Estrella
I tug Anwen through the forest. While I do have a map in the bag strapped to my back, I don't pull it out. The bag is heavy because King Kieran packed us enough fresh water in canteens to last a week.
I need a moment alone with my mate.
The twisting, winding roots guide my steps deeper. The forest just outside the castle had a certain appeal, but there's a wildness here that tugs at me, urges me to forget everything and lose myself in it. As if I were in the Haze all over again.
"How far are we going?" Anwen laughs.
"As far as I like." I smile. "I don't intend to keep quiet, either."
He swallows visibly. Ever since Nessa confessed, since Dorian escaped, we have been nothing but business. Who needs to be saved? Where should that happen? How can we prove everything we suspect? Our wedding, from beginning to end, has been planned with others in mind. Some of that, we owe our people. But a night of keeping careful distance from each other before we are bound as tightly as any two people can be? That is one exchange I will not make.
But perhaps walking into the forest until no one could hear us scream was a silly idea.
I shrug off my pack, drop it, and kneel on the slightly softer surface. Anwen threads his fingers through my hair and smiles softly.
"You don't have to-"
"I want to." I meet his gaze, trying to force everything I'm feeling through my eyes alone.
His grip on my hair tightens as his cock hardens. "Then take it."
I tug down his shorts. My whole body lights as he thrusts forward. Pain skitters down my spine to gather in my gut. I open my mouth, tongue flat, and take him.
His taste swirls through me. I hollow my cheeks, roll my tongue along his underside. He fucks into my mouth, hard and fast like he's worried someone will come looking for us soon. Here, surrounded by trees and what feels like the very breath of the Goddess, I don't care if they do. Let them see my mate, turned golden in the setting sun. Let them watch his mouth go slack with want, hear my name mumble from his lips. He is beautiful, and he is mine.
Just as I am his to wring pleasure from.
"I'm close," he groans.
His hands in my hair loosen, and I know he is giving me a moment to pull back. To let him finish himself.
Nothing has ever been less appealing. I press forward. My nose scrapes against the rough hairs between his legs. His cockhead brushes the back of my throat, and I moan.
"Estrella!" He spills into my mouth.
I start swallowing even as the taste overwhelms me. All the words, the comparisons I've assigned to it fall away. This sensation on my tongue is simply him.
He pulls back abruptly, and a few droplets spill from my mouth. I reach up to catch them, but before I can, he kneels in front of me and kisses me.
I gasp up into him. His grip is rough, taking the kiss more than giving it. I mold myself to his body, slide one of his legs between mine. The first press of friction is a lightning strike, and I pray he swallows my moan.
"Too good to me," he mutters against my mouth. "Pay you back."
I grind my hips against him. My dress is bunged up, so my wetness smears on his leg. He trails his lips away from mine, onto my neck, and bites. I hiss as sweet heat courses through my system. An image of myself throwing back my bridal veil to reveal a neck purpled all over with his bites sings in my mind. All the nights of resisting, restraining ourselves, would be worthwhile for that.
They are worthwhile regardless. At the end of them all, Anwen will not be leaving my bed for a week. I've already arranged matters with my advisors not to need me.
"More," I moan.
I feel his smile against my neck. In his next bite, the sharp sting of his teeth joins the slight pain. I hum.
He pushes me down, slowly, inexorably. My head lands on my pack. The roots scrape my spine, the backs of my knees. He slides one hand up my leg with his mouth still on my neck, and I part for him. The first brush of his fingers over my wetness is loud enough to hear in the nighttime quiet. I murmur his name like a prayer. Firelight dances off the furthest leaves I can see, a reminder of how close we are to camp.
"You deserve better," he says.
I shake my head, start to refuse. He pulls back and covers my mouth.
"Than these last few months." Anwen meets my gaze, his blue eyes alive with hunger, a smirk on his lips. "I've seen your worst moments. Now, I want to know how good it gets."
"Wh-"
He circles the nub at the apex of my legs, hard and fast, then thrusts a finger inside. My body contorts with the rush of pleasure. When he returns his mouth to my skin, he pushes my dress down and takes one nipple between his teeth instead. I moan, all thoughts of camp forgotten. His touch is irresistible, as overpowering as his come in my mouth. I hurtle toward the edge of pleasure.
"Close," I manage to nearly sob.
I expect him to let off, to string out this beautiful torture as long as he can like he seems to prefer. He doesn't even hesitate.
My orgasm rattles through me. I clutch his bare shoulder, and the scent of his blood licks the air as my claws extend for a better hold.
He fucks me through the aftershocks. I fight to catch my breath.
"I'm finished," I pant. "Slow down."
"No." His smile shines as the last rays of sunset disappear.
My mouth falls open. He takes it in a kiss and pushes another finger into my entrance. My body clutches him, trying to slow his pace. My wolf howls for more.
I join my howl with hers. I trust Anwen. He will not take me past what I'm capable of.
And if I hold out until his cock is ready once more, I can have everything I want.
He plucks my nipple between two fingers, scrapes his teeth down my other breast, fucks me fast and hard. My body melts into nothing but sensation. I exist in the breaths between his touches, few that they are. He is everywhere, and he doesn't seem to want to let me go.
When he thrusts the third finger inside, my second orgasm hits, sudden as a summer storm. I make a high-pitched keening noise until he covers my mouth with his again. His taste tints his lips. I kiss him just as hungrily as he fucks me.
He lines up a fourth finger before the second orgasm fades out of my limbs. I squeeze my eyes shut. I am so deliciously full already. But I want all of him. His thumb teases that bud, coaxes more wetness from my body. He soaks his hand in it.
I gasp as he slips inside with a burn that only makes me crave more.
"So beautiful." He grins down at me, just as wild as I am.
I roll my hips against his hand.
"And greedy."
He curls his fingers, and a third orgasm explodes through me before I can suck in a breath. There's so much of him. I shake, tears gathering in my eyes.
His thumb presses harder, and the next wave of pleasure is jagged edged. I am coming up to the extent of what I can handle.
"You can take one more," he says. "My thumb, or my cock?"
If sweet exhaustion wasn't winding its tendrils through me, I would laugh in his face. I have never been presented with a simpler choice.
"Your cock."
He smiles indulgently and pulls out one finger at a time. Each loss stabs through me. I whine until his cock brushes my entrance.
"I'm going to fuck you until I come." He says it like a statement, but I can hear the private question. He wants to know if I can handle that.
"I am not running." I smirk.
"Like hell you aren't." He slams into me.
We fit together like puzzle pieces. I consider wrapping my legs around his waist, keeping him close, but they still shake with the remains of my last orgasm. He bends low over me, and I capture his lips instead.
The rightness I've felt every time I've been with him fills me, and my tears spill. It should have been like this from the beginning. A perfect union of body and soul.
Anwen looks at me worriedly. "Too much?"
"No," I say.
No, it wasn't. The man in my arms, between my legs, did not exist before we became mates. And the version of myself I am now did not exist either. We could not have been happy, been perfect fits, without the intervening pain.
He kisses me again.
My orgasm comes slower this time, without his talented fingers pulling it out of me. I wrap my arms around his neck, breathing in the scent of his hair. When he mutters that he's close, I can seek the peak, but I am not there yet.
Like he can sense it, he stuffs a hand between us and teases my bud. I race to the finish line with him. He groans, spills into me, and his hand goes stiff.
That is what I need to careen over the edge with his name on my lips.
When I finally catch my breath, I realize how long we've been gone. It's well and truly night. The firelight through the trees is far brighter, a beacon guiding us back. Anwen leans on one arm, watching me.
"Ready to go back?" he asks with a smile.
My stomach wrenches at the idea of him being any farther away.
'We found a cozy spot for two,' I tell Tess. 'Well within earshot. And we have our packs. We are going to sleep here instead.'
'Have fun,' she replies, amused.
"Not tonight." I wind my arm around his waist.