Page 14 of Prowess Trials
Forcing my head from his neck, River takes my mouth even as he continues to massage my breasts and thrust inside me. Deep and hard, pillaging me at the top and bottom until I can do nothing but take what he gives me. Which should annoy me, but magnifies every sensation instead. The moisture flowing from me, my body’s ultimate betrayal to my mind, leaves no doubt of the effect River is having on me. And…and maybe that’s all right.
As River’s tongue makes another powerful sweep of my mouth, I yield it to him. Let myself focus on the connection, the slide of him inside me that fills a void.You can have my truths, River. You can have all of me.My eyes sting with the realization of how much I missed this. The trust. The openness. The mating that makes my body sing in response to River’s masterful thrusts.
River scrapes the top of his teeth along my lip, leaving a trail of tingling pain that morphs to hot pleasure. A moment later, the finger River used to tease the sides of my apex rubs a firm circle directly over it.”Now, Lera,” he orders.
My body clenches, the wave of pleasure rising inside me rippling from my apex. More and more, until each muscle clenches in a mix of uncontrollable pleasure and ache that makes me spasm around River’s great cock with dizzying intensity. The world flickers, the spasming waves raking my core over and over and over until I hang like a limp doll in the male’s arms.
My head is swimming as the room solidifies once again around me, the worried buzz of servants returning below, my breath coming short and fast. A bead of sweat snakes its way down my neck before dripping impertinently between my breasts. For the first time, I feel the cold stone of the wall against my back. Feel the male’s hot, powerful hips that I still grip with my thighs. His callused hand beneath my naked backside.
His cock still in me. Still throbbing.
My eyes widen.
River grins wickedly, flashing his teeth.
In the next heartbeat, the male pulls out and thrusts into me again, his slicked finger entering my back hole at the same moment. The dual sensation rushes through me like an explosion, magnifying everything that came before it. I gasp desperately, over and over, falling into the abyss of pleasure without any choice of my own.
River groans. As I feel his warmth spill inside me, the last of my strength drains away. My sex pulses with the clenching aftershocks, the little shots of energy along my nerves that make me shake in the male’s arms, and we lower to the ground together, my head on River’s chest.
Stars. Oh bloody stars.
I rise and prop myself over River, tracing his strong jaw, the hint of stubble scratching my skin. The words I need to say to him again tingle my tongue. Maybe now he’ll really hear them. “I love you, River.”
The corners of the male’s mouth lift, his gray eyes dancing with a fevered pleasure that seems to come as much from my words as the release he just found. Bringing up his hand, River traces his thumb along the pointed tip of my left ear.
“Leralynn.” He swallows, his jaw tightening for an instant, before returning with visible effort to focus on me alone. “I love you too. I could never stop. No matter—” He swallows again, his eyes closing for a moment. Now that we are no longer in the midst of fevered action, the male’s skin looks pale.
And is getting more so with every heartbeat.
“River?” My stomach clenches. “River, what’s wrong?”
He shakes himself and gives me that reassuring calm look that I know he’s perfected over the centuries. “Aside from the fact that we are concealing ourselves in a servants’ passage while half the Academy is up in flames and a small army of immortal warriors are likely scheming an attack against Great Falls?”He gives me a crooked smile that doesn’t quite touch his beautiful gray eyes despite a hell of a lot of effort. “Aside from that, my lady, all’s well.”
No, no, it isn’t.
Pulling away, I survey River with my gaze—and find a large wet stain saturating the breast of his woolen coat. Red, coppery, and growing before my eyes. That blood I smelled on him earlier and dismissed as nothing of consequence. “Just how badly are you injured, River?” I demand.
“A deep scratch, nothing more,” he says—and doubles over in pain.
11
Lera
“River!” Wrapping my arm around the male’s waist, I ease him to sit on the stone floor. “What—no, forget what. Where?”
River fumbles with the buttons on his coat.
Pushing his hands aside, I work the polished metal pieces through the thick fabric, easing the royal red jacket off River’s muscled shoulders. My jaw tightens when, instead of being covered with a shirt, I discover the male’s hard, bare torso wrapped in self-made bandages. Bandages completely soaked through with fresh red blood. “You knew!” I hiss at him, seeing my own furious expression reflected in his gray eyes. “You knew you were injured. Badly.”
“I was there when it happened, so yes.” River clenches his teeth, his skin growing cooler and clammier with each passing heartbeat. He rubs his hands over his face. “The prisoner, I went to talk to him this morning. And then I met the fae named Owalin. That didn’t end as well as I’d hoped.”
River discovered Night Guard fae on Academy grounds, got stabbed, and then, seeing me set the arena ablaze, drew his own conclusions. And came to stop me, injury or not. Unfortunately, since none of our encounter successfully endangered my life, River is still beneath the amulet’s veil spell.
I inhale the smell of his blood and snarl. “I understand why you went after me, but why did you think coupling while stabbed was a good idea?”
“Truth be known, I wasn’t thinking much at the time.Agh.” River grunts in pain as I peel away soggy bandages to behold a freely bleeding gash along River’s right pectoral. From the way its draining, I’m fairly certain the gash is newly reopened.
I should have stopped this. I should have smelled the blood on River and taken him to Shade immediately. But my instincts were too distracted by the male himself—his anger, his rejection of me. I can feel my mind wanting to spiral into darkness, to cover my head with my hands and wait until this is all over.
