Chapter 45

45

Arya took him deep and sucked as she bobbed up and down his length. He groaned, the sound tormented and passion-filled, his fingers in her hair gripping her head. She swirled her tongue around the head of his arousal. His entire body went rigid.

She inwardly smiled at the power she had, much as he had with her earlier. She watched him while she ran the flat side of her tongue from the bottom of his shaft to the very tip before flicking her tongue on the underside of his cock. The sound that rumbled through Jai’s body had her squeezing her legs together.

He rose, pulling her with him before seizing her mouth and kissing her as if she were the oxygen that kept him alive. His arm snaked around her as they moved to their knees together. His hands left a trail of heat in their wake as they touched her face, her back, her arse, and her hips.

His kiss was heat and fire, it was longing and need. Desire swirled thick and hot, licking seductively across her skin to settle between her legs. Her nipples ached, and her sex throbbed. There was only one cure— Jai .

She was putty in his hands as he bent her over his arm. His mouth seared her breastbone and moved over the globe of her breast before finding her nipple. She gasped when his tongue swirled around the peak, and then he suckled, sending fire shooting straight to her sex. Her thighs grew slick. Her need doubled. She rocked against him, craving the friction.

His hand slid between them and into the folds of her sex. She cried out when he stroked her clit.

“ So wet,” he murmured and moved to her other breast.

She was going to cum again. It was building fast. All she needed was his finger inside her. She needed to be filled fully, deeply. Thoroughly .

Completely .

“ Jai ,” she whispered urgently.

He lifted her. Their gazes met. Her heart skipped a beat at the desire and emotion sizzling in his eyes. He laid her back. She sighed at his delicious weight that settled over her. His hand skimmed her outer thigh, lifting and parting her legs so he could settle between them. Their gazes were still locked when the blunt head of his cock slid into her.

Arya’s eyes rolled back in her head, her back arching off the mattress as he pushed deeper, her body stretching to accommodate him. He didn’t stop until all of him was encased in her. Her body hummed and buzzed as her desire heightened and intensified.

She dug her nails into his back, urging him to move. He slid out of her gradually before slowly filling her again. Arya groaned and raised her knee to change the angle of her body. His breath came out as half groan, half sigh. He kept up the slow movement of his hips, making her mad with need. She needed faster, harder. She needed him.

Jai balanced precariously on the edge, barely containing his yearning to spill himself right then. He wanted to spend eons worshipping Arya’s body, to hear her screaming as he wrung orgasm after orgasm from her. She had a form made for loving. He had spent years imagining all the ways he would bring her pleasure. But being inside her, feeling her slick heat surrounding him, was more than he could take.

He braced his hands on either side of her and angled his body as he rolled his hips. Each time he withdrew from her luscious heat, he couldn’t sink back into her quickly enough. He was only whole while cocooned inside her, their bodies and souls joined.

Her legs wrapped around him, and she locked her ankles. The last shred of his control snapped when her lids lifted, and she looked at him. This time, when he pulled out of her, the thrust was hard and deep.

Arya met each of his thrusts, their need and hunger propelling them toward the pleasure they both knew awaited them. The muscles in his arms strained as he held himself over her. She pulled him down so their bodies slid provocatively against each other, their skin slippery with sweat.

The power of him, the command, the utter supremacy as they found a rhythm sent her spiraling toward another climax. Her hands moved down his back, feeling the movement of his muscles as he undulated his hips. The surge of his body, the strength of him as he drove into her harder, deeper, faster, was intoxicating.

When it hit, the orgasm took her breath, leaving her lips parted on a silent cry as it swept her along a tempest of pleasure that threw her out to the stars before sinking her in the deepest ocean, only to be tossed back to the heavens.

As she was coming down, Jai cried out and buried himself deep. The feel of his seed filling her triggered another orgasm on the heels of the last. He held her until the last remaining shudders left her.

Being held so lovingly, so tenderly within his embrace after being so thoroughly loved, lulled her. She drifted off to sleep, more content than she thought possible.

She woke lying on Jai’s chest, one of his arms curved around her while his other hand lay atop hers where it rested on his stomach. A smile pulled at her lips. She was deliriously happy, and her body was in such a state of satisfaction that she didn’t want to move. Ever . And she wasn’t seasick this time. She didn’t know what had changed, and she didn’t care. If they could remain in this room aboard the ship for the rest of their lives, she would be happy.

Jai’s chest rose as he took a deep breath, causing her head to rise. He released it and smoothed his hand up and down her arm. “ Finally awake, I see.”

“ You can’t give me that many orgasms and not expect me to sleep,” she replied with a grin.

He chuckled, the sound rumbling through his abdomen. There was a long stretch of silence before he said, “ Will you ever be able to forgive me for kidnapping you?”

“ I already have.” She rose onto her elbow to look at him. “ I’m glad it was you and not someone else.”

He glanced away, his brow furrowed. “ Aye . But? —”

“ Nay ,” she said over him. “ We’ve been through this. Priya lied to you. She tricked and deceived you.”

“ I could’ve refused to abduct you.”

“ With the bounty, we both know someone would’ve done it if you hadn’t.” She put her hand on his cheek. “ Let the past go.”

He snorted and gave her a small shake of his head. “ How can I ?”

“ Because I have. Because we can’t look to the future if we’re still looking to the past. We’re together. Priya can’t stand in our way anymore. No one can.”

“ There’s still this.”

Her eyes landed on the silver around his wrist.

“ They can call me back anytime. I can’t allow that to happen. If the only way I’m free is to remove the silver, then it has to be removed.”

“ I thought only certain elves could unlock it.”

He held her gaze as he said, “ Aye . But there are other ways.”

It took her a moment to realize what he was saying. “ You want to cut off your hand?”

“ If it will free me, aye.”

Arya sat up, crossed her legs, and looked at him. “ It won’t come to that.”

“ It might. Their magic isn’t something to mess with. Plenty of others have tried and failed. I want to be free. I want to make my own choices and be beholden to only those I choose.”

She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. “ We’ll make that happen. One way or another.”

“ I know.” He released a breath. “ Tell me what happened with One .”

Arya swallowed and straightened. “ What I already said. He was standing in the hallway as if waiting for me.”

“ How is that possible?”

“ I have no idea. He knew me, he knew my name. At first, I thought he was with the Masters . I began to doubt that when he told me where to find Priya . The Masters were looking for her. If they knew, they would’ve gone after her.”

Jai grunted and put his far arm behind his head. “ Maybe . Maybe not. What else did he say?”

“ That he was there to help. I didn’t trust him, but I was lost. He also healed me.”

Jai grew very still. “ Healed you from what?”

“ I’m not sure what it was. I was suspended in a room, my wrists and ankles held and stretched so tightly I thought they planned to pull my body apart. I saw very little. The darkness wasn’t…right. It was thick and impenetrable. When I moved, whatever had me sank barbs into my skin. I know it sounds strange, but I could’ve sworn the ropes were alive. Especially when it pulled my arms out of their sockets.”

“ I’ve heard of that room,” he said, sitting up. “ It’s whispered about in the fort. I’ve never known any to get out of it alive. Your quick thinking saved you.”

She wrinkled her nose. “ Briefly . I’m sure the bounty on my head has increased. They’ll want their pound of flesh.”

“ Without a doubt. We’ll deal with whatever comes. As for One , I’m glad he was there to heal you. But if he is who the others say he is, it goes against his position at Shaldorn .”

“ The same could be said about One telling Ravi where the item was they searched for.”

Jai grunted, a frown forming. “ It’s easier when we know what side someone is on. It doesn’t seem he has a side.”

“ He said there was more going on than we know. That I needed to connect the dots.”

“ The question is, why tell you that? Someone like him only does something like that for his own gain.”

She shrugged. “ If it topples the Masters , who cares?”

“ We should if he plans to take their place.”

Arya skated her nails over his hand. “ You’re right. I had hoped to be done with the Masters by the time we left the fort, but we only managed to free ourselves.”

“ I wouldn’t dismiss that. It might not look like a success, but it was. What worries me is why One was there and, more importantly, why he went to you.”

“ I don’t know why One helped me, but I’m glad he did. If he hadn’t, I’d probably still be in the fort searching for Priya . How did we get separated, anyway? She had something to do with it, didn’t she?”

Arya listened in shocked silence as Jai explained how Priya had intercepted her shadows and assumed her likeness for a short time. Her outrage at Priya’s continued manipulations soon turned to horror when he described the ordeal with Mamta and the book.

“ It chose me,” he said. “ I felt it. I started to understand the whispers.”

“ But you never touched it.”

He shook his head. “ It went after Dain , though. Mamta said it was done in retaliation, and I believe that. His cut is healed, but he bears a scar now. And we can’t be sure Ravi removed whatever was inside him.”

“ Dain was that different?”

Jai nodded once. “ Furious . Vengeful . Violent .”

“ That’s Dain on any given day. He controls it.”

“ It wasn’t contained when he went after me. Something took control of him.”

Arya pressed her lips together and took Jai’s hand. “ We need to keep an eye on him. I’d like to know what that book is and what exactly it did to Dain .”

“ The thing is, when I get close to it, I feel sick. I’d be happy to never see it again.”

“ If it’s at the fort, you won’t have to.”

“ If it stays there.”

She frowned. “ What do you mean?”

“ Maybe nothing.”

“ Jai ,” she pressed.

“ I just… I felt the book’s excitement at having someone new. And its anger when I didn’t want it.”

“ It isn’t as if the book can travel on its own. You said you didn’t think Mamta had left that room in a long time.”

He laced his fingers with hers. “ She hasn’t.”

“ Then you don’t need to worry about her doing so now.”

Jai grunted, his brow puckered in a frown as his thoughts drifted.

Arya studied his fingers, doing her best not to look at the bracelet. “ I wish I would’ve seen the Masters . I couldn’t even tell you if the one I spoke with was male or female. I wanted to leave there with something about them. Anything .” She lifted her gaze to him. “ I have nothing.”

“ You outwitted them. You got free. That’s more than anyone else has done.”

“ Only because of One .”

“ Not only because of him. You’re the one who fought against Priya’s crew before we got there. We’re alive and going home.”

She still felt a lingering niggle of worry that wouldn’t go away. “ We’re not really free, though, are we? They’ll keep hunting us.”

Jai’s gaze briefly slid away. He nodded. “ Aye . But we’ll keep hunting them. Together .”

She smiled and lowered her head to his. Their lips met. He groaned and pulled her against his body as he deepened the kiss. Arya wanted nothing more than to spend more hours loving him, but they had already taken as much time as they could. It was time to talk to the others.