10. Ayden

Chapter 10

Ayden

I slumped back in my chair.

Saltstone burning.

Melucia overrun.

Everyone dead.

It was too much to process, too much to accept.

And Declan was the one person in the entire world who was supposed to stop it all?

My Declan?

Mute Declan.

“He is no longer Mute,” órla’s smoky whisper kissed my mind.

I startled so badly my chair nearly tipped over. “Irina’s knobby nose! Can you give a guy a warning before chatting in his mind?”

órla giggled. “I like it when you curse. You are far cleverer than Declan.”

I didn’t mean to smile. I certainly didn’t feel like smiling, but the sheer oddity and cuteness of the tiny owl laughing shattered my somber moment.

“She does that.” Declan sat next to me, his hand finding my leg. The simple warmth of his touch calmed my racing heart and tortured mind.

“Hey!” órla squawked aloud at the same time I said, “Thanks.”

órla turned. “On that lovely note, I think I will go hunt for my breakfast. I hope you two are very happy in your first-in-line companionship. May you starve without my skills.”

Then she took flight, and vanished beyond the cavern’s entrance before either of us could say a word.

“Could you hear her, too?” Declan nodded, so I asked, “Is she truly angry?”

“Tell him I am furious. Make him feel guilty. Maybe he will bring me offerings and gifts. I prefer mouse to rat, but a well-butchered cow helps me sleep. Yes, cow, have the boy bring me cow.”

I chuckled. “She wants me to tell you she is thoroughly and completely enraged and demands proper offerings to cover your great offense.”

He chuckled. “She would.”

Then he winced.

“Dec? Are you all right? What happened?” I asked, suddenly concerned.

“A mental poke of her beak.” He grinned. “Great. I didn’t know she could even do that.”

He winced again.

“I don’t want to know, do I?”

“She called me Dandelion Head, something she hasn’t done in a long time.”

“And I told him he would remain poke-free if he brought me a cow.”

Now it was my turn to snort. “Is she always like this?”

He squeezed my leg. “She was, how can I say it? She was precocious as a juvenile. No, perky. That’s a better word. She was definitely perky.”

“And now?”

“The perky little girl comes and goes, but there’s a mature, almost wise woman emerging.”

“Almost? Listen, Ranger Boy, I am infinitely wise, thank you very much. Do not forget it.”

Declan shook his head, his broad smile lighting up the gloomy cave. I’d almost forgotten how beautiful he was when he smiled . . . and how his eyes sparkled like the purest emeralds.

Spirits, I was so in love with the man.

“I know we just piled a cartload on your shoulders, but I never want secrets between us. If we’re going to be . . .” He motioned a hand between us. “Whatever two men can be, we have to be honest with each other.”

“Always.” I laid my hand atop his.

His shoulders relaxed the moment our skin touched, and I felt his heart beat faster—or was that my own?

“Is there anything else I need to know?” I asked, unsure where to take the conversation following Declan’s “the world will burn” vision.

His brows tightened as he thought.

“There is much you should know, but that is enough for the moment.”

I blinked a few times, and a grin curled my lips.

“Oh, shit. I know that look. What?”

I lifted a brow. “There is much I should know? Who sounds like the lordling now?”

Declan’s fingers dug into my leg in just the right spots to shoot a wave of ticklish energy throughout my core.

“Not fair!” I shouted as he squeezed again. “Tickling is strictly forbidden.”

I shot to my feet and backed away, only to have him advancing toward me—poised digits outstretched before him.

“Lord Byrne, have I just discovered a weakness? A chink in your very stuffy armor?”

“My armor is not stuffy, thank you very much. It’s padded for comfort.”

Declan burst out laughing at the same time he plunged forward and gripped my sides, ticking with the ferocity of a battle-crazed soldier.

“Spirits and gods, make it stop,” I cried between gasps.

That only encouraged the man.

Fucking Declan Rea.

I was about to wet my breeches, so I did the only thing I could think might stop his assault.

I kissed him.

The moment our lips met, his hands flew from my sides to grip my head, cradling me in strength, passion, and tenderness. His mouth devoured mine, and his tongue delved into me as though it had starved for my taste for thousands of years.

We had spent so much time speaking of the fate of the world and the death of all we loved, I had started to wonder if Declan’s craving for me had waned.

How wrong those thoughts were.

I moaned beneath his desire.

“Declan,” I breathed between kisses. “Fuck, Dec, I missed you so much.”

“I love you, Ayden Byrne.”

I froze, my eyes wide.

He pulled back so our lips were a few inches apart. His gaze was more intense than I had ever seen, and I knew whatever he said next came from the depths of his being.

“I love you, Ayden, with everything I am and ever will be. I love you with my heart and soul. I will love you until I draw my last breath. There are few things certain in this world, but of this, I am unshakably, undeniably, one thousand times sure. You are mine, and I am yours, this day and every day thereafter.”

I felt like the entire cavern had crawled into my throat and somehow expanded. I tried to swallow. I couldn’t breathe. My eyes watered, and my hands suddenly shook.

Declan’s gaze never wavered.

His eyes remained fixed, steady and sure. The set of his jaw held fast. His breath drifted over my lips, and I tasted the need of him.

“I . . .” My voice rasped, as though it strained beneath great pressure, soon to shatter for good. “I love you, Dec. Fuck if I know why, but I do.”

His hand found my ribs, and fingers dug mercilessly.

“Peace!” I shouted, then quieted as his fingers stilled, gripping me gently. “Dec, I have never known a man who could capture my thoughts as you do. I wake to your eyes smiling down in my mind’s eye. Every task reminds me of you, makes me wish you were there with me, sharing the moment, smiling and laughing and . . . whatever.”

“So eloquent, lordling.”

“Fuck you.” I grinned. “I am trying to answer your . . . what you said. Spirits, you rattle me unlike any other.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

I pressed my lips to his. “It is a very good thing. Please rattle me for the rest of my life?”

He pulled back, surprise written on his features for once.

“Are you asking me—”

I grinned. “I am not asking anything. I am telling you, as your lordling, that I expect your service until death. Nothing less will do. Am I clear?”

Declan hesitated, then his mouth split and teeth shone brightly. He pushed me into the cave wall and stepped back, then dropped to one knee and bowed his head.

“I am in my lord’s service. To him, I pledge my fealty and troth. To no other shall I serve or . . . um . . . sheathe my sword . . . unsheathe? Wield? Fill thy cup? Fill thee up? Fillest? Pokest? Be the pokee? Do the hokey pokey?”

I laughed so hard that tears trailed down my cheeks.

“Shut up, you idiot.”

He looked up, horror and offense scrunching his nose and forming a sneer—for only a heartbeat—before he stood, closed the gap between us, and pressed his whole body against mine.

“Fair warning, my new magic gives me a healthy dose of stamina. You may want a glass of that wine before I do what comes next.”

“And what comes next?”

The question had only just left my mouth before Declan’s hands were fumbling with my tunic and our lips and tongues grappled like wrestlers in a ring.

My arms were above my head with my shirt halfway off when a thought struck.

“What if órla comes back right as we’re—”

He cut me off with teeth to my nipple.

“Oh, shit. What owl?”

He bit harder.

“Fuck!”

I tore my shirt off and threw it across the cave, then grabbed fistfuls of his and yanked it up, forcing his teeth off my now-throbbing pap.

“You. Naked. Now.”

He grunted. “So bossy, lordling.”

“I have yet to issue commands. Now, stop talking and start stripping.”

He kissed my lips, then hurled his shirt. The fine hairs of his chest pricked my smooth skin, and a shiver of pleasure trilled across my chest. I snaked my hands into his breeches, untied the knot, then slid them down, shimmying down with them as they reached the floor. As he stepped out, my lips wrapped around the tip of his cock, and his hands found the back of my head.

“Ayden, damnation, I’ve missed you.”

I took his length while gripping his balls, pulling them down to force his erection to stand taut and firm. That made me gag.

“The most beautiful sound in the world.”

I reached around and slapped his bottom.

“Ow! That’s abuse, it is.”

I slapped him again. His cock twitched in my mouth, catching me off guard, and I looked up.

He shrugged. “Maybe you should spank me more often.”

I pulled back. “Declan Rea, you are full of naughty little surprises.”

“Not as full as you’re going to be in short order.”

I think my pulse tripled its speed at those words. I know my asshole puckered.

“You’re still wearing your pants,” he said. “That isn’t fair. Stand up.”

Reluctantly, I let him flop free and rose. He did the hand-shimmy thing I’d done to him a moment before, caressing my legs as he slowly— so slowly —dragged my trousers to my feet. As his mouth reached my cock, his tongue licked from root to tip, then somehow found its way into the slit. My whole body shivered.

He tossed my trousers aside and began licking up and down my shaft. He was careful to avoid my head, more tease than treat, but the wet warmth of his tongue, combined with the kneading of his hands into my buttocks, made my cock twitch and pulse like it might explode at any moment.

“Dec . . .”

His mouth closed over my head.

“Shit, Dec . . . go slow . . .”

He sped up.

“Oh, damn . . .”

My cock slapped the back of his throat. He did not gag. He simply dove again and again . . . and again.

I reached back and braced myself on the cavern wall.

One of his hands abandoned my backside and gripped my chest. He squeezed so hard, I wanted to cry out but held my tongue lest he stop.

Then his fingers clamped onto my nipple, the one without bite marks, and stars bloomed in my vision.

His fingers released me, but my eyes were squeezed shut and I missed him slather them with saliva . . .

until one slid between my cheeks.

“Oh hells, yes,” I whimpered.

He shoved it inside me.

“FUCK! Ow!”

He pulled his finger out, swirled it around to stretch my hole, then slid it inside again. This time, pain was ecstasy I wished would never end.

My own fingers slid into his hair, tangling in his curls.

I couldn't think. I had to remember to breathe.

His lips lifted free.

“Turn around.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. In the time it took to blink, I’d spun and pressed my palms to the cave wall, and his cock was rubbing up and down my crack.

I shoved my ass back, begging for him, willing him to become one with me.

Still, he slid up and down, carefully avoiding my hole, teasing me.

“Fuck me, will you?” It came out more plea than command.

“Beg me.”

My head turned. “What?”

He leaned in, his lips a breath from my ear, his cock knocking on my door but refusing to enter.

“I said, beg me, lordling.”

“Fuck, Dec, I’ll do anything. Please. Get inside me.”

“That’s asking, not begging.” His tone was a torturous mix of playful and sinister. Gods, I love this man.

“Please, Declan, use your mighty magic stick on me. Make me your chalice. Turn me into an instrument of your chaos.”

He spat out a laugh, and the warmth of his breath vanished from my neck.

I spun around. “What? You wanted begging.”

He had to gather himself. “Begging, yes. Something sultry and hot. I didn’t ask you to wax poetic . . . and badly at that. My mighty magic stick? If órla heard you say that, you’d never hear the end of it.”

“Oh, I did, and he won’t.”

Both our eyes widened, then we doubled over in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.