AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Better than anyone,” he said again. It was a simple truth between us, but it felt far more complex hanging in the air between our notched bodies. “I know everthying, Gwyn” he continued, taking the peaks of my breast with his mouth, his kiss slowing, his tongue making wide, lazy circles that had my hips squirming against his. I pressed into him, letting my thighs fall apart ever so slightly, sliding his length through the wet heat.
Kalen hissed, “Everything,” he said. “Except for how you feel falling apart on my cock.”
I shuddered. Suddenly very aware of how close we were to finding out. Desperate to know for certain.
His arms caged around me, the pace of his breath picking up with the uneven rhythm of someone who was just as afraid to be loved as I was. He lifted himself from my chest, his gaze meeting mine. I’d never seen his eyes so heavy. Like he’d gotten drunk off of the feel of me and was now having a sobering thought.
He confessed, “You never used to want me like this.”
“I want you,” I reminded him. I would remind him for an eternity. My lips met his neck, and I whispered against it. “It’s been decades since you last wanted me like this.”
“I never stopped wanting you, Gwyn.”
I want you. I never stopped wanting you.All had not beenlost.
I was too aware of his body pressing into mine, the heat of him as he took off his clothes and moved to hover above me, spreading my thighs with a gentle push of his knee.
The last few minutes had been riddled with words both thought and said that would never encompass the meaning of this moment between the two of us. I could never tell him how sorry I was for being too scared to love him, and how I didn’t feel any less terrified though I was sure of it now. Kalen would never understand how his heart might beat only for me, even after all of these terrible years between us. To speak these things would be to live without taking this moment for ourselves.
So, we didn’t.
Kalen’s hands slid up my thigh, his fingers molding to the curve of my hips as he lifted them. With a low exhale, he slowly spread the soft skin covering my center, never breaking eye contact. Feeling the wetness that slicked the hitch of my thighs, the usually slow kindle of Kalen’s magic flared.
He pressed his forehead to mine. I wasn’t sure if I was breathing. Kalen groaned as I cried out, our eyes trained on the place where our bodies met as he sunk himself into me. He waited, pressing small kisses to my chest while I adjusted to a feeling so far removed from my memory.
Every nerve in my body was alight, and as the moments passed I was a fire, a desperate flame that begged to burn brighter and brighter. More. I threaded my hand in his hair, wrapped my legs around his waist, and tugged him to me. Again. And again. All too quickly, the feeling rose in the back of my spine. Kalen’s breath caught in his throat and he swore, rocking his hips more fervently. I needed him to look at me. I needed—
“Kalen,” I pulled at his hair, gasping. His chin lifted and he pressed his lips to mine as I cried out. My neck craned, my muscles tightened and coiled, pulling Kalen to the edge as I fellwondrously over it.
The poets say that in these moments, Time itself will cease to exist. But they are wrong. Time did not stop. Instead, it pulled itself apart for me like a spool of silver thread. Every moment extending, looping each second to another in a long, drawn-out infinity. The print of my fingers would burn into his back and stay there forever, his eyes drawn tight in a pleasure that was the beginning, the middle, and the end of the world. He had held me, he was holding me, he would always be holding me.
We stayed like that, two bodies joined together while everyone else carried on without noticing. I could feel the Light inside him shuddering out to meet me, tethering me to him in an inexplicable way. If I never found the words or the courage it took to say them, I would tell myself that he was always this to me: love unconditional, and worth any sacrifice.
“Are you still upsetwith me for lying?” Kalen’s fingers twirled endlessly through the waves of my hair while I lay draped across his chest. A warm breeze floated into my room from the window, the sheer pearl fabric of the curtains rustling against the wall.
“No,” I said, and I meant it. I traced little shapes on his chest, occasionally poking one of his ribs just to annoy him. I jabbed at one adding, “Anyways, it would be unwise to say that I don’t forgive you. I’d only be starting a fight I can’t possibly win. My legs are numb.”
A hoarse chuckle rasped from him. “Even still, I’ll apologize a few more times if you want me to.”
“If that’s your version of apologizing, then I hope you lie to me most often.”
“Noted,” he said, snaking his hand to my bottom and giving it a light squeeze. I looked up at him, ready to give him every reason to betray me if it meant he made good on the promise that his eyes sent raking down my bare body. My cheeks tingled and Kalen gave a wicked smile.
I swatted his hand from between my legs, regrettably, saying “We don’t have time for that. We need to figure out what we are going to do about Ione.”
His sly expression went slack. “We need to do something about Ione?”
“Well, yes.” I gave him a smart look that raised his brows. “She may not or may not be planning to tie me to a mast and drown me in the Alto, as we speak. She admitted to stealing my dagger as a test and somehow I don’t think passing it was a good thing.”
Kalen nodded, looking into my Truth as I replayed in my mind the moments on the terrace earlier with the High Mer. After a moment, he turned to face the wall, quiet and contemplative. I watched the Light form spangles on the bridge of his nose as he thought intently about our options.
Watching him, I couldn’t help but wonder how he kept it all straight in his mind; his thoughts, the thoughts of others, the Truth, and the lies that were crafted to cover them all up. How he had adapted to such a power that was never meant to be his, I would never know. Kalen’s success was nothing short of the impeccable merit of his character. Eventually, he shuffled me to his lap gently, raising his back to fit against the bed frame.
“Ione will want to keep you here as long as possible, to make sure you are being watched at all times,” he said, his fingers still roving through the crown of my hair. “Threats aside, I believe she knows it is inevitable that you and the Shadow Queen will meet. Gabriel’s visions are subjective, theycanchange, though that is a rarity. The second moon is almost upon us, and your crossing the Alto will put her faction at risk.”
Kalen lifted his other hand from the pillows beside us and ran it through his own hair, like he needed comfort before he said, “We can escape this place. It is possible. The only problem being that we don’t have any backup and it is mortal hell over high water that we avoid a fight with the Merlords.”
Kalen stared out at the wall blankly again, and then he chuckled so hard I was bouncing in place atop his lap.
