“Your brands,” I whispered.
“The same as these dragons,” he smiled. “I loved them as a young child, and would come here just to gaze upon them. When I inherited the heir brands, the dragons formed. To me it’s a reminder of this place and what could happen if we stray from her designs for the world. I’d often wondered if Danu hadn’t placed them on me as a warning to right the wrongs of my father. As time passed, I changed, and eventually my brothers and I started to right the wrongs, and then the Mages came, and now we fight for survival much like these beings did.”
“Can we swim here?” I asked, itching to sink beneath the inviting water’s surface.
“No, the waters are poisonous,” he smiled.
“Seriously?” I asked feeling my disappointment rise.
“These ones are; the beings were ripe with treachery against one another,” he explained. “They were pitted against each other, and history says Danu started it, unwilling to do the job herself. She set them on one another to kill each other. The Queen poisoned the waters, and then sacrificed her handmaidens in their depths. If you look,” he said as he held me as if he was afraid I’d fall in. “You can see their corpses at the bottom.”
I could see one, and she was whole, as if she only slept in the depths. “Creepy.” Some men took women to the movies or wined and dined them, but my beast took me to see dead things, and ruins that he’d loved as a child…he was seriously lacking in the seduction part right now, but I was actually pleased that he’d brought me here, even if it was creepy as all get-out.
“Come,” he whispered as he pulled me to yet another door. This one had stairs leading down into the pits of the ruins. As we walked further down, the wall gave way and you could see what looked like a huge aquarium.
Inside the wall of water were more ruins. Huge pillars stood, some broken but all were damaged, and in the far distance, I could just make out what looked like a Roman coliseum.
“Holy crap,” I said as I moved to the wall and slid my hand through it.
My hand became fully engulfed in the water, and I smiled as I pulled it back out. “It’s not poisoned too, right?”
“No; if it was, I wouldn’t have let you stick your hand in it. You can’t go inside; I’ve tried on many occasions. It’s quite painful when you try to place your head inside.”
“That sucks,” I said eyeing it and wondering if it was worth a try.
“There’s more to see, and I grow impatient of this eternal hard on,” he growled against my ear when I remained at the water wall.
I laughed and turned to look at him. He took my hand and held it against his cock, which was very hard and throbbing. “Pervert, just can’t take you anywhere,” I mocked him, complaining playfully.
“Come.”
We entered another room and I paused; the floor was sand, and someone had taken a very long time to draw the same dragons in it. In the middle was a larger dragon, and beside him a much smaller one. In front of them were three very small dragons.
Tears filled my eyes as I lifted them to him. “You did this,” I whispered breathlessly.
“Yes,” he smiled. I watched as he lowered his hulking frame to the floor and took my hand. “I’m asking you this, not because I almost lost you, but because I know now that I need you. You’re my air, Synthia Raine McKenna, the mother to my children and my entire world. I know now that I’ve always wanted you, and while I went through deceitful ways to obtain you, we now know that this was our destiny all along. I love you, and I don’t want to live without you. So, Pet. Will you marry the beast?”
“Marry the beast?” I laughed but the moment his smirk faltered I stopped. This was Ryder, Horde King to the entire Fae world, and he was on bended knee, asking me to marry him.
He started to rise and I sank to the ground before him. He paused as he watched me, and I could see fear in his eyes, fear that I’d say no yet again. “If I fall, will you promise to pick me up and always put the pieces back together?”
“Yes,” he said.
A single tear slid from my eye as I continued. “And when I’m stubborn, and refuse to bend to your will, will you always use a gentle hand to bend me back into place?”
“Always,” he continued.
“And will you always promise to love our children, and always be the beast I have fallen so utterly and hopelessly in love with?”
“I promise,” he whispered as he lowered his mouth to kiss my forehead, which seared its print into my soul for all times.
“You didn’t wait very long before asking me again, Ryder,” I whispered.
“I never wait when there is something I want as much as this; as much as I want you.”
“I’ll marry you,” I replied and claimed his lips.
He pulled away and spoke softly. “I really had been planning to ask you to be my Queen for some time; it just didn’t seem right to rush this thing between us after I broke off the engagement to Abiageal. Do you know that the men brought me hundreds of rings, but I didn’t think any of them suited you? I needed something as beautiful as the woman who would wear it. I decided that I couldn’t give you just any ring, it had to fit you and had to be created from something that we both shared.”
I watched as he walked over to a wild vine growing against the wall that had beautiful electric blue flowers growing on it and plucked a thin tendril from the vine and began to fashion it into a band. He then plucked a single blue flower from the vine and set it on the band. Next he moved his fingers and the flower and vine turned into gold, which he continued to bend until it was fashioned as a ring. The way his eyes turned to fire and his lips tipped up in the corners told me this wasn’t his first attempt. When he’d finished with the ring, he pulled droplets of water from the pool and as I watched them, lost in his hypnotic magical show, they turned into a large round diamond before my eyes that he dropped into the center of the flower. Several smaller droplets appeared and he placed the smaller ones around the band, until it was the most exquisite thing I’d ever seen.
“As I said; I wanted something as beautiful as my bride,” he whispered and slid the band onto my finger.
“It’s perfect, Ryder,” I whispered. I looked up at him with tears in my eyes.
“Good, now come on. I don’t plan to fuck you in the sand,” he replied wickedly as he dragged me behind him.
I laughed as I ran to keep up with him. We rounded a corner, and I paused in shock. There in the middle of an opening with stars high above us in the sky was an abandoned stone room, with steps that led up to where a huge bed was placed on a dais. Around it were even more candles; the steps had candles embedded in them as well, which created a lit path to where the bed was waiting invitingly. Four huge pillars looked as if they held the sky up, and around them was silk of the same color of blue like the one Ryder had used to blindfold me.
“You did all of this for me just to get me to say yes?” I asked.
“No, I did all of this for you. I’m seducing you, Synthia,” he smiled wickedly. “And I plan to make love to you the first time, and then I plan to fuck you hard.”
Chapter Seventeen
I was led up the stairs until I stood before the satin draped bed that was covered in pillows. Like most beds associated with Ryder, it was huge. As I approached the bed, rose petals rained down from the sky. I smiled as I brought my hand out to catch one, and then lifted it to my nose to inhale the fragrance deeply.
I turned to Ryder who watched me silently. His hands shook slightly, as if he was nervous. “Did Ristan plan this?” I asked, knowing he’d helped Ryder plan most of his romantic escapades, but this one felt different. It felt real, as if he’d done it all himself.
“That depends,” he whispered throatily as he watched me through hooded eyes.
“On?” I continued.
“Do you like it?”
“No,” I shook my head and somehow managed to hide the smile.
“Oh,” he said as he deflated a bit.
“I love it,” I smirked.
“Naughty girl,” he growled and shook his head. “This one is all me,” he admitted. “I could have followed what Ristan suggested, but I wanted this one to be ours. No one else knows exactly what I planned for you, and no one helped. Fuck,” he sighed. “I’m no good at this wooing shit.”
“Actually, this is better than anything the Demon could have planned. The others, they lacked your touch and so they meant less, but this,” I said as I took another look around the area. “This is you, and that means more than flowers and chocolate. I don’t need romance, but it’s nice. I wanted your love, but only because I loved you so much that it hurt to feel it without thinking it could be returned.”
“You’re a one of a kind jewel, Synthia Raine,” he said as he sifted to the bed and reclined on it. He placed his arms behind his head and watched me languidly. “Will you strip for me?”
“No glamouring off my clothes?” I asked. I was so used to him controlling everything, including how quickly my clothes melted off, that I was almost shocked that he was asking.
“No magic, not tonight. I’ve never taken anything slowly, but I plan to savor you tonight. I plan to make love to the woman who captured my heart,” he rumbled.
“Stole it,” I smirked as I pushed my hair from my shoulders to show him everything. My hair was thicker now, and longer than it had ever been. I slowly reached up to remove the first layer of my dress. The Goddess dress was wispy, but the layers had ensured that it covered the parts it had needed to.
I pulled the top off and smiled as he exhaled a shaky breath as my stomach was exposed for his viewing pleasure. I smiled shyly, enjoying the fluttering of butterflies in my stomach that came with being with Ryder, as if every time with him was my first.
“Stop thinking,” he said with a wicked smile filling his mouth.
“You’re overdressed yourself, Fairy,” I whispered with lust thick in my tone.
“That’s an easy fix, Pet,” he whispered and glamoured off his own clothing, breaking his own rule.
I removed the top of the dress completely, and watched as his eyes lowered to the rosy tips of my nipples which grew taut in the subtle wind as rose petals continued to fall on us. I brought my hands up to rub the sensitive tips as his eyes greedily watched the slow, sensual motion they made.
Gone was the hypersensitivity from pregnancy, and in its place was the sensation of his eyes consuming them without a touch.
“Pinch them,” he urged, and I followed his command and pinched each with my fingers.
His hands refused to move from where they rested behind his head, and I knew he held them there to resist the urge to touch me. I brought my hands away from my breasts and undid the bow that held the dress together, exposing his greedy gaze to the silk panties.
“Come to me,” he said and I did, slowly taking my time to reach his hungry mouth, which I longed to kiss.
I was almost to it when he sat up and pushed me down on the bed. His eyes were liquid gold as he slowly parted my legs and growled at the sheerness of my panties. “You’re wet,” he acknowledged, and I smiled.
“You have that effect on me,” I admitted.
“Good, ‘cause this is mine now, forever. This is mine to savor,” he said as he rubbed his knuckles roughly over the sensitive nub. “Anytime, anywhere, any place I want it,” he continued and watched as I lifted my hips and allowed my legs to drop at the knees for him.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“I love the taste of you in my mouth, the exquisiteness of you on my tongue while I stroke you and caress you from the inside,” he continued as he lowered his mouth and blew hot air across my core. “Ever since I took the first taste of you, I’ve been unable to stop craving it. When you walk into a room, my tongue wants to seek this sweet haven out, my nose searches for the sweet scent of your arousal. My senses seek your readiness, and my balls grow tight with the need to release their pent up tension between your sweet lips, or deep in this sweet pussy.”
Yeah, there he was: my Ryder. The sweet, dirty talking Fairy that could make my mind go blank with his dirty mouth.
He removed his mouth and lifted one of my legs, his fingers deftly working the ties of the sandal as he kissed my inner thigh. His other hand trailed softly down until he pushed at my opening through the fabric of the panties.
“Soaking wet already, Pet,” he growled right before his teeth nipped at my flesh and then kissed it. He did the same with the other leg, kissing and nipping as he released my foot from the sandal.
When he had removed both, he tossed them aside and raised his eyes to the petals that still rained down on us. One moment they’d been lightly raining down on us, and the next they stopped in midair. The bed was covered with them, we were covered in them.
He moved up until he sat beside me, his hands moving to remove the panties and expose my wetness to his gaze. His fingers stroked over it, slowly, until his forefinger found the nub, which he stroked continuously for a few moments before he lowered his head and stroked it roughly with his tongue.
“Fucking delicious,” he whispered huskily before he pushed a single finger deep inside of me. “I’m thinking one time of making love and one time of fucking you won’t be enough, not tonight.”
“Ryder,” I whispered, worried about our babies.
“Give me tonight,” he said calmly. “Tomorrow we can be with them, but tonight is ours. I have my brothers and your handmaidens protecting them; nothing will get to those babies. I am sure Danu is with them as well; not visibly, but there still.”
He withdrew the finger, and replaced it with his thick thumb. He pushed it inside, only to pull it back out. His mouth kissed my stomach, and then moved up to capture one nipple between his teeth. He growled, sending a new wave of heat rushing through me. He released the hold his teeth had held, and used his tongue to caress it. When he finished with it, he moved on to do the same to the other one.
His thumb moved inside of me, using the juices he was creating to move faster. I watched his dark head as he continued to suck on my nipples and slowly kiss his way to my mouth. When he reached my mouth, he removed his thumb and moved over me.
He kissed me deeply, slowly, until I thought I would drown from lack of oxygen. He took my air away on purpose, and I didn’t care this time, because he fed it back to me seductively, as he had once before. He captured my face and held it between his hands as he kissed me, almost as if his survival depended on it.
When he pulled away, I cried out from the loss of his mouth against mine, from the loss of his lips melting together with mine. He sat between my legs, his cock poised at my entrance, but he didn’t enter me, instead he slowly rubbed the tip of his cock against the sleekness of juices he’d created.
“This pussy needs to be fucked,” he said.
“Yes, like now,” I encouraged him.
“Patience,” he urged.
“Ryder…” I tried to put the need I felt in my tone, but it came out as a benediction.
He pushed inside, but only an inch, and then pulled back out as his eyes watched me. His eyes consumed me with their golden heat as he took in my need, and smiled knowingly in reply.
“This is easier than I thought it would be,” he whispered. “I can do slow and easy.”
“Mmm,” I replied and then gasped as he entered me again. I’d expected inches, instead I got it all. His hands held my legs apart, but then he released them both and leaned over my body until his mouth captured mine.
“I love this,” he whispered as he began to move his hips slowly. “Being buried inside of you, hearing the noises you make as I take you. Feeling your body as it welcomes me in
and caresses my cock.”
He found a pace that mirrored my own, and I wrapped my hands lovingly around his neck as his mouth claimed mine. The world around us faded away. He kissed, caressed, and continued to slowly fuck me. It wasn’t until we both exploded in harmony that he smiled roguishly and sat back on his heels.
“Now that I managed to slowly make you come, I’m going to fuck you.”
“Thank God,” I whispered with a wicked smile as his eye grew round and large.
“You didn’t like that?” he asked confused.
“No, I loved it, but I love how you fuck me. Gentleness is nice, Fairy, but I like the leg shivering, hair pulling, sweaty bodied, earth shattering fucking that you always give me,” I said, cocky and taunting him with my core as I spread my legs for his eyes to take in my need.
I felt his magic wash over me as he cleaned us both and then watched as his eyes grew dark and an even darker smile took hold of his mouth. “Thank Gods,” he said finally. “Because I love making you scream, and I love making this sweet flesh sore…”
I grinned, but it was short lived as he pulled me up until I was on my knees in front of him, and then pushed down by my hair as he pushed his cock against my lips. “Be a good girl, and suck,” he growled.
I did as he commanded; taking what he pushed inside, and pulled it back out. His hands released my hair, and he pushed me backward, his hands pulling at my legs as he pushed them apart and then held them open.
“Ready?” he grinned.
“I’m always ready for you, Fairy,” I whispered and then screamed his name as he plunged inside until my body couldn’t take anymore of him. He used his Fae speed as he rocked and moved his hips until I exploded, and my ears rang from the sheer pleasure of his assault.
He continued to pound into me, and when I thought I’d come again, he stopped and pulled me up using only my hips as he moved me to my stomach and lifted my ass in the air. I moved my hips invitingly, only to scream out as his hand landed on one cheek punishingly and then moan as his hand massaged the area.