Page 58 of The Kingdom of Flames

For hours it continued so slowly. Slower than any touch or embrace, so eternally patient. When Celestine came, drenching the silken binding that slid across her quim, she did so in complete silence, such slowness. Any movement to escape simply made the bindings tighter.

A delirium took her. Her knees ached, her hands were bound behind her back, the ribbon across her cunt continuing. Finally, she succumbed, unable to move. Only to feel. Final surrender flooded her, and she resigned herself to this night, to this teasing.

When she did, the ribbons loosened, and she curled up on the ground and slept. The strangest peaceful feeling upon her.

When she finally relented, easing against the bindings, her mind a blank canvas she felt his warm touch upon her.

I am floating.

She blinked, staring at the demigod carrying her to his bed. It had been hours. He had been asleep, yet he had known the moment she reached such a surrender.

“I have you,” Tristien murmured in the darkness.

He carried her like a child into bed, and held her in his chest with his long beautiful arms. Tristien gave her cool water from a pitcher. She felt like a bowstring that had been pulled taut for days, and finally now could rest.

“I am proud of you, Celestine.” His voice was honey in her ear. The hand that had wrought her torment now salved the hurts all over her. Anywhere he touched and pressed brought relief. As the soreness and strain vanished, Celestine sunk into his arms. The two of them nude against each other.

What had just happened was beyond the sensual. Tristien had pushed her. This being she barely knew, that she barely trusted, yet in matters of the flesh he seemed an exacting master.

This subservience, this nestling into his chest in the deep evening, feeling finally so free and without having to do anything—this was his gift to her.

Celestine looked up from his chest, seeing his eyes in the darkness. The season held her closer, sitting against the back of the bed.

She reached up, needful. There were no words after such torment, such teasing. None left inside her. A whispered breath was all she could manage, and he bent low and kissed her in his arms. Shutting her eyes into the most peaceful sleep of her life.

Chapter 12

A Day's Labor

In the morning, she woke, still in his arms. Tristien smiled down at her. He was wide awake. Maybe he never slept? Maybe he only pretended to.

“The star rises,” Tristien whispered. He kissed her on the forehead.

Celestine fluttered her eyes, raising her head and looking around the room. “Did I sleep here all night?”

“Wondrous, isn’t it?” Tristien kissed her forehead again. “You did so well Celestine. You are strong, and the strong never know how to lay down their burden.”

He lowered her into the sheets between his lap. She stretched, feeling like she was rising from a great slumber out of a myth.

“I was afraid, last night.”

“I felt it.” Tristien looked down at her. “Yet you never asked to be released.”

“Felt it?”

He smiled coyly. Celestine sat up on one elbow, no longer feeling shy about being nude around him.

“You felt me, in the ribbons?”

“One could say… I was the touch you felt all night.” The lord of summer ran a tanned finger over her chin. “You did so well. I wanted you to feel the peace so many never know.”

These beings will be the death of me.

“You coaxed me, for hours…” Celestine looked down at the bedsheets and pulled the covers back, seeing the edge of his manhood.

“Now that the gag is gone, you know what I’m going to put in your mouth?” Tristien fixed his eyes on her.

Celestine smiled, raising her eyebrows. “What’s that?”

---