“No.” His face tilted down, as if to avoid her gaze while he flicked her nipple side to side. “There is not enough of me right now to maintain what I currently am. The soul I destroyed in order to remove Ari and relocate him for you took much from me.”

“Oh.” She tried not to feel disheartened, but she wanted to reciprocate in some way. To offer him pleasure like he had for her, and was doing so now.

“I could cast barriers to give you something to hold onto, but I doubt that would be the same to you.”

She shook her head to show she agreed and followed his gaze to her breast. Only then did she notice that the parts of him she could see were limited to his hands and the front of his face – the back of his skull was missing and waving like water lapping at the shores of a beach.

Weldir then removed his hand from her chest and delicately placed his palm against the side of her face. He thumbed both her lips before pulling the bottom one down. “But I could kiss you.”

Her lips pursed and her eyes narrowed into suspicious slits. “Do you promise not to punch me in the mouth again?”

His nose crinkled, causing flakes to flick off and collect upon the side of his cheek. “I did not punch you,” he snapped out in protest. “I tried to kiss you. I was better the second time, correct?”

She had to bite her lips shut to stop herself from laughing. Lindiwe waved her hands backwards, so she’d swim forward, crossing the distance between them herself – for once.

“I guess a kiss might be nice.” The very idea had her stomach fluttering.

Whatever had gotten into Weldir and made him actually sensual and arousing, she liked it. She liked this difference, and how much he was obviously trying. She didn’t dare question it or ruin this by being rigid and stubborn.

He was slow to close the last inch. When he did, his lips were soft against hers, yielding even.

His mouth was a little big, his form always a little larger than hers, but she didn’t mind.

Not when she instantly wanted to melt at the pressure.

The kiss was light, gentle, and the movement of their lips just perfect enough that her moan muffled into it.

When she tilted her head to deepen it, the tension in her muscles finally unlocked. Her legs willingly parted, and she almost moaned again when his hand inclined up her right thigh as he cupped her breast again with the other one.

She wanted to wrap her arms around his neck, but there was no point, as there was nothing there to hold onto. Instead, she carefully pressed her fingertips to his cheeks and the side of his jaw that was solid. Her eyes closed of their own accord, as heat and want and arousal flooded her.

A heavy breath left her when his palm cupped her pussy, and she ground her clit against it in welcome.

Only once, holding back unlike last time, so she didn’t feel as though she was so desperate.

Yet she was, her entire body – from head to toe and breast to pussy – throbbing with need, vibrating with it like an earthquake.

Desperate for sensation, for affection, to be stroked and played with until she broke apart again.

Nearly a hundred years had been too long for this. To be given pleasure and share her body with the only person she could, or would, give it to.

She wanted to be resentful about that, remembering all the loneliness she’d suffered because of his negligence, but the moment two of his fingers found her clit, she completely forgot.

Or stopped caring. Not when he pressed against it so perfectly that her tongue darted out to lick between his parted lips with a soft cry.

Her right hand darted away from his face and down to clasp the back of his. Oh, heavens, her mind called, as she ground against it hard. Her features pinched as her inner walls clamped down on nothing, and she had the overwhelming urge to shove his fingers inside her.

“Please, Weldir,” she whispered. “Faster.”

This slowness was an agonising pace, her starved body greedy and hungry for more now . She’d been thinking about this for the past few years, putting Ari first before any of her own needs.

“Is this better?” Weldir rumbled as he speared her pussy with both fingers.

Her body lifted and arched as she threw her head back with a choking gasp.

The fit was so snug that the stretch had been just painful enough to burn, but her wetness eased the sudden glide.

The filling sensation was so welcome that her inner walls happily clamped and fluttered around his fingers, and she lifted her knees and spread her thighs more to give him better, deeper, access.

Her brows furrowed and her lips parted when she felt his mouth trailing down the arch over her throat.

She could almost perceive her pulse dancing beneath his firm lips, and a shiver tore through her, causing her skin to prickle.

Only for her entire being to melt for him when he pulled his fingers back and thrust them forward just right.

Lindiwe arched into his pumps, her eyelids fluttering open to gaze at the nothingness. The tips of his fingers continuously grazed against a spot inside her that made her legs feel weak, and she was utterly thankful for the weightless floating keeping her steady.

In that moment, Weldir became her anchor.

When his palm joined the foray to press against her clit, she reached to grasp something, anything, and met air. Seconds later, firmness formed beneath her forearms, and she pulled back to dig her nails into the pliable barrier he’d formed over his shoulders.

His lips trailed down, and she thought she felt a tongue against the hard, flat plain of her chest right above her breast. It didn’t feel wet, not like it had on her throat, but she liked the way he sprinkled kisses against her skin.

His hand drifted away from the breast he’d been teasing, and she gasped and arched when it tickled her side. The sensation was stolen when he placed his hand between her waist and hip, and clasped his mouth around her nipple.

Lindiwe flinched and looked down.

She couldn’t tell if his fully void eyes were peering back at her, but she thought they might be. She bit back her tiny moans as she watched him suck on the hard peak.

“That feels really odd,” she admitted with a wince, wishing her cheeks didn’t flare hotter.

“Odd... good?” he mumbled around the hard peak. He spoke around her nipple! Yet there was no breath to caress it like there should have been.

She wished she didn’t have to shake her head. “It feels dry.”

Which was the opposite of what was happening between her thighs. Her pussy was so wet that he didn’t need any added lubricant, his fingers gliding through her arousal with utter ease. She was plump, swollen, and everything was just perfect – that was until he paused his thrusting.

Weldir surprised her when he closed the distance between them once more.

His lips slanted over hers, and her eyes flung open wide when he shoved his tongue inside her mouth!

She didn’t know what to do with it, especially as there was absolutely no rhyme or rhythm to its movements as it brushed over hers, against her teeth, and even her cheeks.

When he pulled away, a string of saliva clung between them before it broke when he descended downwards. His mouth then clamped around her nipple again, and he flicked his wetted tongue covered in her saliva over it.

When he did it again, he tilted his head slightly.

Biting her bottom lip, Lindiwe could almost see his silent question. She nodded. Much better.

Just when she started to dwell on the complicated efforts they needed to put into this, his hand started to pump between her thighs again and she lost the fraying thread of her thoughts.

Actually, he seemed to hook his fingers forward.

He pressed hard against the special tender spot inside her while he sucked her nipple tight enough that Lindiwe’s sight grew cloudy.

She reached out to grab something, but as usual, she grabbed nothing when she reached through where his hair should have been.

“What is it you seek to hold?” he asked around her breast.

She was too far gone to flush in shyness as she whispered, “Your horn.”

He fucking paused, and Lindiwe wanted to smack his forehead for doing so! “I thought you’d be averse to touching them.”

“I’ve been looking at you for a long time, Weldir,” Lindiwe bit out, her needy ire making her short-tempered. “I can piece together what you look like in full.” Then she shoved her hips forward. “Please don’t stop.”

His deep chuckle was almost her undoing. “Here.”

Part of the top half of the right side of his face disappeared to give her his left horn to hold onto.

Rather than reaching out tentatively, when he nipped her nipple and shoved his hand deep to stroke against the swollen, hot, needy part of her insides, she snatched his horn. She tried to pulverise it when he started moving in and out of her at the same time, adding to her pleasure.

“Nhnn.” The moan escaped her, and she stopped caring to hide them.

Instead, her lips stayed parted as she cracked out little raspy breaths, each thrust of his fingers and swirl of his tongue causing her insides to tighten.

Then, her nails tried to bite in deep against the barrier, as she cried, “Weldir...”

Her pussy clamped hard when she came, just as her lungs seized in her chest. Her eyes rolled back as she clenched them shut, and her hips bucked as she tried to match his pace.

Prickling goosebumps cascaded down her arms and legs, causing her fingers and toes to clench as her orgasm ripped through her like a cruel, yet pleasurable set of claws.

Oh gods... Finally.

When her core eventually stopped gripping onto him for dear life, he didn’t stop. Instead, a small growl tingled her ears, and his thrusts sped up.

Oh! Her hips twitched, unsure if they wanted to get away from him or to selfishly have more.

“W-wait,” she rasped hoarsely. She reached down to still his hand. “That’s too fast. I’m too sensit–”