What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(76)
“That will be all tonight, Nila. Thank you,” I said, channeling that same calm authority that Caldris had used with her.
She might have been tending to my needs, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be treated with kindness while still trying to find a way to maintain boundaries.
Those seemed important suddenly when I was nude in the tub with my mate; our evening activities greatly foreshadowed.
“I have to be able to look at her in the morning, you know,” I mumbled as she scurried from the room, closing the door behind her quickly to limit the view she afforded to Malachi, who seemed to guard my door at all times of the day and night.
“Are you ashamed of me, min asteren?” Caldris asked, cocking his head to the side in that arrogant way of his. “Does it bring you shame for your handmaid to know that I plan to spend my night inside of you?”
“It isn’t shame,” I pouted, sinking lower into the water as my cheeks heated.
“I think it is. It may not be because of me, but rather because of you. You were raised to believe that sex was shameful, and no matter how many times I fuck you in front of an audience, I cannot seem to rid you of that notion. Sex is beautiful. It is not something that must be enjoyed in private and quietly behind closed doors. You are my mate, and the drive to have me inside of you is something normal that should be embraced,” he explained, smirking as he leaned forward and touched a thumb to my lips. The next words were a taunt, meant to dampen my foul mood, but Mab’s threat rang in my ears. “How else will you give me my heirs one day?”
I sputtered, choking on my own breath as I sat up straighter and glared at him. “Don’t go there.”
Caldris laughed, snagging my bottom lip as he trailed his thumb over my chin and down the front of my throat. His touch continued, sliding through the valley between my breasts as he touched a flat palm to the slight swell of my stomach.
“Don’t worry. We will not be bringing a baby into this world until we’ve fixed it for them, as much as I would love to see you swell with my child.”
“I thought Fae pregnancies were incredibly rare?” I asked, swallowing back my nerves at the prospect of becoming a mother. I wasn’t certain I even wanted that, let alone to be discussing the possibility of it so soon, and there was no part of me that would even consider it until Mab was dead.
In Nothrek, there were teas that could be taken to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The Ladies of the Night took them daily. If a Fae pregnancy wasn’t impossible, I would take those until the day I died if need be, rather than see my child bound to Mab as Caldris had been.
“They are. I’ve never heard of a pregnancy occurring within the first century of a completed mate bond, and that is not for lack of trying,” Caldris said with a chuckle. “We’ve not yet even completed our bond and children cannot happen until we do. You have plenty of time to decide how you would like to proceed in regard to children.”
“To decide?” I asked, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip as Caldris trailed his hand lower. It drifted over my lower stomach, teasing the flesh at the top of my pussy as my legs spread instinctively.
“Greedy little thing,” Caldris murmured with a tsk, tapping his fingers against me and sending a jolt of pleasure through my body. “Yes, to decide, my star. If you decide you don’t want children, I’ll not force it.”
“But you want them,” I said, fighting back the surge of pleasure gathering in my stomach. He coaxed his fingers against me, watching as my back arched in response to his touch.
“I do, but I want you more. If they are not a part of our future, I’ll be content with having you happy at my side. You’re young, and your thoughts may change with time and stability. But even if they don’t, that will be okay,” he said, sliding a finger inside of me. “In the meantime, I will spend every opportunity showing you how much I love you.”
He lifted me out of the water, forcing me to scramble to grip the edges of the bath as he deposited me into it.
“You would do that for me?” I asked, adjusting my legs as he used his hands at my hips to guide me down onto his length.
He slid inside me slowly, filling me as I tossed my head back in pleasure. Raising a single hand to grasp me by my hair, he tilted me forward until he caught my eyes with his piercing gaze.
“My star, I would plunge the world into eternal darkness if it meant one more moment with you like this. Nothing else matters.”
“Until chaos reigns,” I murmured, our bond warming beneath the words. The vow pulsed between us, a reminder of the way we’d bound our lives to one another.
At the time, it had seemed like Caldris would die along with me, but now… Now who knew what it meant?
All I knew was the way he moved inside me, the way he surrounded me, and his warmth sinking into me, chasing away the chill that the sight of the sacrifices had left me with.
He echoed my words, murmuring them against my mouth as he kissed me. “Until chaos reigns.”
***
I lay in his arms, my head resting on his chest in the moments following our latest round of lovemaking.
“When you said I was cold…” I trailed off, thinking of the warmth that now seemed to flow through me, to surround me in ways that were more than just the furs Caldris had covered us with as we settled down to sleep for a few precious hours.