CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR（Untitled）Naomi

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Naomi

I’m dumped into daylight, my eyes blinking at the return of brightness, my fingers digging into bright-green moss under my hands and knees. Color returns along with a buzzing sense of all the living things surrounding me. Feeling the difference in Avalon—which was stunted and shuttered—lets me recognize this for what it is.

It’s the magic of Alarria! It suffuses everything.

There’s a soft thud behind me, and I know without looking it’s Wranth, the bond in my chest reacting to his nearness with a sense of relief.

A sharp slap of pressure resounds through me, knocking me sideways and making my bones vibrate. My chest locks in shock, and it’s several moments before I can breathe. I shake my head, trying to clear the dizziness, and roll back up onto my hands and knees. The door to Avalon just slammed closed.

I turn toward Wranth. He kneels on the ground by the standing stone, his expression dazed with far more than our rough return trip.

“Wranth!” I scramble over to him and grip his hand. “Wasn’t that amazing? Could you ever have imagined? You’re a prince, or I guess, you’re actually a king!”

Then I wince, since he’s only a king because his parents died. But my mouth keeps going, unable to contain all the excited thoughts whirling through me.

“I wonder if you’re related to King Aldronn. What if that’s why your mother’s magic deposited you right beside his castle, because you’re family, maybe cousins or something? I mean, how many different royal orc families can there be?”

Wranth blinks at me as if trying to absorb yet more information when his brain’s already reached capacity. When he finally speaks, his voice holds a cautious hopefulness I’ve never heard in it before. “They loved me.”

Oh! His words pierce straight to my heart. Tears spring to my eyes, and I throw my arms around him. Here I am babbling on about royalty and things, but none of that’s what matters to him.

Those three simple words tell me so much. He’s spent his whole life believing his parents didn’t love him. What must that have been like? I remember when he told me he’s the only truly orphaned orc in all of Alarria, the only one without some kind of extended family to take him in. That must have made it even harder. He would have felt so isolated. My heart aches for the lonely little boy he must have been.

“Your parents loved you,” I whisper into his neck. “They loved you so much.”

His arms come around me, squeezing me close as I settle onto his lap. He doesn’t cry, but his breathing grows labored as he deals with a lot of emotion.

Just as I’ve been scared about being left, Wranth’s also scared of being abandoned. Maybe this is the true source of our tether—two wounded souls reaching for surety in an uncertain world.

I stroke his hair and murmur over and over that they wanted him, they loved him, they would never have left him if they had any choice.

As his breathing eases, my words turn into kisses. Wranth’s grip on me changes, his hands gliding over my back in long caresses that have me squirming on his lap.

His hand hooks under my chin, tipping it up, and his mouth comes down over mine, hot and hungry and full of need.

Desperation drives his kiss, a need for connection that calls to my heart. Our bond thrums between us, making itself felt, and I want him to feel it, want him to know deep in his bones that he’s not alone.

I maneuver around until I straddle him, my knees gripping his sides, his erection pressed firmly between my thighs. He rocks up into me, sending pulses of desire flashing through my clit until I’m gasping. Our clothes are in the way, but we don’t want to stop kissing, his tongue stroking across mine in pure possession that makes my toes curl.

“Naomi,” he groans as he lifts me from him just long enough to strip off my boots and pants, the backs of his fingers hot on my skin as they glide down my legs.

I wiggle out of my new panties, not wanting to lose them on the same day I got them. Once past my hips, they fall to my ankles, and I kick them off.

He pulls me back onto his lap until we sit facing each other, my legs around his waist. My new, human-sized shirt rides up my stomach, exposing all of me to him. He pushes it up to bare my breasts, then pulls down my bra cups to free my nipples. Wranth’s long fingers pluck and tug at them until I’m writhing on his lap. The buttery leather of his pants is almost as soft as skin as I rub against the bulge of his erection.

Need flares in his eyes, calling an answering hunger from me. His hands work at the fastening of his pants, releasing his cock with a guttural grunt full of hunger. Then he grips my hips, pulling me back down onto him and sliding me backward and forward on his length.

My core sparks with tingling warmth at the contact, and his ladder piercings trace twin lines of fire down my folds. Then I reach the tip, and his creamy fluid coats my skin right as the head of his erection presses against my clit.

Fire races through me as my head tips back, and I scream my orgasm to the sky.

Wranth’s big hands keep hold of me, keeping me steady, keeping me moving on his cock.

The pleasure doesn’t let up, burning higher and higher as I continue to shudder.

“Naomi.” Wranth says my name as if it’s the only word that exists, the only one that matters. He pours so much emotion into those three syllables, making them resonate with need and longing that goes far beyond simple lust.

Another slide, and he lifts me until his erection nudges my entrance.

“Yes,” I say. “Oh, yes.”

Holding me poised there on the edge, he takes my mouth in another fierce kiss that steals my breath. We stare deep into each other’s eyes as he pulls me down onto his cock.

My mouth falls open as he stretches me wide. God, he’s so huge it’s exquisite.

His stud kicks to life. A little mouth fastens over my clit and starts to suck, sending tingles of pleasure racing through me.

He lifts me up and down his cock until he’s buried deep. Sitting pressed chest to chest, seeing the desire flaring in his eyes—this is the most intense sex I’ve ever had.

Wranth is all in.

I whimper and clench tight around him.

Then he’s moving, thrusting up into me even as his hands pull me down. Over and over, he fills me until I cling to his shoulders, sobbing with pleasure.

Until there’s nothing else in the world but Wranth and his cock and being as close as two people can be.