Page 196 of Dare
Jeryn hollered my name, his body shattering. Liquid heat streamed from the crown and spilled into me. I clutched his jaw, coming for a second time, coming with my villain king, watching the rapture tear his features to shreds.
We shouted and clung and didn’t let go. Never would we let go again.
With my cunt still pulsating, I sagged into Jeryn, and he slumped against me. We staggered, his arm shooting up to a low hanging branch and steadying us. Our eyes met, and I chuckled in breathless exhaustion while a grin dabbed at the corner of his mouth.
Struggling to recover, Jeryn sobered first, the candidness of his gaze quieting me. Our hands roamed, unable to stop touching, needing to prove this was real. Looping beneath my other thigh, he hoisted me off the ground and strapped those steel arms across my back, his cock still inside me. Linking my ankles over his ass, I wrapped myself around his frame, hugging him back.
For a long time, we stayed like that, inhaling and exhaling. I clasped him tighter, and he gathered me closer, his fingers skating up and down my spine, my hands lost in his damp hair.
Separated by kingdoms, I’d spent three years dreaming of this moment, hoping for this moment, fighting for this moment. All this time, it had only ever been this man. And his earlier declaration had made it clear—the feeling had stayed mutual.
Jeryn pulled back and nuzzled my face until I chuckled again. At the sound, he descended deeper into the crook of my throat, humming and biting and enjoying how I squirmed, because he knew my ticklish spots.
Inching back again, he brushed the tousled hair from my forehead, then carried me from the cupola. The kisses and touches continued as Jeryn traveled into the heart of the ruins, then into the cave tunnels, where the grotto waited.
The surface gleamed, strands of light dancing across the walls. Aside from that one shark attack, none of its kin had appeared during the time we’d been living here. Yet Jeryn froze on the threshold, his eyes searching the depth for a shark. I saw it then, how his panic hadn’t lessened over the years.
Predatory waters might always be a source for him, but the fear dwindled as I caressed his cheek and whispered. Because if he would be my safety, I would be his.
We didn’t have to go in, I told him. We had other cave pools to choose from.
Still, my touch eased the trenches in his visage. Focusing on me, Jeryn made his decision and waded into the pool, not wanting to be ruled by his past at every turn. Slowly, his intakes evened out, and while this respite might not last, it worked on him for now.
He’d chosen to bring us here, turning what had once been horrifying into something better. That was promising. As for the rest, we would live through it minute by minute, day by day. Together.
Although I hated to detach from him, Jeryn slid his cock from between my walls. He bathed me, and I splashed water down his torso, then we submerged ourselves.
Jeryn pinned my slick flesh to his and dove that evil mouth beneath my jaw. “I’m going to fuck you again,” he swore into my throat.
I whimpered and curled into him. “Here.”
“Soon,” he agreed in a husky timbre.
But first, we told each other everything. Despite his craving, Jeryn resisted with only a minor growl. I slipped behind him, my breasts resting against his shoulders as he reclined into me and hooked my legs over his stomach.
The last three years unfolded in whispers, interrupted by kisses and Jeryn’s mouth searing a path across the whorls on my calves. He liked the markings, inked symbols of my own choosing.
From somewhere above, I heard the ocean run its wet fingers over the sand. Despite other elusive places such as The Wildflower Forest and The Lost Treehouses, people still questioned the details about this realm.
How had it remained uncharted for centuries? How had a born soul been the first one to see the map hidden within that legendary song?
Maybe because nature didn’t discriminate between born souls or anyone else, because it was diverse in its flora and fauna, as varied as the people who lived on this continent. And maybe the elements had cloaked the forest through a trick of sunlight.
I would say the forest chose its visitors for a sacred plan. My villain king would say no such thing. And that was okay.
The reason all these mystical places existed across the Seasons could be science or faith, happenstance or destiny. Though for once, I wondered if it might be both. Logic and madness. Explicable and magical. Yet always wild, such as humanity itself.
We talked about this until my hand got sneaky. Reaching in front and sliding down his granite chest, I snaked my fingers around his cock, which lifted beneath the water.
A hiss diced between Jeryn’s teeth. “Fucking little beast.”
I purred into his ear. “Where should we mate in this grotto?”
“Wherever you want. I’m at your disposal.”
“Oh, I’m never disposing of you. I’m keeping my king.”
“Much better, because I’m not letting you go again. As I said, I plan to make you come in every part of the forest.”