Page 39 of Beneath a Shattered Sky
I groan and drop my head into my hands. “That. That’s exactly what I mean. Caed needs to earn your trust without my interference. You have to live with him for the rest of our lives and work with him. I won’t let you make a decision purely because you’re putting my wants before your own.” I’m not blind to the fact that so many of their actions are taken for my happiness or protection. “Besides, I don’t want to talk about him right now. I…I want to be your mate. I want your marks on me and mine on you. I?—”
With a snarl Jaro lunges for me, eyes wolf gold, only to twist at the last second. He lands in a crouch several feet away from me, hands curled to fists in the grass.
“You can’t say things like that,” he mutters, panting. “Rosie, I?—”
“I can charm your wolf to wait until we’re ready,” I say, before he can launch into another speech about how his leaving is our only option. “Would you let me?”
Jaro’s whole body literally stops moving midway through standing, until he’s caught in a comical half-squat.
“You don’t have to say yes,” I babble, when his stillness makes me nervous. “I just… I miss you. You’re my rock. If you left for Elfhame, I—I don’t know what I’d do.”
Between Drystan and Caed’s hostility, Bree’s quiet brooding, and Lore’s provocations, I’m pretty sure our entire group wouldimplode before we even reached the Autumn Court. Jaro is my silent strength, sure, but he’s also the one member of my Guard who balances the others. That’s never been clearer than the past few weeks while he’s been struggling with this.
“We can find a different way,” I continue. “Perhaps I’ll just stay far away from you until your wolf calms down, or maybe?—”
“Rosie.”
My hands hit his chest, and I gasp. When did he move? Was he that fast, or was I just that distracted?
Probably a little of both, I admit to myself as I look up into those warm chestnut eyes.
“Jaro?”
“Do it. Charm me so I can’t mate you without the others,” he says. “Then tell me all about how much you want to wear my marks on your skin while I’m hilt-deep inside of you where I’ve wanted to be for the last month.”
Has it really only been a month? It feels like longer, though I suppose given the time since my fever and the length of his imprisonment, it must have been.
My cheeks flush red, and I offer him a little smile. “You really want that?”
The smouldering look in his eyes is enough to tell me yes, he really does. “Hurry up.”
I take a deep breath, drawing from Danu and meeting his eyes. My hands automatically reach up to cup his face, and he allows the touch, dipping his head until our breath mingles.
“Please don’t mate me until the others are ready, too,” I whisper, heart melting a little at the golden warmth flickering in his chestnut brown gaze. “But if you want to put me on my knees in the dirt… I really don’t mind that part at all.”
Surprise lights up his face for a heartbeat before heat rushes to take its place. Jaro closes the gap between our mouths, and I press up onto my tiptoes to meet him. One of his huge handscups my ass, lifting me and pressing me into him as he devours me.
There’s a rip as my tunic is torn down the middle by impatient claws, followed by a growl when he takes hold of my leggings and drags them down my body along with my underwear. In seconds, I’m completely naked, but I don’t even have time to process that before he urges me to wrap my legs around him, then lowers to his knees.
Goddess, yes. Like this, the hard length of him presses into me just where I crave him the most.
Jaro lowers me down to the ground without breaking our kiss. His tongue strokes against mine with a feral intensity that makes me shiver. Beneath me, the gentle tickling of the cool grass against my sensitive wings contrasts deliciously with the heavy warmth of his hand cupping my breast. But it’s not enough. With a needy whine, I grind my pussy mercilessly against his erection, demanding more.
The fabric of his shirt is rough beneath my palms, and I pet his chest through it as I pour every ounce of longing I’ve felt over the last few weeks into the kiss.
I’m rewarded when the hand at my breast kneads firmly, massaging as I arch beneath him.
“Wanted to do this since the second your fever ended,” he growls against my mouth before he abandons the kiss and trails his lips down my jaw. The hair of his beard rasps against my sensitive skin, leaving goosebumps as he nuzzles the junction of my throat, scraping lightly at the skin there with his teeth.
He’s testing himself, I realise, making sure my charm has worked.
“Jaro.” My breathy complaint is followed by a harder squeeze of my breast that makes my nails dig into his shoulders.
“Don’t rush me, Rosie. I promised myself in the arena that once it was all over, I was going to bury myself in you and neverleave.” My heart gives a little thu-thump. “Besides,” he adds, a little softer. “I want to be drenched in your dust at the end of this. The redcap needs a taste of his own medicine.”
As if the words remind him, his hands grip my hips, flipping me onto my elbows and knees until my face is in the glittering patch of grass beneath me and he’s staring at the fluttering culprits on my back.
“I’m going to touch your wings,” he whispers, and I nod. The glamour I use to cover them has long since fallen away, given my obvious distraction, and the fine membranes tremble with anticipation.
