She had seen little of the wizard in him until now. Until she saw the magic holding the man back from letting go too soon. Determined to see her pleased. Worshipped. So fulfilled she would never forget this first time. A noble struggle to be sure because the wizard was just as desperate.
Needing him to let go as much as she needed the same, she brought his ear to her mouth and whispered, “If you won’t, then I will.”
She wasn’t sure if it was her blossoming druidess or his deep-seated need to make sure she was pleasured before he lost himself, but she gained the upper hand and straddled him. Took control.
And there was nothing more arousing.
Not necessarily because she was in charge but because of the way he felt between her thighs at this angle. The way he watched her from behind half-mast eyelids. How having a man like him at her disposal felt. She ran her hands over his broad shoulders. Down his ripped abs.
Then she ran her hands over her own spread thighs and up her torso. Loved the way he watched them. Cherished their journey. She caressed her breasts and tweaked her nipples, more drawn by the way he took her in by the moment. Determined that he finally, at last, give in to his baser desires.
Finally stopped being so damn noble.
She barely had time to process how odd that thinking was when he sat up, clenched her ass, and thrust so hard her eyes rolled back in her head.
“I’m here, lass,” he groaned into her ear. “I tried to hold back, but....”
Hold back? Why?
“Don’t do that anymore,” she whimpered, not sure what she meant. “You don’t need to do that. You don’t need to—”
She gasped when he took the words right out of her mouth and thrust again. Moved so harshly she felt unsettled yet ready to explode. He stopped, cupped her butt with one large, strong hand, the back of her neck with the other, and forced her gaze to his.
“You have to do this,” he managed, clenching her backside firmly enough that her belly quivered in response to the feel of him buried so deeply. “You always had to do this...be the one...yet....”
Her eyelids slid shut at his words. At the control he didn’t want to have. At the sensations that only heightened now that she couldn’t see him. Not anymore. Not in this life.
But maybe in another.
Maybe as another.
Her heat spiked higher. The pleasure of him between her thighs became half dream, half reality. The pure sensation was more profound than anything she had ever felt. As though she straddled not just him but another world.
As if she were finally free to embrace that world.
Give in.
“I’m allowed,” she whispered, not sure why she said it. “We’re allowed this time.” She cupped him around the neck as well and opened her eyes to his. Made sure he saw her. Understood. “Trust me. Please trust me.” She shook her head and rolled her hips. “Nothing’s stopping us.” She rolled her hips again. “Not anymore.”
“Nothing?” he asked on a groan as she slid up and down his shaft.
“Nothing.” She moved faster, loving the way his features twisted in bliss. “Nothing at all.” Rather than push him back down and ride him until she lost herself, she wrapped her legs around him and shared control as she moved her hips and egged him on. Dared him to take what he had long wanted. “Only you now.”
While most men in his position would have slammed into her until they let go, Declán did anything but. Instead, he controlled her backside with one hand and wrapped his strong arm around her until they were skin to skin. Her sensitive breasts pressed against his muscular chest. Their lips were nearly together but not kissing. Until she breathed in his hot breath, and it became her own.
“What are you doing?” she whispered against his lips. “What are you waiting for?”
“Ye,mo chroí.” He flicked his tongue across the seam of her lips. Pressed up just enough for her to realize how tightly strung she had become. How horribly desperate for release she had grown. “Ye.” He swept aside her hair and nibbled down the side of her neck. “Because only ye can do this...only ye can....”
Before he could finish his sentence, she yanked his lips back to hers, held him so tightly it hurt, and rolled her hips once, twice, three times before her body locked up hard.
She felt paralyzed, frozen, terrified, when this was supposed to be the most beautiful moment of her life. Supposed to be anything but the terror she felt.
“’Tis not terror,mo chroí,”Declán murmured into her ear, wrapping her up tighter in his warm, protective arms. “’Tis something from another life that has no place here because you did no wrong.” He cupped her cheek and talked her down from the ledge. “Neither of us did.”
“Didn’t we, though?” she whispered shakily. “Must have for this....”
“This is nothing more than you letting go of one life and accepting another.” He kept her gaze with his. Pleaded with her. “So do that. Accept that we are allowed this?” Even though he trembled with what had to be equal physical pain, he pressed his hand to her heart and searched her eyes. “See me, Riona. Not as your husband, a wizard, or the patriarch of our kingdom but as the man you once knew. The man who loved you no matter what became of us.”
