Page 14

“Wow…”

I didn’t know what other reaction to pose, as it made perfect sense. Why he had inexplicable powers, why people looked at him like he was a god walking amongst men. Because he was.

“It’s no wonder they love you.”

“They love the security the camp offers. And every time I have a win, I make sure to claim more souls for the camp. Drakes live underground, with no light or nature. We’re stuck in a hole, fed poorly and forced to train all day. It’s better for them to live their lives out in the sunshine than push them to fight underground. At least they can try to build a life here,”

he said as if what he was doing for these people was nothing out of the ordinary.

Before I had a chance to react, I realised that I had been so engrossed in our conversation that I hadn’t even realised we had reached the beach. And that Dahr hadn’t let go of my hand once.

“I’ll be here when you get tired,”

Dahr smiled at me, silently inviting me to jump into the waves that were tumultuously waiting for me to dance with.

“Aren’t you going to join?”

He hadn’t just brought me here to watch me swim, had he?

Dahr immediately shook his head.

“Drakes don’t swim. It’s against our nature.”

“But…”

I paused, because going in by myself wasn’t as fun as it would be with him there.

“You will be perfectly safe,”

Dahr offered, and, against his words, the warrior started walking towards the shore.

“Best I can do is walk in, up to my hips.”

“I’ll take that,”

I smiled widely and started pulling him in the water.

I swam for what felt like the entire day and when I got tired, I started floating on my back, only breaking my connection to Poseidon’s kingdom to check on Dahr. The warrior spent some time with me in the water, but his discomfort was too visible to ignore so, after I tried to make him float and he tensed his entire body to the point where he looked like a rock in the waves, I let it go and told him he could return to the beach if he wanted to.

I didn’t have to say it twice because he jumped at the opportunity and offered to hunt us some food. Always, staying within my line of sight and always reassuring me that I was perfectly safe. I didn’t expect him to cancel his daily training routine to spend the day with me and let me enjoy this freedom I found between waves, and I didn’t even want to think about how upset Markos would be, probably looking for Dahr all around the camp.

I also wondered if he ever took a day away from training, or if he pushed himself, body and soul to get those wins, which brought him a large camp that carried more souls to freedom.

I had asked a few more questions about the living situation in the Fire Kingdom and was told that drakes were put into training as soon as they could walk and they had to fend for themselves, sometimes as young as three years old.

I couldn’t even imagine my students going through such atrocities, let alone children. It made sense that their entire communication and rituals were based on fear and fight. The only things they knew how to do. The only things that mattered to survive.

My heart hurt for them and even though in this particular case they represented the enemy, I did not want any harm to come to them. They were people, just like us. People that were used for their strength, people that were undervalued and had to build their own community with blade and blood.

They were just people.

I started swimming again, pushing myself to the point where pain engulfed my body, the same way I did when I was a teenager and wanted to leave all feeling behind. The sea had always helped. It helped when I did not want to feel the tears on my face, it helped when there was no one to offer me a hug, and it was helping now, when the entire structure of my thoughts was threatening to crumble.

Every time I looked over at Dahr, to see him serenely catching fish or stretching like a happy cat in the sunlight, I felt a shiver deep within my chest, chipping away at the hatred I had initially felt for these people. For this man.

And for once, the sea didn’t keep me as warm as I would have liked it to. Did not offer me better company than the one waiting for me by the shore.

“Are we having fish?”

I asked, even though I had already spotted the skewers Dahr had prepared for us, each containing a cleaned fish, placed by the fire for slow cooking.

“I thought you would like to have dinner here,”

he replied and pointed at the fur-lined blanket that was stretched out on the sand. Along with two clean towels, folded and waiting for me.

“Can I?”

I pointed and when he nodded, I moved over to the blanket, covering my body with the towels, the slow chill of the evening sharpening my skin into goosebumps.

I didn’t ask how he’d managed this. I didn’t want to think about how absorbed I had been in my thoughts and in swimming that I didn’t even notice whoever arrived on the beach to bring the necessary tools for us to have dinner here.

And especially, I didn’t want to think about whatever compromise Dahr had to make to offer me this day.

“We have cod, shrimp and lobster,”

he announced as he pointed to the plate that contained the feast, already prepared and laying by the side of the fire to keep a nice temperature.

“There was only water available, so we’ll have that as well,”

Dahr then motioned to a water bottle leaning by the side of the blanket.

“Is this going to be enough for you?”

I asked carefully, not wanting to seem ungrateful for his efforts, but also worrying that a man of his stature probably needed a lot more food than what we had at our disposal.

“Don’t worry about me, I had a big breakfast,”

he grinned and turned to me to watch how I dried my hair with the towel.

“Unless you want more food?”

his brows shot up in question, so I immediately shook my head.

Having dinner on the beach was absolutely perfect. I had the sunset falling over the dark-blue horizon, a shirtless Dahr, which seemed to be the norm, and a small fire to keep us warm.

Though, the warmth I enjoyed most was Dahr’s body as he grabbed me in his arms after dinner and laid us both on the blanket to share a long embrace that lasted through the night.

Waking up in Dahr’s arms brought a new range of feelings I had promised myself never to feel again. This time he did not shy away from holding me, his warm hands touching parts of my body he hadn’t before, yet he always kept it to a respectful caress and never crossed any lines.

Although I wanted him to do just that so, so many times. Like when I pushed myself deeper into him, faking being asleep and chasing warmth or when I felt his desire push into my back. He immediately realised, however, and shimmied further away to remove his waist and everything below it from touching my lower back. My skin sizzled when I woke up, and I knew it wasn’t just from the light of the sun.

We’d both spent a long time asleep, our bodies probably enjoying the connection they started forging night after night and for once, Dahr didn’t rush away from me at the break of dawn. It was my growling stomach that pushed us both awake and made the warrior offer to take me back to the tent for some breakfast.

Part of me wanted nothing more than to ask him for another day. Another day removed from the tribe, from responsibility and from the daily training sessions I assumed he had to leave me for, but I also knew that the more time I was spending by his side, the higher the risk to take the step that would become my doom.

Because no matter how much we played around it, he was still my enemy.

And I was still his captive.

Reluctantly, I walked alongside him to return to camp, this time doing my best not to grab his hand when he walked next to me, the palm of his hand swinging slowly along with the movement of his arm as he walked. It remained loose, his fingers relaxed and easy to grab, should I decide to do so.

I did not.

I did not grab his hand when we stopped in front of a group of women who offered us some cheese and tomato wraps, which Dahr gladly accepted and shared with me, and I did not grab it when Markos showed up enraged, demanding to know where we had been. Dahr had then invited me to return to the tent until he resolved the conversation and organised whatever he missed during our escapade.

I expected to feel relief when I arrived in the main tent, but my small bed did nothing to calm the yearning of my skin, which only Dahr’s presence could settle. The soft bed sheets I had wrapped myself into did nothing to appease the cravings my body was experiencing, their caress suddenly too harsh compared to what I needed my skin to brush against.

Still, I nestled into the bed and waited the long minutes it took for the warrior to return with a harsh breath, as though he was fighting his own urges.

“Everything alright?”

I asked without turning to face him and assuming the position I kept taking whenever the thought of Dahr became too much for me to handle. The artwork on the leather walls did nothing to distract me this time. I had watched them too many times, studied their stencils and nature over and over, too much for them to become an interesting subject.

Nothing was worth focusing my attention on at the moment, all my senses too desperate to reclaim the close contact I had shared with Dahr.

“My cousin is furious… as expected,”

Dahr half-chuckled. I heard his steps moving away and my heart jolted at the possibility that he would prepare for training and leave me alone for the rest of the day.

I allowed myself to turn, gaze searching for him through the tent, to find him leaning over the table, a large water bowl in front of him. I watched how Dahr grabbed a wet cloth and caressed the side of his shoulders to remove the sand from his skin while wanting nothing more than to turn myself into the drips that carelessly flowed down his back.

Fire burnt my skin, making my stomach twist and my brain fog from all the thoughts that invaded my mind. From the need that pulsated through my skin.

I wanted Dahr.

I wanted him like I had never wanted anyone before. Or anything.

I wanted him like a sculptor wanted the perfect piece of marble, I needed him to become the prime material where I could exercise my deepest thoughts and needs. I wanted to lose my sense into him and never wake up from the sweet relief he would offer me.

A sudden burst of rage filled my spirit. Why was I doing this to myself? Why was I always putting my needs and my desires in second place? Why wasn’t I claiming exactly what I wanted, when I wanted it?

Michelangelo surely didn’t mess around when he painted the Sistine Chapel, did he? Da Vinci did not shy away from extracting human hearts from inside cadavers to study them and reach a higher knowledge of the human body, had he? Why wasn’t I now walking towards the man that has invaded my mind ever since I first saw him? Why wasn’t I claiming what was right in front of me?

Determination pushed my muscles, and my body leapt from the bed, tired of hiding myself between those sheets. Forcing my steps onwards, I walked towards Dahr, who must have heard me, because he paused his movement and turned towards me. Just in time to make enough space for me to squeeze in between him and the table, lift my body on my tiptoes and press my lips to his.

Dahr remained still for a long moment, enough for me to question that he was still breathing. His mouth remained closed against mine, not making a single move but not splitting away from the connection I had pulled in between us.

It was only when I opened my eyes to see his own night-sky gaze pinned on me, that I realised he wasn’t going to kiss me back.

Instant regret overpowered my senses, and I immediately released his lips, letting myself fall to my normal height. Unfortunately, I had been too brave in my movement and had placed myself right in between his body and the table, so I found myself trapped, as Dahr’s arms lowered onto the wooden surface to cage me in.

I shook my head apologetically, blinking away tears. The last thing I wanted to do right then was to show emotion. Still, my body proved that, once again, it was planning to go on a rampage of stupid decision making of its own.

“Nora,”

Dahr’s voice tensed by my side, along with his body which had become a statue around my own.

“I’m sorry,”

I did my best to stifle a sob.

“Please, just let me go.”

Instead of doing so, the warrior’s arms tightened around the edge of the table to trap my hips. His pelvis pressed against me to ensnare me with warmth and desire.

Dahr continued to look at me as though I was the mathematical equation he spent his entire life solving and he’d reached the final result. His breath washed over me in rugged huffs, chest heaving with the same anticipation I had emerged into, only seconds before. It was as if he was just now reacting to the kiss, as though his mind needed a few beats to process what had just happened.

“Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

His voice tickled my senses, distraught and amazed at the same time.

“Why should I be?”

surprise made me blink at his question.

Dahr paused, pressing his lips together as though his following words were too hard to release. When he did, he needed a gush of air into his lungs.

“Because I am a monster…”

On their own accord, my hands lifted to cup his face, shifting it slightly so I could fully see his features.

“Aren’t we all?”

With a sigh that unleashed his relief, Dahr lost all purpose beyond continuing that kiss. Abandoning his reservation, he joined his lips to mine as though I tasted like the most delicious thing he ever had. His lips clashed over mine, tongue pushing into my mouth to explore all the deliciousness there was to find and lashed against mine in a violent dance of their own making.

I had never been kissed like that.

I had never been held like that.

Dahr seemed to know every secret my body let slip, because he touched and caressed me softly, yet desperately, crazed with the need to take more of me. To see how much I was offering.

And I was willing to give him everything.

“Nora…”

he groaned into my mouth as his hands lowered to my ass and grabbed my inner thighs to split my legs. His waist pushed into me deeper, the growth in his pelvis grinding against my body as he shimmied himself in between my legs, planting my ass on the table, the wooden surface supporting both my weight and his upper body.

I let myself lean back, letting desire wash over my skin and gave him access to everything he wanted.

With an expert move, Dahr undid the knot in my krasta and pulled the fabric away to leave my hardened nipples on display. I drew a sharp breath as his mouth lowered on my skin, his tongue sizzling with long caresses across my chest and breasts.

His midsection pushed into me deeper, and I released a sigh as he thrust himself so firmly, that his erection perfectly hit my core. And I wasn’t wearing any underwear, due to the nature of their fashion.

I readied myself for him to do to my srysha exactly what he had done to the vest only a minute before, yet Dahr preferred to take his sweet time with my breasts, making sure to circle his tongue around each of my nipples and suck hard on them, while his hands started playing with my hips and rolled sweet caresses that faded into my waistband.

Gosh, I wanted to die, and we hadn’t even started yet.

My entire being begged for those caresses, all the feelings I had forced myself to forget bursting out like a volcano ready to erupt. I was a guitar whose strings hadn’t been played in years, and he was the artist who moved his fingers like a madman around my body.

“Dahr…”

I moaned his name, pleading for more. My arms gripped his biceps to push him downward, urging him to put that mouth exactly where I needed it to be.

The first brush of his warm tongue against my core sent a cascade of shivers all across my skin. My legs spread on either side of his and rested them on his shoulders as the warrior descended onto me to bury his face in between my thighs. Desperate for the caress, I arched my back and opened myself up to him, shattering into his mouth as he started circling around my folds and pressing his mouth onto me.

It was the best sensation I had ever felt. The way he worked me, with patience and masterful talent, the way his tongue explored and crashed in the best places to give me the sweetest elation drove me to the point of madness. And when his tongue slipped inside me, caressing deep within my core, I exploded.

This man sent me to the brink of ecstasy and continued to do so for long minutes, until I came undone, so completely and utterly spent that I started shaking with the waves of pleasure his mouth kept sending over me.

“That was amazing,”

I barely breathed when he finally unpegged his mouth from me with a final swirl of his tongue over my clit.

“That was nothing,”

Dahr grinned as he unsheathed his daggers and unhooked his waistband, letting his pants drop to display his throbbing desire fully to me.

“My god…”

My mouth involuntarily released the words without me being able to stop them, earning a deep chuckle from Dahr. His voice sounded hazed with desire as he said.

“do I have your permission to light you up, little flame?”

I spread my legs wider in response and pulled my skirt up, displaying myself fully to him. Without waiting for another invitation, Dahr stroked his cock once to get it ready, the gleaming precum already shining at the tip. I felt my stomach dip with anticipation, with the need to get him inside me and with the fright of what that girth would do to my inner walls.

Because this man was… truly blessed.

It felt so at odds seeing him like that, fully erect and getting ready for me. I had imagined his body more times than I could count and had always compared him to the renaissance masterpieces I spent my life studying. But seeing him like that, breathing hard and pumped with need, did something unimaginable to my mind.

I became possessed then, the need to feel him inside me pushing me to say things I would have never imagined would come out of my mouth.

“Come on already and fuck me like you mean it,”

I demanded, surprising even myself.

If Dahr had been dragging this moment out, my command broke his hesitation. I looked up at him to see his eyes darkening, a sensual smirk pulling at the corner of his lips as his hands spread wide over the side of my thighs and pulled me closer to him. Only my back remained leaning on the table, my hips already in the air, half of my weight supported by Dahr’s strong arms.

Without hesitation or even feeling the need to announce his movements, Dahr slid into me, pushing the tip of his cock into my core and spreading me wider for him; moving slowly but determined and forcing my body to arch to receive him.

I looked at where we joined, watching how he disappeared inside of me, feeling how my core opened up for him and moved around him while my hips pushed up to make more space for him.

My goodness, I hadn’t felt like this in… ever. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had sex, or with whom. Probably some guy from university, and it had been quite forgettable, obviously. I hadn’t been stretched like this, pushed like this, grabbed like this. And instead of panicking, instead of stopping and forcing my muscles into alarm, my body kept begging for more.

“Fuck Nora, this feels so fucking good,”

Dahr grunted when he pushed into my tight warmth. He slid himself out of me then, leaving only the tip of his cock and letting me see how wet I had made him, before he pushed into me again, this time deeper, poking at the side of my core to make my muscles tighten.

“Relax, little flame,”

Dahr groaned and leaned into me, his body covering mine, to trace a long caress with his tongue, which painted a line of heat as it traced my shoulder blade.

“Be a good girl and let me in,”

he murmured deep into my ear as he sheathed himself further into my body.

Until he burrowed himself into my core.

My inner walls gave way, inviting him fully in and letting him do what he wanted to my body. Only then his thrusts started pushing faster into me, the arms that supported my weight gripping at my skin to hoist me up and caress my insides like no one had before.

I arched into each push, holding on for dear life while he pounded into me, and doing my best to meet him every time. Our entwining limbs performed their own dance while Dahr and I became spectators to our own undoing. The warrior kept the same rhythm and position for a few minutes, until I had fully allowed myself to be at his mercy, before he shifted his hips an inch or two and wrapped one of my legs around his midsection.

I let out a violent scream at the deeper contact, at the way he was hitting a new side of me, reaching a part that I didn’t even know I possessed. His hand spread wide against my chest and pressed on my thorax slowly to feel the air pushing in and out of my lungs in the same rhythm as the dance he was performing inside of me.

“You’re fine, Nora,”

he groaned, before his hand reached up, fingers tightening against my throat.

“Take it like the good girl I know you are.”

With that, he squeezed, halting the air supply that was freely flowing into my lungs.

Panic pushed through my veins at that moment. The way he was pumping into me, with rage and brutality, pushing my body up and down with each thrust and his hand locking away the air from my lungs.

Making me all his. Truly. Fully.

Completely his.

His to own.

His to fuck.

His to determine every breath that came into me.

The realisation absolutely terrified me. But I fucking loved it.

I must have been a pool of wetness because each thrust came easier, as though my body was accepting its new owner, and I had nothing else to do but let him set the rhythm.

I inhaled only when he relaxed his fingers around my windpipe, I moaned only when he allowed me enough time to do so in between those desperate thrusts, and I came on his cock like I never had before. I clenched around him over and over, my body barely recovering from the fall over the edge and still… I wanted… I wanted…

Dahr must have sensed my need, because he lifted his gaze to mine from where he was looking at our joining. “More?”

He guessed the words I couldn’t find.

I barely had enough strength left to nod.

With that, the man took ownership of my body yet again and released my leg from the unquenchable hold he had it in, only to slide it over his shoulder. And then grab my other leg to do exactly the same. His height lifted my body upwards, pushing his length deeper into me and, only a few thrusts later, I found myself screaming his name and begging for more.

“Just like that Dahr, just like that. God!!! It feels so good,”

I kept saying over and over, my mind wrapping around the movement of his cock inside of me, on the way he kept splitting me open with brutal thrusts, on the slapping sounds his skin made when clashing against mine.

This was everything. Everything and more.

This in itself was a work of art, a masterpiece of sensation, a pleasure so intense that it could not be described into words. It could only be devoured and worshipped, just like Dahr did to my body for the rest of the day. Until I screamed his name so many times, it became the only word I remembered.

Until this god of fire became the only deity I wanted to worship.

And worship him I did.