Page 40 of A Storm of Fire and Ash
“Gods, Elara, you feel so fucking good. Look at you,” his throaty voice whispered, “taking me like a fucking Queen.”
His words brought me closer to the edge. “Ah, yes, Fin! Take me!” I screamed as I pulled his hair tighter, coaxing him further and further inside of me.
My eyes rolled back as he moved.
Every thrust sent a ripple of pleasure through me, my body tightening around him, urging him deeper, harder. I was drunk on him—on the way he moaned my name like a prayer, on the way he kissed my shoulder, my cheek, my lips between gasps, like I was something holy.
“Gods, Elara,” he murmured against my mouth, his voice thick with desire. “You undo me.”
I cupped his face, gazing into his storm-swept eyes, and whispered, “Then let me.”
The world outside that moment ceased to exist. There was no castle, no crown, no bloodline. Just him. Just me. Just this feverish, beautiful collapse into one another.
Our bodies moved faster, more frenzied, as our pleasure built together. I dug my nails into his back, urging him closer as heat swelled inside me, ready to break.
“Elara.”
“Fintan,” I said back his name, showing him how much I loved him worshipping my body—showing him that we were unbreakable in this moment.
And when we came—together—it was as if the entire world shattered around us.
I cried out his name as release tore through me, my body trembling in his arms. He followed with a groan, holding me tightly as if afraid I’d vanish.
“Holy Divine,” I whispered breathlessly.
For a long moment, there was only the sound of our ragged breaths, our skin damp with sweat, our hearts thundering against each other’s chests.
He pressed a kiss to my temple and whispered something I couldn’t quite catch. Maybe I was still too drunk on the tea. Maybe I just didn’t want to break the silence.
I buried my face in the curve of his sweaty neck, inhaling his scent, tasting the heat still clinging to his skin.
And for the first time in so long, I felt completely consumed—and completely seen.
We stayed like that for a while—tangled in each other, pressed against the cold stone wall made warm by our shared heat. His arms were still wrapped around me as if he wasn’t ready to let go, and I had no desire to move. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, but there was a calm beneath it. A stillness I hadn’t felt in what felt like years.
His lips brushed my temple again, slower this time. Reverent. He held me like I was something fragile, as if the weight of what had just passed between us had settled into his chest.
“Elara…” he murmured, his voice low and unsteady.
I tilted my head to look at him. His expression had shifted—no longer purely driven by hunger, but softened with something deeper. His stormy eyes searched mine, and I could feel the tension in his breath before he spoke again.
“I’m in love with you.”
The words were quiet, but they struck like lightning in the silence that followed. My breath caught. Not from surprise, but from the way it made everything inside me ache in the most beautiful way.
Fintan’s hand came up to cradle my cheek, his thumb brushing gently over my skin as if unsure whether I’d pull away. “I tried not to be, I knew you weren’t ready for that,” he added, a small, breathless laugh escaped him. “Tried to keep you at arm’s length and give you space and time. But every time I look at you… I just fall harder.”
I stared at him for a heartbeat, my vision going blurry with the sudden sting of tears. Not sadness—something far more dangerous.
Hope.
I placed my hand over his heart, feeling the steady thrum beneath his chest. Everything about this moment felt right—perfect. “I love you too,” I whispered. “I don’t know when it happened. Maybe it’s been building all along. But I know it now.”
His lips brushed mine again, not frantic like before, but with a different kind of urgency—one born from relief, from longing, from the impossible sweetness of being seen and wanted in return.
I felt him grow harder, still buried inside of me.
“Take me again. I need you,” I pleaded.
