Page 30 of Their Trials

His hands clenched, squeezing me painfully before he groaned and slammed his lips to mine, finally giving in to the desire we were both feeling. He crushed his mouth to mine briefly before caressing my lips with his tongue, begging me to open for him.

I did. Without an ounce of hesitation, I gave him whatever he demanded. This moment was everything I knew it would be and more. I let myself get lost in him, in the way his tongue tangled with mine, trying to dominate me through his kiss alone.

Never one to simply go along, I challenged him, biting his lip hard. He groaned at the abuse and flipped us over, his body now hovering over mine. It was way too easy for him to do that, his constrained strength turning me on even more. To know how dangerous he was and could be, and yet, he was holding himself back, afraid to hurt me.

I ran my hands along his back over the light fabric of his tunic, feeling small bumps under the fabric, his scars. My hands continued their perusal until I was holding onto his biceps, squeezing them as he ground his cock into my clit, hitting the nub with each thrust. I moaned loudly at the contact, arching my back, needing to feel more of him against me.

He pulled away briefly to stare down at me, his hips still grinding into me, the thin leather separating us a flimsy barrier. He leaned down to run his nose along my neck until his mouth was next to my ear. “What are you doing to me?”

I moaned again, the knowledge that he was just as consumed as I was almost overwhelming me. It felt like I was barely holding onto the tether that kept me on land, my body ready to fly into the stars with just a few more touches.

He groaned again, kissing my cheekbone just under my eyes, my jaw, my neck as he leaned his weight onto one arm so his other could roam my body. His roughened palms skimmed along the edge of my shirt, dipping underneath before resuming their path upward toward my breasts.

I was panting now, arching and writhing into his kiss, his touch, silently begging him for more. He thrust his hips against mine again and ground them in a circle, the pressure centered over my clit, bringing me to orgasm. I cried out, louder than I had intended as the tether snapped.

My eyes rolled back in my head as his movements slowed, his eyes watching me as I came, taking in every detail of my orgasm. Fuck! I could get used to that, although I wanted more.

Slowly, I came back down to earth, my eyes opening to find him still watching me. “What am I going to do with you, Trouble?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but a loud voice called out. “Am I interrupting?” I jerked, having completely forgotten we were still in the trials and being watched.

Chapter Twelve: Rhowyn

My face heated for an entirely different reason as Callum and I sprang apart. I stood as quickly as my tired body would allow and saw Lennox standing there, grinning from ear to ear, knowing full well he had interrupted our moment.

“How long have you been standing there?” I questioned him, embarrassed that I had forgotten everything else outside of what Callum had done to me. It was amazing and life changing, but I would rather have had it happen in the privacy of our own rooms.

Lennox just shrugged, not answering me. Baer came around the corner, having come from where Callum and I were originally trying to go before I had gotten sucked into the ground.

Baer stopped and eyed me, a barely restrained smile on his face. “He hasn't been there long.” He playfully shoved Lennox as he passed by, coming to stand in front of me. “Why are you covered in mud?”

“It's a long story,” I told him, not wanting to admit that I had walked right into the pit. I was already dealing with enough embarrassment as it was.

“It's really not that long of a story,” Callum said, throwing me under the bus completely. “She walked into a quicksand pit hidden behind a glamor.”

Baer's lips compressed, trying to hold back a laugh at the state of me. Lennox however, guffawed loudly at my discomfort. My eyes narrowed on him. “How was I supposed to know that glamors could also disguise more than people,” I huffed, my hands going to my hips. I quickly removed them as the bruises protested.

“It's okay, Killer. It could have just as easily been one of us to walk into that quicksand.”

Arryn walked up to us, and I took the opportunity to change the subject. “Where have y'all been?”

Arryn sighed, his fatigue evident as he ran a hand over his face. “After we got separated in the fog, we all stumbled along until it suddenly cleared. We still aren't sure what caused that, but decided we needed to find you two as quickly as possible.”

“Ah, yeah. The fog was caused by this house cat looking thing. It was white, mostly hairless except for a mane and tuft on its tail. Although it had hands instead of paws, which was kind of creepy. Callum and I killed it, and the fog immediately dissipated.” I filled Arryn in as I tried to dust some of the drying mud from myself.

Arryn's brow furrowed, “That sounds like a Chitterlax. How'd you go about killing it? They're notoriously difficult to catch.”

“Trouble here froze the damn thing. Once it was frozen, I killed it, sword through the heart,” Callum said, finally joining the conversation. Eyeing him from the side, I could see a slight change in his demeanor. He was a little more relaxed, his muscles not so tense or ready for an attack. I liked seeing him like this.

“Smart,” Arryn said, finally noticing the mud on me. “Why are you covered in mud?”

I threw my hands up in frustration as the other three guys laughed, stomping off a few steps before halting. I didn't want to find any more quicksand pits by walking blindly into them. Instead, I turned back around to see the guys following me as Baer filled in Arryn on what was so funny. He smiled at me softly, the humor barely reaching his eyes. He was truly exhausted. We all were.

“We need to get out of here,” I said.

“Well, we came from that direction,” Baer said, pointing ahead and to the left.

“Okay. We came from back that direction. Looks like the only option is to go forward and to the right,” I said definitively.

---