Page 79 of The Burning Mountain
She tried to wrest control several times, to get him to take that step that would join them as one. But although he enjoyed her exploration, his command was formidable.
“It will be better if we wait, Princess. Take our time to get you ready. It’s your first time, and I want to make this as pleasurable as possible.”
She had wondered earlier what kind of lover he would be. And she had her answer. Slow. Maddeningly thorough and determined to drive her crazy. The more desperate she got, the more satisfied he seemed to be.
She should have known, she thought, suppressing another moan—her husband desired her complete surrender. And she wasn’t someone who gave up easily.
She should have expected their intimacy to be no different to how they were outside the bedroom. Her thoughts grewincreasingly muddled, as a tidal wave of pleasure drowned her under.
Her fingers fisted the bedsheets. Until he lingered at a particular spot and whatever he did with his mouth and fingers, she had no idea it was an erogenous zone for her.
And yet she felt empty inside, an ache only he could assuage.
“I have waited for seven long years for this, Princess, surely you can wait some more,” he coaxed at her protest, his focus on the tiny nub of pleasure between her thighs, that he was teasing with his tongue.
Veer held on to her hands, anchoring them at her sides when she tried to tug him up. “I will die if I wait another moment,” she panted, relenting into begging. “Please, Veer.”
But he waited until another climax struck her and she lay boneless from pleasure.
Her hands reached for him blindly when he reared up. His eyes wild, he placed himself at the entrance to her body and slowly started to enter her.
“This will hurt, Chandra,” he said, his teeth gritting with restraint.
She felt so full and stretched that she started to feel a pinch, a slight discomfort, but she wanted him so much, she tilted her hips to take more of him in. Pain flashed through her, but she didn’t care.
His eyes widened when he was sheathed fully inside her. He stopped for a moment as if savoring the sensation, before kissing her again, desperately. She held on as he withdrew slowly and thrust in. Again, and again.
The pain faded to a delicious friction, and the heat climbed again once more.
They moved together in a dance as old as time, bodies slick with sweat.
She gasped when he lifted her hips, wrapping her legs around him and thrusting deeper, the action sending her over the edge. Veer kissed her again, swallowing her scream. He kept moving inside her, not stopping until he, too, came with a groan that seemed to spring from the depths of his being.
They held each other in silence afterward. They belonged to each other now. Completely. Chandra felt her eyelids drooping, and she fell into a blissful, dreamless sleep, a smile on her lips.
Veer lay awake.Contentment seeped into his bones; sleep beckoned, and yet he forced himself to stay up, too terrified to miss a moment.
Chandra lay on her stomach, limbs akimbo in sleep. Her unbound hair spilled like a dark waterfall down her back. The moon peeked into their room as Veer gently pushed aside the swath of her tresses. His fingers traced over the scars on his wife’s back, his stomach twisting. The tug of guilt he had been feeling was settling into a painful regret. What wouldn’t he give to go back in time to undo and unsay the things that went down in the past.
His fingers curled into fists. Virat would pay. Without his interference, they could have…Veer bent his head, his shriveled conscience reminding him of his own culpability. Virat wasn’t the only one to blame for the misfortune that befell her.
Is this how his father felt when he looked at his mother’s scar-ridden hands? Helpless with rage, shame at failing to protect the person he loved. He could understand now how angry his father must have been at Veer’s childhood mistake.
Chandra snuggled into a pillow, her lips tilting into a smile. His heart clenched in tenderness. Her generosity in trustinghim, even after everything Veer had done to her, humbled him. Enough to finally admit to himself—she was the other half of him. The one who had slipped into his heart like she had always belonged there. The imprint on his soul.
It both freed and terrified him equally.
Chandra opened her eyes sleepily.Someone was carrying her. She didn’t want to wake from the delicious embrace, but a stray gust of chilly wind slithered up her spine, making her aware of her state of relative undress.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked groggily.
“Back to your quarters. Unless you want the maids to find you in mine. Not that I care, but I thought you might be embarrassed by such things.”
Memory returned, and Chandra woke up fully. “You can put me down. I can walk,” she said.
“It’s all right. No one is up yet. And I’m almost there.”
Veer pushed open the doors of her quarters and deposited her at the threshold.
