CHAPTER 34

SLADE

Inside the space, the walls are damp, the air humid, and just ahead, there's a waterway. The ornate grates along the arched stone ceiling feed in some light, but mostly, it comes from the blue glow emanating from the glass orbs strung along the wall. Some sort of magicked light that flickers like stars.

Hunching down slightly, I carry Auren toward the canal, while her ribbons stroke over my arms and shoulders. I find two boats already bobbing in the black water, tied to a post with rope. I choose the widest one, the wood a sleek gray with carvings around the lip.

Carefully, I set Auren onto the cushioned bench at the middle before I climb in behind her, my movements stiff. The bond is shoving at me with incessant hands, except these hands are trying to push away all rational thought and tip me over into pure feral lust.

Instead of go go go like the bond was thrumming before, now it's screaming at me to bury myself inside of her. To take her until we are joined in every way . To fuck her hard and fast and hear her moaning with pleasure.

I struggle to hold on, to keep my thoughts coherent. I need to get her somewhere safe before I can surrender. Before I can succumb to the bond's hunger and become nothing more than a feral fae ready to slake lust and yank every inch of pleasure from my pair's body.

Gritting my teeth, I quickly untie the rope and kick us away from the wall. The boat sloshes as I sit on the bench at the back, and my eyes lock on hers.

Auren faces me, stock still, her fingers and ribbons both curled around the bench with a tight grip like she's trying to hold herself back as much as I am. She's wound up, her entire body as tense as mine.

My feral need rages.

Take her. Fuck her. Claim her.

My spikes throb, but I keep them shoved beneath my skin, even as my eyes drag over the pulse at Auren's neck that beats wildly.

My bond pushes. Pounds. My cock hard and lust flooded.

She watches me with a hungry flare in her eyes as I take hold of the paddles hooked into the oarlocks on either side. But as soon as I drag the oars back to cast us away, she launches into my arms.

An oof escapes me as she lands in my lap, chest to chest, her thighs straddling, core pressing against my groin. The boat rocks, splashes of water sloshing in, but I barely notice.

Wicked ecstasy lashes into me, and my fingers tighten around her. I want to tear off her clothes, to spread my hands over her bare skin and bury myself inside her wet heat.

Fuck…

"I can't wait," she hisses as her fingers come up to my leather jerkin. In hurried movements, she starts to undo the ties down my collar as she rocks against me. "You're here, and the bond…and… I can't wait ," she says again.

My dick goes harder than steel.

Need to get us to that house. Get us alone. But it's really damn hard to focus when she's rocking herself against me like this. When her scent is surrounding me.

The oars are forgotten as I let go, our boat drifting down toward the darkened tunnel.

I can't deny her.

"Tell me what you need and I'll give it to you," I say, but even I can hear the rough growl in my voice that's scraped with animalistic hunger.

The gold armor over her pants and the boots on her feet start to melt away, gilding the bottom of the boat and evening out the weight to keep it from tipping. She keeps the chest plate on, but the gauntlets on her arms drip away too.

She keeps fumbling with my ties, so I help her, loosening the straps enough until her frantic hands can delve beneath my shirt, her fingers splaying over my bare skin.

The contact feels like bolts of lightning. She sighs, though her touch jolts me.

"I need to feel you right now." She starts peppering my jaw and neck with kisses. "I need you to fill me. I feel like I might die without it," she admits with tears in her eyes, pure desperation glassing them. "Please don't stop me. I can't wait ," she says again.

"Then you don't have to wait. Not another second," I tell her. "Lift up."

Auren's eyes flare at my words, and she braces her feet on the bench so she can lift herself. As soon as she does, I yank her pants down and then rip them off completely.

My eyes flare at the sight of her, and then I drag her back down to my lap. Grip her bare ass in my hands. She's so fucking soft. So warm.

I start to move her hips in a steady rhythm against me, and my eyes nearly roll back. She braces her hands on my shoulders, moaning with every movement.

"Not enough. Need more," she says breathlessly.

Yes. More. Need more.

I lean forward and nip at her lush lips. "You need me to fill you right here in this boat, baby?" I grind out.

Her chest stutters. " Yes . Please ."

The desperation of her low voice, the potency of her heat, it makes my mouth water. Makes the bond keep shoving.

My fingers squeeze into her skin. "You don't need to beg, but the words sound so fucking sweet."

I can tell my reply pleases her by the way her golden eyes ignite, flashing even in the dark underground.

"That male had better have told the truth about this being a private tunnel," I say. "Because I'll rot out the eyes of anyone who looks at you."

Her pulse jumps. Maybe with an edge of fear, but I think that's thrill in her flushed face. She likes how utterly protective I am of her, and that thought makes me savage with need.

"Undo my pants," I growl.

Auren's fingers instantly drop to the ties. She yanks them away, hand slipping inside to pull out my cock, making me almost come right here and now.

Her eyes stare, her little pink tongue coming out to lick her lips.

My body jerks with intense pleasure as she squeezes me, sending through bolts that singe. " Fuck ."

The bond is burning through my veins now, tunneling my vision and demanding more. Her aura is erratic, reaching and twisting, while her heartbeat races in her chest and her arousal lifts into the air.

She smells so. Fucking. Good.

"Put me inside you," I gasp. "I need to feel you, Auren."

" Yes …"

I lift her hips up so she can position me right at her entrance. My muscles are bunched, spikes threatening to force back out as desperation flows through my veins. My cock is already dripping. Our eyes lock.

Then I slam her down onto me.

Her head flings back, a cry tearing from her throat that bounces down the tunnel.

I see stars as soon as I'm buried inside of her.

It's bliss. Pure. Fucking. Bliss.

She shudders. Lip caught between her teeth, biting down. Her nails dig into my shoulders. "Perfect. You're thick and hard and perfect ," she purrs.

"You're already stretching around me. You feel that?"

Her entire body trembles as she nods, and I lift her up before slamming her back down. Again. Again .

I lift her and keep her there. "Lower yourself," I demand gutturally. "I want to see it. I want to see your perfect cunt swallowing my cock. Inch by inch."

A throaty whimper escapes her parted mouth as she starts to do just that. We both look down, watching my length disappear into her body while she squeezes me. Floods me with her wetness that's already glistening down her thighs.

She slams down the last inch, and I'm buried all the way inside of her again. We share a moan, and the bond flares, like a million little fires sparking throughout every crevice, filling us with desire and heat.

"Look at your perfect pussy," I say, my voice low. Bitten with lust. "We were made for each other, weren't we, baby?"

Auren nods, the dazed look in her eyes driving me wild. Making my muscles strain and shake.

I grip her hips and then jut mine up. Hard.

She chokes out a moan of surprise. "So deep …"

"I'm going to get fucking deeper ," I growl as I drag my teeth over her pulse. "I'm going to be so deep inside of you, through the bond, through your body, through your soul , that we will never have any separation ever again." My snarled promise is met with her pussy tightening around me, her nails digging into the skin at my neck.

My fang teases over her delicious vein, and I inhale her decadent, needy scent. Then I thrust my hips up again, and she shudders, our groans breaking out as our boat continues to drift.

She starts rocking over me, back undulating, hips moving like an erotic dance while her ribbons twist around and grip my back. A part of me can't believe I have her here in my arms. That this bliss is meant for me.

But she is here. I can feel her and scent her and touch her, and she's all fucking mine.

"Give me your mouth," I demand. Because I want to swallow her down. To taste her moans and feed her mine.

Our lips fuse together instantly. Tongues lapping. Teeth and taste and groans slipping from her throat to mine. Our kiss is frenzied. Feral. All that exists is her panting breaths and the demand for more.

I drag her body up and down on my cock. Hard. Steady. Never relenting.

"You feel…so… good ." Her confession travels down the narrow confines of the tunneled waterway, dripping with the humid air. Just like she's dripping all over me, her liquid heat soaking my dick, my balls, permeating my senses.

My fingers dig into her waist as I drag her up and down again, making her clutch me, dragging another moan from her lips. I delve my hand through her hair and through her soft, undulating ribbons. Then she arches back, taking control of our movements as she starts to fuck me. My teeth clench at the feel of her exquisite body as she takes my cock and demands more.

"You perfect creature," I purr as I nip the skin at her neck and lick.

Auren makes a desperate noise and starts slamming down over me so hard the movement starts to sway the boat. The water laps at the sides, threatening to spill in, while thrill spills through me . "That's it. Fuck me harder, Auren."

Her moan echoes down the tunnel, coiling in every crevice of the smoothed bricks and catching inside the brackets of my very bones.

I capture the sound in a hungry kiss. "I'm going to keep your sounds forever, Goldfinch. Every. Single. One." I punctuate each word with a thrust, helping her as her thighs begin to shake, her body straining as she races for her peak.

"Come on my cock, baby. Squeeze me with this perfect cunt of yours."

She dives for my mouth. Tongue lashing, drinking me down. I'd let her drain me dry if she wanted to.

Then she slams down so hard over me I black out for a second.

Her entire body jerks, pussy clamping around me as she comes. I feel her drenching me, slick dripping out of her with her release. My eyes roll to the back of my head as she cries out, the blissful sound soaking into me and making me nearly come too.

She falls against me just as the front of the boat slams into a wall.

Dazed, I look up, and see a green orb light hanging over the door of a building that has access to the underground canal.

Thank fuck we're here.

"Hold on," I tell her.

But before I can stand and pull out of her to secure the boat, Auren's nails dig into my arms, her ribbons snap around my back, and she glares at me with fierce possession. "No. Stay inside of me," she growls at me.

Growls .

Filthiest, sexiest thing I've ever heard.

Gold lashes out of her palm, and she sends it streaming to the wall that acts as both a dock and the separation from building to water. The gold forms into links of a chain, looping around the hook at the boat's end and securing it to the hitch on the post.

"Let's go," she orders, and her firm tone, the way she makes it very clear she has no intention of letting my cock out of her, makes me even harder.

I grin in the dark. "At your command."