Page 52 of Steeling Light
And I’d let him. He presses me up against a birch tree, and the paper-like bark digs into my back. I try to run my hands through his hair, but he grips my wrists and holds them above my head. Those gray eyes burn into me as he takes deep breaths in and out and simply holds me in place.
“Why do you make me feel this way?” he growls.
“Because I’m not afraid of you, Rhion. I love you more than anything or anyone in the world, and I never want you to hide anything from me. I’m not made of glass. You won’t break me.”
And he kisses me so hard it bruises my lips. His cock finds my entrance as he pins me against the tree, and he slams me down onto him. If my body hadn’t stayed shifted, I’d be in agony, but now, it’s perfection. My breasts press against his chest, and this time, there’s no doubt what he wants.
With one hand, he holds my arms in place. With the other, he digs into my waist. He thrusts with no regard for me, with no regard for anything other than giving his body what it craves.
It’s only now that I understand how much I crave it as well. It’s only now that I understand that this isn’t anger or rage. It’s passion. It’s animalistic and unguarded.
This is the part of him that will rush in front of anything to protect me. It’s the part that stood tall for nine hundred years as he longed for me. I love Rhion Rahn, and it’s not only for the kindness he shows me.
I love the savage parts of him just as much because those are the parts that would give anything for me. It would fight any battle in my name.
What had felt like liquid lightning before is something beyond anything I’ve ever felt. It’s an addiction beginning, a need I’d never known I’d had being sated. It’s me feeling whole for the first time.
And instead of trying to get away as I’m sure he expects me to do, I lean forward and press my lips against his, begging with action rather than words for more. Rhion lets out a growl and slams his hips into me, and somehow, he seems to swell even larger inside me.
Rhion’s hands clench tighter, and I’m not sure how much longer I can take it. His thrusts become more insistent, more desperate. And I keep kissing him. I tense my body, and the dam inside me breaks and sends a rushing tidal wave of perfection through me.
The moan that erupts from my body is a roar of triumph. It’s a roar of perfection. It’s a feeling of being so complete I didn’t believe it was possible. It’s a cry declaration of the love I have for Rhion. Of life.
My body shakes in Rhion’s grasp, and he lets loose his own roar along with his release. And then it’s done.
I stare into those gray eyes and see the love there. His hands still pin me to the tree, and his cock is still deep inside me. He’d been desperate for me. The hunger inside him is awake for the first time, the animal he’s kept hidden for his entire life. But I’m not made of glass, and I didn’t break. He never scared me.
“I love you, Rhion. All of you,” I whisper, more than a little breathlessly. “And I don’t want you to ever hide yourself from me.”
He doesn’t answer immediately. Instead, he pulls me away from the tree, and I finally feel the dozens of scratches running down my back, blood running thick from them. His fingers are covered in it, but he doesn’t care. Instead, he just keeps staring into my eyes.
“How could I hide from my heart?”
Chapter 28
Love is a funny thing. You lust for a man when all you see are the masks he wears. You begin to fall for him as he reveals more and more of himself. But love… you cannot love a man until you have seen the parts of him he hides even from himself. Love is seeing your partner’s truth and never wanting him to put on another mask.
~Ainslee Emlyn, personal journals
Ainslee
I can still taste his lips, his sweat, his magical scent. My body is sore in ways that make my stomach twist in knots. I can still feel him deep inside me, and I’m still throbbing. Even as the dawn sun rises, it’s like his body’s never left mine.
I lick my lips to get another taste of him, to remind myself that what happened last night was real, as I stand beside the blanket we slept on last night. Still naked. Still drinking in the fact I am betrothed to Rhion Rahn, the man who has always understood me in ways that no one else did.
His soul lingers just outside mine. I can feel him, even as he sleeps, yearning to touch me again. He begs me to come back, to lay my head on his shoulder, just so he can smell me and feel my body next to his.
We aren’t entirely separate people anymore, but the connection is fragile. I can feel the strands stretching between us even now. We leave for Draenyth in only a few hours. After that… we have to go back to our lives. Lives where we’re on opposite sides of a war.
I gave Cole and Maeve my loyalty, but Rhion has a claim to my heart and soul.
The sun’s rays peek over the trees and set the world alight in gold, and all I feel is dread. What Rhion and I have is so tenuous, so terrifyingly fragile. Our future is walking a blade’s edge, and nothing but pain and anguish lies on either side of it.
It’s not simply the soul ache that will rip through me if something happens to Rhion. It’s the knowledge of what we have. I walked through the world with so little joy for so many years. Now I know what it is to wake up and smile at the sunrise. I know what it is tolive.
He’s always been that person. From the time that we were children, I knew how important he was to me. I have cried more tears for Rhion than any other person in the world, and the thought of shedding any more for him is unthinkable.
“You are the most beautiful creature in the world,” he says from behind me. The despair evaporates at his words and the thought of his eyes roaming over my body. “What are you staring at?” he asks.
