Page 45 of Brought to Light
I felt like all my blood stopped flowing for a second, congealed into something frozen and deathly. “Please don’t.” The words tore out of me and left me bleeding. “God, Linden. Please don’t. Even if that’s what I deserve.”
And then my throat tightened too much, and nothing else came out. My arms had locked around him, probably squeezing him too hard for comfort, and I wasn’t sure I could let him go again.
Linden looked at me long and hard. Making up his mind, I thought. And then he nodded once.
“You gave me your word once before,” he said softly. “Promised me you wouldn’t hurt me. I believed you. Now promise me again, only this time I want your word you won’t leave me again. Not without a good reason, and not without telling me first.”
My breath came out in a rush, my heart pounding from the effort of holding the air in my lungs too long, and my head spun. I couldn’t see anything but his shining eyes. “I can’t imagine a reason good enough for leaving you. And yes,” I added. “I promise. I fucking swear on anything you can think of.”
At last, at last, Linden touched me, sliding his hands up my abdomen and chest, his fingers exploring. Teasing. Tentative.
“I was so glad when you finally came and found me tonight,” he said in a soft rush.
Even in the washed-out moonlight, his eyes shone a pure blue, a blue I’d have picked out of any lineup of colors anywhere. He looked like a dream. Like a crack in the normal world, or what passed for normal here, had broken open to let in sunlight too bright and too beautiful for human eyes. Even in the dark, he was drenched in sunlight.
“I’m sorry I didn’t do this the second I came back,” I said, and kissed him, trying to put everything I couldn’t find the words for into the press of my mouth on his. I expected him to be hesitant, to make me work for it.
Anything but melt into me like I’d cut his strings and open his mouth for me with a low moan that went all the way down my spine. I wrapped him in my arms and kissed him until I couldn’t breathe and he was gasping against my lips.
When he pulled me down onto the grass without a word, I followed, covering him with my bigger body and caging him in with my arms. He tipped his head back, showing me what he wanted.
I wanted to give him what he wanted, always. The pulse in his throat quivered under my tongue, and his clothes gave way to my hands. I stripped him until he didn’t have anything but those silk stockings and a little wisp of silk above that was what passed for boxers in this realm, I guessed.
No complaints from me. His cock stood up to greet me, outlined in pale blue silk, a little darker patch spreading where he’d started to get wet for me. I traced the tip of his cock with my tongue and made him moan and arch up, his hands running through my hair, trying to get purchase to hold on.
Maybe I ought to grow my hair out a little.
We didn’t have anything to use for what I really wanted. Apparently Linden took lube to forests, but not gardens. Too bad, but when I glanced up at the long, slender, pale lines of his torso in the moonlight, it didn’t matter. I’d fuck him later. I’d fuck him until he screamed, and when he whimpered and bit his lip I realized I’d said that out loud.
I left the stockings on when I took the underwear off him, propping his silk-clad thighs over my shoulders. I’d take them off later. Slowly.
My cock had to stay out of the game for the moment, but I did everything else, with my lips and tongue and fingers, around him and inside him, as he pushed back against me and spread his legs and clawed at the grass.
“Callum, please, please, oh, what are you doing—”
He broke off in a wail as I speared my tongue into him as deep as I could, and then he came all over my hand and his own belly, ropes of glistening white.
I licked it all up before I made my way back up to his mouth. Linden shuddered under me with every swipe of my tongue, making little sounds of pleasure that I wished I could swallow down the way I could swallow this part of him.
I’d meant this to be for him, but when he snaked a hand down and pulled my cock out of my pants, I couldn’t stop him. He wrapped his hand around me and stroked me hard, and I came leaning down over him, my face pressed against his neck, every muscle clenching.
When we finally curled up together on the grass, catching our breath, I smiled up at the fading stars. The moon had finally set, and pre-dawn gray had seeped in to replace it. Linden snuggled against my side, tucking his head under my chin.
No sorcerers hunting us. No battle to come, no hostages, no fear.
I held him a little tighter, remembering that night in the forest. I didn’t need to let him go this time.
I’d kept him safe.
Now I got to keephim.
His arm wrapped over my waist felt a little rigid, like he wanted to make sure of it.
Oskar had asked me what my intentions were, and I hadn’t answered him. I hadn’t been able to.
Now I thought I could, even though Linden hadn’t asked. He shouldn’t have to, after all.
“I’m never going anywhere,” I said, answering the tension in his hold on me rather than the question he maybe didn’t have the courage to ask. “Not without you. I’m not letting you out of my sight, and the next fucking awful party we have to go to, I’ll be standing right behind you the whole time. Or next to you. Wherever bodyguards are supposed to stand at fancy parties in this realm.”
