Page 55

How did he manage to charm me more every day?

If things continued this way, soon enough I’d be putty in his hands.

Glad I’d had the chance to bathe, I slunk across the covers to where Luthri awaited me.

Getting on top took some effort; I nearly took off his nose with a knee, but as I lowered myself into position, I had to admit it was a nice view.

Lu’s arms came around to grip my thighs, fingers dimpling my flesh. His words were muffled. “Don’t let me discourage you, but… if I can breathe, you’re doing it wrong.”

That was all the warning I got before he hauled me over his nose and mouth and greeted my clit with an enthusiastic swirl of firm, wet tongue.

Any thoughts I might have had stumbled to a halt.

I threw my head back, not entirely in control of my body, as he drew an indiscernible pattern against sensitive flesh.

Back and forth he went, tasting me as though his life depended on it and soaking us both in a combination of saliva and my own wetness.

Tension throughout my body signaled the impending orgasm would be magnificent.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more, his tongue breached my entrance, splitting me in half with its unexpected size.

My spine went rigid. The appendage writhed like it had a life of its own, reaching parts a human’s could never.

The foreign sensation stunned me at first—I didn’t know if I should push him away or pull him closer.

But his tongue woke long-neglected nerve endings, and I could no longer care about anything but finding my pleasure.

I gasped. Cried out. My thighs clamped around his head like a vise, and my hand found his hair, fisting a handful of the silky near-black locks without care.

“Oh, yes! Oh, God, do that again!” It barely registered that I was speaking English.

Luckily for me, Luthri spoke fluent body language.

His long tongue wriggled and thrashed against my inner walls, simultaneously meeting the instinctual need to be filled and pressing buttons I didn’t even know existed.

I ground against his face, a wanton creature desperate for the release that threatened.

Each twist of his magical tongue pushed me higher.

Every jerk of my hips wound me tighter. Delicious tension gathered in my core to a point that bordered on pain—then, blessedly, miraculously, it culminated.

The gratification was immeasurable. Infinite synapses fired at once, exploding like fireworks across my senses, and all was right with the world.

A loud crack split the air.

I didn’t realize what I’d done until the tremors abated, when I rolled off Luthri and found myself on the floor.

One of the legs of the bed frame had collapsed under our combined weight.

Not due to ardor, but because in the throes of that breathtaking orgasm, I’d subconsciously used the mana gathered from my earlier practice session to accomplish what I’d been attempting and failing to do for the past weeks: expand my body beyond its natural limit.

Unfortunately for Lu, I’d been on top of him at the time.

Excess mana escaped in wisps, giving the appearance of white smoke leaving my body through every pore. Waving it aside, I rushed to check on him. He appeared no worse for wear physically, although all his energy was currently devoted to catching his breath.

“You take direction well,” he announced between puffs. “Much longer and the Lady Hermenia would have been along to guide my soul to the underworld. ”

Regret obstructed my throat. “I’m sorry. I should have?—”

“No!” he exclaimed, shooting up from the bed. “Don’t be sorry. That was the greatest thrill I’ve had in a long time, and I once fucked a giantess.”

Breathing a sigh, I crawled beside him. “You know, it’s generally frowned upon to discuss past sexual liaisons with a new partner. Especially… Well.”

I nodded down at our situation.

“A story for next time, then.” Luthri let his head fall back against the pillow, eyes closed.

His lips, curved in bliss, were swollen from our activities, and his chin glistened with the evidence of my arousal.

Going by the proud erection jutting from his groin, the brief setback had done nothing to discourage his libido.

I doubted he would object if I picked up where we left off.

Watching for a reaction, I took his hard length in hand and moved to straddle him.

Luthri’s breath caught, and his head came up.

Yellow eyes went scorching gold as he took in my position.

I dragged my hand up and down his shaft, enjoying the heat of him under my palm, and his hands found the groove where my thighs met my torso. His fingers dug in, but I didn’t mind.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Do you need me to beg again? Because I will.”

I chuckled to myself. “No. No, I think you’ve earned it.”

He held his breath as I slotted him at my entrance. I went slowly, savoring the gradual stretch and satisfying fullness. Luthri’s head tipped back, eyes closing, and his lips moved as though invoking a higher being to bear witness to our lovemaking.

My arm snaked out to grab a hold of his chin and redirect his gaze where it mattered.

“I want you to watch.” I punctuated my words with a forceful squeeze.

His throat bobbed, and he nodded. I dropped the rest of the way without warning.

He bottomed out deep inside, and my muted gasp harmonized with his unrestrained groan of pleasure.

Once we’d adapted to each other, I circled my hips, testing my range of movement.

But before we could get to the good part, Lu sat up, nearly upending me. He supported me with one hand while the other came up to caress a breast.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” he whispered into the underside of my jaw. “For you. To hold you like this, touch your naked skin… See you take me.” His lips traced the column of my throat. “This is perfect. You’re perfect. I had to tell you that.”

I didn’t think I was the kind of person who succumbed to charming words, but it had been too long since I had this.

Or had I ever had it? The one relationship I’d had—one of the temporary members of our band some years ago—hadn’t been quite this intense.

Other casual partners could drop a dirty one-liner, but romance? That was something else.

Eyes half-lidded, I surrendered to Luthri’s touch.

He sensed the shift and adjusted his hold, moving under me in steady, measured thrusts that took my breath away.

I could have let him do all the work—heaven knew I deserved it—but I ground onto him instead, matching his pace thrust for thrust and driving him even deeper.

It wasn’t long until he was thrusting into me from below with ravenous intensity, and I could only hold on and enjoy the ride. It would be worth the soreness tomorrow. On one stroke, he hit a spot that made my toes curl, and my fingers dug into his back. “There!”

He responded instantly, tilting my body toward him at the slightest angle, and did it again with devastating accuracy.

At the same time, a thumb pressed against my clitoris and massaged the spot.

I saw stars. My vocalizations escalated, panting becoming loud moans and uninhibited whimpers.

That seemed to do something for Lu, too, because though the pace didn’t change, his grip on me tightened, and his breaths came shorter.

I wasn’t thinking when my teeth closed around his earlobe in a punishing love bite.

His resounding growl made muscles far under the skin clench, which made me constrict further around his cock.

A second orgasm hit me out of nowhere. His thrusts grew frantic, stuttered; then he sank deep and stayed there, gripping me close with a stifled moan of release.

We held each other as we came down. Adoring hands ran over limbs and through hair while sweet words were exchanged, interspersed with delicate kisses.

It was everything I hadn’t realized I needed: touch, intimacy, affection, warmth.

Why had I put this off for so long? If I’d been less committed to fighting myself, I could have had heaven at my fingertips the entire time.

After a cursory clean-up, which included a lackluster attempt to reattach the wooden leg that had broken, Luthri and I lay together in the (slanting) bed and cuddled.

“What’s this?” Lu asked as his thumb traced a faint scar on my bare thigh.

Memories played behind my eyes: hitchhiking from D.C.

to New York with nothing but determination and the clothes on my back, fleeing soldiers to climb the fence around Niagara Falls, and getting nicked by a bullet as I plummeted toward The Rift.

Finally, patching myself up on the other side and figuring out what came next as a sixteen-year-old girl in an unknown world, on her own for the first time in her life.

I’d come so far.

“The cost of freedom,” I responded, electing to leave it at that.

Lu contemplated my answer. “Couldn’t you fix that? With your magic?”

“I could.”

I didn’t elaborate, and he didn’t push.

Listening to the faint sounds of the ocean, we dozed until moonlight filtered through the windows.

At some point, I woke to Luthri gently massaging my scalp and running his hands through my hair, as though he couldn’t bear to go without touching me for an entire night.

I nuzzled against his chest and breathed him in.

With my guard down, dark thoughts crept in.

Things were too perfect; it was only a matter of time before they fell apart.

So much was left to do, which meant there was so much that could go wrong.

Fears and insecurities that usually sat on the sidelines clamored for attention.

Normally, I would shake them off and keep myself busy. Now…

“I’m terrified,” I confessed aloud. Luthri’s hand stilled. “So many people have been here, have tried and failed. What if I make a mistake? What if we fail too, and all of us are lost?”

“Shh,” he whispered into my hair. “You’re not doing this alone. There’s no way to predict what the future holds, yet it holds so much power over us. Don’t give it more than it’s earned.”

Suddenly exhausted, I let my eyes shut. Luthri’s lips brushed my forehead. I angled my face up for a kiss and found comfort in the gesture.

This moment, at least, was ours.

We made love twice more that night.