Chapter 2

2

ALEXUS

I lean against the doorframe of her room, watching quietly as she stands before her floor-length mirror, dragging a bristled brush through her long, dark locks. I’ve missed her more than I ever imagined I could miss someone, and now she’s here, within reach, dressed in nothing but a white silken gown, stark against her suntanned skin.

“Beautiful as ever,” I finally say, announcing my presence.

The stunned and elated expression on her face when she spins around is everything I’d hoped for, proving these last months have not been a dream. That smile reminds me of the moment I saw the sun break through the clouds after twenty days of rain at sea, the moment I knew I was close to home.

After a toss of her brush onto her dressing table, Raina launches across the room. I smile and pick her up as she crashes into me, throwing her arms around my neck and squeezing tight.

“You act like you missed me.”

She draws back to look me in the eyes as I carry her into the room and kick the door shut. We’re the only ones in the library at this late hour, but I want privacy just in case someone decides to pay a visit downstairs.

With her hands in my hair, Raina crushes her mouth against mine, and any worries that have haunted me prior to this moment fade. I move us toward the bed, ready to lay her down and ravish her the way I’ve imagined.

But then we’re suddenly back in front of the mirror.

The moment has altered, a shift in time and emotion, from happy and hopeful to uncertain and filled with unanswered longing. I’m dressed differently, as is she.

I stand behind her in a fine, black suit, staring at her in the mirror. The only sound in the room is our breathing and the crackle of the fire in the hearth. She’s wearing nothing but her cotton dress slip, her crimson satin gown discarded and crumpled nearby on the floor. She’s breathing so hard, her blue eyes locked with mine as I trace my finger over the curve of her shoulder and under the strap of her garment.

“Do you want me to finish undressing you?”

Long moments of hesitation pass, but Raina never looks away from me, not even when she finally nods her head in answer.

I lean in and drag my teeth over her earlobe as I slowly lower the strap from her shoulder. Her nipples are already peaked beneath the thin gown, making me ache to see them, to taste them.

Beneath my fingertips, chills chase across her skin. A sigh leaves her as I drag my tongue up the side of her throat and carefully lower the other strap.

Her slip doesn’t fall, the stretch of her full breasts keeping it from dropping to the floor. Her body is all dangerous curves now, muscular from training yet softer in places from Cook’s meals. I want to kiss every inch, learn her body the way I might memorize a map.

Hooking my thumbs in the fabric, I pull the slip down over her breasts, achingly slow, watching in the mirror as her naked torso is finally revealed. The candlelight and firelight illuminate her like a piece of treasured artwork highlighted beneath a chandelier. She gasps when I take her breasts in my hands, her attention focused as I grip and knead. The sight is erotic, and I can tell that she likes watching, yet this is only the beginning.

“Do you know how long I’ve wanted to see you?” I ask. “Touch you?”

She shakes her head and stretches her arm up, curling it around my neck, drawing my mouth down to the sweeping line between her ear and shoulder.

Show me. That’s what she’s saying to me. Show me.

I kiss her there, making no effort to be gentle. I suck and bite and lick as I tease her nipples hard between my fingers, hyperaware of the way she moves against me with every new assault. My cock hardens, wanting release, but I remind myself that I’ve waited for this for months. Much as I want to give in, right now I crave the agony of blinding desire more than relief.

I press my erection against her, a promise of what awaits. Raina shifts her ass against me, rubbing, and boldly drags my hand down her abdomen and between her legs. Even through the linen I can feel her heat, how wet she already is for me.

“I’ve imagined this,” I confess. “There aren’t many things I haven’t imagined when it comes to you. Making you come where I can watch every moment has been a recurring dream, though.”

She meets my stare in the mirror. For a moment, a question lives there, but then she blinks it away and slides her hand atop mine. Again, I can read her face so plainly, even without a single word signed.

Show. Me.

“Are you sure?” I ask. “Because what I want to do to you would be vile to many.”

She faces me. “You have no idea the things I would let you do to me,” she signs.

Just like that, we become all hands and lips and teeth, kissing with open-mouthed sighs as we strip away my jacket, vest, and tunic, my trousers and braies, followed by the remains of her slip. I lower my head to her breasts, suckling one at a time, my balls growing heavier and heavier by the second. She clutches my hair, letting me have my way, until she can no longer endure.

She tugs me up and kisses me, trailing her fingertips down my torso. She’s all but panting when she pulls away, admiring the hills and valleys of my body, muscle formed from too many years of training. I flinch when she twirls her fingertips in the hair below my navel, and then moves to boldly grip my cock in her hot little hand.

She strokes me with gentle pressure, the look on her face one of happiness and perhaps a bit of disbelief, as though she can’t believe she’s finally touching me. I understand. After so long, I feel the same way.

On an exhaled breath, I press my forehead to hers as she continues, gliding her hand from root to tip, over and over, her thumb catching every drop of cum that pearls at the head. I could lose myself so quickly, only to rise and do it again—inside her, on her, in her mouth. I want her in every way.

But first…

I tip her face up and look into her eyes, expecting a reflection of unease. I’m a lot of man to handle, yet there’s not even a sparkle of worry in her gaze. Then I realize…

“Do you still have the crystal I gave you?”

She arches a single brow and lets go of me.

Ah. Now I see a glimmer in her stare.

“Did you think I would not use it?” she signs and returns to her stroking.

The thought of her doing such a thing in this room, right above me, makes the desire inside me turn molten.

“I hoped you might,” I whisper, thinking of all the nights I lay wondering if she was indeed relieving herself with a crystal carved and polished to match the size and shape of my cock. I wanted it to be true. Wanted her to be taking me in some way. But I still doubted she even kept it. “Where is it?” I ask, my cock twitching in her hand.

Reluctantly, she lets go of me once more and turns toward her dressing table. I’m enchanted as she walks the short distance—by the way her ass sways, the sweet cleft between her legs, the way her long legs stride so elegantly. I study her curves, the way her waist dips, the lines of muscle in her back.

She opens the top drawer and retrieves the wooden case I gifted her months ago. When she lifts the lid, the pale pink quartz nestled in its bed of red velvet, is revealed. Raina drifts her fingertips across the crystal and looks up at me with a gleam of curiosity in her gaze.

I grab the cushioned bench at the foot of her bed and move it so that the end faces the mirror. I know exactly what I want. I just hope she wants it too.

Straddling the bench, I sit and pat the empty space in front of me. “Come here. Bring the crystal.”

Her eyes widen for a moment, but after the realization of what I’m about to do sinks in, she obeys.

Without further reservation, she positions herself between my legs, the crystal clenched in her hand. I move her hair aside and kiss her shoulder, running my hands along her thighs, feeling goosebumps rise in my wake.

“Are you nervous?” She shakes her head adamantly as I cup her breasts, which makes me smile. “Excited?” I whisper, teasing her nipples, and she nods.

Gently, I cup the back of her knee and lift one leg at a time, placing each one atop mine, exposing her fully to us both in the mirror. Her chest rises and falls fast as I slip my hand between her legs again, though this time there is no barrier, nothing to stop me from feeling her. From seeing her.

“I’m going to make you feel so good,” I whisper as I slide my fingers between her lips, opening her, spreading her wide, relishing the feel of her slick, hot flesh. “Look at you.” I flick my fingertip back and forth over her clit, making her flinch as she arches against me and curls her arm around my neck again. “So fucking perfect. I knew you would be.”

I have to touch her. After all this time, I have to be inside her, in any way I can.

Her eyes flutter closed as I circle her entrance, then I push a finger inside all that damp, tight heat. I stroke her first, feeling every ridge, learning her before I begin pumping in and out slowly.

“Open your eyes,” I demand. When she does, her gaze is already hazed and heady. “I want you to watch what I do to you.”

Again, so obediently, her attention lowers to where I’m touching her. It doesn’t take long until we fall into a rhythm—the punishing glide and curl of my finger, the hungry rocking of her hips. With every thrust, I can feel her need rising higher, sense her pleasure building, a flood threatening, just within my reach. But I’m not ready to give her that sweet relief. Not yet.

Withdrawing, I reach for the crystal. Raina takes a deep breath and hands it over, looking a little shaken, either from the sudden absence in her core or because she anticipates what comes next.

Or both.

I’m pleased to find the stone cock is already warm with magick. Perhaps my little trick at Wendolyn’s shop worked after all. I have to know.

“Does it vibrate?” I inquire. “When you command it?”

“Gods, yes,” she signs, and I smile.

“Well, that’s my magick, and tonight, I command it, all right? No vibrating until I say so.”

She nods submissively. It makes me desperate to pleasure her.

The rush of want that courses through me the moment I run the head of the crystal between Raina’s glistening lips is inexplicable. Her arm falls, and she grips my thighs, bracing herself.

“Relax, love. I’ll be gentle.”

And I am. I take my time teasing her, sliding the wide tip up and down, getting it wet, circling it around her clit, edging her toward bliss but guiding her back down before we get too close. When it’s time, I want her wild with passion and need, thrashing with an orgasm the likes of which she has never imagined. I want to watch as she shatters into oblivion, a memory I know I will never lose.

Carefully, I slide the crystal inside her. Just the head at first. I think to be easy, but she begins rocking again, greedily taking the cock into her body broad inch by broad inch, fucking it, showing me just how comfortable she’s become with this version of me.

“That’s a good girl. Fuck that lovely pussy.”

I don’t expect her to buck harder and faster, but she does, as though my words drive her.

I pump the crystal deeper and nip at her ear, teasing her nipple with my other hand as she rides. But it isn’t long before I can watch no longer. When I pull the crystal free from her body, I’m met with an almost scathing glare. I smile and lift her knees off mine before standing, only to move before her spread legs and kneel like a sinner at a god’s altar, ready to bow and worship.

Raina grips the bench behind her with one hand and runs the fingers of the other through my hair, studying my face with a rumpled brow. I see her silent question, and it reminds me how much I love that I’ve learned her so well.

“I’m beginning to understand who deserves my bent knee and who does not,” I explain. “But even if you were to cast me away, I would still want this.”

She opens her legs a little wider, curves her hips upward, her dainty feet on tiptoe. It’s an encouraging invitation seeing her spread for me like this, one I would never deny. I kiss a hot trail up one leg, taking in the floral scent on her skin, the chills left behind by my stubble, until I reach that divine, pink slit, soaked and beckoning. She smells so good, a sweet musk, and she’s positioned perfectly for fucking or devouring. My mind can’t determine which my body needs most.

As much as I want my throbbing cock buried inside her, I draw out the agony a little further, pushing the crystal root-deep inside her instead. Raina gasps, her fingers tightening in my hair, just against my scalp.

Our gazes meet—her eyes are glazed with lust—and as though linked by some invisible mental connection, she tugs my head down, urging me to taste her, even as I’m already lowering my mouth to her core.

At the first touch of my tongue to her flesh, we’re both lost. If I could taste only one thing ever again, it would be her. I want to drown in her, to fall in and never come out.

I give in to the natural dance, the assault and retreat of the cock in my hand matched by the flicking of my tongue against her clit. I fasten my mouth on her, working that little bud, deciding that perhaps we will both come more than once tonight. We have to. Because I must taste her. Must lap up every drop of her pleasure.

Raina falls back to her elbows, panting. She’s so beautiful, even outside of this moment. Even when she’s working in the library in her tunic and breeches, her hair pulled back in that severe bun. But here? Now? Naked and in the throes of passion?

She’s utterly resplendent.

With my mouth still latched to her clit, I give her a wink and send a command to the magick cast within the crystal, all while sending a trickle of my power through my tongue. Raina’s hand darts out and grips my shoulder.

That’s the only warning before she comes. It’s instantaneous, as though all I’ll ever need to do if I want her like this is lick her with a little magick.

Feeling like I might come myself, I watch as she writhes, her head thrown back, her hips rolling her pussy over and over the crystal as my mouth plays. But soon, she comes down off the high of orgasm, both our movements slowing, until I remove the crystal, suck her release off the tip, and cast it aside.

Her eyes darken as I gently draw patterns on her wet lips with my tongue, tasting her, dipping inside for a feast. I look up, over the softness of her belly to the mounds of her breasts, her skin illuminated by golden candlelight.

I focus on her face, all that dark hair cascading to the floor. I’m ready to carry her to bed, to sink deep into her warmth and fuck all night, to whisper all the things I’ve wanted to say for so long.

I care for you. I want to love you. Teach me how.

But the image morphs. The golden light drenching the room blurs to a dark, white world.

And I wake up .

I blink through the haze of a dream.

I don’t remember much, only that the woman now lying in my arms, folded inside my cloak and blanket, was there as well.

But she was very naked. Much unlike our current situation.

Raina’s head is nestled firmly against my chest, her arms tight around my waist. I don’t recall when we met in our sleep, when she crawled into my reach, nor when our legs found their way to one another, tangling like the limbs of lovers. But I don’t mind waking like this, with her next to me. I do, however, mind that my cock is stiff as a marble hilt.

I lie still and will away my erection, but with every minuscule shift of her body against mine, it becomes a pointless fight. I can feel her heat where my thigh lies cradled between her legs, and her breasts are pressed firm to my ribs, our heartbeats so close.

The need to piss strikes, though, and my erection finally begins to soften, but not before I sense Raina waking. She goes rigid in my arms, only pressing closer to the very thing I was trying to hide.

“Good morning,” I say awkwardly, and she tenses harder, if that’s even possible. I can’t help but laugh under my breath that we’re in this predicament in the first place, and that neither of us knows how to get out of it. But I try. “Breathe, Raina. It’s all right. The world isn’t going to crumble because you touched me. A lot, I might add, but still.” I lower my head to her ear, unable to resist the urge to tease. “Also, you’re very warm, and I rather enjoyed your company if that’s not obvious, but now that you’re awake, could you please disentangle your legs from mine? If I don’t piss, we’re both going to be in trouble.”

She quickly jerks away and sits up, as if my skin is scalding. I know she’s embarrassed, but there’s little to be done for it now.

Before I head toward the wood, I fold my side of the blanket over her shoulder to save some of our heat. Again, an image strikes me, a remnant from the dream, of lowering the strap of her dressing slip over her bare shoulder.

It wasn’t real, I tell myself as I walk away from her, much as a part of me wishes it were. It was only a dream. Nothing else. In the oblivion of rest, my tired mind was granted a haven, and Raina stayed warm enough to sleep.

That’s all that matters.

But as I stare over the dark, white world beyond our camp, I’m reminded of words spoken to me many moons ago by an old friend: The universe conspires. If someone is meant to be in your life, Fate will find a way to place them there, as well as in your dreams, that you might recognize their essence when your paths finally cross. That you might understand something greater than you is saying, “Look. Listen. Pay attention. Here is your past. Your present. Your future.”

As I head back toward camp, I try to do all those things. To believe that Raina Bloodgood’s presence—even beyond the fact that she’s already saved my life—holds an even higher purpose for me.

There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to keep moving, with her at my side.