Child of Fire, Child of Ice-A Sci-fi Romance Series (The Waljan Chronicles Book 1)

by JB Trepagnier

  “Take me to bed, Elan,” she pleaded.

  “I love it when you beg,” he said gruffly. He stood up with her and carried her to bed. She had her legs wrapped around his waist and kissed his neck the entire walk there.

  He laid her on her back gently and trailed kisses down to her breasts again. She tried to get his attention. He placed his finger over her lips. “Shh, Isolde. I want to make you beg me again.”

  Normally, she would have knocked someone unconscious for saying that to her. This time, she shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “Elan, I need you. I want—” She hissed and arched her back when he bit down harder than before. It sent shocks through her entire body and she wanted him even more. “Elan, please,” she begged as he trailed kisses down her stomach. She was about to plead again when she felt his tongue between her legs.

  Elan could feel what she was feeling and she could feel it excited him to do this to her. He must have really wanted her to beg tonight. He started with slow, teasing licks and just blowing cool breath on her. She was squirming, begging, and thrusting her hips up for more. She knew what she wanted, but he seemed to really want to do this and she was enjoying herself. She remembered that first night and asked him to scoot his hips up towards her.

  He stopped his agonizing teasing long enough to speak. “No, Isolde. Right now, I just want to concentrate on learning what you like.”

  She nodded and settled back down. He stopped teasing when his mouth came down on her again. He had that entire little bud in his mouth, sucking and letting his teeth scrape it. She knew he liked it when she cried out his name. She also knew it would blow their entire cover if people heard her screaming it out in the hall, but she couldn’t help it.

  Elan would speed up to the point she was panting and screaming, then he would back off to those teasing licks again. She didn’t know if he was worried about people outside or if he was intent on torturing her. He had brought her almost to the edge again and had backed off. Her entire body was one raw nerve and she couldn’t handle this kind of assault anymore.

  “Elan, please. I can’t. I need you to—please,” she begged. She couldn’t even form a coherent sentence.

  She felt him grin against her inner thigh. “That’s what I wanted to hear,” he growled.

  This time, his tongue never stopped. His hands struggled to hold her down as she panted, writhed, and screamed his name. It was like her entire body was on fire, but the flame only tickled instead of burning. Elan took her to heights they hadn’t been to before, then her ship exploded and she was falling. Her body continued to shudder as the flames fanned from where Elan’s tongue touched her.

  His tongue didn’t stop until she was a whimpering mess. His mouth came up to claim hers again as he rested on top of her. He gently worked her mouth as she came back to her senses. When she could think again, he was right where she wanted him. He was on top of her and she could feel his need pressing against her stomach.

  His red eyes met hers. “Do you want a massage now?” he asked.

  She could feel him hard against her stomach and she could also feel from him that he didn’t need to be giving her a massage. He needed the same thing she had been wanting since the hot spring. She grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him in for the deepest kiss she could manage. She felt him throb against her stomach.

  “Make love to me, Elan,” she pleaded. She knew he may say no. She knew she was the one with the grand idea to wait and it seemed to be right so far. She also knew she wanted all of him since he undressed at the hot spring and she desperately wanted to just forget the bond. She just wanted them to make love because they wanted to.

  He twitched against her. “The bond…,” he trailed off. His voice was strangled, like she was asking too much of him.

  “Forget the bond, Elan,” she murmured, kissed his neck. “Make love to me right now because I love you and you love me. Make love to me because both of us want to, not because we are expected to.”

  He pulled away and made her look him in the eye. She could feel him holding on to the very last shred of self-control he had. “You really love me, Isolde?”

  “I really do love you, Elan, and I need every part of you right now,” she said in his head.

  His entire body was shaking trying to hold back. “Are you sure? You can’t take this back.”

  “Yes, Elan. I need you. I’ve been wanting this since the hot spring.”

  He crushed her lips with his before he positioned himself between her legs. His hand was shaking as he guided himself inside her. She felt burning and pain as she took every inch of him. Her eyes watered. This was a different kind of pain than she had experienced before. Elan must have felt it too. He went totally still and gazed into her eyes.

  “What’s happening, Isolde?”

  “The courtesans warned me it would hurt a little at first. Can you let me get used to you for a minute?”

  “Does this help?” he whispered, kissing her neck. “You feel so good. I want you to feel what I feel.”

  It didn’t take long of Elan kissing her neck before she felt warm and good again. She guided him back to her lips and kissed him.

  “I’m okay now. Make me yours, Elan,” she said in his head.

  The pain was gone. Only pleasure remained. Elan was still worried and started gently. Isolde was glad he did. It built what both of them were feeling. She could feel he was holding back and she also needed him to go faster, harder. She begged in his head, asking him to feel what she needed as he had done before.

  She was responding to his every touch and move. She thrust up as he thrust down to get every last inch of him. She could feel Elan was trying not to lose control. She just wanted to let go too. This was more beautiful than what she had imagined. She thought she would be doing this because she had to. She was doing this now because she needed to, wanted to.

  “Let go, Elan. That last bit of control you’re holding on to, surrender it. I’ll be with you.”

  Elan didn’t argue. He rarely did when she told him what she needed or wanted. She felt something snap in both of them. It was the control and poise that had been drilled into them since birth. It became feral, raw. They were both slick with sweat and Isolde was bucking beneath him. She couldn’t hold her cries in and it wouldn’t surprise her if the entire planet could hear her.

  Before they had done this, they always had their release together. Isolde could feel hers coming, but not Elan’s. It was Elan that told her to let go this time through clenched teeth. She surrendered to Elan’s thrusts, letting wave over wave of pleasure take her. Elan wasn’t done with her, nor had he let up with the relentless pace he was keeping. He soon had her worked up to the point she was right where she was before, bucking beneath him and screaming his name.

  Elan seemed to be inhuman, some sort of god. Her world exploded again and Elan brought her right back to him. She didn’t think it was possible for him to go faster or harder, but he did. He was hitting spots inside her she didn’t know existed and her entire body was humming. She was getting close again and she didn’t even think that was possible.

  “Hurry, Isolde. With me,” Elan yelled.

  She felt him thicken inside her as her entire body was wracked with waves of pleasure bigger than everything she had felt since she got here. It was better than besting Jovin for the first time, her first kill, riding on Tati. She’d never felt anything like this before. Her entire body was humming and shaking as she felt Elan spill inside her. She held onto him as tightly as she could as his thrusts came to a stop and his face was buried in her neck.

  The hum was coming from him too. Holding him was like sitting in the hot springs with the electrode they used on Avala for sore muscles on every part of your body. They laid there in silence, just gripping each other and enjoying what they were feeling. She didn’t know what was happening when Elan stirred and she wanted him all over again.

  His red eyes met her green and there was a deeper connection this time. His eyes seemed lik
e they could see into her very being. “Isolde, that was amazing, beautiful. I’m not sure how to tell you this.”

  He didn’t have to. She could still feel him hard inside her, pulsing for another round and she was ready for it.

  Chapter 24

  Elan hadn’t been to bed yet. He was sure the sun had been up for several hours. His COMM had been vibrating nonstop and people were pounding on his bedroom door and someone had been trying to get in through the armoire too. Whatever it was, it could wait. Ever since Isolde asked him to make love to her, that was all they had been doing. Every time was just as intense as before, but as soon as they came to their senses again, they both wanted to do it all over again.

  Elan had made love to her in several positions on several surfaces in his chambers. Neither of them was thinking about the bond, they were wrapped up in their urgent need to be together. She had suggested the hot spring since it was harder to hear the pounding on his door and they left the COMM in the bedroom so they could ignore it.

  He had her bent over the edge of the pool, taking her from behind. One hand was massaging her breast and the other was between her legs playing her like an instrument. He knew they had the rest of their lives for this, but neither of them had been able to get enough of the other since she asked him for this.

  He was able to take her deeper this way. He felt her tighten and flutter around him again. He wondered how many that was for her tonight. It was more for him than he thought was humanly possible. Like before, he kept his pace until he felt like she was with him again. He was getting close. He knew he wouldn’t hurt her now and sped up. He felt the familiar tingling in his spine and tightening between his legs. Her flexing around him and milking everything out of him as they climaxed together still wasn’t old, even though they had been doing this for hours.

  He collapsed over her back and panted. For the first time since she asked, he felt himself getting soft. “I don’t think I can anymore, Isolde,” he said when he caught his breath.

  “I don’t think I can either. And I’m one raw nerve now, so I imagine I’m going to be walking funny. People will look at me strangely.”

  “Not me,” he said, pulling her into his lap. She snuggled into his chest and nuzzled his neck. She let out a content sigh when he rubbed her back. “I’ll be quite proud to know I was the cause of you walking like that.”

  “You can make me walk funny whenever you want.” The pounding on the door started, even louder this time. “What do you think they want? If it’s breakfast, wouldn’t they just come back? Everyone else is pushing us so hard about the bond, I would think they would just leave if we didn’t answer because they hoped that’s what we were doing.”

  The bond. Now it crossed his mind. He hadn’t even been able to hold onto that one important thought when she told him she loved him and wanted him right that minute. He hoped they hadn’t ruined it because they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

  He heard Tati’s laughter in his head. “No, my prince. You did it as you were supposed to. When both of you wanted to be together so badly, you forgot about the bond, that was how you completed it. You should probably get that door.”

  “Isolde?” How was he supposed to explain that to her after their conversation about Fjola molding her into the person she wanted her to be? They had done something beautiful, he knew she felt it too. But they did exactly what they were expected to do.

  “I heard Tati too. You feel like you’re worried about me.” He explained his thoughts. “No, we didn’t,” she said, kissing his jaw. “Don’t you see? They left the entire thing vague on purpose. They let us believe the lies about each other. They gave us every opportunity to muck this up on our own. Tati is right, though. If the bond is complete now and someone has been raising us on COMM and pounding on the door that long, we should probably see what they want.”

  He squeezed her. “I know you’re right, but now that I know we are bonded, I don’t want to let you go.”

  They both dried off and threw their black silk robes on. The pounding on the door had stopped and someone was in the secret passageway trying to get in. Elan had changed the key code the same day Isolde was set to arrive because he didn’t want anyone barging in on them. Not even Botak knew that code. The only people who knew were in his chambers right now. Whoever was in the chambers was certainly trying. If Elan had been paying attention to anything except making love to Isolde, he would have heard the alarm from the armoire that too many incorrect codes were entered.

  Isolde didn’t want to be away from him either and was holding his hand as he pressed the correct code in so they could see who was trying to break in. The secret passage was full of almost every single person who knew. Sartika, Galih, Botak, Ace, Stretch, Boomer, and Viper were all standing there tapping their feet.

  “What are the two of you playing at, eh?” Galih demanded, barging his way into Elan’s chambers. “If you want to see what you are capable of, do it on Ragnis Crystal, not here. The temples are full of people praying and the rest have barricaded themselves inside.”

  “What are you talking about?” Elan asked.

  “Don’t play stupid with me, boy. If it was her idea, you should have talked her out of it.”

  Sartika was eyeing Elan and Isolde curiously. “Galih, I really don’t think either of them is aware of what happened outside of this chamber. What happened in here that neither of you noticed the drastic changes in temperature?”

  “Tell us what happened and we’ll tell you what we were doing,” Isolde said as they all went to sit on the floor pillows. He could feel she didn’t really want to tell them about the bond and make it less beautiful, but she was curious about what went on while they were oblivious.

  “I raised both of you on COMM when it started snowing on the entire planet,” Sartika said, eyeing Isolde. “I thought you were fighting and Isolde was upset. There was a hard freeze like nothing we’ve had before. All the standing water and lakes froze solid. When you didn’t answer, I tried coming through the passage, but you changed the code. I left the passage and tried knocking on your door and you didn’t answer then either. I thought you were busy calming Isolde and I ended up being needed for an emergency council meeting to discuss the strange freeze. I ended up lying through my teeth even more so than I normally would have because I had no idea what was going on.

  “The council meeting lasted for two hours when we were interrupted. A soldier barged in scared out of his wits because our moon had burst into flame and was melting the ice. All I wanted to do was run to your chambers because I thought you had lost control too. I thought the two of you were in here killing each other, but I had to stay with the council until they all got so scared they scurried off to their temples.

  “I meant to go to you then, but I had frightened high born asking me for help. I could see Galih, Botak, Ace, Stretch, and Viper in the corner of the room and I could tell they had all knocked on your door and you weren’t answering. By the time I got away from the high born, all the snow had melted and it was hot and humid outside again, but before I could take another step towards your chambers, snow started falling again.

  “Stretch thought you might have been doing something your bond animal told you to do, so we went to my chambers. I had forty missed COMM calls from Fjola. By the time I got her back, all the ice on Avala had melted and the water was boiling itself like they do with snow when they run out of clean water in winter. Unlike us, they think it’s something scientific. They thought they drilled into something they weren’t supposed to when the drone found water.

  “Fjola has been trying to reach you for hours too. Cendis has been in a cycle of hard freezes and a flaming moon that melts it. As of an hour ago, the snow is melted and all the swarms are dead, everywhere. Avala is now in summer instead of winter and by all accounts, the water they’ve tested from all sources is clean and no longer toxic.”

  All of this went on while the two of them were wrapped up together? Did both their peop
le get their gifts back like some were secretly hoping? Botak never said this out loud, but Elan knew deep down most of the reason he pushed Elan the way he did was that he hoped Elan would bring fire back.

  “They will only get fire and ice back when they prove they are worthy, my king,” Tati said in his head. “You and Isolde are not meant to fix everything.”

  “How do they do that, Tati? Are you going to tell me what was so funny in the forest when you irritated Isolde?”

  “My king, you will know everything in time, but not yet. I cannot give you the answers because it is part of your journey.”

  “You’ve known me longer than Isolde and not even she keeps secrets from me anymore,” he snapped.

  “That is her choice and it is the right one. My reasons for keeping secrets are bigger than both of you. Trust me, my king.”

  Elan realized Isolde had given him a break to talk to Tati. She was explaining neither of them had been aware of what was going on outside because they were completing the bond. She looked and felt a little irritated.

  “Haven’t you been pushing for that this entire time? You must have known something big was going to happen. Swarms died and Avala found water when Elan and I felt it starting. I didn’t freeze the planet when I was angry all of you chose to lie to me about Elan. Has Elan ever lost control to the point he set the moon on fire?”

  “If I had known the two of you were going to do that, I would have made you wait until all of this nonsense with The Children is over. How are we supposed to explain this?” Galih snapped, running his fingers through his hair. Elan had no idea he and Botak were together until Isolde went rooting around in Botak’s head. They both could have been burned for it, but Botak must have felt safe here. He put his arm around Galih in a comforting embrace.