Page 30 of Whispers of the Dryad

He growled at me, his bright blue eyes having turned dark like a stormy ocean, and his face was riddled with pure need.In a swift motion, Ash lifted his body and flipped me over so that I was on the rug on my back and he hovered above me.I gasped, lips parted, and my legs opened for him.Ash took charge and plunged into me, and I cried out sharply when he sank in all the way to the hilt.He trembled on top of me, inside of me, and planted a hard kiss on my lips before he pulled back and pounded into me again.I grabbed onto his arms to keep me steady while Ash bucked his hips hard and fast.He pumped into me harder and faster still, and it felt incredible the way he stroked in and out of me.My pussy tightened around his cock, gripping him, and I knew he could feel my body tightening around him as the first orgasm ripped through me, coming seemingly out of nowhere.I cried out and curled on the floor, arching my back at the pleasure pulling me apart.Ash was right there with me, kissing me so that he swallowed my cries.He only slowed his pace for a short while I was at the peak of my orgasm.I’d barely come down from my pleasure when he pumped into me again, bucking his hips harder and faster so that I moaned and cried out in pure ecstasy.Ash was on the edge of his orgasm—I could tell by his breathing and the way he clenched his jaw as if he could bite back the orgasm.He held back, not letting himself go as he continued to hammer into me.With every thrust, it prolonged the aftermath of my orgasm, as if it was an echo of itself, and with Ash’s thrusting, the magic around us grew and grew.It didn’t only fill the room; it felt like it grew inside of me, filling me up in a way I’d never been filled before.The magic searched me as if it was looking for something.“What’s happening?”I breathed.“I don’t know,” Ash said.He didn’t slow down or stop.He continued to fuck me, and I cried out in pure pleasure.The magic found the bond between us, and like a vine, it wrapped itself around it, strengthening it.Suddenly, a highway opened up between us, a current, and our emotions flowed back and forth with no barrier.I felt the intensity of Ash’s emotions for me as if they were mine, but I knew they were all his.It felt different than my own emotions, although they were similar.Ash’s eyes locked on mine, and I knew he felt what I was feeling—my affection for him, too.His eyes widened slightly, as if he was shocked or surprised, but before I could decipher it, he kissed me, and we were locked together in a lover’s kiss like I’d never shared with anyone in my life.While he kissed me, I orgasmed a second time.The pleasure was so powerful it threatened to rip me apart.I cried out before the orgasm took my breath away, and I writhed in pleasure.Ash paused, waiting for me to ride out the wave of my orgasm.He watched me with hunger in his eyes, and I knew he liked what he saw.I loved that he was looking at me.When I came down from my second orgasm, panting, my skin slick with sweat, Ash grinned at me with a mischievous look.Before I could ask, he flipped me over so that I lay on my stomach.His large body covered mine, and I put a hand on my hip, pulling my ass up a little before his cock found my entrance.He slid into me with ease, and his weight pushed my hips down again.I lay sprawled on the rug, pinned by his large body, and it was hot as hell to have him on top of me so that I couldn’t go anywhere.

Not that I had anywhere else I wanted to be.Ever.Ash pumped in and out of me, one hand on my hip and one bracing his weight next to my head, and I cried out and whimpered as he fucked me.I was getting closer and closer to my third orgasm, and Ash’s breathing suggested he was on the verge with me.I expected him to lose it, to push into me as far as he could go and pulsate and jerk, but he didn’t.Instead, he pulled out of me.He pulled me up with him so that I stood, the motion so quick I got lightheaded, and he sat down on the couch.He held out his hand to me, and I took it.I didn’t need his encouragement to get on his lap.I sat on him, straddling his muscular thighs, and sank into his cock so that he was buried deep inside of me.I looked down at his face, reveling in the closeness of him.Ash wasn’t just physically close.Whatever had happened between us, magically, everything felt different now.It felt closer than before, like we’d been fused together.I leaned in and kissed him, and he pushed his tongue into my mouth.He twisted his hand into my blonde hair, and I moaned, sighing through my nose.I rocked back and forth, gyrating my hips, and we moved together on the couch.The movement wasn’t hard and urgent like it had been until now.Instead, the moment was slow and sensual and filled with emotion.It wasn’t fucking.This was making love.The moment I thought it—felt it—Ash felt it, too.His body tensed for a moment, but I ran my hand down his chest, the other still around his neck, and he relaxed again.He couldn’t fight this any more than I could.Whatever this was had happened by itself, and the only way we were going to ride it out was if we stuck together through this.I rocked my hips harder and faster.I loved being this close, this emotional, but I wanted Ash to orgasm.I wanted to give him the same pleasure he’d given me.I broke the kiss, bucking my hips harder, and stared at Ash’s perfect face.His brows pursed together, and he gritted his teeth, the look of his orgasm creeping closer.He was so damn handsome when he looked like that.His breathing came in erratic bursts.My rocking rubbed my clit against his pubic bone, and it pushed me toward my third orgasm.I cried out when the pleasure washed over me yet again, and Ash grabbed my hips.He pulled me close to him, his cock buried inside me, and we orgasmed together.His power exploded in the room around us as his orgasm erupted inside me, and he roared.I curled against him, my body riddled with lust and pleasure, and we were more connected than ever.Finally, after what felt like forever caught in the whirlwind of our ecstasy, we slowly came down to the now.I breathed hard, trying to catch my breath.Ash wrapped his arms around me and pulled me tightly against him so that I felt his heart hammering against my chest.Ash lifted me off his lap, cradling me in his arms as he carried me toward the bedroom.He put me down on the bed, and I crawled up, peeling the covers back.Ash got into bed with me, and he pulled me closer, tucking me against his side.I put my head on his chest, draped my arm over him, and reveled in the feel of the two of us together as if this was how it had always been and how it would always be.Just me and him.Our skin was slick with sweat, and my heart hammered against my chest as I tried to pull myself back together.I turned my head to look at Ash, who lay on the bed breathing just as hard.

His skin had a strange, bright green sheen to it, and his ears looked like two ears superimposed—the human ear and the drus ear.I’d never seen him in his natural form, looking like the tree spirit he was.When I reached for him, his human form slipped back into place, and it was as if the tree spirit had never been.“That was incredible,” I breathed, touching my fingers to Ash’s arm.His skin was hot.“Yeah,” he said.He pulled me closer to him, and I rolled onto my side so I could drape my arm over his chest.I put my head on his shoulder and sighed contentedly.“What was that?”I asked.“What?”

“That… feeling.I don’t know, the bond?It seemed different.As if it started all over again, but that can’t be, can it?”

Ash shook his head.“I don’t know what that was.”

“That hasn’t happened before?”

I glanced at him before he dropped a kiss in my hair.“I haven’t had a bond with a lot of people, Lorraine.I’ve never had something like this with anyone, so I really just don’t know.I liked it, though.”

I smiled.“Yeah, me too.”

Something about being bound to Ash like this was incredible.I loved how united we were, melded together as if we were one.It was closer and more intense than we’d ever been before.I wished I knew what it was, but in some ways, I really didn’t care.All I cared about was the fact that Ash and I were stuck together, and I didn’t want it to end.Ash ran his fingers up and down my arm, but I could feel him retreating from me.It was almost as if he systematically shut himself down, withdrawing bit by bit.I’d never been able to feel his emotions this way.It was as if the bond had created a highway between his soul and mine, and our emotions flowed freely back and forth.“What’s on your mind?”I asked Ash, trying to word it right so that I didn’t accuse him outright of shutting down from me so soon after he’d opened himself up completely.“You seem deep in thought.”

“It’s nothing,” Ash said.I nodded against his chest.If he didn’t want to talk about it?—

“Actually, it’s not nothing,” Ash said.“How serious are we?”

“What?”I asked.How could he still question that?“Our relationship.How serious is it?”

“You’re still asking me that?”I asked.“After what we just went through?”

Ash shifted, sitting up, and I had to roll off him.I hated that he was putting distance between us, no matter how small.Ash looked at me with a frown.Could he tell what my emotions were, too?“The bond is one thing,” Ash said, not mentioning my reaction to him shifting away from me.“The emotions behind it, the thing that ties us together… that has nothing to do with what’s happening around us.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.“Okay?I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”

Ash hesitated like he was trying to find the right words.“I guess what I’m asking is how much you’re willing to give up for all of this,” Ash said.“I’m trying to figure out what you’re willing to leave behind and what you’re still holding onto.”

I thought about that.“I guess I’m still holding onto Cat.I mean, my sister is everything.It’s just me and her against the world since my parents died.”My stomach twisted with the familiar knot of guilt when I talked about my parents, but I pushed it away.I wasn’t going to focus on regret and the past right now.Ash was asking me about the future.“Is that all?”Ash asked.“I don’t really have much of a life back home,” I admitted

“I work all the time to keep Cat in college, but once that’s taken care of and she starts her career, the only thing I’ll have to look after… is myself.It’s not much of a life with prospects or pending dreams.”

“What about Oscar?”Ash asked.I blinked at him, shocked that he’d brought him up at all.My blood ran cold and my stomach dropped.“What about him?”I asked.“What was that reaction?”Ash asked.So, he could feel my emotions.“I don’t understand what Oscar’s got to do with anything,” I said tightly, feeling put on the spot now that he’d asked.“Why are you bringing him up?”

“He’s a big part of all of this, isn’t he?”Ash asked.“If you mean he’s the reason I’m here in the first place, I guess you’re right,” I said.“Other than that, he’s nothing.”

“So, if I asked you to give up your life back home and come live with me, here in the vale, you’ll let go?”Ash asked.I shook my head.“I don’t know.”

“How can you not know?”

“Would you come to Earth?”I challenged, flipping it around onto him.Ash’s reaction was violent.He looked calm as he watched me, but his emotions were going crazy and I couldn’t figure out why.“I can’t risk that,” Ash said after a moment of silence.“Why not?”

“I have too much to lose,” he said.My jaw dropped.“Really?And you think I don’t?Do you think I can just let go of my life on Earth and come here without losing something, too?”

“Oscar?”Ash asked.“Cat!”I cried out, incredulous that Oscar was a name he kept bringing up.“I thought you said you wouldn’t have to take care of her anymore,” Ash said.“Yeah, I wouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean I want to dedicate myself to never seeing her again.She’s all I have left, Ash.She’s my sister.I know you guys don’t understand that concept because family isn’t big in the enchanted realm, but she’s the only thing left after everything I had was ripped away from me.”

Ash shook his head, pursing his lips together.He didn’t understand what I meant.There was no sympathy from him.I couldn’t fault him for that—he didn’t understand family the way we did, and that was just a case of his upbringing, his very existence, versus mine.It still hurt that he was so set on believing that he had too much to lose when he felt that I didn’t.“What do you have to lose?”I asked carefully.“What do you mean?”

“You said you had too much to lose.What is it?”

Ash studied my face for a long time as if he was trying to decide what to say to that.“My immortality,” he said.“The world I’m used to… the only thing that defines me.”

“It sounds to me like we stand to lose pretty much the same thing, then,” I said softly.Ash didn’t say anything, but it didn’t seem like he agreed.It didn’t feel like he did.“This feels like a very big thing between us,” I said, leaning against the wall with my back, sitting shoulder to shoulder with Ash.“It feels like a deciding factor.”

“I want you to stay with me,” Ash said.“I’m in love with you, and I want you by my side.”

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