Page 77 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

I climbed back into bed and curled up beneath the sheets, willing away the throbbing in my head and praying for sleep tocome. But my mind drifted elsewhere, and restlessness nagged at my low belly. I sighed, rolled over, and opened the drawer of the small table next to my bed. Grabbing Olea’s gift, I let my memories lull me into the reliving of pleasure.

My mind traveled backin time—to the memory of a garden amongst craggy mountain peaks. I had become addicted to this memory.

Ezren tossed me onto the grassy bed and it curled around me in response to the contact. He plucked several of them, soft green blades. He knelt before me, running them up my leg, starting at my feet, making his way up my calf, and lingering on my inner thigh. The anticipation was unbearable, and he dragged the grass blades under my shift, over my womanhood, which sent a series of convulsions through my body. I opened my eyes, expecting to see him laughing, taunting. He was looking at me with an intensity I’d never seen, an intensity that hadneverbeen directed my way before. I was burning up from the inside out. “Has anyone ever told you how attractive you are,” he murmured, almost to himself. My breath quickened—I was near gasping now, my chest rising and falling with barely contained violence.

The canopy seemed to exhale when we did, the flowers blooming and contracting with us. Ezren ran the blades of grass up the rest of my body, up my abdomen, circling the peaks of my breasts. The soft contact on the thin silk shift sent a shudder through me, and he pressed my hands above me. As if the Earth now responded to him, or perhaps my secret desires, vines circled my wrists, rendering me helpless.

I arched my back, and he pulled my sheer shift upwards, letting it rest on where my wrists were now bound. He hovered above me, supporting himself, staring. I searched his eyes, panicked for a moment that he would change his mind.

But then he pressed his mouth on the silver dragon that hung around my neck, the tempo of his breathing matching mine. “I have never met anyone like you, Terra,” he whispered, wonder on his lips. And then he kissed me deeply, and I arched into him, attempting to hold him in place, my thighs wrapped around his torso.

He rasped a laugh. “Patience,Bellatori.” Ezren kissed my neck, licking and nipping me strategically. He paused on my breasts, closing his mouth around them. He made his way south, pausing again above my womanhood. This time, I could feel his breath, and I cried out in frustration. He slipped two fingers inside me, his tongue making small circles above my opening. Only moments passed before I exploded in pleasure, for it had built up so long, and Ezren certainly knew how to release it.

I submitted to the breath-stealing bliss, not worrying about the sound, nor the power that echoed around me. If a canopy draped above us before, we were in a palace of flora and fauna now, an expression of my surrender. The vines released my wrists, becoming part of the display. My eyes welled with tears, and I pressed my hands into them, my breath short and fast. Ezren came atop me again, his hands framing my face, thumbs brushing away the tears that had escaped.

“What’s wrong?”

I only shook my head, laughing silently at myself, at the overwhelming nature of pleasure I’d never known. I placed one hand on his neck, dragging his lips to mine. And the other I put on his backside, attempting to guide him into me.

“Wait,” Ezren pulled away from my kiss. “Are you absolutely sure?” His eyes searched for any doubt, any hesitation. “You canalways change your mind,” he said, his usually gruff voice full of tenderness.

The feeling of anticipation threatened to burst my chest wide open. “I haveneverbeen more sure.”

He kissed me furiously then, not requiring another ounce of confirmation. His thrust into me was slow, but firm. I’d become thoroughly wet, so I felt no pain of friction, but was unused to the size of him. His deliberate kisses grazed my lips, my chin, my throat, as he rocked back and forth, letting me adjust to the sensation.

Desperation grew in both of us. Though naked and joined, we somehow weren’t close enough. I wanted to devour him, wanted him to devour me. We became one body, one soul. I would have drowned myself in his skin if I could have. I came undone once again, this time opening myself fully to him, sending my power out and accepting his. He did the same, and then our powers melded into one, surging through us as we both found our climax. Ezren shuddered violently when he finished, grunting in pleasure. His light exploded out in every direction, and my Earth exploded with him. He lost himself completely, and it looked like his now Dragon-slitted eyes could no longer see as he thrust into me the last time. The image of him, undone completely by my body, caused my womanhood to tighten around him once again.

Ezren moaned, twitching inside me as we remained connected. His magic and more were still flowing into me when he groaned, “It has to be now.”

And though I’d lost myself in the moment, in the orgasm that reverberated through us both, he grounded me. I sent our magic mixture down the side of the mountain, raising every speck of dirt to drown every Crona. I felt their heartbeats, strong beneath their frozen exteriors. And then I felt the life leave them, slowly at first, and then in a snap. I cried out once more, exertion mixing with sadness, mixing with residual pleasure. And in aninstant, I knew it was done, and Ezren collapsed atop me, holding me to his chest.

It was over, but it was not. Our powers continued to magnify, hanging in the air, and a shimmering green light blinded us, searing our flesh. I shrieked at the excruciating pain, as if my skin was being peeled from my body and my heart was being ripped out. It lasted for a few terrible moments longer, and then it stopped, the magic sucked back into our bodies, quiet settling all around us.

We looked at each other in worry, and his eyes roved over me. “Are you hurt?” he panted.

I shook my head. “The end, with the magic, it… it was painful. Was it for you?” I asked, unsure.

He tilted my head to search my face. “I didn’t know it would hurt. I mean, I’ve never heard of that. And… are you okay, otherwise?”

I nodded, a shy smile forming on my lips in remembering. “Is it always like that?” I murmured, searching his face, no longer talking about the pain at the end. “Your… finish. Is it always that intense?”

He looked at me for a few moments, his breathing still heavy. “No. It has never been like that.”

I half laughed, half choked in relief, and he tightened his arms around me, giving me a little squeeze. “I felt like I wanted to be more than one with you. Like I wanted tobeyou,” I whispered into his chest.

He nodded in agreement, and I propped myself up to see his face. It was relaxed, sated, but something churned just below the surface.

I poked him. “What are you thinking? Your thoughts are quite loud.”

He let out something between a murmur and a sigh, as he traced his fingers the length of my body, sending shivers over my pebbling skin. “Nothing escapes you, does it?”

I poked him again. “Now I really must know.”

“I was just thinking about when we met. I know this may sound crazy, but from that moment on, I knew—” He stilled, interrupting himself with silence, his fingers stopping on my hipbone, which had a small, shining, green Dragon scale imprinted on it.

“What is it?” I asked, looking down at where his touch rested. But he did not move, and he did not speak. He only deepened his breath, his nostrils flaring in anger. A moment later he was up, out of bed, shrouded in nothing, pacing in our little garden, shaking.

The endof the memory almost prevented my release, but I replayed the rest of it like a revolving door in my mind. I cried out into a pillow, feeling the cool metal ring pressed against my chest and wetness streak my face. I knew Ezren couldn’t set foot in the palace again without being imprisoned, but I let myself think of another life, one where we dwelled in a forest far away with horses and a cottage built of pine. And then it set in, the pressure on my chest that I had simplified to loneliness. He’d been gone less than three weeks. And a part of me felt broken and a part of me felt stupid and a part of me felt like I’d imagined the whole thing.

---