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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JORGE

H er lips were fire. No, not fire—something hotter, something that consumed and left no trace of the life I’d born for the time that we were apart.

Charlotte kissed me with a hunger that matched the ache I’d carried for three years.

Her hands tangled in my hair. Her body pressed so close to mine I could feel her heart pounding against my chest.

It felt like a dream—no, a waking nightmare that had finally shattered.

The years of fighting, the endless bloodshed, the sleepless nights staring into the dark and wondering if she was sad—they all faded into nothing.

All that mattered now was the reality of her in my arms, the taste of her kiss, the weight of her command, as if she owned me.

Because she did.

I’d been born for this—for her. To love her, to protect her, to keep her safe.

The thought of what she’d been through, the danger she’d willingly walked into, turned my blood to molten steel. My hands tightened around her waist as the realization broke through the haze of desire.

I broke the kiss, pressing my forehead to hers as I tried to steady my breathing. “Did you volunteer for the Games?”

“I ran away when we got to the summer castle. It was the first time in three years they left me unguarded, so I ran to find you.”

She aimed for my mouth again, but I needed to know more. "You ran to the Games?"

“I ran into warriors on the road. Kael Drakos, can you believe it? He's awful."

That was a fantasy I hadn't wanted to dispel for her. Drakos was a womanizing, cheating brute, like I'd always suspected. I'd had it confirmed in my short time in the Games with women running from his quarters, tears streaming down their faces and their clothes torn.

"He tried to take advantage of me. "

"He what?"

"So I broke his arm. Then his henchmen knocked me out. When I woke up, I was here.”

Rage flared in my chest. I was going to kill him. First, I forced myself to take a deep breath, to focus on the fact that Charlotte was here, alive, and unbroken.

For now.

But she was in the Games. That made her anything but safe.

“We need to get you cleaned up.”

"I'd rather get dirty with you."

My cock had been asleep for three years. It sprang painfully to life with that. My ever-present need to care for her won the day. "Let me see to you first."

It was formed as a question, but I wasn't taking suggestions. I lifted her off the ground, scooping her into my arms.

Charlotte gasped. Her gaze went wide as she glanced at the floor, then at me. I'd never been strong enough to do this before. She was about to see that I was no longer that weak boy. I was all man, with some enhancements I'd personally engineered just for her.

I carried her to the bathing room that was the second room in these lodgings. That was one thing about the Games: if you survived, you were treated well. Lodgings and two meals a day both during the Games and the three years between tournaments. But that was only if you survived.

Charlotte and I had won today. But the game we played wasn't over. The Sun and Moon Gauntlet was a two-day event. There was still more fighting to do. I'd worry about tomorrow when it came.

The pipes groaned as I turned on one of the faucets. A steady stream of lukewarm water cascaded down into the basin below. Charlotte held still for me as I unfastened the stays on her dress. Her gaze never left mine, as though she was afraid I'd disappear from her sight if she looked away.

I felt the exact same. I warred between wanting to gaze at her, wanting to touch her, and wanting to hear her voice. I realized I could do all three.

"You're all right?" I asked as I tugged her arms free of the dirty garment, my fingers brushing the warm skin I uncovered.

"I missed you so much. I was aching for three years without you."

She spoke the words that were in my heart. She was everything—my light in the darkness, my reason for fighting, my reason for breathing. I would do whatever it took to keep her safe, even if it meant facing every nightmare this damned tournament could throw at us.

Her wings fluttered out as the dress slipped from her shoulders.

I was more interested in them than her bared breasts.

There was truth to men being hypnotized by a fairy's wings.

In the capital, many fairies walked around with their wings out like it was nothing.

That didn't mean they didn't get pestered in the streets.

I'd never once been tempted. Not when I had seen and touched and tasted the most perfect pair of wings on the planet.

Charlotte shivered as I soaped them. The silken membranes gleamed under the warm water. The faint iridescence caught the light with every careful stroke of my fingers. I worked the lather in gently, massaging along the fine structure, mindful of the tender joints where wing met back.

I knew where her sensitive spots were. The slightest brush along the lower ridge sent a ripple through her body. My hands slowed, tracing over the intricate veins that shimmered just beneath the surface, following their natural patterns as though they were etched into my memory.

Her wings quivered as I rinsed the suds away, the weight of water making them heavier, drooping slightly under the cascade.

I caught them, lifting one carefully, letting the droplets roll off my fingertips.

They were so much stronger than they looked but still impossibly delicate.

Like her. Like everything about her that made her both fierce and breathtaking.

Her breasts had grown. They were fuller in my hands. Her ass too. It had gotten stronger. We both were warriors now, each determined to protect the other.

As I washed away the dirt and blood from her perfect skin, she stood still. Oh, she squirmed, but she did not move away. She had never moved away from my touch.

"Please, Jorge."

"Shhh, my starlight."

Now was not the time for what she wanted. We had to plan. We had to strategize. Maybe I could get us out with my position in the military. But then Prince Adom would know he had the wrong bride, and they would take her from me.

No, the Games were likely the best place for us to hide while the Prince of Solmane took his vows with the imposter.

"Please."

Charlotte's gaze was on my prosthetic hand. The look was heated. It was the same look as when she'd come to me in the middle of the night, when we were barely full grown. The look that only I could ease.

This woman was my world. I would bend space and time for her. All she was asking was for me to offer her release. It was what I was made for. It was her right to ask me for pleasure. And so I gave it to her.

I pressed my finger to her core.

"Yes, Jorge."

The prosthetic was connected to my brain. I only had to give it a command. The metal came to life like it was sentient and it wanted to do this.

Charlotte gasped as I sent the warmth of a single digit straight to her clit. She moaned as my attachment began to hum. I'd made it with her in mind. Though I'd never actually used this feature. So I'd never had the occasion to calibrate it.

She orgasmed in five seconds flat. Her body jerked and spasmed as though it had been struck by lightning. She stopped breathing for five seconds after that as she tried to regain control of her limbs.

But my girl was a greedy fae. One orgasm had never been enough for her. I kicked her thighs apart. Her legs were weak from her first release, but now I was strong enough to support her.

I hefted her up against the shower wall until her core was flush against my face. I draped her thighs over my shoulders. Her heels hit my back. Her knees pressed against my ears.

I took a deep inhale of my favorite scent, realizing that there were fresh new notes that hadn't been there before.

I released a heated exhale against her open folds that had her shivering.

Then I dug into my meal. I gorged myself on the nectar I'd been deprived of, the nectar I'd fought for for the last three years .

Charlotte's nails dug into my shoulders. She began shaking. Her heels dug into my back. Her knees pressed against my temples. I pulled a deeper orgasm from her, one that had her whole body shaking. And I didn't stop. I was never going to stop now that I had her back.

This was how we would exist in this world. Charlotte would be wrapped around my face as I walked, as we ate, as we slept. Because I was in paradise.

I leaned her against the shower walls and tilted her hips forward.

I pressed harder to capture the sweet honey that gushed from between her thighs.

I licked up every last drop and coaxed more to come down from the treasure trove inside her core.

We stayed that way in the shower until her skin was a shriveled prune, her voice hoarse from an hour of moaning, and my tongue was sated with the taste of her.