Page 68 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

She slid her hand into my fly to accentuate her words, wrapping her hand around my length and squeezing me. I groaned as I crashed my mouth into hers, swallowing her answering whimper and claiming it for myself. My hand found her breast, kneading the flesh as she arched up into me and worked my cock with slow rocks of her hand that threatened to steal every bit of my control.

I shoved my trousers down over my hips, cursing them when they caught at my knees. Estrella giggled into my mouth as I pulled away from her, maneuvering on the stone so that I could push them down the rest of my legs and tear them off. She took the opportunity to lift her ass up, pulling her dress down her thighs and tossing it to the stone beside her until she lay before me in all her glory.

She was Gods-damned beautiful, every inch of her skin taut with a mix of muscle and softness. The hollows in her body that had once existed as a consequence of her life in poverty had begun to fill, leaving her healthier as she smirked up at me. I reached into the pocket of my trousers, wrapping my hand around the short dagger that one of the Gorgon men had handed to me, explaining the final step to our handfasting. Estrella quirked her brow as she studied it, her gaze rising to mine. Her voice was all seduction and rasp when she spoke, her mouth forming the words as she laid herself flat against the rock again.

Her hand found her breast, gripping it and toying with her own nipple as I watched. She spread her legs slightly, giving me just a glimpse of the pleasure that waited for me there.

“So eager to be rid of me already, husband?” she asked, making everything within me clench. I set the knife on the stone by her feet, growling as I lowered myself into the waters of the lagoon. The warm water wrapped around me, going to my chest as the spark of pleasure tickled over my skin, elevating the arousal I already felt. Estrella studied my expression as I felt my eyes bleed to black, my own magic rising to meet the spark of Tartarus that existed within the waters.

I reached up, grabbing her by the feet and pulling them toward me. She sat up as I turned her, that hand that had tormented her breast moving to support her weight as I dragged her over the stone. It scraped at her skin, leaving it pink and irritated in a way that made me want to drag my tongue over it to soothe her, but I could not be bothered with gentleness as I shoved her feet apart and steppedbetween them. My hands went to the inside of her thighs, grasping her and tugging her to the edge and positioning her right where I wanted her. Those dark eyes flashed with sparks of gold as she stared down at me.

“Do you still want me to rush this?” I asked, touching my mouth to the inside of her thigh. I kissed the sensitive, soft skin that met me, staring up at her as she sank her teeth into the inside of her cheek. She shook her head, spreading her legs wider as I grinned. “I thought as much.”

I leaned in, inhaling the scent that I’d come to know as her and her alone. She smelled of darkness and earth, of the faint hint of a fire burning away on a summer’s eve. Dragging my tongue through her folds, I let her wet heat envelop me as I groaned into her. Estrella sighed, wrapping her legs around my shoulders and placing her hands on the stone behind her to support herself as she watched me, that ember gaze burning where it touched. She rocked into me, fucking my face with her cunt as much as I used my tongue to drive her mad, tormenting her as her chest heaved.

I cupped a handful of the lagoon water in my palm, lifting it and letting it drip onto her thigh. She shuddered against me the moment it touched her, that magical sensation spreading through her. It was so similar to the way the tree of life had made me feel, a heightening of all the arousal we already felt for one another. I held her stare as I reached into the lagoon once again, pulling my mouth from her pussy in spite of her protest.

I grinned at her, my mouth wet with her arousal as I raised the water to above her body and watched the liquid pour down from my grip. It splashed against her pussy, coating her in the distinct sensation as she made a sound caught between a whimper and a scream. Those stunning eyes filled with molten gold, her hand reaching for me and grasping the hair at the back of my head.

She pulled me back to her cunt, making her desire very, very fucking clear. I dipped both hands into the water, wetting them before grabbing a breast in each palm. Her desperation drove higher, her writhing against the stone a thing of beauty as I slid my tongue inside her and fucked her like a man starved.

If I were ever to get to choose a last meal, if I were to die with her taste on my tongue, then I would step willingly into the abyss.

FORTY-THREE

ESTRELLA

I’d thought there would be an element of jealousy in sharing Caldris, in knowing that it wasn’t onlymein my body as he worked his tongue through me.

But the hand that gripped his hair was all mine, the thighs he buried himself between all me.

In accepting Aella as part of me, the two halves of me no longer existed. In becoming one, I could feel Caldris more firmly. I understood the bond better for acceptingher, for she was the part of me that had access to the magics that were beyond Estrella. Where I’d only had glimpses of our bond before, the faint wisps of what Caldris felt, now I had it all.

Now I understood.

I tasted myself on his tongue, felt the deep satisfaction he gained from my pleasure. It coursed through him as it did me, reflecting back to me like the mirror. The growl that lurked in my moan of pleasure was all animal, all monstrous, as my hand tightened inhis ashen silver hair, pulling him tighter to my body as my pleasure drove higher. Feeling what I did to him was the greatest aphrodisiac, far stronger than whatever magic lingered in this water, and I wanted the sense of his satisfaction when he brought me to orgasm. I wanted to return the favor, wanted to take him into my mouth and watch pleasure overtake him.

He growled into my pussy, the sound vibrating like a hum against my flesh as if he heard the thoughts in my head. But I knew he couldn’t, not just yet, because his voice was a whisper on the wind, muffled by the bond we had yet to complete. I knew now what would come once he’d been inside me, once we joined together in the way the mate bond required.

The thought of hearing him in my head made me toss my head back, made me sink deeper into the way his tongue tortured my clit and worked it like the master he was. He knew my body as if he owned it, and I knew without a doubt now it was that it had been created for him.

Just as he had been created for me, long before I’d even come to be.

My orgasm lingered just out of my grasp, forcing me to bend forward and stare down at Caldris. He met my eye, smirking as he pushed back into my hand at the back of his head. The movement separated him from my core, drawing that wicked mouth away as he grasped me around the waist with a firm grip and dragged me over the stone. It scraped at my flesh, the bite of pain fading with a golden light that shimmered off my skin and lit the cove as Caldris guided me down. I sank into the water, the shimmering surface warming my insides as it surrounded me. The moment it reached the apex of my thighs, overwhelming, searing heat and desire flooded me, sinking into my belly as he lowered me until my feet touched the sand at the bottom of the pool. The water came to my chest, tickling the bottom of my breasts as I reached a hand between us to trail my fingers over Caldris’s abdomen. His muscles retracted at my touch, twitching with a deep inhalation of breath. My nails trailed over the surface of his skin, tormenting him as that hand sank lower and lower into the water.

His eyes darkened as he stared down at me, the shadows in his gaze swirling around the blue of his irises. He stilled my touch with a hand on my wrist, the grip tighter than he had ever dared before. Not treating me like I was made of glass any longer, I realized, smirking up at him as he guided me down to where his length was hardas rock and curved up toward his stomach. He trailed the backs of my knuckles over him, controlling my touch when I wanted to take charge of the moment. I pressed closer, until my belly slid against our hands, and I felt the heat of his arousal against me.

He growled a warning, leaning forward to trail his nose up the side of my neck. He breathed deep, inhaling my scent in a way that was all feral and territorial. It raised the hair on my arms as I shivered, turning to smile at him in a move that made his gaze narrow in on the more pointed teeth at the corners of my mouth. A flicker of surprise crossed his face as he studied them, as if he could sense all the changes in me that weren’t physical as well.

“You can play with me another time, min asteren,” he murmured, the words soft against my skin. Another shiver wracked through my body, as if his voice reached deep into my soul and stroked it through my flesh.

He spun me to face the stone where I’d sat on the edge, leaving me with little choice but to raise my hands to catch myself against the rough surface. I stumbled forward a step, finding grooves in the stone and a ledge at the bottom. Caldris guided me up onto it, clearly having discovered it when he’d buried his face between my thighs. It accommodated some of the difference in height between us as I stepped up, letting my mate shove my legs apart slightly. Pressing into my rear, I felt the hard length of him against my lower back, his balls heavy against the swell of my ass.

“What if I want to play with you now?” I asked, my voice breathy. In another time, I would have been horrified by the want that was so blatant in my tone. I would have been appalled to give anyone enough power over me to know how desperately I wanted them. The human sense of shame would have interfered with that desire, but as I thought back to that girl now, I could find no trace of her. The human mentality about sex and sin was gone from me, leaving me to embrace the primal connection I felt to the male behind me.

Nothing we did together could be wrong.

“The next time you take me in your mouth, you’ll be mine,” Caldris said, lining himself up with my core. He stroked his length through the tight space between my thighs, rubbing himself through me slowly with gentle, teasing rocks of his hips. He stretched over my shoulder, taking the knife he’d deposited on the edge into his hand. He teased the edge of the blade over my arm, dragging it up to the side of my neck in a move that should have brought me fear. It should have given me that bitter tinge of distrust, of wondering ifI was about to be betrayed, but Caldris could never do such a thing to me. He loved me more than he loved himself, and I felt that love pulse down our nearly complete bond. “Until chaos reigns,” he said, but there was a question in that touch of his knife at the side of my neck.

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