Page 24 of Forgiving a Fae Warrior

Sylvie planted her palms on his chest, her glowing eyes staring down at him as she rode him with all the fury and fight of the warrior she was, and Galen met her back just as fiercely, their bodies crashing together as he thrust up into her warmth. Her fingernails dug into his skin, not enough to break it, just enough to grant a sting of pain that somehow heightened his pleasure.

Her back arched, her breasts on proud display as she found a rhythm that fit them both, her delightful whimpers and cries a sign of just how much she enjoyed their coupling.

Galen’s balls drew tight, his release near, but he refused to finish before her. He bit the inside of his cheek, willing himself to hold on and not spill inside her as he so desperately wished. She was close, her head thrown back, her eyes blazing. Her pert breasts teased him, begging him to suckle them and taste their pearled peaks, but that would have to wait. He wouldn’t divert her course as she sought her pleasure with him, no matter how much he wanted it.

With a cry, she came apart, her body shivering and jerking under his palms where he held her tight to him. She soaked his length in her wetness, her core clenching around him until his sight blurred at the edges, and he finally gave in to his pleasure with a cry of his own, thrusting his hips up to meet hers in a frenzy as he spilled deep inside her.

Galen gasped for air in the last throws of his release. Sylvie all but collapsed across his chest, her breath on his cheek and a sheen of sweat across her skin.

Magic tingled through him, as strong and delightful as the after quakes of his release that still rippled through his form. A mating bond. He’d marked her, and her him. He didn’t need to see it to know, to acknowledge what settled between them as Sylvie pushed up on her arms and stared at him with a look he’d never seen on her face before—pure pleasure and contentment.

“I marked you,” he said, as if that wasn’t obvious. But the horror of what he’d done, what they’d done, settled in his chest as he stared up at the beauty in his arms, his cock still lodged deep inside her.

She shook her head, her hair tickling his skin. “We marked each other.”

“But you’ll be—”An outcast. A traitor. Exiled along side me.He’d gotten so caught up in the moment he’d failed to consider the implications for her. He’dfailedher. Again.

Sylvie placed a finger over his lips, silencing the words he couldn’t bear to speak. “I chose this. I wanted this. I’ve never wanted anything so much.” She raised off him and slid to sit on the blanket at his side.

Instantly, he missed being inside her, the longing to never be parted from her twisting tumultuously with his guilt.

“And it’s beautiful, don’t you think?” She gestured to the mark on each of their bodies, a blinding smile on her face.

The mark snagged his full attention, and Galen found he couldn’t stop the smile spreading across his lips. Itwasbeautiful—a small bird tangled in a nest of roses. So perfect and so apt. How the magic of their land always managed to choose so well, he couldn’t say, but he could never deny that what they had together was its own beautiful design. If they only had this one time, this moment, it was worth it.

Sylvie pushed to her feet, and Galen groaned at the loss. As she walked a few feet away, he caught the sight of his seed on her thighs and had to bite back an entirely different sound that caught deep in his chest.Fuck.He never imagined the effect such a sight could have on him or how it could make his wasted cock spark back to the edge of life in an instant.

She cleaned herself off before picking up a little bag, the one from Leigh that he’d nearly forgotten about, and returned to his side.

“Now I can take care of you in a different way.” She gave him a knowing look that only sparked his desire.

“You’ve given me too much already.”

She pulled a little jar from the bag and raised her brows as she twisted the top open with a little pop. “That was too much?”

A deep chuckle slipped from him. “I think I can be your equal match in this too.”

“Good. And here I worried I was going to have to challenge your stamina in a whole new way.”

“I think I might enjoy that.”

“Oh, Iknowyou will.” She winked.

Unwilling to break the ease between them or disrupt their new intimacy, Galen held his worries locked within as he watched Sylvie tend to his wounds.

“I should have done this first.” Her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of pink as she took her time rubbing the ointment into his skin. The coupling had been fast and hard, but in this, she was gentler than a feather, her fingers barely teasing his skin as she tended to each wound—closed thanks to Leigh’s magic, but still red, angry, and throbbing.

“The wait was worth it.”More than worth it.He caressed her cheek, pushing back strands of her hair that forever fell free of her braid and would likely slip back over her pointed ears in moments. “I’d gladly take such a wound every day if it meant being with you like this. Besides, we’d waited long enough as it was.”

Her task complete, Sylvie snuggled down beside him on the poor blanket of a bed, her naked body pressed against his side. “Far too long,” she agreed. “But I don’t want to see you in pain, especially not for this.” She gestured between them. “I’d have you healthy.” She pressed a kiss to his jaw. “Happy.” Another graced the crook of his neck. “And by my side.”

“I don’t deserve you,” Galen said, turning toward her and wrapping her strong, lithe body in his arms.

“Let me be the judge of that.” Sylvie settled against him with a contented sigh.

For that brief moment, Galen let himself savor the woman in his arms and the bond they’d forged. He hated the risk and danger it would bring upon her and that he was the cause of it, but feeling her love and seeing their shared mark upon each other’s bodies made his heart swell so fiercely it was liable to burst. Fates and kings be damned, he’d do whatever it took to keep her safe and by his side.

Chapter 13

---