The morning sun gleamed against her hair, highlighting the gold strands threaded within the rich brown waves. Her skin was soft against the satin as it slid from her waist. She had a finesse about her movements, a confidence in her ability to please him that made her all the more erotic. She sat over him, clothed in nothing but draping sunlight and a sublime afterglow.
“Gods below,” he whispered. Daunted as he took in how her body looked in the light. “You are—”
“Skinny? Sickly?”
“Mesmerizing. The most beautiful being I have ever seen.”
Her fingertips skimmed the lines across his chest, the story of his destiny, the markings a map to hisFraendi. “How would you like to be pleased, my lord?” she asked.
“Your mouth will do, heathen,” he muttered as she rolled her hips, enjoying the sounds she pulled from him.
“Filthy fae,” she whispered, sliding lower.
Voices carried beyond the door, joining his commander waiting for him beyond a thin layer of bedroom wall. “I think we have more company in the drawing room,” he breathed. But he no longer heard them as she kissed the tip of his shaft, stealing his every awareness until she was the only thing that existed.
“Good.” Her tongue swirled around his length. “I hope they hear what I do to you. Open the doors, Vali. Let them all hear me worship you like the god you are.”
His fingers ceased combing her hair for a second to snap the windows and the doors open to his balcony, where beyond sat the sprawling kingdom city. The icy sting of the morning breeze whipped her back and she arched between his legs, shivers gently thrashing her body. The cold breath of the morning contrasted her hot mouth. Through the harsh light of the glaring sunrise, Vali watched her take control, squeezing the base of his shaft with her hands while she slowly began to suck him, diminishing him into a mess of carnal compulsions.
He shoved a pillow behind his head to watch her. His fingers tangled in her hair. Their rune mark, her lips around him, the pleasure scourging through him every time her cheeks hollowed, and her sounds of appreciation vibrated his cock—he wouldn’t last long. Every thrust she took him deeper, surrounding him with wet heat in her tight, little throat.
“You take it so well,sváss.” His eyes shut, fighting the urge to fist her head in place and pump his hips against her face. She convulsed around him with a swallow, and he almost spilled right then and there. But she eased off, tempering her movements as his hips twitched, noting how close he was just to draw out his torture just as thoroughly as he had done to her.
Gods, he had fallen. Hard. And the longer he fell and the steeper the stakes became, the more he wanted this forever, believed something this good deserved a fighting chance. The Norn once said he had a choice, but nothing about Ailsa was a choice. This pull in his bones, this attraction originating deep from his marrow—it was not a choice of fate.
It was destiny.
His knees jerked off the bed as reached his peak, a roar muffled through his teeth as he spilled into her, the merciless surge of molten pleasure as she swallowed every drop of him, skillfully extending the finality of his pleasure with her tongue. Her hands continued to stroke him as his hips thrashed with the final waves of his climax, and he caressed her hair as he panted her name, his chest starved of substance.
She crawled over him wearing a victorious smirk like a conqueror. Her skin glistened in a sparkling sheen of sweat despite the morning chill. “Vali?” she said. “You can no longer be calledheartless.”
A soft smile crossed his lips as he ran his fingers languidly through the length of her hair. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you have mine, and for the rest of my days it will beat for you.” She nestled her nose into his neck.
He held her a bit tighter, and for a moment the threads of fate were meaningless. Life gave them a timeline, but weren’t they all just a thread cut away from an untimely death? Not one of them knew how many days numbered their strings, and it all could be snapped away in the next hour, the next second. As long as he drew breath, he would challenge the potentials.
“Ek elska pik,” he whispered affectionately in her ear. Andgods belowit was as easy as breathing.
She smiled without opening her eyes. “I love you, too.”
Ailsa asked to meet Ivor in the gardens after being cleared by Master Greer. She informed the healer she had been thoroughly assessed and checked off by Lord Vali, thanking her for all her help and the staff for their dedication to her rehabilitation. Greer gave her little objection, only a few discharge instructions and a curt smile.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, weaving through the trimmed hedges while Ailsa tried to find the right words to explain to the wolven the events of the night prior. Ivor had made her disapproval of Vali clear, avoiding him at all costs, leaving every time he entered a room. And Ailsa feared how she would react when she noticed the mating rune on her hand.
“How are you feeling? You look well.” Ivor broke the silence first. Her voice was even, betraying no hint of knowing.
“I feel better than I ever have in my life,” she admitted.
“Can’t imagine that. You hardly slept last night,” the wolven remarked. Ailsa stilled and shot her a side eye, but discovered Ivor was staring straight ahead. Her face a solid mask barren of feeling.
“You heard about last night?” Ailsa winced.
“Everyoneheard,” she replied dryly. “Not to mention you’ve wreaked of his scent since you returned from the river. And I swear to the gods, if I ever have to hear Vali’s name again, I will bash my own skull into the headboard.”
Ailsa felt a hot blush crawling up her neck. She didn’t realize they had beenthatloud. “Are you upset with me?” she asked.
Ivor paused in front of a statue made of a polished white stone. The figure was a man who resembled Vali, a raven perched on his shoulder and a tree branch dangled in his hand. “I am disgusted and a little annoyed at having my sleep disrupted, but I love you like a sister, Ailsa. I also know you don’t have much time left, and as you said in Jotunheim, you deserve to live your days how you want to live them. No matter how much I disapprove.”