The Assurance

Talon’s [POV]

My arms were hooked underneath her thighs, and I pressed a hard kiss to her slick sex, feeling lips fuller than the ones on her mouth. The second she felt the heat of my mouth, she arched her back and released a whimper as her nails clawed into the flesh of my forearms. I kissed her again and again, taking my time because we were on a soft mattress rather than the hard ground, both clean from our showers.

Her taste had been on my lips the moment we parted, a scar that hadn't faded, a memory so vivid it felt like reality. But now, I tasted her again—and my memory hadn't done it justice.

She whimpered and shed her wet tears, thrusting her sex into my mouth. It took just a few minutes for her to release and grind against me, to arch her back hard and flail like she had no control of her body.

Knowing I was her only turned me on like crazy, that the pretty elf man had tried to take what was mine and failed. He might be a commander, but I was a king. My lips left hers, and I moved up her body so my dick could relish the fruits of my labor.

But instead of opening her thighs to my hips, she guided me onto my back and moved on top of me. Her wet sex sat on my fire-hot dick, and her lips gave a sexy moan.

I felt the pull on all my tendons, the desperation to be inside that wetness. My hands gripped her hips harder than I should have, and I released a breath louder than I meant to. Every second I wasn't inside her made me more desperate.

Her confidence waned as she grabbed my dick and directed me inside her. I was the one who was always on top, the one who did all the fucking, which I was perfectly fine with. But she wanted to reciprocate, though she still didn't quite know how.

I lifted myself against the headboard to sit up and then guided myself inside her, watching her slide down and sheathe me. My eyes closed because it felt so damn good like we hadn't been fucking like rabbits for days, and it felt even better because I could see how much she wanted me. How much she needed me. Could feel her forgiveness and her commitment. Her lack of experience made it that much better because I was the only man she'd ever wanted.

She slid down until there was nowhere else to go, and she released a shaky breath mixed with a wince.

My cock twitched inside her.

Her hands gripped my shoulders, and she brought herself close, arching her back farther than ever. As I'd taught her before, she rose and fell and rocked her hips at the same time, riding me down to the base before she lifted herself once again.

Damn.

She started to move quickly and jerkily, her breaths growing heavy, and her nails began to claw me.

I grabbed her hips and slowed her down. "Baby..." I wouldn't last like this, not with the taste of her sweetness in my mouth and her pussy fucking my dick hard because she wanted to come again.

She matched the movements of my hands, resting her forehead against mine, her eyes down on my lips.

Fuck, this was worse.

My hands spanned her waist before I moved one hand into the valley between her tits, feeling her heartbeat right under the skin, feeling the soul attached to it. She was flesh and blood, good and innocent, unbreakable despite all the attempts to shatter her. I was a man who'd pissed away any chance of redemption, and I stood in the shade of her beacon of light because it made me feel whole...even for just a moment.

Her hand moved to mine and squeezed, just under her tit, where her frantic heart continued to race. She was right at the edge of her desire, ready to combust in a fire that would burn this whole forest. A flush entered her cheeks, her eyes glistened like morning dew on a flower, and her body contracted on me before she trembled.

When I felt her come around me, my hand left her chest and moved to her neck instead, clutching her hard enough to feel her frantic pulse under the skin. My dick was hard as steel as her body gripped me like a hand gripped the hilt of a sword. Her hips convulsed, and she turned into a teary-eyed mess on top of me, tits up with hard nipples sharp as daggers.

"Fuck." I squeezed her so hard I nearly choked her. I dumped everything inside that tightness and made her mine for the twelfth time since we'd been reunited. A line of women could have entertained me in her absence, but no woman ever satisfied me the way she did. No woman ever brought me this close to the sun.

I finally released her neck and watched her take a deep breath once her airway was clear. She lay on the rumpled bed beside me, her naked body slightly illuminated by the fireflies that danced outside the window. A sheen of sweat sparkled across her beautiful skin. She lay there and immediately closed her eyes.

I was still against the headboard as I looked down at her, her perfect body on display like she was about to be painted for a portrait to adorn a wall in the castle. Little scars were on her body, but I'd stopped noticing them a long time ago.

I shifted down until I was flat on the bed beside her, listening to the sound of the croaking frogs from the ponds and the chirping crickets hidden in the tall grass. I'd had no expectations when I'd walked into this forest, so I certainly hadn't expected it to remind me of home. But it did.

On summer nights, it used to sound just like this, the critters coming out now that the sun was gone. Enjoying the warm darkness and reduction in predators. The window was closed, so I couldn't feel the breeze, but I could imagine it through my hair and I could hear the waves against the base of the cliff, even though I was nowhere near the sea.

She opened her eyes and looked at me.

And time stopped. Her green eyes could command me the way a king commanded an army. I'd never felt inferior to anyone, felt like a pawn in someone's hand until I met this woman. I was the darkness, and she was the light. I knew I didn't deserve her, but I also knew I wouldn't let her go, even if she wanted to walk away.

She continued to stare at me. "What's behind those dark eyes?"

Black riptides of death. Bottomless pits of brokenness. Sheer nothingness. "You." She was the only thing left in me.

The corners of her eyes dropped in heaviness, and I saw a mixture of affection and pity in her gaze. Then she smashed against me, the way butter met bread, and she crawled inside me until we were a single person.

My arms hooked around her and held her close, my lips resting against her forehead, smelling her scent because it reminded me of jasmine flowers on a spring afternoon. When her heart was close to mine, I felt better. Everything felt better. A month of loneliness and solitude had shown me that the light in my life didn't come from my fireplace or the fire in my dragon's belly.

It came from her.

"What do you think of the forest?" she whispered.

I stared at the fireflies through the window, their yellowish glow so bright it masked the stars up above. The place was beautiful and full of serenity, but there was a sense of discomfort that pressed against me like the tips of a thousand knives. The air around me was tight like the forest wanted to eject me from its home with all the force it could muster. I didn't belong there, and for as long as I remained, the trunks of the trees would feel brittle like old bones. "It reminds me of home."

"You lived in a forest?"

"No. Late at night, I could hear the crickets in the grass and the frogs in the pond."

"You still call it home after all this time?"

I'd spent twenty years traveling to different places, taking up different trades, until my destiny could no longer be avoided. "It'll always be my home." I wondered how much it had changed, if the castle was still at the top of the cliff above the city if the white stone of the buildings remained untouched, or if it was scarred by soot and ash. Uncle Barron would have been dead by now if he were a mortal, but after being fused with Constantine, he wouldn't have aged a day. No doubt, he'd destroyed every piece of history that suggested my line had ever lived. The family portraits had probably been burned or thrown in the sea.

"You'll have to show me around...when this is over."

My fingers moved through her soft strands, gliding to the tips before I let it fall back to the pillow. I repeated it, caressing her hair over and over, the way a sailor dragged his oar through the water.

"I wish I could show you the forest, but I know Queen Eldinar would be furious."

I'd been apart from Calista so long that I didn't want to entertain a separation. My nights had been spent in a silent rage, gripping a glass in front of the fire, seeing another man in her private chambers as if he belonged there. "You're all I care about, baby."

I was up before she was.