“Paint a picture, it’ll last longer,” I teased him.
He snorted. “You’re an idiot.”
“I’ve never claimed otherwise. You know, it’s—and that’s a second finger. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
I glared up at him. “If you do, I am going to murder everything about you.”
He rolled his eyes. “So romantic.”
“Dude, your hand is in my asshole. I don’t know about you, but that’s not really romantic.”
“It’s two fingers. Not my hand. Gods, Sam, you’re acting like I’m fisting you.”
I groaned, pushing down against his fingers as he crooked them up. “We’ll work up to that some other time. Now you need to fuck me.”
His eyes were wide. “What the hell do you mean we’ll work up to fisting? I am not going to put my fist up your—”
“I was talking about fisting you,” I snapped at him.
He swallowed with an audible click. “Uh. Yeah. Sure. Okay. Right. That. Would be. Um.”
Enough. Enough, enough, enough.
I put my foot flat against his chest, pushing him back away from me. I winced as his fingers slid loose, but I ignored it. He looked down at me in surprise, but before he could react, there was a pulse of magic and we flipped places, Ryan on his back on the bed, me sitting atop him.
His eyes bulged. “Did you just—ungh.”
“Yes, yes,” I grunted. “I magicked you under me because you were moving too fucking slow.” I reached behind me, running my palm along the crack of my ass, slicking up my hand before I grabbed his dick and stroked it. The cords in his neck stood out as he tilted his head back, throat exposed and taut.
“I thought you said magic in bed wasn’t—”
“I’m a godsdamn wizard now. I’ll do it when I want.”
“Oh my gods,” he muttered. “That should not be as hot as it is. What the hell is wrong with me?”
And it did hurt when I raised myself up, lined his cock up with my ass, and sank down slowly. Ryan Foxheart was not without his faults, but the size of his dick was not one of them. And while I didn’t bottom very often, it would have been such a waste not letting him fuck me every now and then.
By the time I was flush against his hips, we were both panting, my hands curling into his chest hair. His knees were bent and his feet were flat against the bed as I rose and began to lower myself again. He gripped my hips and pushed up, knocking the breath from my chest. He watched me closely as he did it again and again and again, my dick slapping against his stomach, the sound obscene and wet.
“Come on,” I muttered. “Harder. Fuck me harder.”
He groaned as he pushed back up into me harshly, almost knocking me off his lap in the process, his thick thighs quivering underneath me. Any pain I’d felt was long gone, and it felt as if I was floating. It was different, though, than it’d been in the Dark Woods. Then I’d be immersed in a dense fog for days on end, the voices of dragons and Morgan whispering in my ear. Here there were fingers digging into my hips hard enough that I wondered if they’d leave bruises and I was stuffed full, mouth open in a soundless moan.
Ryan sat up quickly then, legs going off the edge of the bed, feet on the floor. He wrapped his arms around me, my legs on either side of him. He mouthed at my throat as he fucked me deeply, my name on his lips, my cock rubbing against the skin of his stomach.
I tilted my head until my forehead pressed against his, and he reached between us, his hand still sticky with oil as he circled my cock. He jerked me off quickly, the practiced twist of his wrist causing me to gasp. I came between us a moment later, spunk on his chest and chin. He bit my shoulder brutally, blunt teeth sinking into my skin as he tensed, hips stuttering, a low whine crawling from his throat.
We stayed like that for a time, breathing and breathing, sticky and sated.
Finally I managed to say, “Dude. We win. At everything.”
He only hugged me harder.
LATER, AFTER we’d stripped the bed and cleaned ourselves up, twilight was beginning to set in, torches lit around the camp, their light coming in through an open window. I was hungry, but I wanted sleep more. The idea of moving my head from Ryan’s chest was too difficult to comprehend, especially with his hand tracing small circles on my bare back.
Neither of us had spoken for a while, content with only the sounds of the camp coming through the window. Randall said he didn’t expect Kevin back until the next day, and even though he wouldn’t tell me who the dragon would return with, I hadn’t had the strength to argue with him.
Ryan broke the silence first. “What they said. In the barn. Mama. Randall.”
I’d been on the verge of dozing, and it took me a moment to parse through his words. “They said a lot of things.”
“About you being a weapon. About using you.”
“Oh. That.”
“I didn’t like it.”
I kissed his chest. “Glad you got my back.”
He huffed out a breath. “I’m being serious.”
“I know. But they had a point.”
“No. They didn’t. You’re not something to be used.”
“Well, you just used me pretty damn well, so.”
“Sam.”
I sighed. “Look. I—I get it. Okay? I do. I really, really do. You know better than anyone how much I hate this whole… thing. Having all of this put on me. I mean, dude. Have you seen me? Who in their right mind would put the fate of Verania in my hands?”
“Right?”
“Rude. But also true. I’m not… mad. At them. For saying what they did. Because you can’t help how you feel. And I can’t say if our roles were reversed that I wouldn’t have thought the same thing they did.”
“How close was it?”
“What?”
“At Morgan’s funeral. How close were you to bringing him back?”
I closed my eyes. I hadn’t told anyone about that, but of course he knew. “It was close,” I admitted. “More than I care to think about. I was hurting and scared and… I don’t know. I didn’t know where Randall was. I didn’t know where Myrin was. I didn’t know if you were going to wake up. The King proclaimed I was to be his wizard, and I had this voice in my head, this stupid fucking voice that kept saying come away with me, o human child, in the forest deep, in the dark of the wild, and I told myself that I had to do what was right, and that it wasn’t going to be what I wanted to do.”
“You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for.”
I shook my head. “If it’d been you there on that slab, I don’t know if I could have stopped myself.”
“Sam—”
“No. You don’t get to take that away from me. Everyone expects me to save them because that’s what they were told I was going to do. That I’m this good person, that I’m this light, but if it’d been you instead of Morgan, I don’t know if I would have cared. I would have burned the life out of them if only it meant you could take another breath.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“I don’t know if I need you to.”
“What happened to you? In the forest?”
I ran a finger along the jut of his hip bone. “You ever wake from a dream, and it’s so clear that you’re sure you’ll remember it forever? But then you go about your day and it fades slowly and surely until you can only remember bits and pieces, and even then, you’re not sure if you’re remembering it correctly.”
“Like that?”
“A lot of it. But what I can remember is Kevin hitting on me, Leslie mothering him and Pat getting annoyed, Zero complaining about everything, and GW wishing we would all go away and leave him alone.”
“So… pretty much normal, then.”
“Right? Our lives are so weird, man.”
“Was it worth it?”
“I don’t know yet. But we’ll find out soon enough. One way or another.”
“I love you, you know.”
I smiled against his chest. “I know. I love you too, dude.”
I felt more than heard his laugh, his chest rumbling against my ear. “I’m not mad anymore.”
“No?”
“Nah.”
“The sex was that good, huh?”
“Oh my gods.”
“Seriously. I legit just fucked the anger out of you. Wow. I’m amazing.”
“Sam,” he groaned.
“I’ll keep that in mind for the future if I ever make you mad again. Just fuck it all away.”
“Yeah, let me know how that works out for you.”
And when he burst out into bright, beautiful laughter as I bit the skin of his chest, I promised myself that I was going to do what was necessary to make sure I heard that sound for the rest of my life.
HE WAS on the verge of sleep when he mumbled, “Can’t believe you’d do that for me.”
“Do what?” I asked, blinking slowly.
“Be mortal. Grow old with me. I can’t wait, Sam. It’s gonna be good. I promise. You won’t regret it.” And then he was snoring.
And later, before I followed him into sleep, I looked out the window and saw the shimmer of stars in the sky.
And I made a wish.
Please. Please. Please let me have this. Let me have these moments for as long as I can.
I closed my eyes.
And for the first time in a long time, I didn’t dream.
Chapter 15: Randall and the Great White
“SHH.”
“You shhh. I’ll have you know, kitten, that I am quiet as a mouse when I want to be. I didn’t need my horn for that. But now that I have it, they won’t even hear me coming.”
“Everyone hear you coming.”
“Did you just make a sex joke?”
“Tiggy funny.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever been more proud of anyone in my life. Bravo, my good giant. Bravo.”
“Shh.”
“Oh please. Like they’re even remotely conscious. It’s not as if—oh my gods, do you smell that? It’s like the aftermath of a gangbang of a group of particularly pungent pygmies. What were they doing in here?”
“Knight Delicious Face eatin’ Sam’s flower?”
“More like his entire garden. I mean, I’m all for the butt sex, as you very well know, but this is just… meaty. Like, it’s one of those smells that you can taste, you know? I can actually taste their coupling.”
Unable to ignore them anymore, I opened my eyes.
Gary and Tiggy stood on my side of the bed, staring down at me.
“Hi!” Tiggy said, hunched over so his head wouldn’t hit the ceiling.
“Oh look,” Gary said. “He awoke all on his own. How fortuitous.” He leaned forward and put his snout against my cheek, squishing it in. “I can taste your sex,” he whispered.
I shoved his face off me. “What the hell is wrong with the both of you?”
“What’s wrong with us? Well, where should I begin? How about that I just had to walk into your stink den of love? How about that, Sam?”
“It’s not that bad.”
“Sam, I’ve done things to people that you couldn’t even begin to imagine. It has never smelled like this after.”
“I was pent-up!”
“Gross,” Tiggy said.
I groaned, turning my back to them and curling into Ryan’s side again. Maybe if I ignored them, they’d go away.
“Sam. Sam. Sam. Sam. Sam Sam SamSamSamSamSam—”
“What!”
“That’s better,” Gary said. “Don’t turn your back on me again, or I’ll stab you. In case you can’t remember because you got your brains literally fucked out of your head, I have my horn again, and I can follow up on threats now.”
I sighed, scrubbing a hand over my face. “I remember.”
“Good. To make up for your rudeness, I will accept a compliment now about it.”
“It looks nice.”
“That was weak. Try again.”
“It looks very nice.”
“Thank you,” Gary said, smiling widely. “It does, doesn’t it? I only got three hours of sleep last night, and while I could say it’s because unicorns don’t need that much sleep when they have their horns, that would be a lie. I spent most of the night staring at myself in the mirror, gazing upon the magnificence that is myself.”
“That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.”
“As it shouldn’t. Do you want to touch it?”
“No. I’m pretty sure I got my fill of it yesterday. Remember yesterday? When it shot its rainbow load all over me?”
“Come on, Sam. Just touch it. Just a little bit. Just the tip.”
“Tiggy touch the tip,” Tiggy said.
“Yes, you did. And with such a firm grip too.”
“Why are you here?” I moaned.
“Randall sent us to fetch you,” Gary said. “Kevin’s back. With guests.”
I opened my eyes again. “Why did you say it like that?”
“I didn’t say it like anything.”
“Yes, you did. You said it in that way you do when you know something I don’t and there’s a sixty-eight percent chance that I’m not going to like it.”
“Gods, Sam, do you hear yourself? What would Ryan think if he knew you were so obsessed over me?”
“I’d be fine with that,” Ryan mumbled. “If it meant all of you would go away and let me sleep.”
“Hi, Knight Delicious Face.”
“Hi, Tiggy.”
“I’m not going to like today, am I.”
“Probably not,” Gary said gleefully. “Now get up so I can bear witness to your reaction when you see who Kevin’s brought with him—I mean, so you can get up and greet this beautiful new day. Love you. Love you, boo. Love you so much. Love you.” He gave me a slobbering kiss on my neck before he pranced out of the room, sparkles trailing after him, smelling strangely of peppermint hot cocoa and good feelings.
“Tiggy, who’s here?”
“Bye, Sam! Bye! Bye, Sam!”
“Traitor,” I muttered as he ran out of the room.
“Kevin’s back?” Ryan asked, voice thick.
“Of course you were awake the whole time and didn’t do a thing to rescue me.”
“I hoped if I ignored you, you’d leave me alone.”
I adored him.
WE WERE dressed and out into the early morning sunlight ten minutes later. I was shoving bread in my mouth, not caring how unattractive I looked. I was ravenous, and if I was going to be forced from my bed at an ungodly hour, I would stuff my face with stale bread. It was my right as a human being.
The camp was already awake and moving around us, people still openly staring at me as we walked by them, Ryan close at my side, his sword in its scabbard at his hip. He had planned on training with his knights this morning, but I could tell curiosity about who Kevin had returned with had gotten the better of him.
Speaking of the devil, I could see Kevin’s head and wings sticking up over the wall outside of Camp HaveHeart, so we headed in the direction of the front gates.
“How much do you wager I’m not going to like this?” I asked Ryan.
“Yeah, I’m not going to take that bet. Randall said whoever it was is supposed to help us, right? I’m still not convinced he’s forgiven you for the dick-nose thing. For all we know, this is him finally getting revenge. And if that’s the case, you need to think of the worst possible person that Randall would get to come and help you.”
“Lady Tina is already here.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Fine, the one after that.”
“Vadoma. And she’s probably in her room, trying to read tea leaves so she can be all doom and gloom.”
“Okay, the person after that.”
I squinted at him. “Who would be third on my list of people I don’t like that are still mostly on my side and that Randall would want to have come here to help me?”
“NO,” I said, glaring at Randall. “Absol
utely not.”
He didn’t look impressed. “So you’ve said. For the last five minutes.”
“Then maybe I should repeat myself again, because you don’t seem to be doing anything about it. No. Randall. No.”
“No offense,” Ryan said, “but I’m kind of with Sam on this one.”
“Thank you, Ryan.”
“Only because Sam agreed to marry him before I kicked him in the face and we escaped,” Gary whispered.
“This is true,” Ryan agreed.
“Dammit!”
The six-inch naked man with wings fluttering before us stroked his pencil-thin mustache. “I’m not yet convinced that Sam still doesn’t want to get all up on this,” the king of the Dark Woods fairies said, eyeing me up and down. Which, since he had tiny eyes, took a lot longer than one might expect.
“I don’t,” I assured Dimitri. “I don’t want to get all up on that.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Sam. I didn’t say anything when I was leading you out of the Dark Woods because I knew how exhausted you were, but I’ve got to say, magic looks good on you.”
“Thank you.”
“And so would my face.”
“Fuck you.”
“What do you mean when he led you out of the woods?” Ryan asked.
I waved my hand dismissively. “Dimitri found Kevin and me when we were on our way back from our Dark Woods adventure.”
“You didn’t say anything about that before.”
“It was our little secret,” Dimitri said. “Sam and I have those, you know.”
The rest of his fairy court hummed appreciatively behind him. I saw the fairy Harry who had tried to gay-fairy-marry Dimitri and me, and waved.
He didn’t wave back. Probably still upset about the whole kicking him in the face thing too.
“What other secrets do you have with Dimitri?” Ryan demanded. “Did he touch you? Show me where he touched you!”