs to him. It bursts in my chest, this part of my heart that has always been his.

“I need you now, please. ”

“Rosalina.” Roughly, he grips the back of my neck and pulls me into a kiss at the same time he enters me. But he does so gradually, and I moan against his lips as his length pushes slowly, so slowly. I let out a groan as I feel my body expand to accommodate his size. “More, please.”

He takes my lips between his teeth. “Patience, Blossom. I don’t want to hurt you.”

I give a little whimper of protest but allow myself to enjoy the utter bliss of this sensation, of finally being this close to him. He stares where our bodies meet.

A deep growl rumbles in his throat as he pushes in the last few inches, sheathing to the hilt. And I scream, scream at the sensation of being filled so completely, my body already clenching around him, never wanting to let him leave.

“Fuck,” he growls, holding us tight, not letting either of us move. His lips dip to my neck. “You feel so fucking good, Baby, do you know that? You’re so soft.”

“Do I feel as good as I taste?” I smirk.

“The gods themselves will have to pry me out of you.” He gives a little pump, not fully leaving, but enough to jolt my whole body with white-hot heat.

I moan, and he moves his hand to rub my clit. My core tightens, nearly coming with the sensation. I wiggle on his cock, needy for friction. As if he can sense my desperation, he begins to move, holding me tight by the waist at the edge of the railing as he pumps in and out.

“Dayton!” I cry, clinging to his neck, pulling at his hair. He pulls out, almost to the tip before sliding back in slowly. “You’re torturing me.”

He does it again, grinning like the Cheshire Cat as inch by agonizing inch, he slides deeper inside. Then he lifts me off the bridge railing and into his arms, pumping faster and faster. I have no idea how he has the strength to do that and hold me, but I am completely and utterly at his mercy.

He brings a wet tongue to my ear, then says lowly, “I do recall you promising to fuck me in a goblin’s blood. The blood has washed away, but …”

He lowers himself to the slick cobblestone, me still on top of him, legs falling to either side of his waist, cock still deep inside me. His teal eyes blaze. “You’re in control now, Rosie. So, fuck me like the wild, uninhibited goddess I know lives inside you.”

I slam my hands on his rain-slicked chest, and a smile rises on my face. I move, lifting myself to the tip of his cock before slamming down hard. The sensation rattles us both. He tilts his head back, neck muscles straining, and groans. So I do it again. And again. Faster and faster, until my fingers are leaving red scratches along his chest, my breasts are bouncing, and he’s lifting his hips to match me thrust by thrust.

My voice is hoarse from calling his name. Something feral flashes in his eyes as he rises, holding me in his lap as we continue this pace, our bodies working in tandem.

My inner muscles tighten, and he slams me down hard, and I know I can’t hold on much longer. “Day, I’m—”

“Come, Baby. Take it, take this cock.” His teeth graze my neck, hands tangled in my soaking hair. I’m his. My body wracks with euphoric bliss as I come undone around him.

He roars and I feel his own release explode, cock spasming as he spills deep inside me. I press down on his lap, wanting to take it all. Somehow in the daze, his lips meet mine, and we tumble to the cobblestone.

I’m not sure how long we lie there, him still inside me, the rain cooling our heated bodies, but eventually he pulls out and rolls to the side.

Pure euphoric bliss fills me as I fall to my back, blinking as the rain pours down, the taste sweet on my tongue. A laugh bubbles up within me, but when I don’t hear Dayton answer it, I turn to him.

He’s staring straight up, one hand clenched to his chest, an almost pained expression on his face. Pain? Why, when what happened was just so wonderful?

It hits me with shocking clarity.

He didn’t feel it. Did I feel it? I let out an animalistic cry, my own hand flying to my chest. Desperately, I try to recall how it felt with Kel, with Farron. It had been the same, hadn’t it? This feeling had been answered by them, but with Dayton …

No, no, no. It’s not possible. He’s my mate, too. I know it.

Dayton sits up, sighing. The rain clouds begin to part, and it feels more ominous than it should. Like an ending.

“Let’s go inside.” He grabs his pants and laces them up.

Tears fall down my cheeks, now no longer hidden by the rain. “I was so sure …”

Dayton picks up Kel’s sheathed sword and only gives me a quick, sympathetic shrug. Like that’s all this loss is to him—a shrug. But what this really means is … There is someone else out there for him.

I shake my head, drawing my knees up to cover my naked body. “No, something is wrong. It hasn’t awoken yet. It wasn’t the right time. We can go find some will-o’-wisps and see if your bond is still all tangled and—”

“I died in front of you.” Dayton turns, anger lacing his words. “You watched me get pierced by three arrows and collapse, and the bond didn’t awaken.” He kneels and cups my face. “We made love, fucking glorious love. And the bond didn’t awaken. Because there is no bond between us. We’re not mates, Rosalina.”

“But Day—”

He stands swiftly. “Stop.”

It’s the second time he’s told me to stop today. And this time I do.

My training dress is tattered on the ground, and I stand naked, chest heaving. The storm has blown away the ash, the rain has washed the blood, and now only the rags of the goblins’ clothes and their weapons remain.

“Oddly nice weapons for goblins,” I say absently. As if my heart isn’t ashes itself.

“I was thinking the same thing.” Dayton leans down to inspect a piece, then another, and another.

“What is it?”

“These weapons are practically new,” Dayton says, brow furrowed. “And they’re made of Spring steel.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means we have to warn Ezryn.”

My heart clenches at his name. “So, we’re going to the Spring Realm?”

“Yes, Rosalina, we’re going to Spring.”