The Academy Volume One

by Maxine Mansfield

  The tall, blond barbarian warrior stood. “Earlier this evening I would’ve gladly killed you, Sarco Sunwalker. It wasn’t for lack of trying that I did not. But I do believe in fairness and giving a man, even an elf-man, a second chance.”

  The huge barbarian stepped forward. “Perhaps you didn’t intend insult to my family, I’m not sure. What I do know, however, is, if you’re willing to do the Maiden’s Desire quest, then you must be serious about seeking forgiveness, for it’s not a simple task. As long as you realize that I am not your friend and will scrutinize your every move each step of the way, I’ll be glad to go.”

  Sarco nodded. “I’m counting on it.”

  Adan joined the group.

  Sarco faced to his left and the look on his face as he gazed with pride at Cyrrick swelled Lark’s heart. “All my life you’ve stood by my side, brother. I’ve watched you put your own wants and needs aside when you thought mine were more important. They weren’t then and they aren’t now. Because of you, I am who I am. Watching you fight and work and struggle without ever once giving up while going after your dream of becoming a diplomat taught me more about honor and duty than anything else could’ve. Cyrrick Sunwalker, my brother, my friend, will you quest with me?”

  Her breath caught in her throat as Lark waited. Cyrrick wrapped his arms about Sarco’s shoulders and they stood in a silent embrace.

  Finally, Cyrrick let his arms drop back to his side. “I’d be honored to quest with you, Sarco. I do worry, however, as to how much help I can be. I’m not a paladin like Uthiel or a warrior like Adan. I have no skills with a sword in which to watch your back. I’m not a rogue like Leeky or a competent wizard like you or even a passable one like Sherman. I’m but a man who gets by with words. What good will words do you where you’re going? It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if you choose someone more…useful than myself. Perhaps another of your students?”

  Sarco smiled at Cyrrick, but even if no one else did, Lark noticed the hint of sadness to it. “You’ve never understood or appreciated your own worth, brother. It is you I need. No other will do.”

  Cyrrick acquiesced. “It’s settled then, let us quest.”

  The sound of wizard Arizon’s voice snapped everyone back to attention. “Are we done then? I’m tired.”

  Sarco nodded. “We’re almost done, Uncle. Your head will know its pillow soon, I promise.” He faced his companions. “We quest at daybreak. Meet me in the courtyard and be ready to ride. We’ve a long journey ahead of us.”

  He faced the council and the royals. Lark’s heart pounded, waiting for his words. “I know my duty, and when the light of morning comes, I’ll gladly do it. The remainder of this night, however, is mine, and I have much to attend to. If I’m going to be gone from the Academy for any length of time, I must confer with and prepare my apprentice to handle my affairs. I bid you a goodnight.”

  Sarco’s gaze locked with hers. The determination she saw in his eyes should’ve warned her of his intentions but when Sarco walked through the crowd and stopped directly before her, shock coursed through her veins. No more than a breath separated them, and her pulse hummed with excitement. With something akin to a fear to hope, she boldly returned his steady stare. He didn’t utter a single word. He didn’t have to. But the heat of his thoughts had Lark’s heart soaring before its next beat.

  “I have need of you, Wonderful.”

  She smiled almost shyly at the weary-looking man. “I have need of you also, Wizard.”

  Sarco gave a quick wink Lark knew was meant for her eyes only before speaking loudly for the benefit of the crowd. “Come along, Apprentice, and don’t dawdle. I’m a busy man and we’ve much work to do before morning. I’ve no doubt it’ll take most of the night.”

  ****

  The door to the high tower room no sooner slammed shut than Sarco was upon her. He couldn’t wait another moment. Lark’s sudden gasp in the silence of the room only served to fuel his lust. Quickly, he stripped her of her tunic and himself of his own clothing, discarding them at his feet.

  “Now, Lark. I must have you now. It’s been too long. I can’t wait another moment.”

  She didn’t comment, and he was glad for it. There was no need. They both knew what they wanted, needed. Instead, she wrapped her arms about his neck and her legs about his waist. He pushed her up against the wall and entered her, fast and hard. The coolness of the stone against the palms of his hands and the heat of the woman he loved against his front was a delicious, erotic treat.

  He pounded furiously, his cock growing thicker and harder as each stroke went deeper than the last. It stretched the inner walls of her pussy to accommodate its size, and Sarco gloried in the rippling sparks of pleasure her sheath created.

  His teeth nipped the tender skin of her neck as his hands tightly held her hips. She moaned. He captured her lips, and his tongue delved deep into the recesses of her mouth, warring with her tongue, possessing her, loving her. The hair on his chest rasped her pert nipples, and Sarco shuddered and smiled at the glorious sensation.

  Sweat glistened his skin as the sound of his own breathing roared in his ears. She clenched around him and cried out his name as pressure built, and streaks of fiery bliss shot straight down his balls and up through his ass. Like the eruption of a volcano, his seed burst forth and he exploded with ecstasy.

  Still joined, he carried her to her bed, and collapsed upon it.

  Sarco sighed as his cock slipped free of her pussy. “I didn’t mean to take you so crudely. I couldn’t help myself. You deserve much better.”

  Lark smiled into the darkness as she leisurely ran her hand up and down the taut muscles of his back. “Don’t fret, my love. It was perfect. It always is.”

  “I’m glad you think so, because I have a powerful need for you again, now.”

  Lark grasped his once-again-thickening cock. “So I see.” She giggled. “Then what are you waiting for?”

  He didn’t hurry this time. Slowly, he took her mouth in a kiss that curled her toes. His hot tongue delved and played, stroked and explored until Lark was left gasping for air and quivering with anticipation. Only then did he move on to her neck.

  Shivers of excitement skittered along her spine and landed deep in her belly. Her pussy throbbed. She sighed as she tugged on his shoulders. “Now. Fuck me, now.”

  He chuckled, and the feel of it against her skin had her tugging on him harder. “Patience,” he said. “I hunger for the taste of you, and tonight, I feast.”

  And feast he did. Her mouth, her neck, her shoulder blades, and even the cleft between her breasts. Lark squirmed beneath him, unable to remain still as his hot raspy tongue burned a path of pleasure all the way to the center of her pussy. Then, he leaned back up, captured a nipple in his mouth, and sucked, hard. Lark’s spine bowed of its own volition as rippling sparks of electrifying heat shot all the way to her toes. Her pussy ached.

  Again, she begged. “Now, Sarco, please.”

  “Shh.” His mouth moved lower. Down across her ribcage, nipping and kissing as he went. When his tongue darted into her belly button, Lark almost came up off the bed. The throbbing of her pussy was so intense, she slid a finger between her folds and stroked hard to ease her need.

  Sarco captured her hand and pulled it away while shaking his head. “Oh, no you don’t, my love. There’ll be many nights to come when you’ll have the opportunity to pleasure yourself. Tonight’s my turn.” He locked gazes with her, and the despair in his eyes made Lake want to weep. “I have no idea how long I’ll be gone, Lark, or how this will all end. I have only this night to worship you, to love you, to make sure you never forget that it is you and you alone who owns my heart and always will. Allow me this night to show you with my body in ways my words can not.”

  How could she deny this man anything? How could she ever give him up? Lark smiled into the eyes of the man she would die loving. “I am yours. Do with me as you wish.”

  Time lost all meaning as Sarco once more bent to his pu
rpose, nuzzled his head between her thighs, and captured her clit with his hot tongue. Her hands gripped his hair, and her panting breaths were the only sound she heard.

  He nipped, and shockwaves of delight rolled over her. He sucked her swollen nub over and over again, and jolts of fiery excitement rocked her insides. Her heart pounded so hard that her pussy’s pulse matched its beat.

  She was just on the precipice of release when he suddenly pulled away. She locked her fingers in his hair, trying desperately to hold him in place.

  Sarco chuckled as he untangled her fingers and flipped her over. “Not yet, Wonderful.”

  She groaned, “But I need—”

  He didn’t chuckle this time. Sarco gave a full belly laugh as he positioned Lark on her hands and knees with her ass facing him. He slid his cock up the cleft of her pussy and slammed it home. “Now, my love, you can come with me now.”

  Oh my God Draka! The sheath of Lark’s pussy contracted and spasmed around him. Her breath caught in her throat, and her heart forgot to beat. Faster and harder, he fucked her. His balls slapped her ass while his cock embraced her very soul. They were one, and nothing in this world or the next could ever change that fact.

  On and on, they fucked. Both trying to delay the inevitable and yet knowing that too soon this night would end and, with it, their hopes and dreams. But, too soon, tremors of perfect pleasure she could no longer hold back overtook her and engulfed her in their wake.

  Lark cried out Sarco’s name a moment before his own orgasm overtook him, and he shuddered as he fell to the bed, taking her with him. He held her close to his heart with a desperation that left it hard for her to breathe. She didn’t care, though. She’d crawl inside him and go with him in the morning if she could.

  Then he slept. He was exhausted. As well he should’ve been after the love they’d just so ardently made. Sarco had been nothing less than a man possessed.

  Tomorrow, she’d feel the aftermath of this night in every bone, muscle, and fiber of her body. She counted on it.

  Lark lay on her side, watching the man who owned her heart slumber. A look of peace finally graced his handsome face. Her fingers toyed absently with an errant strand of his midnight-black hair. She was not yet willing to relinquish the joy of simply touching him, being near him once more.

  She threaded her fingers through the silky strands all the way to his warm scalp. She focused on scratching and massaging his head in hopes of staving off her own sleep. Her other hand gently stroked the soft skin of his cock, savoring the memory of the pleasure it had given her such a short time ago.

  There would be time for sleep tomorrow. Lark knew she’d even welcome it then. It might help ease the pain of losing him, if even for a few short turns of the hourglass. For tonight, though, he was hers, and she was determined sleep would not rob her of one grain of sand’s worth of the time she had left with Sarco Sunwalker.

  His gold-flecked eyes fluttered open, and Lark’s heart did a flip-flop in her chest as he smiled at her.

  “I didn’t mean to wake you. You need your rest.”

  His arms encircling her and drawing her close filled Lark with such a feeling of contentment, she snuggled in closer and yawned widely.

  A chuckle rumbled through him, and the vibrations tickled her ear. “Oh, no you don’t, Wonderful. You don’t get to entice me awake so thoroughly with your touch, then simply fall asleep.”

  Lark drew back a little and smiled up into his face as she tried valiantly to stave off the tears suddenly threatening. She’d relegated to memory every line and nuance, every crease of his pointed ears and even the dark stubble adorning his chin. So this was it, then? Their very last opportunity to be together this way, to share in a love that had been ill-fated from the day it had begun.

  She wasn’t going to cry. She wasn’t!

  Tonight she would show Sarco all the love she’d stored in her heart to last a lifetime. There was nothing more important than these last few turnings of the hourglass. They were more precious than all the platt in Albrath, and even each single grain of sand falling was to be cherished and not taken for granted.

  She ran a single fingernail lazily up and down his chest and gloried in his shiver before finally gripping his cock.

  “I’m getting chilled here, woman. Stop your torture and come warm me, Wonderful.”

  Though she wanted to cry with the pain of her impending loss, Lark forced herself to chuckle. “Why, Professor Sunwalker, you don’t feel the least bit chilled to me. That’s definitely not shrinkage beneath my fingertips. As a matter of fact, it’s growing rather nicely. Remember how to use it?”

  With a playful growl, he came up off the bed and grabbed her around the waist. With a single twist of his body, he had her beneath him.

  “My lady, I do so love it when you squirm.”

  The purr of his voice against her skin sent ripples of pleasure skittering down her spine, and now it was her turn to shiver.

  “Ah, so you’re chilled too, I see,” he laughed. “Let us warm each other, Wonderful.”

  The wet heat of his tongue on her skin was like being bathed in spring sunshine as he sampled first her lips, then the tender flesh of her neck before working his way to the taut buds of her nipples. A throbbing deep in her core radiated outward. It matched the cadence of her heartbeat.

  When his head dipped lower and teased the inside of her thighs, she quivered with anticipation. For long minutes, his tongue made lazy paths back and forth from the inside of her knee, up her thigh, to the outside lips of her throbbing pussy.

  Just when she was sure she’d die from need, he captured her clit with determination and flicked the tiny, sensitive nub with the very tip of his tongue. Her entire body grew as tight as a percussion instrument as he, the talented drummer, played a steady staccato upon her body and honed her desire with precision.

  Over and over his tongue lavished and his teeth nipped as, with relish, he sucked, probed, tapped, and teased. She squirmed beneath him, striving to get closer still, striving to fuse them into one being.

  If only. If only.

  Lark was at the pinnacle of release when Sarco suddenly stopped.

  She stared at him through lust laden eyes. “What’s wrong?”

  His boyish grin was more enticing than should be allowed.

  “Oh, nothing is wrong, Wonderful. I just want to prolong the joy of you writhing beneath me.” He nipped the tender skin of her inner thigh, and Lark jumped in response.

  She shuddered. “Enough, Wizard. Give me what I crave. Now.”

  The feel of his warm breath touched tender parts once more as his hot tongue flicked out, capturing her clit.

  This time there was no pause. This time there was no mercy. This time there was only pleasure. Soaring, body-spasming pleasure so intense that when the explosion of ecstasy finally came, it left her with the feeling of floating somewhere high above her own body.

  Nothing had ever felt as right as this moment. There were no words she could speak to express the love coursing through her every fiber for this man, words simply weren’t strong enough. She settled for snuggling into Sarco’s embrace as he slid up her body, knowing instinctively that sometimes, contented silence spoke louder than the most elegant of speeches.

  Lark smiled into the darkness as Sarco sighed. Though she may not need words right now, it was apparent he needed to talk.

  “I’m not always good with saying the right things, Lark. That’s my brother’s talent, not mine. But there is something I need you to know. I never meant for you to be hurt, and I truly regret that you have been. You’ve changed my life in ways you can never imagine. I hope you realize that.”

  Sarco flipped onto his back beside Lark and turned her face gently toward him. “Because of you, I look forward to waking each morning. Because of you, I know there’s nothing I cannot do. Because you’re in my world, my life is no longer empty. I don’t yet know how I’m going to make this right, or even if there is any way I can. I just know I
must try. I can’t face the thought of a life without you.”

  Lark gazed deeply into Sarco’s shining eyes and whispered, “We’ll make it right together, somehow.”

  Sarco smiled, but it held a touch of melancholy. “With the coming of the dawn, we’ll face those problems, and you’re right. Even though we’ll be separated by distance, we’ll do it. For these last few precious hours, however, let’s put the problems from our minds. I have a powerful need to feel you sheathed about me, Wonderful.”

  Lark giggled like a schoolgirl as the vision of gnomes, whipped cream, and a certain naughty board game popped into her mind. “You mean like Ride ‘Em Cowboy?”

  Sarco groaned and chuckled. “Oh Lord Draka, please don’t remind me of that sight. I do not want to embarrass myself right now, Wonderful. The thought of gnome sex isn’t conducive to the stiff frame of mind I mean to maintain, if you understand my meaning.”

  Lark leaned over his body, winked, and playfully feathered kisses across his face, neck, and chest. “I suppose you’re right, although I did so want to play Ride ‘Em Cowboy with you.”

  Slowly, she straddled him and gloried in the feel of the big, powerful muscle beneath her fingertips as she cradled his cock with both hands. How could something be so baby-soft and at the same time so very hard? It pulsed and jumped beneath her touch with a life force that more than matched hers. It was magnificent.

  “This little ole thing? This is what you wish me to ride?” Lark couldn’t stop the grin that split her face.

  “I’ll show you little,” he growled as he lifted Lark, positioned her above his waiting cock, and plunged deeply into her pussy. With a hand on each hip, he slid her up and down the length of his shaft.

  “Ohhhhh,” she moaned. “That’s nice. That’s really, so very…very nice.”

  The pace quickened. She rode him even faster as sparks of tingling excitement scampered through every nerve ending Sarco’s cock touched. Her ass slapped against his thighs, and their eyes locked in concentration. His nostrils flared as she ran her hands down her own body. She tweaked her nipples and rubbed her clit. Their bodies sang the same tune, and their sweat mingled as his fingers dug into her hips, holding her tighter as if he meant never to let her go.