Chapter 8

It is finally time for our honeymoon, and I am a flowering bud of trepidation. There will be no work to distract me. It will just be Jakol and I traveling the great hills and mountains that make up my country.

Our country, now.

We’ll be staying at small, rural inns along the way until we reach the sea. Then we’ll turn around and return the way we came, albeit in a roundabout way.

“A honeymoon of traveling?” Jakol says, a fond amusement in his voice. “Interesting choice.”

“You can learn a lot from the country folk,” I tell him. “Every place is different. They know things about the land that I don’t.”

Jakol considers this. “They do lead a different life from you or me.”

“Precisely. I think it should be educational for both of us.”

We will ride in an open wagon most of the way, exposed to the elements. It is no fancy carriage like the one he arrived in. Yet Jakol jovially climbs in with me, an arm snaking around my waist as the driver ushers the horses onward.

We are only a few hours from the palace when rain starts to fall. “You certainly have a way of doing things,” he says as I pull out two rain jackets and hand him one.

“Don’t like it?” I ask. “You can get off at any time.”

“Oh, no, not at all.” His grin is wide as he watches me shrug on the poncho. “I’m quite enjoying it.”

On our first night away, we enjoy a hot, hearty meal accompanied by chocolate and mulled wine. I find that Jakol loves his chocolate and insists on sampling it before he’s even finished his dinner. We talk amiably throughout—about our parents, who have all deceased, and then our childhoods. Jakol reminisces about his life fondly, and it’s easy to envision a rowdy little Burbarre prince getting into constant trouble. He sounds like a great handful, and I find myself laughing often.

That night I don’t even bother putting on my night clothes because Jakol is eager to lick me all over again. He holds my legs apart and drinks me up, lavishing affection on every square inch of me until I’m dripping onto the strange bed. Slowly he slips one thick finger inside me while his mouth teases my clit, and it doesn’t take much more to send me crashing into the waves. Afterward, we sleep naked, side-by-side, and I realize I’ve come to relish his familiar warmth.

We visit landmarks during the day, and I tell him all about the history of Fiore. Once upon a time, we were many different territories that slowly merged to share our trade routes and technological advances. Now we have trains that travel from one end of the kingdom to another, bringing lumber, coal, and raw ore from region to region. The Zeppelin is our latest advancement, easily carrying a hundred people across great distances. His eyes grow wide when I describe how they travel through the air.

“How is this possible?” he asks in wonderment. “To fly like a bird?”

I do my best to explain the science, but even then, he struggles to grasp the idea. I remember how he seemed afraid of heights, and I assure him that this mode of travel is tested and safe.

Every night Jakol pleasures me from head to toe, relishing my body, worshiping my clit, and finding all sorts of ways to give my warm slit the fullness it’s always craving—all without ever expressing a need of his own.

One afternoon, we walk to an old temple high up on a hillside. While I lag behind his much longer strides, I take in the firm, powerful muscles of his back as they flex with every sure movement and feel an eager thirst. I’ve even grown used to his tail, which occasionally curls around my waist as we walk together or teases my thighs as he thrusts his tongue inside me. I can’t deny that he’s handsome to look at, and his body is mighty and strong. When we return to the inn, I find myself wanting, hungering. Perhaps I’m ready for something more.

As Jakol takes off his coil to go to bed, I sit and wait for him. My gut response to the pouch between Jakol’s legs has faded the more often I’ve seen him. He’s always hard after he licks me, the pink tip of him emerging and growing longer and thicker as we go until he’s made me come all over his face, and his cock is as big as my wrist. This time when he gets on the bed with me, I stop him before he can begin his ministrations.

“Can I...” I don’t know how to ask because it feels too ridiculous and even a little rude. “Can I look?”

We’ve already grown used to each other’s bodies, so he hasn’t emerged from his pouch yet, and it feels safe right now.

“Yes, of course.” There’s no judgment at all in his voice. It’s just warm and inviting.

He leans back against the headboard, and I kneel before him. I draw a finger along his abdominal muscles to his groin, where I recognize the fur-covered lump resting underneath. As I get closer to it, I feel it move, and the fur parts to either side as he starts to emerge.

I just watch, fascinated, as his tan and pink cock slowly reveals itself. Now that I can see it, and I’ve settled enough with how strange and foreign it looks, all I want is to touch it.

“Go ahead,” Jakol says. “Whatever you like.” He brushes a hand down over my head into my hair, encouraging me to take the step. I feel bad using him like a science experiment this way, but he doesn’t seem to mind at all.

So I reach down and gently, slowly, run my fingers along the soft length of it. I hear Jakol suck in a breath, and I realize how sensitive it must feel to be touched while it’s always living tucked away like that. My hands must be rough on his tender flesh.

I want to pay him back for all the attention he’s given me on this trip. He has cared for nothing but my pleasure, and at this moment, I want to make him feel the same way. When did this beast’s happiness become so important to me? Suddenly I’ve found that I want him to be content in our relationship, too—to have his needs met and attended the way he attends to mine.

So I scoot down until my face is right above his cock, and lick my lips.

“D-Dienne?” Jakol asks, sounding uncertain.

“May I, um...” He always asks for my permission before doing something, so I should ask for his, too. “Can I use my mouth?”

His eyes go quite wide—and then a big, gratified smile takes over his face. “Please. Please do.”

So I take him between my lips. The taste is earthy, while the little droplet of cream at the tip is salty on my tongue. Immediately Jakol gasps, and I wonder how it feels. It must be good, like when his tongue is between my own legs, so I keep going. I bring him as far into my mouth as I can without letting my teeth get in the way, and the groan he lets out is unlike anything I’ve heard so far. Something about it gets me wet between the legs, thinking about how else I could make him moan like that.

So I move my mouth faster, and Jakol’s moans multiply as I draw my lips up and down, up and down. Cautiously I reach for the fur pouch at the base of him, and when my hand lands there, his abdomen arches. “Oh, Dienne,” he whispers, and I know I’ve discovered a neat new trick. I’m gentle with the pouch while I continue to suck on him, and his breaths come faster as I speed up. I can tell by the tenor of his voice that he’s getting close. He starts to swell up even bigger between my lips, and then suddenly, he’s filling up my mouth with his salty seed. It’s far more than I was prepared for, and I swallow as much as I can before I start to cough and gag.

“Shit,” Jakol says. “I’m sorry.” I wave him away as I cough a few more times. Jakol leans toward me and gently wipes my lips with his thumb. When I look up at him, he’s smiling bashfully, like a little boy.

“Wasn’t expecting that much,” I say.

“I wasn’t, either. You just...” He clears his throat awkwardly. “You bring it out of me, I suppose.”

I’ve known for a while now that I turn him on, that he wants me, though he hides his desire for my ease and comfort. But this was the physical proof of how badly he lusts for me.

“How was it?” I ask. I could do this again if I needed to. If I want to keep delaying intercourse, this is the way.

Jakol looks more than satisfied. “Incredible,” he says. “Absolutely wonderful.” He gestures for me to come to the little curve in his shoulder that’s slowly become my place. I would never have imagined that cuddling into this huge monster’s arms would bring me such satisfaction, but I instinctively settle into it, and he brings me in close to his chest. “Thank you,” he says and kisses the top of my head. “Do you feel more comfortable with it now?”

It does seem like I’ve taken an important step forward today, but I still feel an uneasiness when I imagine that big, pointed, wet object entering me between the legs. And yet, at the very same time, I long for it. After filling up my mouth with it, now other parts of my body are desiring to be filled up, too. And I want Jakol—I can’t deny that anymore. I do want it to be him who takes me that way. I’m just missing the last few stones in the path to get me there. So I just nod at him and say, “Yes, I think I do. I understand you better, at least.”

“Good. I enjoy you getting to know my body more, my love.” He chuckles a little. “Especially when it ends like that.”

Nestled into his arms, surrounded by the musky smell of him, it’s easy to slip into dreams.

With our relationshipstill new and tentative, it’s easy to forget that we’re actually married. We are the Queen and King of two countries now in a single, widespread kingdom. All of that has felt on pause in the last two weeks, but I’m reminded of it when a Burbarre arrives very suddenly on a horse, carrying an important missive.

There is an urgent matter back home that King Jakol must attend to. And like that, the honeymoon is over.

We travel back as fast as we can to the castle. There’s been a natural catastrophe—a landslide in the Burbarre’s major city. Casualties are stacking up, and they need their ruler.

I offer to go with him, as it is now both of our responsibilities, but Jakol refuses. “You ought to remain and attend to the needs of your people while I’m gone.” It still feels as if we are divided, not truly one kingdom. But I don’t argue because his eyes are bloodshot at the thought of so many of his citizens dead.

“Please, let one of my zeppelins take you.” It will get him home ten times faster than on horseback. Jakol agrees, even though his fear is evident on his face. “You’ll be safe, I promise.”

As he goes to board the ship, I feel a tidal wave of apprehension. He has been here at my side for weeks now, and now I’m faced with his back. When have I grown so attached to this Burbarre who arrived on my doorstep as a conqueror? It’s like I can no longer remember the cold, hard way I felt about him before.

“Jakol?” He pauses on the ramp and turns around to face me. That kind, knowing, so often jovial face has come to mean so much to me in so little time—and it breaks my heart to see it so beleaguered by tragedy. Imagining him gone, with no return date, sends a cold shiver down my back. I find myself running toward him, and then he’s swallowing me up in his great arms. I bury my face against his chest, drinking in the smell of him, reveling in the feel of his bare skin under mine.

“Oh, love.” His voice is sad. “Are you going to miss me?”

“A little,” I say into his chest. He tightens his arms around me.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be home soon.” It’s the way he says home that sends me over the edge, and the tears start to fall. This has become his place, too.

“All right.” I pull away, trying to bring back all the sturdiness I’d felt like I had before Jakol walked into my life and turned me inside out. “Be safe.”

“Of course.” He leans down and kisses me, one quick brush of his lips on mine before he turns and boards the zeppelin. I watch with a heaviness in my chest as it departs, engine whirring, off across the continent.