The Marked Ones (Fairytail Saga)

by Munt, S. K

He nodded as he led her below deck. ‘It’s how I’ve been killing time, you know, whenever you lost the plot at me this week.’

  ‘I figured you were off swimming.’

  ‘That too.’ He ran his hand along the railing of the stairs. His heart pounded harder with every step. ‘Come on down.’

  ‘Oh wow.’ Ivyanne said from behind him. She trailed her hand along the gleaming timber dining table nestled against the sofa. ‘This is perfect. Elegant, but understated. Our yacht is so showy. I hate the way people look at us when we pull in to harbors!’

  Tristan smiled, moved by her no-frills modesty. The Court family was worth billions of dollars-anyone would think that Ivyanne would be too spoiled to function. But the fact was that his yacht was worth a hell of a lot more than Ivyanne probably realized. The couches were Italian weather, the fittings top of the line-and on the open water, it flew. ‘Well then, you’ll love the main bedroom,’ he remarked, pulling her through the kitchenette and lounge area. ‘It’s simple and beautiful-kind of like you.’

  ‘Bedroom?’ Ivyanne came to a sudden halt, like he’d known she would, her fingers sliding out of his. Standing there in a short skirt and a floral bodice with her curls parted in two loose, wavy ponytails, she was the picture of innocence. ‘Hang on-’

  ‘I plan to!’ Tristan turned and took both of her hands, pulling her along as he walked backwards, towards the master suite, heart beating rapidly now that he had in his domain. ‘For a long time.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Is giving you a tour of my bedroom in the meantime so much to ask?’

  ‘You’re not talking about giving me a tour of your room, and we both know that,’ Ivyanne said bluntly, digging her sandals into the plush carpeting. ‘I wasn’t born yesterday.’

  ‘Well,’ Tristan smiled devilishly at her, more than willing to follow her lead and lay the cards out on the table. ‘If you’re that clued on, there’s no reason to be cryptic, is there?’ In one swift motion, her jerked her up against him, flattening his hand across the small of her back so she could feel his stiffness against her. ‘You know what I need-what we both need, to seal this deal.’

  When Ivyanne’s mouth fell open in surprise, Tristan used that as in, pressing his aching lips against hers and claiming the mouth of his future bride. His unofficial, hot-blooded, sexy as hell future bride.

  ⁓

  Ivyanne turned her face from the kiss, even though the pressure of his mouth on hers instantly gratified the craving that had been laying dormant, yet still simmering, since she’d broken off their exploits the night before.

  ‘No! You know I can’t.’ Her eyes flitted around the room, but the only way out was the way she’d come in, and Tristan was blocking it, his muscular frame seeming even more imposing in the pale, sea shell like space. The room glowed from soft down lighting and a few shafts of light coming in from the porthole windows, making him seem more golden and angelic than usual. ‘What if I get pregnant?’

  Tristan smiled at her, his fingers fluttering down the buttons of his shirt, undoing each swiftly, revealing a growing panel of bronzed skin that Ivyanne couldn’t look away from. ‘I’ve got something to safeguard against that.’ His shirt opened and he shrugged out of it, the cuffs of the black silk snagged on his bulging biceps. He flexed and pulled it loose, an action which made countless muscles ripple, before discarding it to the floor.

  Ivyanne felt like she was going to black out, so swiftly was the blood, anxiety and lust racing to her head at the sight of his spectacular and bare upper body. ‘You carry protection?’ She gasped. ‘But mermen-’

  ‘Don’t all want to be fathers to kids they can’t be there for.’ He whispered, taking a predatory step towards her as his hands went to his steel belt buckle and began to work it. ‘I always use one. And if you don’t want your body sealing your fate with me, then the solution is right here....’ He rubbed his pocket, directing her gaze towards the solid bulge that was definitive under the worn denim of his jeans.

  Ivyanne’s breath was stolen from her at the blatant hint of his arousal. Now there was nothing angelic about the coaxing gleam in his toffee- colored eyes. His belt buckle opened and he shoved his jeans down his thighs, stepping free of them as he continued to advance towards her. Now he wore only snug, black briefs and a dazzling smile.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ Tristan asked, his voice husky.

  Of how beautiful you are. She answered silently. The unfathomable peaks and valleys of his chiseled body had robbed her of speech. Only when he stepped forward again, reminding her that he intended to crush her with that body, did she find her voice.

  ‘That I should run.’ She confessed, stepping back. ‘That I’m scared. I mean, I understand why we might do this,’ she turned to the wall, so his beauty wouldn’t continue to infect her senses, and gripped the acrylic of the porthole window. ‘But the princess is supposed to be a virgin bride Tristan.’

  Hot, hard arms slid around her in a serpine fashion-one glancing gently across the front of her breasts before pulling down the zippered front of her bodice, while the other snaked over her hip and down her stomach and flicked open the button of her shorts. The double assault was executed so swiftly that Ivyanne froze instead of deflecting.

  ‘As long as you’re a virgin until you meet your future husband then what difference does it make?’

  ‘It could.’ Ivyanne pointed out, catching the hand on her fly and stilling it. ‘If I’d done this with Roan, or Nigara when engaged- I wouldn’t still have a virginity to give you!’

  Tristan growled and spun her to face him, slamming her up against the wall. ‘Can you not bring up my brothers’ name right now?’ he asked sharply. ‘This is different and you know it. Death won’t be coming between us.’ His hands went to her shoulders and pulled the thin straps of her bodice down her arms, to the floor. ‘You’ve agreed to marry me. This body will be mine, and I’m going to do what I damn well like with it. Starting now.’ His hand found the bow of the bikini nestled between her breasts and tore it open, exposing her. Before Ivyanne could protest, he cupped the weight of her left breast and brought his perfectly formed lips down on her nipple, sucking it into his mouth, groaning in delight.

  Ivyanne cried out, her back arching of it’s own accord, welcoming the hot, wet debasement. When he moved to the second, and tugged lightly on it with his teeth before circling it with his tongue, Ivyanne quivered.

  ‘This isn’t fair!’ She exclaimed as the pleasure shot through her. ‘You’re manipulating me.’

  ‘Damn straight I am.’ Tristan’s face lifted to hers, his expression primal.‘And you’re going to thank me when I succeed.’ He grabbed the cuff of her faded denim shorts and dropped to tug them down her legs. When he straightened, he grabbed her leg, hooked it over his hip, and rammed his hardness against her, pinning her to the wall with it, rolling his hips into her, making her grunt when her nerve endings burst heatedly in response. A moan escaped her as the pleasure overwhelmed her. It was so raw, so intimate, and unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

  ‘That’s it princess.’ Tristan ran his tongue against her lower lip before darting it possessively into her mouth in a move so wild and erotic that she could have blacked out from the violence of her answering desire. ‘You know what you want me to do to you.’ He pulled back, cupping her jaw, forcing her to look into his lustful eyes. ‘You gave him your heart-and it’ll take time for me to earn that if we’re not together. But give me your body now, and I will fuck him out of your mind.’

  Ivyanne squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to sob as her emotions got the better of her. She did care for Tristan, and she wanted him desperately-but she’d safeguarded her body for Lincoln all of these years and the acknowledgement that someone else might claim it was only just sinking in.

  ‘You have to let me in Ivyanne. Forget the traditions. Forget the rules. The best thing you can do for your people is to surrender your grip on him and reach for me.’ Tristan’s eyes pleaded with her, his vulnerability etched
on every part of his handsome face.

  In that moment, Ivyanne knew that if one tear trickled down her face for Lincoln Grey-Tristan would leave and never come back. He was asking her to not only open a door for him, but to lock one on Lincoln- forever.

  ‘I want to! But I don’t know if I’m ready!’ She confessed, though she grunted when his hand slipped between their bodies and glanced off the source of her agony.

  ‘Then let’s find out.’ Tristan’s fingers eased down the front of her sex, and then curled up, penetrating her. He groaned and Ivyanne gasped, clenching her muscles around the invasion stilling his movement but not releasing it.

  ‘Mmm...you are ready.’ Tristan breathed. ‘Can you feel how slick you are? Can you feel yourself opening for me?’

  ‘Oh..god!’ Ivyanne cried out. She wanted to force her thighs closed around his hand but the hip locked around his waist prevented that. Before she could cry out that she needed more, his fingers slipped free of her and pressed against the apex of her sex and rubbed her in soft, sensual circles.

  ‘You’re so soft, so delicate.’ Tristan was practically panting, his pupils dilating. His fingers slipped inside her again. ‘And so damn wet.’ When she buried her face in his shoulder and moaned Tristan’s chin nudged her cheek. ‘Don’t look away. Kiss me while I explore you. I need to know that you’re in this moment with me.’

  Ivyanne glanced up at his slightly parted, perfect lips, and something inside her boiled over. Lincoln was her past, but Tristan was begging to be her future, and her remaining reservations were evaporating at his skillful hands. She wanted the escape he offered desperately.

  ‘I’m with you Tristan,’ she breathed, before pressing her lips to his forcefully and sliding her tongue into his mouth, mimicking the slow but deliberate way he was penetrating her. He moaned into her mouth and returned the kiss hungrily. Emboldened by his reaction to her, Ivyanne slid her hand down his thigh and sought out the erection straining against his briefs. Her hand closed around him and she squeezed. ‘Feel me with you.’

  A shudder ran through Tristan and his fingers flexed, deepening his gentle assault. Ivyanne moaned as her body spasmed in response to his touch, tightening her grip on his considerable girth and feeling a thrill when he thickened against her palm. She wanted to make him lose control, the way he was railroading her, but it was hard to focus when he was exciting her so. She didn’t think her body would have reacted to the internal stimulation like this, but once again, he was proving that his gift for bringing women pleasure was a lot more than hearsay. Instead of granting her release with every caress, like when she’d ground herself against his hips, he was building the tension within her, making her throb and ache in a way that was both physically frustrating and heavenly. Every stroke sent the pleasure echoing through her like a shockwave. Her skin tingled, craving his caress, her breasts felt heavy and tense, and her lips slanted hungrily against his, needing just more.

  Tristan’s breathing grew heavier, and his returning kiss became frenzied. His body was tight with tension, and Ivyanne’s heartbeat quickened to know that her body was the source of his excitement. She moved her hand to slip into the waistband of his briefs but he growled lightly and shifted his grip to her backside, hoisting her feet from the ground. He whirled around, distracting her with a kiss so expertly that she didn’t realize they were falling back until she was sinking into the bedspread beneath him. His hips locked against hers and ground against her, striking her exterior point of pleasure expertly, time and time again. One of his arms had looped around her to cushion her fall, but the other hand slipped into her bathing suit and cupped her buttocks greedily, holding her in place.

  ‘I could easily take you right now,’ Tristan’s Californian drawl was composed as he suckled on her earlobe. ‘But if this my only shot, I better prove myself more than once, huh?’

  And then, as if the friction of him against her pelvis wasn’t enough, Ivyanne felt the hand cupping her backside shift, until one of his long fingers curled around and breached her sex from beneath. As he rocked against her, he forced her down on his hand, stimulating her in the same place from two different angles, simultaneously. Her body jerked like a marionette being worked by a master.

  ‘Ah! Tristan…!’ There was no time for a climax to build-her body tensed, pleasure rolled over her and the next thing she knew, she was a passenger inside her own convulsing body. ‘Oh...god!’ She caught two fistfuls of her own hair and dragged it down over her face, needing something to muffle her cries.

  ‘And that’s just the start,’ Tristan sounded smug, satisfied and awed all at once. His hand slipped out of her bikini and caught her thigh, twisting her over onto her stomach in one fluid motion. Her sudden vulnerability snapped her back to reality and she tensed to push herself back up, but then his hands were at her hip again and she yelped when she felt him tug hard on the waistband of her skimpy bathers. There was a tearing sound and then the ruined fabric was ripped free of her. Her heart skipped a terrified beat.

  ‘Damn that’s a nice angle.’ Tristan’s hot hand cupped her pulsing sex and then trailed up to her ass. ‘But I’ll save that for later. I need you to be looking into my eyes when I take you the first time.’

  Ivyanne’s muscles tensed in apprehension but then he caught her off guard by flipping her onto her back again. She was fighting for breath and half out of her wits when her eyes locked on his, and his hungry gaze from the foot of the bed unnerved her further. He looked like a wild animal about to devour startled prey. Feeling exposed, both by her orgasm and her nakedness, one of her hands dropped to cover her eyes, while the other slanted across her breasts. She rested her hand at the base of her throat and gasped for breath as she lifted her knees and squeezed them together. What had she agreed to? What was to become of her?

  ‘Don’t you dare cover that delicious body.’ Tristan’s voice was low, and commanding. ‘I want to map out what I’m going to do to you before I’m too hard to think straight.’

  His words made her flush, and being told what she had to do made it that much easier to go through with it. Ivyanne swallowed and hesitantly uncovered her eyes, deciding he was right-she did need to look him in the eye when he took her-she’d been waiting a lifetime for the chance for someone to purge Lincoln Grey from her mind, and the way her heart was pounding told her that this was the only one she was going to get.

  25.

  After she let the arm shielding her face fall back on the bedspread, above her head, Ivyanne paused to get her mind around what she was about to do. She drank in the sight of Tristan in the muted light, feeling her breath catch at his beauty, and even though her body was still trembling in the afterglow of her orgasm, she was aware that her skin continued to hum with the need to be caressed.

  Curiosity peaked by this discovery, she took her time removing her other arm, trailing her fingertips across her nipples, which hardened responsively. Tristan watched her, clearly transfixed, and when she lifted the second arm above her head to rest on the blanket of her hair, he inhaled sharply, his gaze coming back to hers, burning with more intensity then the sunset filtering through the windows.

  ‘Beautiful. Perfect.’ Tristan’s hands reached forward, cupped her upraised knees, and slowly, purposefully, spread them open. ‘You need me to be the first man to make love to you Ivyanne.No man on this planet would have lasted beyond this point.’ He stroked her intimately. ‘If I make it ten seconds I’ll be stunned.’

  Ivyanne’s breathing hitched. His unabashed stare directly into the most guarded part of her made her face flush with embarrassment. ‘Tristan…’ she whimpered, not actually sure what she was pleading for. There was more honesty in his intimate appraisal then other men would dare admit to, and as humiliating as it was, her heart was racing because of it. Every man she’d ever met had tried to put her on a pedestal, whereas Tristan’s intention was to bend her over it. And after twenty eight years of enforced celibacy, his blatant sexuality was slicing through her reservation
s and provoking the siren at her core.

  He looked up, smiling knowingly, and closed her knees. ‘Don’t fret, my sweet, modest princess…’ He stepped back, hooking his thumbs under the waistband of his black briefs and winking at her. ‘I’ll be just as vulnerable in a moment.’ He stepped back and turned to the side slightly, and for a brief moment, Ivyanne saw him hesitate. Then he bent, shoving his briefs down.

  The sight of flawless, naked back had Ivyanne rising to attention. When he bent to kick the briefs free with one powerful, golden leg, his backside flexed and Ivyanne’s instant excitement was translated through her body by the seizing of every, delicious muscle in her centre. But when Tristan turned to face her, smiling shyly, cupping himself with one hand, the breath left Ivyanne’s lungs in a rush.

  ‘That is not going to….’ She spluttered, skittering back on the bed, gaping at his erection in a mixture of horror and fascination. It was twice the size she’d imagined! ‘It couldn’t possibly…’

  ‘Well…not at first....’ Smiling at her distress, Tristan caught her left ankle with his free hand and yanked her back into position on the edge of the bed. He removed his hand from his shaft and pressed the pad of his thumb to her clitoris, circling it again, but Ivyanne was so distracted by the sight of him springing free that she felt numb to his touch. ‘But you’ll be surprised by how accommodating your body will become to mine.’ He slipped his finger between her legs again. ‘You’re already on your way.’

  Ivyanne moaned and her head fell back as Tristan stoked the coals of the fire he’d left simmering. Then his lips were on her neck and quickly descending towards her breasts and Ivyanne was so captivated by the sensation that she didn’t realize how he’d manipulated himself between her upraised knees until she felt his erection nudge her in place of his hand. She gasped and tried to sit up, to hold him off until she’d prepared herself, but her actions inadvertently caused her to push again him.

  ‘Oh!’ She cried, surprised by how soft and warm he felt against her.