“It certainly was.”
“Is it always like that?”
“I don’t think so, love.”
Something in the tone of his voice made my heart thump. I was not the first woman Kalen had been with, but the look in his eyes suggested this was far different than anything he’d experienced before. But he had not even come yet. I would have to remedy that.
“Your turn,” I said with a smile.
He cocked a brow. “Already? I don’t want to push you…”
I hooked my leg around his hips and tugged him closer. “I want you inside me, Kalen.”
With a wicked glint in his eye, he wrapped his hands around my backside and then—flip. My back met the warm air from the hearth, basking me in a heat that matched the fire still burning in my core. Kalen lay beneath me on the bed with my legs spread on either side of his hips. His length stood at attention, ready for whatever I would give him.
“I want to see you take control,” he murmured, trailing a finger along my outer thigh.
I read between the lines. Kalen knew my history. Oberon had never touched me like that, but he’d still made a mark on me. He’d threatened me with it more than once, and for a very long time, I was afraid of breaking his rules. The girls of Teine were not allowed to give themselves up to anyone else until after Oberon chose a bride. If they did, the punishment was death.
The last time I’d been alone in a room with Kalen, that past had risen up like a ghastly wraith, haunting me. I’d been hesitant then, because of it. Unsure.
I felt none of that now.
And yet, Kalen wanted to hand me the reins, so that I could stop this at any time.
It only made me want him more.
I lifted my hips and then wound my hand around his cock. He shuddered, hardening even more against my touch. With a trembling heart, I angled myself just right. And then I eased back against him. The tip of him inched inside me. Everything within me tightened, and my walls tensed around him.
“Fucking hell,” he growled, gazing up at me with those piercing sapphire eyes.
I shifted further down and took in more of him. A flicker of pain went through me, and I gasped.
Kalen gently caressed my thigh. “Don’t rush it. Take your time.”
But my need for him was almost overwhelming. I didn’t want to take my time. I just wanted to have all of him, filling me until we were as close to each other as we could possibly be. I widened my thighs and lowered myself even more, crying out as his substantial length pushed into me.
I sat there for a moment with my palms flat against his corded muscles. And then I began to move. A shockwave of pleasure went through my core, erasing any hint of pain, as I came down on him a second time. He groaned and ran his hands around to my backside, shuddering. Mist stormed around us.
His hips rose up to meet mine as I pushed against him once more, the pace of my movements quickening along with my need. As we rocked together, he pulled my face toward his and brushed a hot kiss across my lips. There was so much more than just lust in his kiss. So much more than what I thought he would be. I kissed back, hungry for him, needy for him. All this time we’d spent apart, I’d wanted nothing but to feel him. To touch him. To taste him. To feel his hardness between my thighs.
“What the fuck are you doing to me, love?” he asked in a gruff voice when we broke apart. Staring into his eyes, I ground my hips against him. His groans fill the room, drowning out the crackle of the fire. The entire world smelled of him. Of mist. Of snow. Of night.
I dropped my head back and moaned.
Because whatever I was doing to him, he was doing the same damn thing to me.
Before I knew it, I was on the edge. I tried to slow my hips, but I couldn’t. Just two more thrusts, that was all I wanted. Two more kisses. I didn’t want this moment to end. His cock felt so good that I could stay here like this for hours, on every single night of my life. But nothing could stop the pleasure I felt, nothing could put it on hold.
We crashed together, our bodies shuddering in sync. That delicious, all-consuming, universe-ending explosion rocked through me once more. Mist swirled around us like gusts of fog-drenched wind. I held on to him as if I might tumble off the face of the world and into the sky itself, where the pieces of me would scatter across the stars.
Twenty-Eight
Kalen
Icould spend the rest of my life in Tessa’s bed, and I would never grow tired of kissing her skin. After we made love, she curled up against my shoulder and drifted off to sleep. I stayed awake, tracing the tiny moles on her back. I searched for patterns and found all of them. A line here, a triangle there, a crown and a sword arcing through the air.
Hours might have passed or merely moments, but when she woke, her big brown eyes did something to me. They made me want to cast my reign aside. I could scoop her up and take her far away from here. Take her away from the harshness of Aesir. The mists. The pookas. Everything.