The Lightning-Struck Heart

by T. J. Klune

  “What?”

  “In a minute, you’re going to come over here, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “You’re going to kiss me.”

  “Okay.”

  “You’re going to touch me and I’m going to touch you.”

  “Okay.”

  “And then you’re going to fuck me on your bed.”

  My mouth went dry.

  “Sam?”

  “Yeah,” I managed to say.

  “Did you get all that?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Come here.”

  I have no shame in admitting that I pretty much ran the rest of the way to the bed, jumping and landing on top of him. The laugh that came out of him was an awesome sound to hear, and his hands went to my back, fingers trailing down to the top of my ass, the full length of my body pressed against him. His breath was on my face as he smiled up at me, eyes sparkling in the candlelight. They reminded me of stars and I remembered my wish from that day in the secret garden, where I wished that I had someone to call my own, so I could show him why I was made for him.

  And here he was. Ryan Foxheart, Nox that was. My cornerstone.

  “You’re mine,” I said in awe.

  His smiled widened. “Yeah, Sam. Yeah.”

  I kissed him then.

  Later, I watched him stretch himself out, his fingers glistening with oil, his breath hitching as he instructed me to slick myself up. His hips were propped up on pillows. I could barely take my eyes away from the sight before me, watching his fingers disappear into himself, stretching but trying to fuck into himself too, but not able to get the right angle.

  After that, time slipped gently. I remember his hand on my cock as he guided me, his legs around my hips. I felt the resistance of his ass and the pull of the muscle around my cockhead. There was a flash of immense heat as I pushed farther. He groaned underneath me, his eyes closing, chest rising and falling in rapid breaths. He pressed a hand against my stomach when my hips met his ass, stilling me, telling me to wait.

  I told him I would. For him, I would. For him, I would do anything.

  Eventually, he nodded.

  I gave a shallow thrust and he opened his eyes, staring up at me. I pulled out farther, my length dragging inside him. I pushed forward again and he said, “Sam. Sam, please. Go.”

  And I did. It took me a moment to find a rhythm I could work with. I went to my knees, bringing his right leg straight up and over my shoulder, his ankle at my ear. His left leg stayed curled around my back, the foot near my ass. I rolled my hips up, fucking him deeper. I picked up the pace then, kissing his calf, the bone of his ankle as he moaned underneath me.

  We lasted longer than I thought we would, given the months of pent-up frustration. Sweat dripped down my back and his pupils were dilated. He was breathing heavily when his hand went to his dick and he began to jack himself off. I changed the angle slightly and his eyes flew open and he said, “There, there, there.”

  I could feel the magic under my skin and there was the haze of gold and green, and it whispered to me, telling me that I was here, that I was finally here, home, home at last. I cried out as he clenched around me. He said my name when he came all over his chest and stomach. I fucked him through it and when his hand dropped away, I pulled out and he sighed as I jerked myself off above him, once, twice, three times before I came on his dick, the spunk dripping down onto his balls and falling onto the bed.

  His chest heaved as he stared up at me, dazed.

  I said, “Holy fucking gods,” as I panted.

  The smile that followed felt like a wish upon the stars.

  “SHIT,” I said, sometime later when I thought I could speak again.

  “Hmm?” he said, fingers brushing through my hair. I’d decided that lying on his chest and listening to his heart beat was just about the best place I could ever be.

  “I forgot to press below your balls when you came like Gary told me to. He’s going to be so pissed at me.”

  “Oh my gods.”

  “Remind me to do it next time.”

  “Oh my gods.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You sound way too much like me.”

  His laughter rumbled in my ear and I thought that maybe wishing upon the stars was the greatest thing I’d ever done.

  EPILOGUE

  A Destiny of Dragons

  IT HAPPENED, randomly, some weeks later. To say that it was unexpected is an understatement.

  Granted, I’d gotten the both of us captured again.

  Totally not my fault, by the way.

  “It is totally your fault,” Justin said.

  “Not really,” I said, frowning down at the fairy ring rising up from the dirt around my feet. “Okay, maybe just a little bit. To be honest, I’m a little bit embarrassed that I keep getting stuck in the middle of a magic mushroom circle.”

  “Yeah,” Justin said. “I don’t think that’s the only thing you should be embarrassed about.”

  “If it makes you feel any better,” I said, ignoring his obvious ire, “the last time this happened, Ryan was molested by a tree.”

  He gaped at me.

  I wiggled my eyebrows at him.

  “You know what?” he said. “That does sort of make me feel better.”

  “Good. It should. It should make everyone feel better. What happens now?” I shrugged and looked through the trees of the Dark Woods where Justin and I had been sent on a quest for Morgan (and by “quest” I mean the King and his Wizard conspired to force Justin and I to spend time together in the name of bonding—those sneaky bastards). “Either the mushrooms will grow feet and will lead us deeper into the woods, or Dimitri will appear.”

  “Your ex-boyfriend?”

  I scowled at him. “He’s not my ex!”

  “That’s not what Ryan said.”

  “Ryan doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Ever.”

  “That really explains why he’s with you, then.”

  “Oh my gods,” I said, eyes wide. “You’re sassy!”

  “No I’m not.”

  “Sassy,” I insisted. “Or bitchy. I don’t know if I can tell the difference.”

  “Sometimes,” Justin said, “I think about what it would be like if you’d been born without a voice box.”

  “Dude,” I said. “Whoa.”

  “Sam,” Dimitri said, appearing out of nowhere with his tiny naked body and his tiny groomed mustache. “How lovely to see you again.”

  “Dimitri,” I said. “You’ve really got to stop this. Kidnapping is not wooing.”

  “This is your ex,” Justin said. “Him.”

  “He is not my ex!”

  “I’m his ex,” Dimitri said, fluttering over to Justin.

  Justin grinned evilly. “This is just marvelous.”

  I groaned. “You are not allowed to use this against me. Ever.”

  “You’re going to be so used,” Justin said.

  “Can I watch?” Dimitri asked.

  “Gross,” I said. “Shut up. Don’t even.”

  “I can’t believe you were going to get gay fairy married,” Justin said.

  Dimitri scowled. “Hello. We just call it married. And I’m a king.”

  Justin rolled his eyes. “And I’m the Prince of Verania.”

  “That sounded kind of douchey,” I said. “The both of you.”

  They glared at me.

  “Prince Justin?” Dimitri asked. “Weren’t you with the knight last time?”

  “I was,” Justin said. “And then he turned into a home wrecker and broke up my wedding and stole my husband-to-be.”

  “That is sort of true,” I said. “Except for the parts where it’s not. Which was most of it.”

  “I tried to marry him,” Dimitri told Justin. “His unicorn kicked me in the face and then they ran away.”

  “That sounds about right,” Justin said. “I’m sorry you’ve been subjected to the horror that is Sam of Wilds.”

  “Still standing right here,�
�� I said. “With my feelings.”

  And then it happened. The most unexpected thing.

  “Why didn’t you just kill him?” Dimitri asked. “Surely it would have been easier to chop off his head than let him steal your man.”

  “That seems extreme for something I really didn’t do,” I said. “And stop giving him ideas, Dimitri.”

  Justin let out a long-suffering sigh. “I can’t kill him, no matter how much I want to.”

  “Why?” Dimitri asked.

  “He’s a pain in my ass,” Justin said. “There are days when I can’t stand the sight of him. He’s too mouthy, opinionated, and he made my fiancé fall in love with him by just existing. People worship the ground he walks on while turning their nose up at me, even though I am the king-in-waiting and he is but from the slums.”

  “And he still has his head because….” Dimitri said.

  “Because he’s my wizard,” Justin said. “And we’re going to be together for a very long time.”

  My jaw dropped.

  “Huh,” Dimitri said. “I think I’m attracted to you.”

  Justin snorted. “Not going to happen. I am staying free of men for the foreseeable future.”

  “You,” I breathed. “You like me.”

  “Not hardly,” Justin said wearily.

  “You seriously like me.”

  “That’s not even remotely true.”

  “We’re going to be best friends,” I said in awe.

  He sighed. “I knew I should have chopped off your head.”

  “Dimitri,” I demanded. “Lower your fairy ring this instant. I am having so many feelings right now and I need to project them onto the Prince.”

  “If you do that,” Justin growled at Dimitri, “I will punch you in your tiny face.”

  “He won’t,” I said. “I won’t let him. Lower the godsdamn ring.”

  “Sorry,” Dimitri said to Justin. “Sam and I were almost married. That bond never goes away.”

  “There is no bond,” I said, even as the rings lowered.

  Justin took a step back away from me.

  “I’m going to awkward hug the fuck out of you,” I warned him.

  “You stay right where you are,” he said, holding up his hands.

  “No. You just said we’re going to be friends forever and that you want to go get coffee with me and gossip about boys while eating pastries.”

  “I didn’t say any of that!”

  “It was implied!”

  “There were no implications!”

  “It’s okay,” I told him as he backed into a tree. I opened my arms wide as I stalked toward him. “I hear all the things you can’t say because you’re emotionally stunted and need me to bring out your softer side through the fiery depths of your man pain.”

  And then I hugged Grand Prince Justin of Verania.

  His arms stayed resolutely at his side as I laid my head on his shoulder, my nose near his neck. “This is nice,” I said.

  “This is not nice,” he growled.

  “It is,” I said. “You just don’t know it yet.”

  “This is hugging against my will. This is assault.”

  “If you hug me back, it’ll be over quicker. You smell like moonbeams and cookies.”

  “Oh my gods,” Justin said.

  “You’re my moonbeam cookie—”

  His arms came up around me and held on tight. Really tight. To the point I was having trouble breathing.

  “You’re too good at this,” I wheezed.

  “Shut up,” he said.

  “Do you want to talk about feelings now?”

  “Sure. I feel like I want to murder you.”

  “That’s good,” I said. “Getting it all out. I feel like I want to go get matching haircuts with you and tell people we’re brothers from another mother.”

  “I feel like you two should kiss,” Dimitri said. “Because this shit is hot.”

  “Is he masturbating?” I whispered to Justin.

  “I don’t even want to look.”

  “He ruins things,” I said.

  “So do you,” Justin said. “Can we be done now?”

  Not wanting to upset this delicate balance, I only held on for three more minutes.

  By the time we left the Dark Woods, Justin had a promise from Dimitri to convene soon to discuss a new treaty with the Dark Woods Fairies and I had a new best friend, even if the new best friend denied it vehemently and said we were casual acquaintances at best.

  “SO,” RYAN asked me a few nights later as we ate a quiet dinner in my room. “I have to ask you something.” He sounded a bit nervous.

  I swallowed the salted pork calmly, put down my fork, wiped my mouth with a napkin, and said, “I can’t marry you just yet. I think we should date first for a while.”

  His eyes went wide. “I wasn’t going to ask you to marry me!”

  I grinned. “No shit, dude. Though I’m almost offended by how much you’re freaking out.”

  “I’m not freaking out!”

  “Um, your face is red and suddenly sweaty and you just bent your fork in half.”

  “It was already like that when I got it,” he said, dropping the fork onto the table.

  “Wow,” I said. “You’re a really fucking bad liar.”

  “I am not a fu—”

  I glared at him.

  “—mothercracking bad liar,” he said instead. Because he had to think of the children.

  “Pretty bad,” I said. “But I’ll marry you one day. It just won’t be today.”

  The smile that formed then was as wide as I’d ever seen it. It was like getting hit in the face with a puppy made of ice cream and good dreams. “You will?”

  “Yeah,” I said, sounding slightly strangled.

  “You just bent your fork,” he said smugly.

  “What? No, I didn’t. It came like this.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “It did,” I said. “I watched them craft it. Your smile didn’t make my balls tingle at all.”

  “That’s… I don’t know what that is.”

  “Classy,” I said. “Classy is what it is. Just think. You get allll of this. For years.” I leered at him, sure it was more sexy than rapey.

  He grimaced slightly. “I may not have thought this through as well as I should have.”

  I tried to unbend my fork. “This is the worst proposal ever.”

  “I’m not proposing!”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m just saying if you were, this would be the worst proposal ever. First asking me to marry you and then insulting me.”

  “Oh please,” he scoffed. “When I ask you to marry me, you’re going to be sobbing in joy because I’m awesome. And you still need to work on your leering. I was worried for a moment you’d put something in my drink and I’d wake up tomorrow sore and smelling like you but not remembering how it happened.”

  “We may be spending too much time together,” I said. “Because that sounded way too much like something I would have said.”

  “Better than you spending all your time with Justin.”

  “Hey,” I said. “You leave him alone. He is a best friend in training.”

  “Which is weird.”

  “It’s not weird.” I gave him my fork so he could eat and started to unbend the other one.

  “Sam, it’s kind of weird.”

  “Okay,” I admitted. “Maybe a little bit. But since you left him at the altar—”

  “For you.”

  “—at the altar,” I said loudly, “he’s had a bit of a change of heart. He’s back on track in his relationship with the King, he doesn’t look angrily ill every time I walk in the room, and I think I almost convinced him the other day to let me send him on a date.”

  “With Todd.”

  “He has these awesome ears,” I said, as if he didn’t know. Because he should. Everyone should.

  “I would not be sad if Todd lost his ears in an accident,” Ryan grumbled.

  “Oh my gods
!”

  He looked slightly startled. “What!”

  “You were jealous. The whole time!” It hit me, every now and then. These little epiphanies that burst through the gigantic cloud that was my obliviousness at the affections of Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart. Little moments that I remembered about our interactions before I knew he wanted to fuck me stupid that should have given it away, but didn’t because I was so convinced I never stood a chance.

  “I was not jealous.”

  “You were!” I crowed. “You wanted to murder him. I gave him a hand job in front of you! Well. Sort of.”

  “To be fair,” Ryan said, “he looked like the type that I could easily murder.”

  “You want my babies,” I said.

  He sighed. “I chose this,” he said to no one in particular. “This was my choice.”

  “You’re welcome. This is still the worst proposal ever.”

  “Sam!”

  I nodded. “I know. I don’t have any idea how we got here either. You were saying?”

  “I don’t even remember now.”

  I reached over and patted him on the hand. “You’ll think of it, boo. I have faith in you.”

  AND HE did, that night, when we were curled around each other, sweat and spunk drying on our skin. It was actually really disgusting, but I couldn’t find it in me to give a fuck. Especially since Ryan’s legs were tangled in my own, his soft cock resting on my thigh. It spoke of intimacy, even if I was starting to get itchy.

  I was drifting lazily when he said, “How do I do it?”

  “Do what?” I asked, brushing my nose against his ear.

  “Become your cornerstone.”

  And that woke me right the fuck up. “What?”

  “Your cornerstone, Sam. Is there some kind of ritual? Do we have to dance naked in the moonlight with Randall after he covers us in arcane symbols made from yak’s blood?”

  “Sex makes you stupid,” I said fondly. “And awesome, but mostly stupid.”

  “I’m serious, Sam. Okay. Not about the naked dancing with Randall.”

  “I should hope not. If you were, I would begin to question a few things.”

  He pinched my side. “Be serious.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So?”

  “It’s….” I trailed off, unsure of how to explain it. I thought back to all the things Morgan had taught me, that Randall had hinted at. Of bonds made and the magic borne of it. “You know what a cornerstone is.”