Rune
The woman unbuckles my belt, all the while staring up at me from beneath thick lashes. A smile lifts her red lips that I've imagined on my cock the entire day, and it is the sexiest thing I have ever seen.
Down the zipper goes, and my breathing turns shallow. "Astrid, I do not believe this is the right place for--"
Her small fingers pull my cock out of my underwear and I hiss, muscles tensing. "Why? You were never ashamed of the maids seeing it at my castle."
Her words barely register. I have been hard for days. Hungry, craving, needing her. There have been days it hurts so much, it feels numb. Other days, I keep myself busy to keep her out of my head.
Waking up on our wedding night in my right mind had been near painful. Finding her spread on my chest, her rosy nipples rubbing against me, her wet thighs on mine, her scent in my nose, her mark on my neck, the smell of raw sex in the air...I had fled from the room.
We had mated, and I had watched from the depths of my mind where Hekate had shoved me. I had felt, yet I had not.
It made me lust for more. To really feel. It made me so hungry for her, no other woman looked appealing to me.
But I had been too much of a coward to return to her. To beg for her touch. Even just a little caress.
And now, she is kneeling between my legs, blue siren eyes dark with destructive heat and her lips inches away from my cock. There is not a word in the three realms that can describe how hard she makes me.
"This is punishment?" I manage to grit out, breaths harsh as she strokes softly. Bloody fuck. My grip tightens on the armrest and the metal bends.
"Maybe," she croons in a voice that makes my cock twitch, and her lips dart out of her mouth, wetting her lips.
Please.
I am so close to telling her this. I am not a man who begs for anything. I have everything I could possibly want and need at my disposal. Except the one woman I actually want.
She doesn't know it yet, but I'd bleed for her. Crawl if she so wishes it. Kiss her small feet if she commands it. Astrid is my world, my weakness, my heart, and she doesn't fucking know it.
Her head dips, and her breath is hot on my tips as she whispers, "I suggest you hold on to something."
I should've listened, because nothing could have prepared me for Astrid. A tornado, a whirlwind. She kills me slowly, and just when I feel like I might explode, she backs off.
And starts over.
Men groan, but tonight, I do not know if I am a man. I don't know where or who I am. I moan. I growl. I snarl. I lose control. I feel Hekate lurking under my skin, pushing for control, but this is my moment, and I will have it.
I fight back, claws digging brutally into my palms as Astrid's tongue slides over me, wet, hot and slurpy, and she moans too, pushing me in, all the way to her throat. My canines elongate, and my eyes snap shut as I pant, straightening and attempting to back away.
But she won't let me move. She drags her teeth over my tip lightly, and her tongue follows in the most sinful movement, driving me over the edge.
She backs off before I can get there, pulling me out of her mouth to stroke the full length of me.
My eyes slant open to find hers, wholly black.
She looks like us now. She's fucking beautiful, and though I have begun to think it is impossible to get any harder than this, I do. She notices and a small sound of surprise leaves her throat.
"Astrid," I say, but my voice is in layers, thick with demand. I can see it in her eyes. This is nowhere near enough for either of us.
She doesn't respond, taking me back in her mouth, but this time, it is different. She sucks hard, stopping only when I am deep in her throat. Her throat tightens, and I buck, the chair groaning under me.
I whisper incoherent words, and they might have been a plea for more. She repeats it again, and my entire being begins to tremble. I reach for her, fingers delving into her luscious hair, but she growls low in her throat, a warning. The vibrations sends electric jolts through me and I grunt sharply, my world darkening as waves of pleasure wreck my being.
But Astrid, the awful woman, she pulls my cock out of her mouth before I can explode.
I ache so much, it fucking hurts. It takes all of my restraint to not flip her over and bury myself in her.
"Why now?" She asks, wiping her lips.
"What?" I rasp, looking from her moving mouth to my twitching cock.
"It's just...you said you were trying to keep me safe. What changed? Why tell me all of this now?"
How to tell your mate that you hear her words, but your brain can't function enough to bring up answers. Not when her fingers are still stroking, up and down, slowly.
"Talk later," I growl.
"And you'll answer without asking for 'boons'?"
"Fuck. Yes, Astrid! Please!"
The woman smiles triumphantly, and I tell her how beautiful she looks when she smiles like that. She blinks, unused to compliments from me, and I swear to myself, if I survive her torture, I will shower her with them. Just to see her smile like that again.
She starts to suck me again, and her mouth becomes a rotating hole--for the lack of better word. I have no idea what she's doing or how she's doing it, but my temperature spikes and my hips rise, and I begin thrusting into her mouth, sheathing my length deep until I feel her throat. She takes all of it, and makes that sound I've come to love.
I lose myself, and my roar cleaves the air, sending even the chirping birds flying. It feels like for a moment, my soul erupts from my body. My body jerks violently and begins strings of spasms and it doesn't help that she doesn't stop sucking as I spill in her, swallowing.
Slowly, her tongue swirls over the tips and her free hand rises tentatively, resting against my belly. My fingers find hers, entwining as I jerk and call out her name softly until the last of my spasms wear out.
Her head rises, and her eyes flick to where her fingers are entwined before meeting my gaze. The candle light cast a halo on her features and I am stunned just looking at her.
"Beautiful," I whisper.
*************
Astrid
We eat right after that, and I don't think I've laughed so much in my entire life. It echoes off the walls, and I'm pretty sure the entire castle is awake at this point.
Rune is quite the charmer, I must admit. Every word right out of his pretty mouth has me laughing until my stomach hurts.
And when we start to walk back to my room, I find myself wishing for more time, to hear more about himself, the untainted memories of his childhood, and his outrageous one-time hobby of trying musical instruments--which ended with a guard's head replacing the strings of the human guitar.
We reach my room door, and Boris is sitting, nodding off by it. I shake my head, walking ahead of Rune. I lean over, poking Boris's cheek and his eyes snap open, widening with horror as he sees me.
I chuckle. "Go to bed, Boris. I'm fine," I tell him as he straightens.
He starts to protest but his eyes shifts behind me and whatever he sees has him nodding and scampering down the hallway.
I throw Rune a look as I twist my doorknob. "Don't scare him. He might be my best person yet."
"It almost sounds like you like him more than you do me."
I turn to Rune, lips twitching. "Of course I do."
"Fine. I'll resume guard duty starting tomorrow," he says, feigning jealousy, and I'm laughing again.
I push the door open and I stand by it, holding it open. "Do you..." My voice trails off and Rune's expression turns intense. "Do you want to come in?"
Where'd that even come from? "Ah, no. Forget I asked that," I add quickly, cheeks burning as I step in. "Goodnight," I squeak in a tiny voice and start to shut the door, but Rune's hand presses against the door, keeping it open.
My heart stumbles a beat as he inches closer. "I have yet to answer your question. Will you leave without hearing my answer, Red?"
My mouth dries, and I can't form words. His scent and the smell of aftershave wafts through my nostrils and I lean in a little, waiting for his next words.
There was nothing but uncompromising will in his eyes. "I didn't lie to your father."
A shiver runs down my spine and I can't look away from him as I recall his words from that day.
It was torture to exist without you. The pain you felt was my pain, insurmountable. You took a fragment of my soul with you that day.
I told him I loved you.
My knees go weak and I grip the door tighter to keep from staggering. "I should go to bed."
Rune's pushes the door, desperation lacing his words as he says, "I was a coward, thinking the best way to handle this was hiding from it. From you. But every day without you, I felt myself die." He stares at me, and something about the vulnerability in his eyes cracks something in me. "I'm sorry it took me a month to realize this. To understand what I felt. It dawned on me then, that I had to get you back. Not for the Void. Not for the people. But because I couldn't take another breath without seeing you again. I..." He pauses, and silver lines his eyes. The emotion in them, I finally recognize, and the enormity of it has me inching back.
"I love you."
My breaths come out hard and fast. I am hyperventilating. His words ring in my head over and over again.
I freak out, and slam the door in his face.
Fuck.