With nothing between them this time, Fenn sat up and Serenna climbed back into his lap, straddling him. Her eyes drank in every inch of his body, every unveiled ridge and plane, the desire to touch him swiftly turning into a need.
Serenna ran her fingers through his cascading hair, sailing down the taut muscles of his back. Moving to his chest, she glided her palms down over the chiseled ripples of his stomach. She swallowed hard before reaching for his length between them.
“Wait.”
Serenna’s heart staggered to a halt when Fenn seized one of her hands, preventing her from exploring further. Stopping her before she could reach for that rigid, tempting flesh wedged between them, so close to her aching core.
A protest nearly flew from her tongue as she met his eyes. Instead, Serenna’s thighs tightened, drowning in his consuming look. Holding her gaze, Fenn lifted the chain over his neck, pressing the key to her tether into her palm. Serenna’s breath caught as he wrapped her fingers over the iron, offering the tiny piece of metal—her freedom.
Fenn searched her face. “You should have the choice to be free like the wind.”
Heart squeezing at the gesture, Serenna couldn’t even deliver a quip about Fenn defying Lykor. Perhaps she was already free, but in a different way. A reckless impulse nearly had her flinging the key over the bridge.
When she didn’t move, Fenn settled the chain over her neck. He traced a talon over the key after it slipped from her hand, nestling between her breasts.
And then lower.
His eyes followed the path his fingers traveled down her stomach before skimming back up her body. Fenn swallowed, throat tensing as his voice came out unsteady. “Stop me if I harm you.”
“I think you’re the last person who’d harm me.” Serenna touched his face, his expression full of concern. “I want you,” she breathed, heart twisting,conflicted with what she felt for the prince. She hadn’t yet abandoned all hope that he’d find her.
The heat flaring in Fenn’s eyes returned Serenna’s focus to him. She swiped her thumb over the angles of his cheek. “I…” she began, unsure how to finish the thought.
Everything about him confused her, making her question what she thought she wanted. But there was something about him—something about Fenn’s honesty and friendship that had filled a void she hadn’t been aware of until he’d entered her life. He’d made her feel special, like she was the center of his universe, even though she wasn’t the only one who he shared his heart with. Guilt carved a path through Serenna’s chest—similar circumstances had inflicted jealousy before, polluting what she felt toward the prince.
“I want you,” she repeated, falling into the fire in his eyes. It was all she had the courage to admit.
Fenn’s knuckles grazed the swell of her chest. “You have me, she-elf.”
Breath hitching, Serenna’s pulse skipped from excited fear as Fenn’s wicked claw gently cupped her breast. The danger he controlled sent her heart hammering, knowing he could effortlessly cleave her in two. A moan escaped her as his thumb drifted over her nipple, rolling the bud under the safety of his talons.
Fenn’s innocent fascination with surveying her body sent heat blazing out in waves from everywhere he caressed. His talons and eyes trailed a fiery wake across her chest, down her ribcage and over her stomach, across her hips, skimming all the way to her soaking core.
When Fenn tucked his claws away into a fist, Serenna arched into the pressure he offered against her center. Rocking against him, she frantically met his mouth, ready to ignite as he coiled her pleasure into bliss.
Fenn shivered, swearing something nonsensical when Serenna slid her palms between them to return his touch. She couldn’t help but stare, the elongation of her fingers the only reason they met as she enveloped his girth. A brief flicker of doubt had her wondering if he was right to be nervous about harming her. Some primal desire overrode that concern—she intended to find out.
Stroking the steel length of him progressively more vigorously with every pass from root to tip earned Serenna approving growls. As they both quivered with desire, she didn’t feel the need to wait any longer.
Steadying herself with a hand braced against his chest, Serenna lifted herself, lining her center up with the point of him. Fenn pulled back, going preternaturally still, unblinking as he tracked her motions.
Taut like a pulled bowstring, the wall of his abdomen trembled when Serenna lowered herself a fraction. They shared a sharp inhale as the broad head of his arousal skated through the wetness pooling between her thighs.
Fenn’s eyes went feral, chest rising more rapidly than her own as she aligned him, angling to guide him in. He released a guttural groan, throwing his head to the ceiling as her slick folds enveloped the first inch. Talons anchoring on her hips, his mouth returned to claim hers.
Fenn’s arousal twitched in her entrance, his lips tilting in response. “Be gentle with me,” he said against her, muscles shuddering with restraint. Holding something back. Their gazes locked, his eyes flaring brighter than the magma below.
Serenna’s breath hitched as she slowly lowered, taking him in, adjusting to his girth. She gasped from the smallest sting of pain, overtaken by a shock of pleasure as her walls clenched around him. Fenn somehow seemed to have a harder time than her, gritting his fangs, breathing harshly through his nose.
Serenna took her time absorbing every inch, spurred on by Fenn’s growling curses. The way his body stretched hers, molding her to him, was bliss and devastation, ecstasy and annihilation. She threw her arms around Fenn’s neck, panting against him when there was no space left between them.
Impatient for more, she circled her hips into his, grinding their bodies together. Serenna kissed him as they moved together, sliding back and forth to meet every thrust. His arousal hit every inner wall, every nerve, striking chords deep in her body that she wasn’t aware she’d possessed.
“Fenn,” Serenna whispered as she rocked against him, riding every wave. Legs clenching against his waist, her movements became erratic as the pressure inside of her spiraled. Fenn’s eyes met hers, ruby gaze blazing with a conflagration of lust. “Bite me,” she breathed.
He didn’t need to be told twice. If anything, he’d been waiting for her to ask. Fenn dove to the slope of her throat, his fingers tightening against her waist. Serenna shuddered as his canines skimmed the sensitive skin below her ear.
She seized the muscles on his back with a gasp, body jolting when his fangs pierced her, sinking into her flesh. A soothing flood of ice chased away the brief prick of pain.
Serenna’s eyelids fluttered as the coolness raced down her neck. Reaching her heart, the venom transformed into a warmth, trickling through her veins, limbs going weightless as they relaxed.
Fenn withdrew, his mouth brushing against the punctures. He trailed a kiss, moving across her jaw, returning to her lips. Claiming the rhythm, Fenn clutched Serenna tightly to his chest, guiding each stroke. She collapsed into him feeling more buoyant than intoxicated, elated rather than hazy.
His body drove exactly where she needed, rekindling a molten fire in her core. Every sweeping roll struck her inner walls, the angle of him providing friction against that sensitive spot between her thighs.
The sparks igniting between them had Serenna peaking toward combustion as she rode the motion of his hips. Every thrust, every retreat, threatened to cast her over the precipice of release. She sensed Fenn reading her writhing body, the change in her ragged breathing.
He answered her unspoken question. “I’m right with you, she-elf.”
Serenna clutched his shoulders as his movements became frantic, more urgent, driving a faster tempo, steering them toward oblivion. Vision splintering, Fenn’s name was on her lips as she shattered. Her center clamped against him as she detonated and dissolved, disintegrating into a thousand stars.
Arms wrapping around her back, Fenn crested the same wave. He seized and shuddered, tumbling off the cliff alongside her. His arousal swelled, stretching Serenna further, throbbing as he spilled his warmth deep into her body. Clutching her, he shivered and groaned her name, resting his head against the space between her neck and shoulder.
The world faded as they held each other, hearts beating in time, recovering their broken breathing as the tremors of pleasure subsided. Still buried in her, Fenn drew back to meet her eyes, his warm breath fanning across her skin. Serenna returned his smile, slowly piecing herself together with every lungful of air.
Fenn cupped her face, thumb stroking her cheek. “Serenna,” he began, his voice barely there. He searched her eyes with a gentle intensity that had her blood surging for a different reason. “I…I think I’m falling—”
Serenna took the coward’s way out before he could say anything else, kissing him to smother what would undoubtedly be flowery words. She wasn’t ready to give the feelings a name—to twist her heart further into a knot. Not yet.
