Page 100 of Brutal Birthright

She twined their legs together and cupped his jaw, drawing his face down towards hers until their foreheads were touching. He felt like a giant wrapped around her.

“Can we go somewhere?” Ri whispered. Unsure of what to say, but also knowing that Rowan didn’t expect her to respond to everything he’d just shared. Prophesying the slaughter of your own sister at the tip of your blade wasn’t exactly a topic that called for further discussion.

But she sensed they needed something to resolve the fear he’d instilled in himself that he couldn’t be rough with her.

There was only one way to reassure him she wasn’t a fragile little thing. If Rowan of Nocturne was her fated mate, this was the side of him she needed, like the heart beating in her chest. And this man had to understand that no matter what, he could still be that way with her.

A way to erase that haunted look behind his eyes when he’d scrambled away across the room.

Rowan’s sapphire gaze snapped to lock on her own.

“Hey, brute.” She allowed a small smile to tilt her lips up at the corners, and she rang her fingertips over his mouth. “Wherever you want to go, let's go. Preferably somewhere we can wash off these nightmares of yours.”

His thumb stroked over her pulse as he mulled the idea. Then nodded against her touch.

Ri couldn’t help but squeal as he moved too fast for her to react. One moment she’d been curled up against his broad chest; the next, she was being scooped up in his tight grip. A large palm splayed over her ass as he wrapped her around his body.

Both of them very, very naked.

“What—” Her words were cut off as they portaled, straight from the warmth and comfort of his bed and with a small shriek bursting out of her mouth, Ri didn’t dare look at where he’d just taken them.

“You don’t need clothes for this, little faerie.” And the next moment, they were both submerged into calm, crystal-clear water. Freshwater. A lake. For a moment, she nearly found her heart in the back of her throat, thinking he’d taken them to the lake at Astracadia. But no, when she dared to peek over his shoulder, this wasn’t a place she recognised at all.

Ri had been prepared to shriek at the impending cold. Instead, the pleasantly warm temperature of the water lapped over their bodies as Rowan walked them further out until she began to feel the buoyancy of the deepening lakebed.

Winding her arms around his neck, she cast her gaze at wherever they’d come to. It was a stunning rocky outcrop with a large set of boulders and what looked like caves across the far side of the lake. On one side, willows hung in low sweeping tendrils caressing the top of the water. Over to the other direction, she could see high mountain peaks tinged purple with wisps of clouds clustered around the tops.

What was this place? Did it mean something special to him?

Ri allowed herself to soak away the chaos of thoughts and confusion about this man. He was so endlessly complex and impossible to decipher.

As their bodies floated together, so studied the lines of ink rolling across his muscled shoulders. Had he essentially told her he loved her last night? In a very Rowan kind of way of course–right after fingering her ass and making her come so hard she saw stars and forgot her own name.

Then there was the matter of the time slowly ticking by day by day. Niall’s ultimatum around informing her sister of what was going on between them.

But without having an actual answer for that, Ri felt… well… unable to form coherent thoughts. It was like fate had reached into her mind and withdrawn all her faculties when it came to Rowan. Leaving her infuriatingly devoid of logic or rational thinking.

Which was Rowan’s cue to invade her mind once more. In a blink she was submerged, dragged under without warning and the shimmering clear lake water all around her rippled with threaded beams of sunlight reaching down to the pebbled bed. She kept her eyes open and watched as Rowan floated before her, with air bubbles streaming slowly out of his nose and his dark messy hair slowly twisted around his face.

As his blue eyes held her own, there was a peacefulness to him that she’d never witnessed. Silvery threads of his magic extended around their bodies and wove through the water, easily keeping them submerged. A terrible weight had lifted off him in the soundless space beneath the surface. Reaching out to tug her through the water towards him, their mouths met and he passed his breath to hers as they slowly kissed in an underwater cocoon.

Ri wanted to stay down here forever. In the quiet of Rowan’s embrace and heated kiss. Wrapped in the sensual perfection of these aquamarine depths.

But her brute had other ideas. Portaling them back to the surface, now at the place where she’d seen caves on the distant shore of the lake. Gently undulating rock protruded from the clear blue waters, with a pale cream texture that sparkled in the early sunlight.

A shallow cove formed a circle around them, with smooth-edged ledges of the rock visible below the surface.

Mind you, there wasn’t much time to appreciate the natural beauty of this secluded place. Rowan’s cock jutted hard against her stomach, and he towed them both through the water until his back rested against one of the rock ledges.

“No one else has come here.” The heat behind his words, rasped against the shell of her ear sent a flood of wetness to her pussy. Hearing the unspoken before you in that statement sent lust raging a wild course throughout her body.

Ri ground herself unashamedly against his erection. “Then own me here. Fuck me right here, brute.”

His cock slid against her slick entrance beneath the water as she straddled his lap. Bracing her knees either side of him against the smooth surface of the rock, and holding tight to his shoulders. Ri shifted her weight and rocked her pussy back and forth against his length and they both groaned together.

There was no hiding how soaked she was for him. Slippery and easily gliding against him as she tilted her hips. Water lapped at her tight nipples, overstimulating her with each shift and thrust.

Ri bit her lip as she felt him slip inside. Filling her to the hilt easily and enjoying the sizzling pleasure of being stretched around his fat cock.

---