As he stalked out of his pants and purposefully walked toward her, she couldn’t help thinking that with the horns rising above the dark curls on his head, how much he looked like a king of the forest—the true-born heir of his father.
Magnificent. He was utterly magnificent.
And he was all hers.
There was no room for any more thought as he was upon her in the next breath, his hands pushing her gently to the forest floor. Cailleach didn’t feel the damp, cold earth or the sharp edges of the dead brambles and leaves on the ground. All she felt was Tritus, the heat and hardness of his body.
His hand returned to her mound, probing, testing, swirling and teasing her core; while his mouth dropped onto her left breast this time, sucking and biting intermittently before lathing it with a heated lick of his tongue.
Cailleach felt as if her skin was on fire, as if her world was turned inside out, the pleasure ratcheting up to an unbearable level. She couldn’t help the mewling sounds that fell from her lips, the movement of her limbs as they writhed in urgent request for his mouth to suck harder, his fingers to inch in deeper.
And Tritus responded, a primal growl renting the cool air. His hands worked their magic, moving to where she wanted them before she even knew that was what she wanted. As if he was on a deeper level internally connected to her every desire. And it hit her then, as his fingers pinched the sensitive nub at the apex of her thighs, that he was still concentrating on their internal connection—listening to her body and her mind with unrivaled attention.
The thought of his commitment sent another spark of desire through her. It was a wave that threatened to break her into a thousand pieces, where she would become so unraveled that she didn’t know if she could ever return to who she was before.
Tritus seemed to understand she was on that brink—a brink he’d cleverly and lovingly nurtured her to, for his hips shifted, and as his tongue fought a dance with hers, he settled his large body between her legs. The sudden pressure against her mound was unbearably exquisite, while at the same time, it created an urgency that she needed to have fulfilled.
He rubbed against the apex of her thighs. Her eyes flew open, instantly ensnared by his gaze. Cailleach read the silent question in the depths of his eyes; understood the final confirmation he sought, and her heart broke at his tenderness.
She didn’t need to say the word—she showed him. Not breaking their gaze, her hand reached between them and guided the tip of his swollen member to the slick, primed opening between her legs. Tritus’s face tightened above her, a slash of lust striking his features, and before she had a chance to think, to even breathe, he grabbed her hips and thrust powerfully into her. Cailleach felt the penetration break through a thin internal barrier in a fleeting moment of pain before he was fully embedded, filling her core.
Tritus raised his hands to cradle her face, staring down at her, his brows a taut line. “Are you all right?” he asked in a tight, gravelly voice.
She didn’t have to think about it, not when that fleeting pain was now replaced with a throbbing pressure that demanded to be sated. “No,” she groaned.
He tensed, his whole body taut muscle, and his member swelled even more inside her, taunting her with a lick of desire. “I’m sorry,” he ground out with teeth clenched, preparing to pull out.
“No, don’t go!” cried Cailleach, her fingernails digging into the skin of his back. “I’m not in pain,” she whispered through swollen lips. She ran her tongue over them, willing them to formulate the words, trying to stay on the wave of their pleasure, not wanting to fall without him. “I need more—I need you to move!”
His eyes glittered at her admission, and a feeling of primal dominance and satisfaction speared her through their internal bond. An awareness that he had her right where he wanted her.
He purred, “As my lady commands.”
Then he gave her what she craved.
There were no more hesitations, no more checks as he dropped his head and devoured her mouth in a devastating kiss of passion that mirrored the movements of his groin. Again and again he thrust into her, not giving her a moment to forget that he was in her, that he surrounded her, that he was the one giving her this unbearable, growing pleasure that threatened to wipe out her very existence.
Cailleach didn’t notice the earth around them become dusted with a layer of ice, didn’t notice that her hands burned through his skin, branding his back in a silent urge never to stop—to keep moving faster, quicker.
The pressure built and built to a level she had never thought possible. And as if aware of the fall of pleasure that beckoned, Tritus lifted his mouth from her breast and locked his eyes on hers. Together, they crested that final wave of desire to the very tip of its power. With their gazes locked, Cailleach felt raw and open, more vulnerable than she’d ever been. Stripped of all her shields. As if Tritus saw not just her body and into her mind, but into her very soul. In response, Cailleach felt that internal connection between them change—no longer a thin, gossamer thread built upon hesitation and self-doubt, but a bond layered with strength and trust.
A bond of commitment.
And as that bond reformed into something far stronger than she’d ever thought possible, and firmly snapped into place, Cailleach felt her soul explode into a thousand fragments as a resounding pleasure she’d never known before flooded every corner of her being. And because they shared that internal bond that linked them together, she knew that Tritus reached the crest of that wave with her, even before she saw him throw back his head and roar his release to the sentient trees that were witness to their final, soul-searing claiming.
12
Brydie
A voice shouted, and I burrowed deeper, dragging a pillow over my head. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to continue to experience the emotions of a fledging love just taking wings.
There came a loud crash. In the next breath, my blankets were rudely stripped away, and a cold draught hit my skin. I blinked dazedly from the bed. Gage stood over me, his face set in a dark mask of impatience. The face he reserved solely for me.
“Get the fuck out of bed!”
I groaned. I was tired and lethargic, still craved sleep. “What time is it?”
“Late enough,” he snapped. “You have five minutes to get ready, or you’ll be training in your nightwear.”
His eyes glittered as they dropped to my bare legs, exposed below my short tee shirt. A frisson of awareness arrowed to my core. I gritted my teeth against it.
Avoiding his gaze, I scrambled out of bed and glared at him through the tangled snarl of my ash-blond hair. “I’m up!” I snapped, stomping one of my feet on the ground. I didn’t care how childish I sounded.
Gage’s jaw clenched as if he was calling on patience. “Five minutes,” he growled.
I heard the unspoken threat, but my chest burned at his tone. Every single word or action only prompted me to retaliate. We were a conflagration that burned hotter and higher the longer we were in each other’s presence.
I was done with it. Done with him. My hands balled into fists at my sides as I faced him, begrudging the fact that I had to tip my head back to meet his gaze.
“Get. Out.” I enunciated between clenched teeth.
Gage paused, one brow raised as he raked his eyes from my head to my toes and back again, but before I could bark a cutting remark, he turned sharply on his heel and strode through the door. I followed his lithe, muscled frame until it vanished out of sight. It was then that my gaze caught on the door, specifically at the mangled lock, where the chain now dangled brokenly off the frame.