Chapter 19

A splash sounded. I couldn't breathe.

Warm water pressed in on me, and I realized what had happened.

The pond .

In the low light, distracted by Kerys's wiles, I hadn't noticed how close we'd gotten to the edge. Too close, apparently.

I came up for air, pulling her along with me. She gasped, squirming from my arms, giggling and coughing while she slicked back her hair, paddling on the spot.

My heart thrummed faster as I drank in the divine sight of her.

She was soul-shatteringly gorgeous, drifting in glittering water reflecting the moonlight, eyeliner running in black trails down her face, cheeks red from the wine.

"You did this on purpose! First, you try to throw me off the balcony, now you're attempting to get me drunk and drown me!" she playfully accused, pointing a dripping finger at me.

I decided to play along.

"Very good. You've seen through my evil scheme, but now I have you exactly where I want you, trapped in these treacherous currents." Swimming toward her, I gave her my best villainous smirk, stretching out a hand as if to grab her. "Aren't you going to flee from your killer, my darling wife?"

"Of course not." She turned her nose up at me, though her lips trembled with a barely contained smile. "I'm going to fight back!"

She splashed water into my face, momentarily blinding me, and I sputtered a chuckle.

"Oh, now you've made a mistake," I growled.

A thorny vine lashed from my right palm, aiming for her neck. I hadn't infused my thorns with poison and missed—entirely on purpose—but Kerys shouted in triumph, readying herself for another attack.

This time, I was faster.

I dove. Water flooded my ears, dulling my hearing, her excited screech sounding far away. My vine slithered toward her like an aquatic serpent, and I grinned as it wound around the waistband of her panties. She flinched when I pulled them down, the thorns leaving dark red scratch marks on her skin.

The light fabric floated to the surface, her legs kicking as she twirled, trying to spot me.

But she wouldn't get away this easily. I'd teach her what it meant to play these wicked games with a brutal man like me.

My vine found her ankle, coiling around it. Tightly. A jerking shudder ran through her as thin swirls of red colored the water, and my erection pulsed. Her pain was my own, personal aphrodisiac.

I yanked her beneath the surface, and my embrace encased her like a vise, her arms pinned by her sides.

Even in the warm water, her struggling, bare form was hot against me, my cock leaking as I studied the fear on her face. Bubbles left her rosy lips in a blunted scream, wisps of hair drifted around her head, wide eyes pleading.

Drowning suited her.

I wished I had a canvas and oil paints with me to preserve her desperate expression for generations to come.

Akin to a dying star blazing across the night sky, Kerys was always the most radiant when she felt a brush of the executioner's blade on her neck, the hand of the reaper squeezing her heart.

Her executioner, her reaper, the man she feared and loved, the one who brought her pleasure and agony, the one who protected and caged her, was me . It would always be me, and I'd kill anyone who tried to take my place.

She thrashed as I pressed my lips to hers, exhaling air into her. Even if this had been my last breath, I would have sacrificed it for her.

I hadn't told her, but from the moment we reunited, Kerys had two choices:

She could be my wife again or she could be my captive—but she would be mine.

My tongue flicked against hers, coaxing her into a long kiss. For a short while, the tension fell from her, until she writhed again. My demonic pact didn't only make me stronger and heal faster, giving me a higher pain tolerance, but I also needed to rest and eat less, could hold my breath longer.

She couldn't.

I watched the panic in her eyes grow, holding her wrists at her back.

Just a few seconds more , I thought, trying to burn the image of her into my mind. Suffer just a little longer for me .

A blue tinge crept over her features, and I surged to the surface. She coughed, water flowing from her mouth while I used my tail to brush unruly strands of hair out of her face. My vine released her ankle, but I kept her in my embrace, pressing her against me.

"You're … you're a bastard, Skrain." She smirked, thumping my chest with her fist. "Can't you ever just be nice?"

"Slander." I grinned and put a kiss on the tip of her nose. "I am being nice, my darling wife."

The blush on her cheeks returned at the word "wife," which must have meant she liked it.

"Let me make it up to you," I said, letting go with one arm.

The vine sprouting from my right palm writhed, growing, surrounding us in loose coils underwater. I focused on my magic, feeling the green stem splitting. Hundreds of round, dark seeds emerged, rising to the surface around us. Gentle pops sounded as they opened, velveteen blue petals widening into lush blooms.

Within a few moments, we were swimming in a sea of cobalt roses.

Her breath came in an awed sigh. "These flowers …" She cupped her hands, picking one up to raise it to her nose, inhaling. Her misty eyes met mine. "They're the same ones you left in my room. I had no idea you grew them."

Heat crept over my ears as I retracted the vine into my body and laid a hand on her cheek, my thumb caressing in long strokes.

"This is what you make me do, Kerys. You make me bloom. Before I found you again, all my magic was capable of was destruction. Thorns and poison. But you're the fire in my chest. The red in my veins. The air in my lungs. The taste of bold wine on my tongue and the heady perfume of flowers on the breeze. You're the rain upon the dunes. Without you, my life is nothing but shades of gray."

I couldn't say if that choked sound leaving her was a sigh or a sob, but she dropped the rose and kissed me. Her legs wrapped around my hips, holding herself so close to me it felt as if she wanted to melt into me. I supported her rear with my tail, one arm around her waist, the other hand winding into her hair.

"Why do I feel the same?" she whispered, leaning her forehead against mine.

A chuckle escaped me. "Because I've been telling you the damn truth. This is where you belong. These lands, this house, my arms … they are your home. A home we made together."

Her thighs squeezed hard, her fingers drawing up and down the nape of my neck. "I always felt like I was missing something, a part of myself. But I didn't know what it was. Nothing could fill that void." She kissed me again. "Until … you ."

"Don't worry about anything right now, my priceless treasure." I pressed a digit to her lips and brought us to the side of the pond, jutting my chin out. "Can you hold on to the edge while facing me, Kerys?"

She nodded, releasing me. Half floating with her back braced against the pool wall, she spread her arms, fingers grabbing the stone rim.

"Just let me make you feel good now." I brushed over her head. "No more questions tonight."

I took a deep breath and pinched my mouth shut. With a splash, I dove until my face was right in front of her sex, and a vine shot from my left hand to the ground, anchoring itself in cracked tiles.

Water filled my ears and my nose, heightening every sensation as I leaned in. I sucked her clit into my mouth, forming a tight seal. She writhed as the stud in my tongue clicked against her piercing, teasing, lapping.

My erection ached as I savored the aroma of her desire. She tasted just like she always had.

Her hips bucked as she reached down, holding on to my horns, grinding against my face. Still lavishing affection on her clit, I pushed my free hand between her legs.

Her cunt welcomed three of my digits, suckling tight around them. The harder she gripped my horns, the harder she squirmed, the harder I fucked her. My fingers pumped in and out of her, my teeth closing gently around the bejeweled nub at the apex of her slit.

A wave of shuddering ecstasy came over her. She twitched, belly tensing and legs shaking.

I thought about ruining her orgasm, about withdrawing just as her inner walls convulsed and she came against my mouth. The idea had a surge of heat drawing from my balls into my length, but I knew I would get plenty of opportunities to torment her. And as much as I enjoyed denying her, I enjoyed pleasuring her, too.

I let her ride out her climax before I pried her hands from my horns, pulled in the vine, and surfaced, just in time to hear her last moans fade into panting breaths. A rapturous smile curled her lips, head tipping back. When she peered at me, I thought I saw the reflection of a million glittering stars in her eyes.

Her thighs encircled my hips in a wordless plea, and I gripped the base of my dick, guiding it to her entrance. Languidly, I sank inside her, and she whined. It took a strict reign over my self-control to not just pound into her, make her shout my name into the mellow breeze, but for a while, I wanted to savor her.

The slowness of my movement made her eyes roll, with every long thrust the flowers on the water swayed and her tits shook.

"Creators, you are so deep inside me," she gasped. "Your cock feels so good."

"I said that my body is yours, Kerys," I gritted out. "But in the same way, your body is mine. Every inch of velvet skin, every lock of silky hair, every smile, every moan, and every cry is mine."

I retreated to the tip and pushed inside, hard. Her mouth fell open, her cunt clamping around me. The tip of my tail writhed between us, flicking her clit, and her nails scored up my spine.

"Your pussy belongs to me, too, my darling wife," I hissed. "Promise there will never be another for you, Kerys."

"Only you, Skrain. Only?—"

My hips snapped quicker, rougher, a string of curses tumbling from her lips, cutting her off. I bent my head, sucking on her nipple, and when I tried my teeth on her flesh, she came again.

Her cunt rippled as her hot climax gripped me, her toes curling at my back. I fucked her harder, faster. Her nipple popped from my lips, while I sped up my tail's movement along the swollen bundle of nerves crowning her folds.

"Again," I growled before I focused my mouth on her other breast.

I didn't stop, continued taking her, pounding into her, licking and biting, until another orgasm racked her body. She shook, panting, and keening, squeezing my cock like her life depended on it.

"Only you ," she breathed after coming down from her peak, giving me a lascivious smile. "I only belong to you."

"And now, my darling wife," I said, biting back a moan. "I'm going to fill your cunt with my cum until you can't take any more, until even that little contraception spell can't save you. I'm going to knock you up, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

She didn't get to answer, my mouth closing over hers, but I could see it in her gleaming eyes, feel it in the curve of her lips against mine.

Kerys needed this as much as I did.

We both knew there was no chance of getting her pregnant. Like most comfort women, she was under the influence of a contraceptive barrier spell, and I didn't have the means to undo it myself.

Before her death, our marriage hadn't lasted long enough to consider starting a family. Now wasn't the right time, either.

No, this was about claiming her. About her knowing that when she accepted my seed, when I pumped her full of my essence, she was irrevocably, eternally, mine.

I breathed a kiss onto the shell of her ear as my balls tensed. My cock throbbed, pulsing as I came apart inside her. I stayed entwined with her, not pulling out, not wanting to leave the heat of her flesh.

"Everything I said last night, Kerys, it was all true," I whispered. "My feelings for you haven't changed for a century, and they never will. I have waited so long to tell you again how much I care about you, and every breath I have taken in your absence was practice so I could speak the truth now. Those emotions have set me ablaze from the inside out, my ribs charred and my heart smoldering ashes. Without you, my soul is a barren wasteland, and only you can breathe life into me, make me flower."

Her pulse had just begun to slow, but now, it hammered so hard I felt it against my chest. Lips trembling, she stared at me. Conflicting emotions crossed her face, and I kissed her again, half afraid she might tell me to stop if I didn't.

"You don't have to say it back if you're not ready, but I can't keep this in any longer. The words are suffocating me." Her brows flickered as I pulled back to look into her eyes, a quivering smile lifting the corners of her lips. "I love you, Keryssa. I have loved you for as long as I can remember, and from this day on, I swear we will never be apart again."