38. Amber

Chapter thirty-eight

Amber

E ldrin led me to his new rooms—the king’s rooms. If I thought the rest of the palace was absurdly decadent, this was something beyond. The surface was lined with carved birds and leaves made of precious stones, not to mention the gold and crimson brocades that covered many surfaces. Thick green velvet drapes graced the windows, tied back with thick golden ropes accented with red crystals. Outside was the same, brilliant sun I had come to associate with the Darkening Woods, which made the sky a captivating shade of blue.

“What’s wrong?” Eldrin asked me, after he shut the black wooden door behind him. We were alone.

“This is all yours?” I asked, surveying a mural on the ceiling, an illustration of trees and elves dancing underneath the boughs .

“Yes. These are the king’s chambers.”

“It’s…wow.”

“Generations of kings’ belongings are here. I suppose they are my belongings now,” he added, almost as an afterthought as he stepped through the room.

Without a word, I dropped my burdensome backpack on the floor and followed him, admiring the walls and decorations. Skeletons made from onyx. Swords and daggers decorated with diamonds. Vases and sconces made of a mosaic glassware. Stained glass windows depicting autumn reds and golds. It was breathtaking. I wandered from room to room until I found a bed, a massive silk-covered monstrosity that could have held a half dozen people.

But I only wanted one. If he would have me.

“You came back,” he said, standing in the doorway of his bedroom, much changed from how I saw him last. He wore a long draping black overcoat that was cut in the front to reveal matching breeches. Around his forehead rested a thick coronet of leaves, marking that he was now the king, the ultimate power in the Woods.

The king.

He stared at me, his gaze boring into me in ways I desperately missed. The crown on his head attracted my focus, his bearing regal and formal in a way that it rarely was in the Woods. It was as if he was someone strange and familiar at the same time. Yet he was still what I wanted more than anything .

“I had to.” I swallowed. “I had to come back.”

He approached, until he was only an arm’s length away. “You’re really here.” A statement, not a question. His skeleton hand clenched and unclenched, the bone fingers moving in a delicate rhythm.

“…Is that alright?”

Eldrin laughed, a brilliant sound that rang through the rooms. “Alright? , so left my joy. If the king was permitted to leave this realm, I would have been searching for a way to find you. If I could have spared the barrier being weakened, I would have sent others to find you. You are the one who saved me, Amber. I love you. Letting you leave was…I shouldn’t have let you leave. Without you, I was dead, my dearest heart.”

“But I’m here now.”

“Yes.” His eyes sparkled. “Yes, you are.”

Enough.

We clashed in a ravenous embrace, his lips returning to mine, dancing in a familiar cadence I had missed so desperately. His hands caressed me, as if reassuring himself that I was really there, touching my arms, my back, every inch of me that was respectable to touch, even though I was already stirring for him to place his hands on the rest of me.

But reality still had its way of reminding me that our problems were still there.

“I love you.” I gave him an extra-long kiss, and then reluctantly broke away. “But, what about your court? Are you alright with me being here?” Would he want me to stay? He was the king now. Everything had changed. “I was thinking that, if it would help, maybe you could keep me somewhere else—”

“Absolutely not,” he said sternly. “Most of those who resented you are now part of my throne.”

“The skulls?” My eyes widened.

“Yes.” He kissed me, delving into me in a way that ignited the heat in my core. “I would not tolerate anyone in my realm who would harm you or even think ill of you. I will make that very clear. To insult you is to insult me.”

“I know you have other concerns. You’re the king, you need to take care of your people.”

“Amber” ?he ran a finger down my cheek? “letting you leave was the biggest mistake I had ever made in my life, or will make. This court is yours. You are no longer a visitor, you are the queen. My queen. I refuse to think of any reign where you are not by my side. The court will adjust, and those who do not will be committing treason.” He shrugged. “It is as simple as that.”

“Is it?”

“Kings of the Darkening Woods are not known for their mercy, especially when it comes to those they love. I will have you by my side, Amber. You would have to cleave the worlds to tear me away from you.”

What? I could really stay here? With him ?

Hot tears swelled in my eyes, worry that I had been keeping inside for long weeks threatening to erupt. “And everyone will be alright with having a human queen?” I just wanted to be with him—I didn’t care about ruling or power. I could have handled anything, any position, as long as it let me be with him.

“Yes,” Eldrin said, patiently reassuring me again. “Because I will make it so. I don’t care what happens. You are not leaving my side by any other will than your own. Ever again.” He chuckled, the sound dark and sensual. “I think you will be surprised by what the elves will be able to adjust to, with time.”

He kissed me harder, his hands gripping my arms with his raw strength. Slowly, he walked me backward and pushed me back on the bed, laying me down on the silk coverlet and then hovering over me. His garments draped over us, long, formal robes that had no place being here. Far too much fabric.

My heart raced, and the sweet heat in my core turned into a throbbing need.

We both sat upright and he reclined, watching as I unclasped the small skull buttons that kept on his over-robe, and then I peeled it off. He helped me with the rest, shrugging the voluminous garment to the ground. What was underneath the robe was more fitting of the Eldrin I remembered, a tunic made of fine weaving and black breeches. Only the coronet told me that there was a difference between the elf I had fallen in love with and the king he was now.

Eldrin noticed where I was looking, for he took off the coronet and tossed it in the air, catching it and flashing me a smile. Without turning his attention away from me, he set the coronet on the bed and then prowled towards me. “Do you want one?” he asked.

“I…can’t say I’ve given it much thought.” My gaze was focused on his breeches, and he noticed, for his smile turned feral.

“You’re wearing far too much,” he said.

“Less than you.”

“My point stands.”

We lunged towards each other, our movements a rushed fury to tear off our clothes and send them scattering to the ground. My bra and panties ripped in the frenzy. Who cared? The weight of our separation slammed into me, and I couldn’t get my bare skin against his fast enough. Any chill I felt from the air was banished as soon as he pressed his naked body on mine, his firm muscles undulating with each movement. Desperation gathered, a painful ache and wetness that made me all-but beg him to hurry. I needed him. Now.

Both of us now bare, he laid me so that I was strewn next to him, his human-like hand propping up his head, while his skeleton one rested on my abdomen. His cock pushed against my thigh, drops of liquid spreading on my skin. I rubbed against it. It should have been someplace else, I needed it to be somewhere else. But all Eldrin did was smile. Bastard was enjoying this.

His hand of bone traced cold lines on my skin, the sensation strange and yet now familiar. The path traced over my hips and to my thighs, where I spread my legs to welcome him. His touch lacked the warmth of his other hand, yet his movements trailed a path of fire over me, igniting me with each inch he explored.

“Eldrin,” I said with a pleading gasp.

“I know.” He kissed me on the forehead, his skeleton hand now moving closer to my center. “May I?” he asked, his hand perched near my entrance, toying with me. His skeleton hand moved closer, making it clear what he was asking of me.

“Yes.”

That was all he needed—that one word of permission let him explore with that part of himself. The cool and solid bone plunged into me, into the wetness that waited. I shuddered and clenched around it. His hand felt so strange and yet that was part of the pleasure—the uniqueness. Nothing hurt or caused me any discomfort. Whether it was Eldrin’s skill or some aspect of the hand’s magic I couldn’t say. All I knew was that the firm textured touch made me want more.

This hand was part of him, and I wanted everything.

“Do you like it?” he asked, and I moaned in reply. He used his skeleton thumb to flick my clit, the sharp friction perfect. Unbearably so. I arched my back, unable to stay still.

“Eldrin,” I cried out. It was so much—too much.

And then I arched my back again when his thumb was replaced with his gorgeous mouth. I met his brilliant silver eyes. His mouth was wrapped around my mound, taking it fully into himself, sucking and teasing. His silver hair nestled against his angled ear, a sight that I had come to know all so well. It was enough to push me to the edge, the sensation cresting to the point I would lose all control. But right before my release came, his mouth left me, sending an unwelcome absence in his wake.

Moments later he was positioned over me, his cock hitting my inner thighs, leaving no doubt what was coming next. “When you take your pleasure…” he whispered in my ear. His length pushed against my entrance, reminding me of how much he would fill me. “…It will be because I am inside you,” he finished. “With my name on your lips.”

I nodded, grabbing his ass to urge him on. Whatever he wanted he’d get—anything. I’d give and do anything. I needed more. He understood, because he moistened himself on me and then worked his way in, and all feeling left except for that .

“Eldrin,” I cried out as he pushed inside me, stretching me blissfully around him as if we had never been apart, melting into me until the first aches melted into waves of full pleasure.

"Look at you," he said, admiring how we were joined together, our bodies moving with his slow thrusts. "You fit me so perfectly. Mine." He leaned back and used his skeleton hand again, flicking my clit and grinning as I squirmed.

It was too much. Too much.

“I want—” I gasped. “I want—”

“Yes?” he asked, right as he slowly worked his way in and out of me. He knew what I wanted. Needed.

“You. More.”

He kissed me in reply and thrusted harder, giving me what I yearned for. Over and over again he slammed into me, the movements blending into an unending stream of ecstasy. His mouth stifled my cries as I came, clenching harder around him. Through it all he didn’t stop. He wouldn’t stop. It was as if our bodies were a fire, and I couldn’t tell where we began and ended.

We were together, as we always would be.

He pounded into me through my orgasm, his hips working in a jutting rhythm, extending my pleasure even further, wave after wave of glorious release. After I was done his movements became steadier, smoother, a current that tied me to him as he worked to his own climax.

“Amber. My Ember.”

Several long moments later his release soon followed with a guttural cry, and then, spent, he laid next to me, holding me against him. His chest was slick with sweat, as was my back, and together we caught our breath and stared at the gilded ceiling .

“We’re not leaving this bedroom, ever,” he said between large breaths. “I’m the king and I command it.” He pointed to his coronet that lay on the bed undisturbed, a smile curved on his lips. “That was far too short and I plan on things taking far longer. Much longer.”

“We’ll have to leave someday,” I said, moving so that I laid against him. His arms wrapped around me, holding me as tight as he could without hurting me.

“Someday. But not today.”

“No?”

“No. That was just our first coupling.” He kissed my neck in a way that made my legs squirm and spread already, welcoming him to touch me wherever he wanted. “And now that that’s out of the way, I can take my time.”

He sighed into my hair, content, his gestures echoing the feeling in my own heart. This bed would be my home. These Woods would be my home. Because he was here.

I no longer doubted where I belonged in life, or where I was supposed to go.

Eldrin was my everything. He was my forever.