Page 14

Chapter 14

A Long Story

Evrard

S he glowed in the moonlight, his Maggie.

Not an agate, pretty and uncommon though they might be, but a rare pearl.

A treasure. He wasn’t a lowborn from the cliffs with a mate like her.

Even on his knees in the dirt, he felt like the richest gargoyle in Tael-Nost.

Teeth aching from how hard he’d clenched them to ward off his release, he stroked down her back and over her sturdy haunches.

She shivered, so he angled one of his wings to block the breeze blowing off the water.

The sand was cool under his palms as he braced over her, his claws digging grooves into the damp grains.

His knee nudged hers apart, and she pushed back against him, the eagerness in her thoughts swelling his cock that he’d been trying so hard to subdue.

His breath hissed out.

“Slow, pretty pearl.”

“Why, when we both want it?” she whined.

“If it’s over too quickly, we can just do it again.”

Chuckling at her irrefutable logic, he gave in and pushed inside her.

She met him halfway, her body clutching him as he drove home.

A groan dragged out of him, so loud that it echoed off the cliffs.

Nothing compared to the heat of her.

The way she took him in, the way her body stretched around him.

The way her thoughts burned.

He didn’t need to see the sun when he had this.

“Please, Evrard,” she panted, rocking back and forth.

When he didn’t respond, he felt a sharp flash of defiance burst in the corner of his mind reserved for her.

“You have to move or I’ll find another cock to satisfy me.”

Her thoughts betrayed her unserious tease, but he was goaded all the same.

So his mate wanted him to move?

She thought she could bait him thus?

With a snarl, he abandoned his restraint and gave her what she asked for.

Merciless strokes drove him too fast toward the inevitable.

His knot swelled almost immediately, its girth hammering against her.

He didn’t ask if she wanted it this time.

She would take it to remind her that she was his.

With a deep thrust, he held his knot to her snug opening, applying pressure until she was gasping, sparks of pleasure bursting through their mental connection.

He leaned down, his jaw scraping against her shoulder as he found the red circle of his bite, already mostly healed from his saliva.

The scent of the ocean and her arousal mingled around them, the salt air thick with her desire.

“Mine,” he reminded her, biting and sucking at the spot, testing her skin with his teeth as his knot tested her entrance.

“My Maggie.”

“Yessss,” she breathed unsteadily.

“Just like that. Fill me up.”

She tightened involuntarily around the invading pressure, her sighs pitching up when his knot slid home.

Trapped inside her, he could barely move, but he shifted his weight to one arm so he could reach around her waist with the other.

He found her pleasure spot, stroking it with a precision that had her bucking back against him.

Her orgasm crashed through his mind a split-second before he felt her shudder and cry out his name.

The combination ripped his own release from his body.

His knot swelled, locking into place.

His seed spilled into her in almost painful rushes that made his fingers tingle and his head light and any cracks in his heart heal.

For a brief, blinding moment, they were one mind.

One body. One heartbeat.

When he could breathe again, he circled her waist with his arm and eased them both backwards so he could lean against the cliffs with her in his lap.

Maggie melted into him, limbs languid, while they waited for his knot to subside.

Evrard nosed affectionately against her neck, his still-indignant breath huffing in her ear.

His was the only cock she’d get.

He pushed the thought strongly into their connection.

She giggled, the laughter making her clench around him.

“I know. I was just teasing you. None could compare.” She petted his forearm until his grumble turned into a grudging purr.

He couldn’t pretend to be disgruntled when he was still inside the hot clasp of his mate.

He was happier than he’d ever been.

He licked her shoulder, tending the bite mark to speed its healing.

He hoped she’d wear the scar proudly.

He’d felt her desire to mark him as well, and he was happy to show off her claim, whatever it might be.

She turned her head so she could look up at him over her shoulder.

“You know you can’t leave now. If you thought you could give me this and then fly away again, you’re fooling yourself.”

He grunted his agreement.

There was no question that he would stay with her.

He might be marked a deserter, but he was low-ranking enough that they probably wouldn’t come looking for him.

And as for any reward he might have earned, he didn’t need a tower eyrie when his mate walked on the earth.

“So you’ll stay in Brinehelm?!” Her whole body twisted now, and his knot slipped free.

A warm gush of their combined liquids slid out of her, down his thigh, and into the sand.

He was unreasonably proud of the quantity.

If his seed hadn’t planted in her before, it would this time.

He cradled her lower belly, enjoying its soft weight in his palm.

“Stay with my Maggie,” he corrected.

The village was irrelevant.

She squealed and threw her arms around his neck, kissing all over his face and ears until he was embarrassed by the noise of his own purr.

“Mating me was the half-wisest thing you’ve ever done,” she informed him.

“You’ll never get out of this trouble.”

“Good.” He could think of no duty more pleasant than watching over her.

Than tending her and making sure she had every safety and comfort.

And the fact that she lavished him with affection and deft teases in return?

He would be her purring servant forever, loyal as her kitten.

“Do we have time for another round before daybreak?” She traced over his chest with her tiny finger in a maddening pattern that made his tail twitch with fresh desire.

Every impulse was to indulge her, but they had an unpleasant chore to finish before they could play.

“Kaspar,” he reminded her, catching her hand in his.

Maggie groaned, her head falling back so her long, red-gold hair tickled his knees.

“He ruins everything.”

Evrard snorted a laugh as he reached to pluck her still-damp clothing from the rocks.

He handed it to her once she’d rinsed her thighs in the shallows.

She should have something warm and dry, but it was better than nothing.

When she’d dressed and he’d laced his breeches over his stubbornly ready cock, she held out her arms. He scooped her up, and a few swift wingbeats later, they were in the sky.