I swallowed, the sound loud in the humid silence of the cavern, and leaned forward. I pressed a lingering kiss to the velvet head of his shaft, the heat of him searing against my lips. Talon hissed, and his inked fingers wrapped firmly around the base, guiding him toward my waiting mouth.
I looked up at him through my lashes, seeing the navy starlight of his eyes darkened by a hunger that bordered on predatory. I opened for him, my tongue swirling around thecrown before I took him deep, my throat tightening around the staggering length of him.
Talon groaned, his hips jerking in a reflexive twitch, his knuckles turning white where they gripped the root of his manhood.
After a few punishing strokes that had me gasping for air, he reached down and hauled me up by my underarms. He did not use the gentleness I was used to. He handled me with a rough, singular focus that made my blood sing with submission.
“Enough,” he rasped.
He pushed me back onto the mossy bank, my skin flushing as the cool air bit at my damp chest. I watched him move, a god of shadow and muscle, as he positioned himself between my knees. He grabbed my ankles and shoved my legs back until my knees were pinned toward my shoulders, leaving me utterly exposed to his gaze.
“So desperate, little flame,” he murmured. “You are glistening for me.”
“Yes,” I moaned, my hands gripping at a chunk of moss.
His finger teased my slick entrance, tracing through the seam and collecting a string of arousal.
“I have never had a favorite color,” he mused, bringing his wet finger to his mouth and licking it clean. “But this shade of pink may change my mind.”
I could not answer, my breath hitching as he nudged his thick, weeping length against my entrance.
He did not wait. He drove forward in one deep, unrelenting surge.
A shocked cry tore from my throat as my body stretched to accommodate the sheer breadth of him. The force of the impact jarred me upward, my bare back scraping against the rough earth. Small twigs and shards of stone dug into my skin,the stinging pain only heightening the exquisite agony of the fullness between my thighs.
He did not give me time to settle. He withdrew almost entirely before slamming back into me with a force that made the world fracture.
“I would,” he grunted, his hips crashing against my pubic bone with a sound like a physical blow. He pulled back, then drove in deeper, his pelvis grinding into mine. “Do anything for you.”
I clawed at the bank, my fingers digging into the dirt as he began a punishing rhythm. Each time he lunged forward, he drove me further up the stone, the debris of the cavern floor marking my skin.
“No matter the betrayal,” he hissed, leaning down until his sweat-slicked chest pressed against my aching breasts. He caught my wrists and pinned them above my head with a single hand, his other hand sliding down to grip my jaw, forcing me to look into the storm of his eyes.
“I could never condemn you,” he finished against my lips.
“Talon,” I cried out, my legs moving to wrap themselves around his waist.
He caught my mouth in a kiss that tasted of salt and possession, his tongue mirroring the rough rhythm of his lower body. I was a puppet in his hands, my body arching and twisting to meet every brutal drive of his hips. I wanted more. I wanted the weight of him to crush me, to erase the guilt.
My release began to build, a gloriful pressure that coiled in my gut. I felt my inner muscles clench around him, begging for the end. Talon felt it too. His pace shifted, becoming faster, a blurred motion of shadow and friction that left me weeping his name into the dark.
“Stay with me,” he commanded, his voice rough with the approaching edge of his own climax. “Look at me while I take you, little flame.”
I forced my eyes open, staring into the face of the man who would burn the world to ashes just to keep me at his side. As the first wave of the orgasm shattered through me, he delivered one final, bone-deep thrust. He groaned, as he emptied himself into me, his release flooding me with a warmth that felt like a brand.
I sighed in contentment, my hands gently tracing down the nape of his neck, until they settled on his tensed shoulder blades.
Talon brought his forehead to mine, the tip of his nose brushing mine. “You cannot ever go behind my back again, Kaelia.”
I licked my dry lips and unclasped my legs from his waist. “I know. I will not.”
He tilted his head to look into my eyes, and my heart clenched at the pain written across his features.
“I brought you into my city to help me lead,” he said, his voice a low vibration against my chest. “You must understand that we Veythar are loyal to the bone. If my kin see even a flicker of distrust between us, if they sense a fracture in our foundation, it may be impossible for you to ever take your rightful place by my side.”
Even now, after the way I had deceived him, he did not dwell on the sting of his own wounded pride. His fear was not for himself, but for me. He worried for the possibility of his kin never accepting me, for the shadow my choices might cast over my future in this dark kingdom.
The weight of his selflessness made me squirm against the moss, a restless movement that caused his heavy length to plop from me. His warm release followed, oozing down my inner thigh in a slow trail that sent a burning flush to my cheeks.