The Academy Volume One

by Maxine Mansfield

  Uthiel raised his head and smiled, his eyes glazed with passion. “I know what you need, my lady, and trust me, I’m going to give it to you. But not just yet.”

  She couldn’t take it. She wiggled and squirmed as Uthiel’s tongue lapped rain water from her navel like a man long lost in the desert.

  She arched toward him, trying to draw him closer to where she ached. It did no good. He took his time kissing and nipping, teasing and tormenting until Briar was on the verge of screaming with want.

  The rumble of his laughter rolled through her tender skin and she could stand it no more. She fisted both hands in his hair, parted her legs, and pleaded. “Please, Uthiel. Please, now.”

  “I live only to serve you, my lady.”

  Uthiel parted the tender, swollen lips of her pussy and captured her essence in his mouth. Two strong hands cupped the cheeks of her ass as he drew her in closer and suckled, licked, and tantalized.

  For a fleeting moment, Briar wondered if he was as lost in passion as she. Then there was no time or inclination left for thought.

  It was too much. It wasn’t enough. Ripples of pure pleasure shot through her all the way to her toes with every stroke of Uthiel’s tongue. Briar bucked and moaned, tugged away and drew closer still when Uthiel latched onto her clit and fed in earnest.

  She couldn’t think―all she could manage was to keep her fingers entwined in his hair and ride out the toe-curling sensations.

  A rhythmic pressure built, at first as if from far away, then closer, and more demanding with every heartbeat.

  Briar opened her eyes and lightning flashed across the sky. Thunder shook the ground beneath her.

  Then she became the thunder as pleasure so intense, so pure, so beautiful, exploded from somewhere deep within herself.

  She held tightly to Uthiel, her safe harbor, as she rode out the storm.

  Chapter Six

  Briar sighed as her eyes drifted shut. “That was amazing.” Her body relaxed into dreamy lethargy.

  Uthiel slid up her rain-slicked body, his rock-hard cock pulsating at her opening. Her eyes flew open in surprise.

  “Now? You mean to end my virginity, now, don’t you?” Briar took a deep breath and held it.

  Uthiel didn’t say a word. His only response was a wink, and a quick lunge forward. In a single motion, he filled her.

  Spasms of pain shot upward and outward, as tears stung her eyes.

  He cradled her head against his chest and whispered tenderly to her, “I’m sorry to cause you discomfort, my lady. It could not be avoided, and it’s best to get it over with swiftly. Take deep breaths and try to relax. The worst is over, I promise.”

  Briar took comfort from his words and the soothing tenor of his voice. The pain receded and was replaced by completeness. As if being joined with this man truly was her destiny.

  She felt safe, desired, loved―and a desperate need to move. Tentatively at first, she shifted her hips and, although it seemed impossible, his cock buried itself even deeper. The low growl he emitted spurred her on.

  “Be still, Briar. I don’t wish to cause you more pain. Give it time.”

  Her response was to wiggle again and look innocently into Uthiel’s eyes. “It doesn’t hurt any more. Matter of fact, it feels pretty good.”

  “You little nymph,” he growled, and jerked almost all the way out before thrusting into her pussy once again.

  She clung to him as his lunges sped and deepened. Her legs locked around his back, and she met his momentum, plunge for glorious plunge.

  His heat, even his heartbeat, pulsated through his cock.

  Or was it her heartbeat? She wasn’t sure anymore, and it didn’t matter. They were one and the same, each a part of a whole.

  Long minutes of rapid, hard lovemaking drove them at a frenzied pace. Sweat slickened both of their bodies. Even a downpour couldn’t have washed it all away. Time and place lost all meaning. Lips sought and found, fingers entwined, and limbs clung in desperation.

  A deep tremor started at the very center of Briar’s core and built to an all-out detonation of such sweet pleasure her eyes filled with tears.

  She cried out Uthiel’s name as spasms rocked her body and the walls of her pussy held his cock tightly, clenching with wave after wave of delight.

  With a final shudder and soft cry, Briar melted beneath him, her mind and soul filled to overflowing with joy and pure bliss.

  He was still hard when he drew out and cradled her in his arms. Though so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open, Briar gazed at him.

  “What of your pleasure, Uthiel? I may have been an inexperienced virgin, but I’m not completely ignorant of these things. Don’t you have a want, if not a need, to finish?”

  She heard his breath catch in his chest. Leaning forward, she balanced on her elbow to better look at him. He appeared to be mentally debating with himself. Such sadness filled his eyes that Briar wanted to take him in her arms and kiss his hurt away.

  “What’s the matter? Please tell me if I did something wrong. I’m willing to do whatever would bring you pleasure also. I can learn if you would but teach me.”

  Uthiel let his head fall back and stared up at the stormy sky while taking a deep breath. “You did nothing wrong, my lady. It is the wrong I’ve done in the past that has determined my fate. You’re not the only one who has secrets, Briar. The truth is…there is no end pleasure to be found for me.”

  Briar shook her head. “I don’t understand. Please explain.”

  Uthiel lay on his back, covered his eyes with an arm, and spoke so softly Briar had to strain to hear him. “I’ll give you the same offer you gave me, my lady. As my Healing the Soul partner, it is your right to know what you’ll be forced to deal with, and after you hear my story, you’re welcome to go to Mr. Chamman and ask him for a new partner if you wish. I certainly wouldn’t blame you.”

  Briar placed a hand on Uthiel’s shoulder. “I don’t want anyone else to be my Healing the Soul partner. Please tell me what’s wrong. Let me help you fix your problem like you helped me fix mine.”

  Uthiel smiled sadly at Briar and brought her hand to his lips. “I thank you for your offer, but that isn’t possible. You gifted me with your secret, however, so I’ll trust you with mine.”

  Briar nestled firmly in the crook of his arm. She scooted until she was flush against his side, and laid her cheek against his warm chest, close to his heart. She absently stroked the muscles of his belly as he began.

  “I was still a child when I first set eyes on Deleny. Even then, she was the loveliest creature I had ever beheld. Not much bigger than a wood sprite, with the vitality and zest for life of ten men.”

  Briar smiled against Uthiel’s skin, glad there had at least been one special person he’d shared his life with. Growing up in the isolation of the Dak Forest as she had, Briar couldn’t help but envy Uthiel his friend. She snuggled in as close as she could get, and listened.

  “She grew into a beautiful woman. Hair the color of wildfire, cropped short about her ears. Eyes as blue as a morning sky. Lips full and ripe and sweet as strawberries from summer’s end. And she had a body no man could resist. But it was me she loved, and I loved her back with every fiber of my being.

  “She was a blademaster by trade, and I a novice paladin. We complemented each other well. Together we grew and had many adventures, protected many dragons, defeated many enemies, and loved with a passion that knew no bounds.”

  Uthiel hesitated, his breath quickening. Briar hugged him closer, wishing to share in the story of the joy and passion she sensed this couple had enjoyed.

  But suddenly, the muscles beneath her fingertips stiffened, and became unyielding. What had happened? What painful memory was Uthiel fighting? She wanted to protect him from whatever memory tormented him but knew she couldn’t.

  Briar settled for squeezing him tighter, hoping he could feel even a small measure of her concern.

  And he must have, because, after the dropping of ju
st a few grains of sand, he continued.

  “One afternoon, while high on a mountaintop, we came upon a group of dragons’ nests. Some were empty, and some were not. Deleny wanted to leave immediately, because she sensed it to be much too dangerous. Even though the Paladins of Albrath have for centuries sworn to protect the dragons, and thereby protect magic, the dragons themselves are still skittish around us. It wasn’t often I’d seen Deleny frightened, but she was that day.”

  Uthiel scoffed. “Oh, but not me. I knew so much more than she did about dragons, you see? After all, I had just reached my twenty-third year and thought the world was mine for the taking. Against her better judgment, I talked her into staying. And not just staying, but making love with me right inside one of the empty nests.”

  He chuckled, but the sound held no humor, only pain. “Oh yes, Briar, I was one very cocky bastard.”

  Uthiel grew quiet. His hand furiously rubbed Briar’s arm, and he gulped in three deep breaths. The steady drum of his heartbeat doubled in cadence, and the muscles of his belly beneath Briar’s fingertips grew taut.

  “I…I…I’m not sure I can even tell the rest of the story. I don’t think I can abide seeing in your eyes the condemnation I can’t escape in those of my own country men.”

  She hugged him as closely and as tightly as she could. “You won’t, Uthiel, I promise. The past is the past, my lord. It’s meant to teach us lessons, and it’s meant to prevent us from making the same mistakes over and over again, but it’s not meant to torture us for the rest of our lives.”

  The silence stretched on until Briar was almost certain Uthiel wasn’t going to continue.

  Suddenly, he took two more really deep breaths, and spoke again.

  “Deleny was never one to be a follower so, as she had many times before, she took the lead and the top. She rode me to complete distraction. Neither one of us was paying attention to anything around us, and at the very moment of my release, I heard her scream and felt her being torn from me. I grabbed for her but it was too late. The bastard’s razor-sharp claws carried her up and away.

  “I swear to you, I was powerless to do anything but watch. I was too afraid to use my bow and try to shoot the red-scaled demon from the skies because I worried I’d hit Deleny by mistake.

  “But I should’ve at least tried. It couldn’t have been worse than what really happened. The dragon flew up until it hovered almost directly above me, just out of my range…and…and then…it simply let go.

  “Deleny fell, her arms flailing, her horror-filled eyes locked with mine. Her screams still haunt my nightmares. She never had a chance, Briar. She was dead the moment her body hit the rocky ground.”

  Briar cleared her throat before trying to ask what was most obvious to her. “Why didn’t Deleny’s protective barrier save her, Uthiel?”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head as a gasp that sounded suspiciously like a sob racked his body. His actions gave Briar the answer to her question even before he spoke.

  “She didn’t have it up. You can’t during sex, remember, or have you already forgotten what happened to my eyebrows?”

  Briar winced at the reminder.

  “There’s no getting around it. It was my responsibility and my fault.”

  Briar tenderly stroked his cheek. “You can’t change the past, Uthiel. You must let go of the guilt. If you don’t, it will eventually poison your very soul.”

  Uthiel shook his head. “My soul is already lost, my lady, for I can not forget or forgive myself. I’ve hunted that beast for the past two years, always on the lookout for the sight of its red scales.”

  He was silent. A faraway look filled his eyes. He stiffened, his hands fisted, and such pain as Briar had never known emanated from him. She hugged him even closer but, in her heart, knew Uthiel was no longer even aware of her presence. He was once more lost in the past.

  His mouth twisted, and his eyes closed. “With these very hands, I’ve done terrible things. I’ve torn the claws from many an innocent dragon, attempting to get the red-scaled demon to show its face. I smiled, I even shouted in triumph, as each beast unfortunate enough to put itself between me and my quest for the red devil bled to death on the blade of my sword.

  “I marveled as their blood stained the ground, pouring out their magic, and knew it would now be lost to Albrath forever.”

  Tears stung Briar’s eyes, but she wasn’t sure if they were for Uthiel’s pain or for the loss of the dragons, or even for both.

  He took another deep breath, and she quickly swiped her tears away with the back of her hand. There would be time later to cry if she still felt the need. For now, she needed to be strong for Uthiel. She needed to be his friend, and listen.

  “Nothing can bring back what I’ve lost, and I know that. Still, I must someday find justice for Deleny. I can’t live with myself if I don’t. Though I’ve not laid eyes on that particular dragon since the day of Deleny’s death, I’ll never stop searching for it. Not as long as I can still draw breath.”

  She wanted to hold him, rock him gently, and make everything right again. She instinctively knew that wasn’t what he needed from her now, though. Later, perhaps, but this wasn’t the time. He obviously wasn’t finished with the telling yet.

  Uthiel’s voice cracked. “I don’t care if all magic on Albrath is linked to the dragons. I don’t care about the oath I took to protect them, or what my family says, or how they feel. I don’t even care if I have to kill every single dragon in existence in order to get the right one. Deleny’s life was worth more than all of the dragons combined, and the magic they beget to this world.

  “Besides, I can never forget it was my fault we were in that nest in the first place. I deserve my punishment, and I deserve to be an outcast among my people.”

  His voice grated harshly, rumbling deep in his chest beneath her ear, though the sound was now no louder than a whisper. “It’s my fault Deleny died, and I’ve earned my plight. My own pleasure was more important to me than she was that day.”

  Briar shook her head against his chest. “No, Uthiel, it was an accident. A horrible tragedy to be sure, but you mustn’t blame yourself.”

  He sat up quickly and moved a short distance away. Briar felt the chill of his absence against her skin and the anger in his heated gaze.

  “Of course I blame myself. Who else should I blame? Don’t you understand yet? Ever since that day, although I feel pleasure like any other man would, and I can stay hard as long as I need to in order to pleasure a lady, there is no release to be had for me.”

  Briar gasped, and Uthiel hung his head.

  “Don’t pity me, Briar. I neither want nor deserve it. Not being able to orgasm since that day is my punishment. The justice for my crime of arrogance. It’s my just desserts, my lady, and will be until the day that dragon breathes no more.”

  A tear slipped past Briar’s defenses, and she quickly swiped it away before the paladin could see it. “What about a True Healer, Uthiel, like Ursula? Perhaps she can help you.”

  Uthiel shook his head and the look of defeat on his face flooded Briar’s eyes with tears once more.

  He spoke quietly, his voice laced with resignation. “I’ve tried, my lady. Even the very talented Ursula could not heal me. I’m beyond healing as long as that dragon lives. I’ve learned to accept it. Please don’t fret about class, though, Briar. I can still do what needs to be done.”

  Briar simply nodded and made a silent promise to herself. Somehow, someway, somewhere, she would find the means to heal this man, and it wouldn’t take the death of a dragon to do it.

  The door of the room flew open. Uthiel covered Briar’s body with his own and looked toward the intruder.

  Leeky Shortz sputtered, and his face turned beet red when he spoke, “What the crooked left toe of an oversized ogre in a red garter belt are the two of ya doing in here? Don’t ya know first years aren’t allowed in mood rooms?”

  The pudgy little gnome shook his finger at them, and Briar
hid her face in Uthiel’s chest, embarrassed at being caught.

  “Uthiel Stoutheart, as a grad student, ya should surely know better. There are reasons for rules, ya know. Anyway, I’ve had this room reserved for over a week now. Be gone with ya both and leave a gnome ta his business.”

  Uthiel nodded. “All right, Leeky, but could you give us a moment to get dressed please? Then we’ll be on our way.”

  The gnome tapped his foot impatiently, and his large nose twitched back and forth. “I’ll give ya five minutes, and not a single grain of sand through the hourglass more.” He turned his back on them.

  They dressed quickly and headed toward the door. As they passed Leeky, who still had his back to them, Briar stared in shock.

  Under his arm he held a cheap-looking, plastic blow-up doll that looked suspiciously like Headmistress Seychelle, except it was wearing a bright pink lacy thong.

  Even though Uthiel attempted to propel Briar through the door quickly, she hesitated. Those panties looked very familiar. They were identical to a pair Briar hadn’t been able to find a few days earlier.

  What a strange coincidence.

  Chapter Seven

  Briar tossed and turned but could find no rest. Even the darkened quietness of the dormitory couldn’t calm her soaring spirit.

  The persistent―though now mild―throbbing between her thighs was a warm, constant reminder of the afternoon past. Her heart pounded erratically from time to time, and her breathing, though steady, remained shaky.

  Amazing. That was the only word she could think to describe it. Was it always like that for everyone?

  Uthiel, she sighed. A memory of kind eyes, warm lips, long fingers, and whispered words flooded her mind. He was every woman’s dream: devastatingly handsome, gentle yet persuasive, dynamic and, at the same time, tender, thoughtful, and playful. Yet so utterly, powerfully male. Was any man before him as completely and totally perfect?

  Briar smiled to herself. Perhaps not totally perfect, because perfect would have been boring.

  No, Uthiel Stoutheart wasn’t perfect. He had endearing flaws. Like the tendency of his left jaw to twitch when he was upset or excited, and the way the drumming of his fingers got louder the longer he waited for an answer to whatever question he’d asked. Oh, and there were those thin, tiny white scars numerous dragons had dished out to him over the years. But his imperfections simply made the man he was even more appealing, if that was possible.