CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Yes! All the yes! My body sings with delight as Sturrm eats at my mouth like a man starved. A similar hunger rises within me, and my core clenches as his tongue moves over mine. I’ve never wanted anyone this much, never needed a man like I need him.

My hands fist in his shirt as I try to climb him, wanting more. Mierda, I need to work on my upper body strength!

We break apart, panting, staring into each other’s eyes.

“This is the first time we’ve been truly alone,” I say. “No Dash waiting right on the other side of a thin tent wall.”

“What are you saying?”

“I want you to make me scream.” I smile. “Because if it’s good, I’m a screamer.”

“Make no mistake, my dear Selena.” His dark eyes flash with intensity as his arms tighten around me. “It will be better than good. You will scream my name.”

“Lots of talk. I’d rather get to the doing.” I point to the pool. “And I want to start with that.” The cleaning cloth is amazing—it even freshens up clothes—but dios mio, I really want a bath.

Sturrm gives me another fierce kiss, then sets me on the ground. His huge hands stroke over the leather jacket, the tingle of his magic rippling over me. “I love seeing you wear this, knowing I made it for you.”

I’m probably not supposed to like the possessiveness of that statement, but if the way my thighs clench is any indication, I sure do.

“I love taking it off you even more.” His voice drops to a raspy growl that caresses my skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

Sturrm slides it from my shoulders and peels the buttery leather down my arms. The jacket’s repaired, none of the holes made by the bird beaks visible. He fixed it for me just like he fixed what the evil thing did to my soul. My protector. The man who saved my life.

As soon as he tosses the jacket onto the packs, his hands are back, slipping under the hem of my shirt. They glide upward, leaving licks of fire everywhere they touch my skin. His eyes bore into me as he pulls the shirt over my head and flicks it aside. One finger brushes along the strap of my bra. “ I have dreamed of that day in the forest, of the way this damned scrap of fabric hid your breasts from my view.”

My thighs clench. “Seems like you better do something about that.”

He keeps tracing the various straps, a familiar scowl creasing his face.

I take pity on him and guide him to the clasp on the back. Those clever fingers of his figure it out quickly, and the aqua lace releases its firm grip on my chest. Relief makes me want to shrug the bra from me as quickly as possible, but I also want him to undress me, so I rein in my usual impatience.

And I’m so glad I do, because the look in Sturrm’s eyes as he slides the straps from my shoulders to bare my breasts is so heated my clit throbs.

“Fuck.” He drops to his knees, his huge hands plumping my breasts up. “They’re even more glorious than I imagined.”

I gasp and my knees go weak. Carajo! Knowing he’s thought of me in that way, maybe even touched himself, picturing me…

It’s scorching .

Sturrm reads my reaction, a wicked smile curling his lips, all the more potent for being so rare. He scrapes his tusks across the top of my breast, making me shiver, then sucks my nipple into his mouth. Electricity shoots straight to my clit, and I moan and bury my hands in his hair to stay upright.

“So beautiful.” He gives another hard suck. “So lush.” A nip and lick of my second breast. “So ripe and ready for me.” He swallows my other nipple, his fingers plucking at the first until I whine, high in my throat, straining toward him .

“Goddess, you’re glorious.” He licks his way down my stomach and hooks his tusks in the waist of my pants, dragging them down. They catch on the swell of my hips, and he uses it as an excuse to kiss my lower stomach.

My hands tighten on his head as my wavering legs weaken again. But a certain amount of reality intrudes. I tug to get him to look at me. “Just a second. I need to think about pregnancy. Is there any kind of birth control?” My eyes drop to the massive bulge straining the front of his leather pants. Can you even make condoms that big?

“All fae find it difficult to conceive.” A flash of uncertainty flickers through his eyes. “And I will not knot you.”

“Knot? What do you mean, knot?” Just how different is his dick? I can’t wait to find out.

“You will see.”

“Okay, but give me a second.” I close my eyes and send my magic looping through me, targeted on my abdomen. This is like the ultimate rhythm method. I don’t need to track my temperature or anything else—I can feel that I’m not fertile at this moment. I grin down at him. “It’s okay. I just checked and I can’t get pregnant today.”

Another flicker of vulnerability crosses his eyes, gone so quickly I might have imagined it.

I curl my fingers into his hair, and the heat returns to his gaze. He tugs at my pants, pulling them over my hips and down. He slips off my shoes, and soon I stand before him in nothing but my aqua lace thong. “Orcs don’t wear underthings, but this...” He traces the band around my hip to dip down the center of my ass, then grabs my butt cheek. “ This is maddening. It hides just enough of you that all I can do is wonder what you look like naked.”

I grin. “Yeah. That’s kind of the point.” A better one than worrying about panty lines, at least.

This time he uses nothing but his tusks to pull off my underwear, and the glide of his mouth down my legs has me trembling.

When I’m fully naked, he sits back on his heels, his eyes scouring across me. He leans forward to press a kiss to the narrow strip of trimmed hair from my Brazilian wax job, sniffing audibly as he does.

“You smell divine. So young, so ripe.” His lips whisper against my skin, sending shivers through me. “And you’ve made yourself bare for me, letting me see how pretty you are.”

“Yep.” I don’t mention bikinis and South Beach. Neither of those matters a single bit compared to his delight in finding me groomed.

My hands drop to his shoulders. I pluck at his shirt. “Your turn. Clothes off.”

“You’ve seen me naked.”

“Yeah, but it’s never been for long or when we weren’t in the middle of something else, so it doesn’t count.” I offer him a saucy grin. “Unless you want me to disappear your clothes again.”

“Goddess, no. We’ll run out of leather, and then I really will be completely naked.” Sturrm shucks off his boots and stands. His sword belt joins the pile on top of the pack. “I certainly didn’t plan for you and your clothes-vanishing ways when I packed for this trip. ”

“Sorry. Not sorry.” I laugh. I like this, the banter. I’ve never had a guy talk much before. Usually they’re in a rush to “stick it in.” This is another pleasant surprise that comes from Sturrm being older. As impatient as I usually am, this slow build up is way sexier.

He peels off his shirt, the muscles in his chest and shoulders rippling with the movement.

I can’t resist any longer. He might have run around without a shirt our first day together, but I didn’t get to touch—not like I wanted. I make up for it now, stepping forward and gliding my palms up over his firm pectorals, my fingers tracing the divots where his deltoids insert at his shoulders.

He growls when my hands drop to the fastening of his pants, “If you want that bath, you’d better get in the hot spring, because if you keep touching me right now, I can’t promise you’ll get it.”

“Tempting to skip it. So very, very tempting.” I trail my fingers back and forth within his waistband. Dios mio, he’s so in shape his inguinal creases show on each side of his lower abs like little arrows leading straight to his groin. As soon as he growls again, I let go and step back. “But no.”

I make a production of turning and walking toward the pool with a lot of swing in my step, glancing back to find his eyes glued to my butt. After one last hip wiggle, I dip my foot into the hot water and sit on the edge of the pool. The moss grows right up to the lip, cushioning it. I slide into the hot water with a moan and spin to face him. “This feels amazing. Hurry, you have to try it. ”

He stands where I left him, the glowing moss of the cavern showing every dip and hollow of his impressive physique.

My thighs clench.

He unfastens the front of his pants, and his cock springs free, already huge and heavy and erect. The smaller piercings on the underside catch the light, and the bigger metal ball mounted above stirs with a zing of magic in the air.

In one practiced move, he strips the pants from his legs and stands. His confident strides carry him to the pool quickly, the thick muscles of his quadriceps flexing. My mouth goes dry as he looms over me. He leans over to set a hand on the rim and levers his entire body down into the water without needing to sit. It’s the kind of easy muscle control you expect from Olympic gymnasts who’ve practiced the move for years, not something done off the cuff. His strength is unbelievable.

And hot as hell.

His huge hands palm my butt, and he lifts me easily from the water, setting me on the edge, spreading my legs wide. Then he sinks, dragging his tusks down my front in a teasing glide until his mouth hovers between my thighs.

The first long lick makes me quiver. He meets my eyes and licks his lips. “You’re even sweeter than I imagined.”

Then Sturrm’s mouth closes over my clit in a flash of sensation that makes me scream.