Page 41

Clay’s fingers around the back of my neck tightened and my own fisted in his shirt, grounding me in him.

He pulled me back towards him, and his lips moved against mine, all at once teasing and desperate.

He took my bottom lip between his teeth, not enough to hurt me but possessive enough to make it clear that he wanted me too, that he wanted to mark me in a way that no God ever could and that set my soul positively on fire.

A feminine moan moved through me and Clay’s hands were suddenly under my thighs lifting me against him and I locked my ankles around his hips, savoring the feeling of his body between my legs.

He carried me to the bed, not breaking our kiss for a single second, even as I gasped when his tongue invaded my mouth, stroking into me possessively.

As he sat, he angled me on top of him so that I straddled him tightly and he pressed my hips down onto his hardness, rocking me back and forth.

I followed his lead, savoring the friction against my needy core.

Gods, it was all so overwhelming. The room was sweltering, heat rising steadily from Clay’s magic, and his skin was possibly burning my own, but I couldn’t help but find that all the more intoxicating.

My own magic was just as unruly, flying out of me in tiny bursts that knocked over books and unlit candles.

Clay’s hands strayed up my back, igniting every nerve in my body as they trailed towards my breasts and he grasped at them over my dress, rubbing his thumbs against the hardened peaks. My body responded instantly, back arching into his grip, desperate for more, desperate for him.

“Is this alright?” He pulled away from me to ask, his eyes glowing brighter than I’d ever seen them before.

Always so thoughtful, so considerate. He didn’t want to push me too far or too fast. Clay knew this was all so new to me and even though his need for me was evident in the thick length of him that pressed against my most sensitive place, his priority was my comfortability.

Warmth surged in my heart.

This man.

I wanted to give him all I had.

I'd wanted to for so long and had never allowed myself to open my heart to him. I'd spent so many days and nights terrified of the inevitable heartbreak that I kept myself from the sheer beauty that would be the joy of us together.

I didn't want to fight these feelings any longer.

Never breaking eye contact, I stood and reached for the laces of my corset .

“Is this alright?” I challenged, working the straps loose.

Clay leaned back on the bed, watching my every move with undivided attention, his gaze heated and trailing to the swell of my breasts. “Would you like some help with that, princess?”

I smirked, hands stalling on the laces. “That would be the gentlemanly thing, don’t you think?”

With a smug smile, he rose and pulled at the hem of his shirt, ripping it over his head in one clean motion and exposing the expanse of his muscled chest before coming to stand behind me and take over the job of undoing the laces.

“This will be the last thing I do tonight that will be considered gentlemanly, Miss Moore.” He pushed my hair over one shoulder, leaving a trail of tingling flesh everywhere his fingertips touched before he began pressing kisses along the line of my spine while he undid the corset and pulled it over my head.

“Oh?” I gasped, my voice breathy and uneven.

He grabbed my waist suddenly, pulling me back sharply against the firm expanse of his body, and it was like being pulled into a stone wall.

“I have thought about this for so long, Thea. I’ve wondered what it would be like to find all the little places that you like to be touched.

Planned out all the things I would do with you.

Dreamed of what sounds you would make while I made you come for me.

I intend to have all those questions answered before the sun comes up. ”

Suddenly, I couldn't breathe.

His fingers traveled to my shoulders, hooking under the fabric of my dress and easing it down.

He went slowly, painfully so, lingering over every inch of skin until the cotton lingered right over the tips of my hardened nipples and even though I couldn’t see him, I felt his attention as he pulled and exposed my breasts to the warm air.

The rest of the dress fell shortly afterwards, leaving me in nothing but my white lace panties.

The room was silent, the only sound that of my own shuddering breath as he trailed his touch along my bare skin, leaving a wake of chilled skin in his path as he found his way to my breast and squeezed the pebbled tip.

“Oh,” I gasped, throwing my head back against his chest, which shook with gentle laughter.

I angled my head towards his, longing for the touch of his lips on mine again and he happily leaned down to meet me, tracing my bottom lip with his tongue and guiding my hips to turn so that my front pressed against the bare skin of his chest.

Gods, I loved it. I loved the feeling of his firm body like an unmoveable wall holding me in place.

I loved the touch of his hands, one trailing to squeeze the muscle of my ass and the other circling the back of my neck, holding me in place while his thumb traced a maddening path up and down my pulse. And it wasn’t enough.

“I need more,” I confessed, pulling away to look up at him and committing the sight of him with wild eyes and swollen lips to memory.

His groan was the only sound he released before his mouth was on mine again, tongue dipping in and out in a tantalizing rhythm.

He eased me back further so that he could crawl into the bed over me, and before I knew it, he had tucked a thick leg between my thighs, hard against the point at which they joined.

My need was too strong to be understood, but instinct drove me to shamelessly rock myself against that leg, seeking the slightest bit of friction to ease the growing tension in my core.

He nipped at my chin and throat, the pain sharp at first but instantly soothed by the dart of his tongue.

I gasped out loud, body arching towards him.

His chest shook slightly as he chuckled again and the motion against my breasts left them heavy and aching for his touch.

Like a mindreader he complied, grasping onto them and pulling one between his lips, tongue darting out as he suckled me.

Gods, I felt like I was about to die in the most beautiful way possible.

He lifted his head, keeping his attention trained on my body, while his tongue darting out over his lower lip as he trailed a finger down my body, circling the delicate tip of my breast before continuing down with impossible gentleness and maddening slowness.

I whined my protest. The sensation was entirely satisfying and entirely not enough.

Twining my fingers through the softness of his overgrown hair, I pulled him to me once more, needing his mouth on mine again.

That hand continued its path, choosing now to climb upwards on the bare skin of my thigh, towards that place of burning need.

“ Yes,” I whispered, shocked by the shameless need that coated my voice in heaviness.

I remembered briefly when he had touched me there the first time we kissed at the Hyrax archives. That had been over the thick material of my riding pants and had still felt indescribable. I wasn’t sure I could handle it with just the thin lacy scrap of undergarment between our skin.

His fingers traced gentle circles there, and it took only a minute for me to feel like I was about to lose my mind.

Without meaning to, I gasped his name and his mouth was suddenly there to silence me as he pulled aside the lace and placed his fingers against my bare flesh, each circle sending pulses through every part of my body.

I followed his touch, rocking my hips against his fingertips as I chased that unbearably sweet pressure.

“I want to have you,” he whispered, pulling back to watch me as I writhed against his hand. Slowly a finger pushed inside me, then another, the sensation foreign but positively delectable. “Gods, you’re so fucking wet for me, princess.”

He looked down at me, the question in his eyes.

It was the last barrier that existed between us, the final decision that had to be made before we officially reached a point that we could never come back from.

And though I knew it would change absolutely everything, I no longer cared about anything but Clay and how badly I wanted his fire to consume me.

His fingers kept their rhythm as I nodded up at him, my heart seizing at the way he grinned before removing himself from the crux of my thighs.

I whimpered, unconsciously locking my legs around his hips to keep him tight against me, only to completely still as he brought his fingers to his mouth and sucked off the taste of me.

“Is that one of the things you dreamed about?” I whispered.

His expression was positively devilish. “And you taste sweeter than my most unspeakable fantasy.”

I was momentarily curious about what exactly said fantasy entailed.

Clay stood, hovering by the bed for a moment just to look at me before his hands undid the belt of his trousers and in no time the Crown Prince of Athenia stood before me, naked in all his glory, tall and muscular. And incredibly well-endowed.

There was no way I was prepared for this.

And there was no way I was saying no to it.

“Lift your ass for me, princess,” he instructed, hooking his fingers under the waistband of my panties. I did as I was told, lifting my hips so that he could slide off the fabric.

Somewhere inside me, I was aware of the nerves that swam in my stomach underneath the layers of desire.

The awareness that I didn’t have the slightest idea of what I was doing, or what I should be doing.

My hesitancy must have been visible on my face because Clay got to his knees on the bed and wrapped a hand around the back of my neck, lifting my chin to meet his gaze.

“Relax,” he told me. “Just be with me. Don’t worry about anything else. We can stop whenever you want.”

My wanting it wasn’t necessarily in question. Heated anticipation was firing in waves from my core, desperate and needy. “I don’t know how to- ”

He shushed me with a gentle press of his lips against mine as he guided me to lie back and pushed my thighs apart with a knee.

“Princess, my enjoyment of this evening is not something you need to question. And if for some unimaginable reason you doubt how much I think you are the most stunning fucking creature I’ve ever seen, then trust that we will have plenty more opportunities for me to teach you every single way we can love each other.

For now, just lay back and let me worship at your altar. ”

A wave of emotion overcame me, filled with longing and trust, desire and friendship, passion and… something I hadn’t given voice to.

Clay hooked his hands under my knees, raising my thighs as he positioned himself at my entry. There was one last pause, one last questioning glance, before I whispered, “Yes,” and he pushed himself into the deepest part of me.

I gasped out, shutting my eyes against the sudden sting of pain, breathing through my nose and Clay was still, allowing me the time I needed to adjust to the feeling of him and open my eyes again.

“Okay?” He asked, running a thumb comfortingly over my cheek.

“Perfect.”

He kissed me, slow and tantalizing, both a promise of what was to come and a vow that I was safe with him. As his lips worked against mine, his tongue and teeth running against my bottom lip, his hips began to rock, moving in and out of me with gentle carefulness.

And it was… sensational.

My core clenched, locking tightly around him as he moved and he groaned, the sound only spurring me on.

With every push and pull of his body, that pain faded, leaving searing pleasure in its wake.

His pace quickened, his head thrown back for a moment in his own pleasure, and my toes began to curl, that high building with every movement.

It clouded my mind. Every thought and fear faded from existence and my breath became cries that sounded around us .

“Open your eyes,” he commanded.

I hadn’t even realized I had closed them.

Clay stared down at me with such total and utter devotion that there was no doubt at all of whether he was enjoying this.

There was no doubt that what he was feeling went far beyond the sexual ecstasy we were both lost in.

I knew the words before he gave life to them, and this time I didn’t stop him from saying them.

“I am in love with you, Theadora,” he whispered, pausing his movement only to wipe away the tear that slid down my cheek.

Words failed me.

Thoughts failed me.

But my feelings for him never did.

“And I love you.”

His hips shifted, penetrating me impossibly deeper, and I moaned, savoring the bite of pain in the new angle. Clay’s forehead pressed against mine as he thrust into me, each movement more frantic than the last. I raised my hips to meet his, hating every second he wasn’t fully inside me.

“Again,” he commanded through gritted teeth.

“I love you.”

“Again.”

Over and over. I said it until my words turned to screams. Until the pressure built so high that the world shattered around me in sparkling perfection that left my body shaking.

Until the furniture itself rattled as magic exploded out of me.

Until he groaned my name and stilled inside me, filling me.

And when everything was quiet, after he had slowly slipped out of me and pulled me against his chest, I said it again.

“I love you.”

His fingers traced their way through my hair. “Always princess, no matter what comes next.”