That would explain the emptiness of his skull, which seemed to contain only dreamy wooziness. Stella enfolded him, her exquisite legs wrapped around his waist, her tight sheath gripping him with her sweet, wet heat, her arms holding him against her delicate body as her hands drifted caresses up and down his back, her mouth pressed into the hollow beneath his ear. Taking his earring gently in her teeth, she nibbled, toying with it—and sending delicious thrills straight to his groin.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time,” she purred in his ear.
“Do it as often and as long as you like.” He should move. He was probably crushing her.
“Don’t move,” she murmured. “I like your weight. We should stay like this forever.”
With a laugh, he snuggled against her, savoring her deliciously soft skin touching him everywhere. This was the place he’d so longed to be, and he never wanted to part from her. “I know what you mean, but would it be practical?”
“I am a princess,” she mused. “I could command the servants to feed us.”
“Another joke?” He feigned utter shock. “Who are you and how did you get in my bed?” Palming her small, perfectly round bottom, he added, “Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”
She giggled, a particularly sweet sound since he’d never heard that uninhibited, girlish laugh from her before. “It wasn’t a joke,” she replied gravely. “I’m perfectly serious.”
“All right, then,” he said agreeably, turning his head just enough to nuzzle the sweet hollows of her throat. “At least this plan positions me to service my lady as often as she requires.” As if hearing the suggestion, his cock swelled within her, alert to the call of action.
“Jak,” Stella breathed, squirming beneath him in that delightful, artlessly sensual way of hers. “Again?”
“Unless you’re too sore?”
“Not right now, I’m not.” She lifted her hips. “Though I can’t tell if I need you or if you need me.”
“Mirrors of one another,” he murmured, lifting his head to kiss her deeply, drowning in her. “We each need the other. Try this.” Holding her against him, he rolled, turning so he lay on his back. Still joined to him, she sat up, pushing back her wild mane of hair. Tousled, catching the light of the last flickering candles, it fell around her like a cape of black fire, framing the pale, delicate curves of her body. He cupped her small breasts, delighting in their sweet, soft fullness that just filled his palms, her nipples drawing the globes of them to taut and perfect peaks.
She arched into his touch, leaning into his hands and drawing her fingers in a titillating caress over his chest, flexing her hips experimentally—and drawing an answering arch from his spine. “My star,” he breathed, then lost himself in the delirious sight of her riding him, slowly and sensuously. Flickers of green fire sizzled from her fingertips, sparking through him to heat his blood even hotter. Feeling completely at the mercy of this dark sorceress, he succumbed to her rhythm, following her lead and giving her whatever she asked of him.
A knowing smile curved her lips, her eyes silver as the moon, and he half believed Moranu possessed his body now, milking his cock for her pleasure, and with a cry of ultimate surrender, he gave himself over to her, spending his seed, yielding everything to the woman he loved more than his own life.
He woke with the sunrise, the ship’s bells that lived forever inside his head tolling the advent of dawn, though the room remained dark as night, the heavy curtains drawn against the winter’s cold, the candles merely frozen pools of wax, the fire a sullen pile of coals.
Stella lay snuggled against him, a slight weight draped over his body, her head pillowed in the fold of his shoulder and hair streaming over the pillow she wasn’t using. With a smile of pure happiness, he drew the goose down comforter higher over her bare shoulder, cuddling her closer against him. We should stay like this forever.
He fervently wished they could. But the world would reach out to them. Jak couldn’t set aside that the intelligence seemed to be hunting Stella. That, along with her vision of being trapped in a tower in what surely must be an alter-realm, had him worrying. He’d do his utmost to protect her, to keep her safe—but how?
“You’re thinking awfully loudly for someone who should be asleep.” Stella lifted her head, pushing her hair out of her face, and blinked at him owlishly in the dimness.
He stroked a hand down her back, the graceful line of it as exquisite as the rest of her. “Sorry,” he murmured. “Go back to sleep.”
She settled back against him, snuggling like a kitten in her sweet softness. “You always wake up so early.”
“Sailor’s habit,” he replied wryly. “Plus I really need to piss.”
She giggled. “Me too.”
“Summon the servants with the chamber pots,” he suggested, “so we don’t have to leave this bed.”
“I’d rather summon them to bring a hot bath,” she reflected, trailing her fingers down his chest. “I feel sticky in every crevice.”
“You could just shapeshift clean.”
“It’s really not the same. I come back to human form clean, yes, but I don’t feel like I’ve washed, if that makes sense. I really want to wash.”
“Regrets?” He rolled his head on the pillow, trying to see her face.
She lifted her mouth to kiss him. “Only that I let being afraid hold me back from this for so long. I love you.”
“I love you,” he replied simply, returning the kiss, thanking all the goddesses for this moment. He’d made them a promise, so he’d find a way to protect Stella, no matter what happened.
Stella smiled impishly. “I also regret that we aren’t at Castle Elderhorst. I really loved having hot running water right in my room.”
“We’ll steal the design and replicate it at every place we live,” he promised.
“Groningen would no doubt share it freely if I asked.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” he complained. “But fine—whatever gets us hot running water, because I agree. That was the best.” Loathe as he was to leave the warm bed and warmer woman in it, he got out, shivering against the cold, and went to the bell pull that would summon servants. Finding his pants from the night before, he pulled them on. Stella was sitting up in the bed, bare-breasted, hair falling around her, watching him with an intent and solemn expression. “Everything all right?” he asked her.
“I like looking at you,” she admitted, somewhat shyly.
Crawling onto the bed, he kissed her with enough enthusiasm that she began giggling. He could spend his whole life making her laugh like that. “Look as much as you want,” he said. “I like looking at you, too.”
A knock at the door heralded the servants. He went to arrange for baths, received the tray of hot beverages the girl brought with her—a prescience he greatly appreciated—along with a message that they were expected for an intimate breakfast with the king and queen at a remarkably early hour for royalty. Stella had wrapped herself in a blanket to visit the attached bathing chamber and returned, taking the cup of sweetened black coffee he handed her. Her eyebrows went up at the first sip. “Annfwn coffee?”