"Jex," she pleaded.
"Hush." he told her, “You asked me to make you forget.” He pressed his lips to her other knee and began again, his mouth moving up her inner thigh at a torturously slow pace.
Just shy of his target, he drew back and blew across the opening petals, making her squirm and toss her head restlessly. He smiled knowingly, then leaned in and kissed her. She cried out and fisted the sheet at her sides, head thrown back and neck cording. He licked her firmly and her hips thrust up when the tip of his tongue grazed over the swelling bud of her clitoris.
Enari opened her legs further and planted her palms against the headboard, pushing herself toward him. His lips wrapped around her and she felt the suction, the gentle lash of his tongue. It set her nerves on fire and she felt as if she was falling and floating at the same time. Bursts of white light flared behind her eyelids.
His mouth played across her oversensitive flesh for a moment more before he went lower, slipping his tongue through her folds. His hands slid under her bottom and tilted her a little. Then, with a throaty hum of anticipation, he buried his face between her legs and plunged his tongue into her. Enari cried out in ecstasy and tipped her hips to take him further.
Just as her legs began to tremble, he withdrew and resumed the light, teasing flicks of his tongue he’d used before. She cursed him in frustration, bucking this way and that, trying to get him to take her in his mouth again. When at last he did, he also pushed two fingers inside her. She writhed and he had to use his free hand to hold her hips down to maintain the contact.
Jex fed on her until she was screaming and he felt the climax squeeze his fingers. She strained against him and he held her there for as long as she could stand before easing her to the mattress. He nipped playfully at her thigh and moved back up to lie beside her.
She was panting and her eyes were closed. He touched her cheek with trembling fingers and leaned in to kiss her mouth slowly and thoroughly. She could smell and taste herself on him and it instantly renewed her desire.
"Goddess!" she whispered, grasping at him as if she were afraid he’d disappear.
His only response was to kiss her harder and shift his weight over her. He pulled aside the fiery mass of her hair to expose her neck and put his lips to the sensitive spot where it met her shoulder. She shifted in his arms and twined her legs around his hips.
Jex felt her drawing him in and he was more than willing to go. Wrapping his hands around the curves of her shoulders, he sank into her body. She began to make a high-pitched keening sound as he filled her and he growled in response. Her hands dug into his back and her near-frantic passion was more than enough to inspire his. When he reached out to her mind, he was awash in light and color and sensation. The mental and emotional contact only served to heighten the physical experience and he reveled in it.
Suddenly, he rose above her and her back arched off the bed, trying to maintain the full-body contact. Her eyes were shut and she seemed to be mouthing words of some kind, though they were silent.
"Open your eyes and look at me."
She shook her head, the muscles in her neck and arms straining as she tried to push herself against him and regain the lost stimulation. He remained poised over her, waiting. Her hands slid up his arms and grasped at his biceps, then she rocked herself down on him with a roll of her hips.
Jex hissed a curse and she finally opened her eyes to stare up at him. In his beauty and passion, slick skin shimmering in the firelight and midnight hair loose around his face, he could have been one of the Consorts themselves. Enari licked her lips and arched toward him again. She whimpered when his hips snapped forward and he ground himself into her.
All at once, she felt him leave her body, but before she could even voice a protest, his hands were around her arms and pulling her up. She started to straddle his lap and he shook his head. He twirled one finger, indicating that he wanted her to turn around and she blinked at him in confusion. It was hard to think with her heart pounding and arousal singing through her blood.
Huffing out a mildly-impatient breath, he picked her up and spun her so that her back was to his chest. His knees guided hers apart and she could feel his hardness brush teasingly between her legs as he shifted his balance. The slide of his hot flesh made her shudder and instinctively push her bottom back.
While one hand fondled her breasts, the other reached around her hip and he positioned himself to enter her again. He did so with a single hard thrust and Enari had to shift her legs further apart and drop forward onto her elbows to keep from being knocked over
The new angle and renewed friction set her alight and she felt a delicious pressure and the inner quiver of muscles that proclaimed she was close. Jex leaned over her and kissed the back of her neck, increasing the pressure, then straightened and clutched her hips in both hands. Every forward drive of his hips, she thrust back to meet and pure rapture coiled through her body in ever-quickening spirals.
He felt it when her climax took her. Head flying back and inner walls clenching rapidly, she wailed her pleasure into the near-darkness. His fingers dug into her hips and he crested the wave a few heartbeats later, calling out to her and the Goddess as he filled her.
When he was spent at last, he slumped forward and his weight pressed her flat. She turned her head and found him with his eyes closed, his cheek resting on her shoulder. He was fighting to catch his breath and smiling faintly.
After a moment, he stirred, slipping from her and easing them both to their sides. They collapsed together in a tangle of arms and legs and hair.
She brought one of his hands to her mouth and kissed the knuckles tenderly.
“I love you,” she whispered against his skin.
He wrapped his arms around her tightly and for a long moment she though he wouldn’t respond. Her stomach dropped into her toes and she grew suddenly chilled. Had she just ruined everything? Was that something she wasn’t supposed to say aloud?
“I love you too, Enari.”
His words were barely audible, but to her they echoed like thunder and for a moment, she thought she might fly off into the night with the sheer power of it all.
There were no dreams of demons and death for either of them that night.
EPILOGUE
He appeared as she knew He would. Their bargain had been struck, but tonight she’d failed and there was a price yet to be paid for her power. Even though she’d faithfully sent him souls, that mouthy kitchen boy, Collin Fin, her father, and the whore’s child, to regularly renew the gift, the souls she’d promised this night had not been delivered.
Kneeling in the diamond of silver sand and white candles, Sarene bowed her head respectfully. As she did so, the moonstone pendant slipped from the neck of her shift, a suddenly heavy weight, like a lodestone around her neck dragging her face towards the floor. She gritted her teeth and fought against its pull. She might be contrite, but she would not grovel.
Not even before Him.
“My lord,” she began, “I have a request of thee. More power do I seek.”
“You seek more, when you have not paid the price for the last? I think not, mortal. The time for requests is over.”
Sarene felt her ire rising. “I don’t understand why you didn’t just take the little horror. You are Consort of the Goddess, yet you let that voiceless whore thwart you? For her interference, take her life as payment instead. Our bargain will be comple—”
The room grew icy and the candle flames shrank to pinpoints of diamond-hard light. The Consort loomed above her, suddenly huge and dreadful in his wrath. Sarene was jerked to her feet and he seized the pendant in one fist. With a quick jerk, he ripped it from her throat, effortlessly snapping the delicate links. The power he had given her went with it and she felt the loss like a sucking void in the center of her chest.
“Her life is not yours to offer! You are a treacherous and deceitful wench. As retribution, I take back the power I have gifted you. Do not summon me again.” Dusan l
et her drop.
And then he was gone and she was alone amidst the scattered sand and smoking wax.
* * *
The child had survived.
Two months early, a hard labor, and yet he lived. The poison he’d gotten from the old hag above The Cauldron all those months ago had been less effective than she’d promised. If she weren’t already dead, he’d kill her himself. There was some solace to be found in the thought of her suffering in Diu for all eternity, however.
Deceitful whore.
Jordin Alycon sat back in his chair, goblet in hand, and stared pensively into the fire. Porcus, Wastrel, and Le’Quar had failed him too, and he’d dealt with them as he did everyone who failed him. His faithless wife had been the first to learn that lesson, and her mind had never been the same after meeting Pasusabael.
Her body, though, was still exquisite and he enjoyed it frequently. He should have brought her with him. Perhaps he’d send for her in the morning…
So, his nephew lived as did his sister, and things must go on as they’d been planned. A pity, but he was resourceful enough to make this work to his advantage. He’d offer his comfort and his services to Aelani on the morrow and once he’d shown he had nothing but the realm’s best interest at heart, he would make his move. Anya would go back to her precious Temple, Sarene would be married off to the boring Reord in the spring, and once Kylan was a bit older, he’d give her to Min Ha or Gaherith, whichever proved to be most lucrative.
Oh yes, he could make this work quite nicely.
###
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Ronelle Antoinette
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ronelle Antoinette lives in Colorado with her husband, two cats, one dog-who-believes-he’s-a-person, and a small army of nieces and nephews. She loves fantasy in all its forms, but has a particular soft spot for romantic fantasy.
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Errant Spark (Elemental Trials Book 1) Page 32