Page 26 of Minding the Minotaur (Monsters of the Labyrinth #1)

A RLO

My arms are barely able to hold me above Sammy, they’re so weak from the force of my orgasm.

The last thing I want is for my bulk to crush her, so I brace, even as my body melts like liquid honey.

She sandwiches my face with her hands and looks deep into my eyes, her own eyes soft and orgasm-drenched.

And now we kiss, a deep, forever kiss that goes on and on, pledging me to her and her to me.

“My mate, at last,” I husk.

“My mate,” she whispers back.

Eventually, I roll off her and lie on my back on the rock. I reach for her hand, and we stare up at the dark rock walls, the overhanging ferns, and the thousands of darting lights from the fairy moths’ wings.

“I didn’t hurt you?”

“No, no way. Couldn’t you tell how much I loved it?”

I smirk into the darkness. I had sort of guessed. Her howls of pleasure made the rock walls shake.

I prop up on my elbow and gaze down at her. “I love you, so very much, Samantha Buggins.”

Her eyes spark in the soft light. “I love you too, Arlo Ungula.”

“Marry me.” The words that have been playing through my mind these past few days fly out of my mouth. I was going to wait until the moonbeam hit the lake, get down on one knee, but my mouth had other ideas.

“Oh Arlo, what will your family and friends say if you marry a paper skin?”

“Don’t call yourself that,” I growl.

“I’m sorry, it’s just… Will folks accept me?”

“Of course they will. This isn’t Sparkle City.”

Still, she is quiet. “Have I come on too strong too soon?” I ask.

“No, no Arlo. I want to marry you too. But it’s just—I’ve never been lucky in love. Guys have used me up and left me. Usually taking a wad of money from my bank account with them.”

Rage fills my chest. “If I ever meet those lowlife scumbags, they’ll wish I hadn’t.”

She looks worried suddenly. “You won’t meet them. You must never go back to Sparkle, Arlo. Ever. Promise me that. If I lost, you I—I don’t know what I’d do.”

“I promise,” I soothe. The logistics of Sammy staying here in the Labyrinth are a hurdle we will have to cross at some stage. No monster, in centuries has wed a human, let alone sired a youngling with one, but I am determined that Sammy and I will.

It’s fated, us being together. I knew it the moment I met her.

“You still haven’t answered my question, pet. Will you marry me? ”

She reaches up and strokes my cheek, then places her palm against my heart. “Yes, Arlo, I will marry you.”

I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight, the joy inside me too great to verbalize.

When we part, she says cheekily, “So, what do we do now?”

“We wait for the moonbeam to hit the lake. It will be a few more hours yet. I estimate it’s only mid-afternoon.” She yawns. “Maybe you need a nap,” I suggest, feeling deliciously lethargic myself.

“I think I do. Wake me up when it’s time.” Turning, she wiggles her soft butt into my belly, and soon I hear that little snuffly snore of hers.

My eyelids grow heavy. Coming so spectacularly, plus the long run to get here, has made me pretty exhausted. The moon won’t be out for several hours, and I want us to be refreshed to observe such a beautiful phenomenon.

Spooning into my beautiful human, I let myself drift into sleep.

I wake to the feel of a hand stroking my chest. I lay there as memory returns to me of our beautiful coupling.

I sneak open half an eye to see she’s turned around to face me and is exploring my body with a feather light touch.

My senses spike as a naughty hand skirts over my flank, and around my butt, and takes hold of my tail. She brings it around between us and strokes it over her breasts, the tufted tip teasing her nipples. It’s erotic as all hell.

My cock obligingly fluffs.

Her other hand sneaks down my belly now, smoothing over the v of muscle that runs down to my groin. Fingers stroke the thick hair near where my member nests, and I feel a pulse drum, warm and heavy, in my balls .

Then, gods damn it, the little wench grips my cock and starts firmly stroking. Naturally, my cock obliges by turning rock hard.

But then her hand disappears.

I grunt and buck my hips, chasing her touch, eyes still half closed but a smile shaping my lips.

I know what my human is doing—she’s teasing me, getting back at me for the way I edged her earlier.

She knows it will end in me claiming her, pounding into her sweet pussy, but she’s enjoying the game. So am I.

She keeps on teasing my now-huge cock, lightly sweeping the tip with her fingertips.

I groan now, fully awake. She rubs the frenulum just where I love it, below the swollen head. Squeezes out drops of pre-cum and rub it around and around.

I growl out a thick expletive as my nerve endings light up.

Finally, I can take the game no longer. I grab her wrists. She fights me, our laughter bouncing off the cave walls, but of course I hold back my strength. Let her win.

I roll onto my back and in one swift move she’s straddled me.

“I’m in charge, remember?” She grins.

“I surrender.”

She lowers her lips to mine, and we tease one another with our tongues, while at the same time she’s teasing my cock head with her folds.

I place a hand in her mussed up hair, pull her head down and cover her mouth with mine, thrusting my tongue deep into her mouth, and finally, with a little moan, she sinks her pussy lower.

My cock enters her with ease. No fucking lube necessary this time.

As we pant against each other’s mouths she fucks me hard. My cock thrusts into her, filling her to the hilt, and she writhes and arches, her golden hair flying around her bouncing beautiful tits.

I put my hand between us and work the juicy nub just above my thrusting cock, and watch as her eyes widen and lose focus as she gets closer to her release. Her little cunt squeezes my fucking beleaguered cock tighter and tighter.

“Yes, fuck yeah, babe,” I growl as Sammy chants my name.

There’s no holding back now. I rub her clit so fast I can see the muscles in my forearm bunch as I work her. It’s primal and dirty and I watch, panting, getting off on the sight of her above me, my cock glistening as it pistons in and out of her sweet, tight little pussy.

I feel her orgasm build inside her.

And then her body arches back, and Sammy howls out her release.

At the same time, her cunt tightens so hard around my cock, I don’t stand a chance.

I come with a shout so loud, I swear it could bring these ancient rock walls down.

SAMMY

My orgasm is so incredible that I swear I feel the earth move as I ride the waves with Arlo.

Then I realize it isn’t our mutual orgasm that’s making everything judder and shake.

It really is the earth moving.

“Arlo,” I cry, clinging to him. A huge rock bounces right next to us, then grinds to a halt at the edge of the lake.

“Shit! Fuck!” Arlo lifts me off him and shields my naked body with his as another rock bounces past and lands with a loud plop in the water. Several smaller rocks bounce down the side of the wall and ricochet past. One hits Arlo’s horn with a clunk.

“Fucking hell.” he bellows.

I hide underneath him, quivering.

Two more large rocks fall, just missing us, and fly into the water. A scree of smaller pebbles follows, landing in a heap beside us.

And then, as quickly as it began, the rocks stop falling. There’s silence except for the sound of our labored breathing.

“Are you okay, babe?” Arlo finally pants.

“Yes—you?”

“Fine, apart from a bruised horn.” He huffs a laugh. “Did we just cause that?”

I can’t help a shaky laugh in return. “Hey, you were amazing, but not quite Earth shattering.”

“Gee, thanks,” he replies, then maneuvers me against the rock wall, arching his huge bulk over me. “We’re going to stay here until I’m sure it’s finished.”

“Okay.” I stroke his chest. “And you were Earth-shattering,” I add, with a lip quirk.

He takes my hand in his big one and holds it to his chest, and I can feel how fast his heart is thumping.

“Seriously though, what could have caused that?” I ask after several more minutes of silence.

“Maybe a small earthquake, or some rocks that were just ready to break free.”

After another few minutes, we edge gingerly away from the cave wall and look up. Arlo and I gasp in unison.

There’s a beam of golden light filtering in from a hole in the rock roof. It hits the cave wall across from us, highlighting details I hadn’t noticed before—veins of crystal in the rock, tiny flowers in among the lush plants.

“Sweet goddess,” Arlo murmurs. “It’s opened up a hole in the canopy.”

“Is that Earth up there?”

“Pretty sure it is. The rocks fell from the spot where we used to stargaze as kids. It was a narrow little fissure back then, but there must have been a fault line.”

Excitement pulses through my veins. “We have to go up and look, Arlo. ”

He hesitates, still squinting upward. “It’s a pretty steep climb, babe.”

“I can do it,” I say stoutly.

“I don’t want you to fall.”

“Well, if I do, I’ll just bounce into the lake like those rocks.”

He shakes his head, smiling. “I’ll check out a route first. If it’s safe, you can follow in my footholds. But if it’s too dangerous, we’ll stop.”

“No, we won’t,” I mutter.

“Stubborn little human.” He grins.

We dress quickly and then Arlo charts a path while I stand below, watching. I’m amazed at how nimble he is. I hadn’t realized that minotaurs could climb up steep rock walls, but honestly, with that physique, why couldn’t he?

When he comes down, dusting his hands on his thighs, he says, “It should be okay, there’s some pretty good hand and footholds. Follow me.”

As we make our way up, Arlo checking in on me often and sometimes giving me a big hand to hold onto, I amaze myself with my own climbing abilities.

At the top, Arlo tells me to hold on tight while he hauls himself up through the gap in the rocks.

“What can you see?” I ask. I’m feeling lightheaded. I guess that’s the effect of monumental sex followed by huge boulders falling on top of us, then climbing up a steep rock wall.

He doesn’t come back for at least a minute. It feels longer. I call out “Arlo,” a slight sense of panic taking hold.

Then his head pops back into view, his horns highlighted against the golden light behind him. “Sammy, you have to see this. There’s the most amazing sunset.”

He reaches down, loops a huge hand around my arm, and lifts me up, my feet scrabbling for purchase as he helps me out into the… open .

Eyes saucering in my head, I gaze around at a scene so beautiful I can barely comprehend it.

Purple and pink and magenta streak across the vast heavens, wisps of the palest gold and pink gossamer clouds dancing across it.

A huge red orb is sliding toward the purple peaks of hills that are taller than anything I could ever imagine, and covered with swathes of trees, their branches reaching up toward that perfect sky.

Looking down, there’s a thick blanket of green, soft as velvet.

It springs between my toes. Grass. So this is what real grass is like.

Dotted among it are tiny leaves, and white and yellow and pink petals.

The smell is intoxicating. And the sounds—the hum of creatures I have never heard, the sweetest songs of birds …

It’s intoxicating.

Overwhelming.

Arlo turns to me, his whole face radiant.

“Earth,” he breathes, and I try to smile.

But my mouth won’t comply.

There’s a sudden, crushing weight on my chest, and try as I might, I can’t draw a single breath.

I try desperately to speak, but no words come.

And then the sunset and the distant hills, the trees and flowers and soft green grass all disappear as darkness envelops me.