My hard nipples skim his thighs as I wrap my lips around his head. I bob shallowly at first and then gradually take Ryn deeper and deeper into my throat. I hum appreciatively when he moans my name. Wrapping my palm around his base, I work in time with my mouth to make him feel like I’m taking all of him in my throat.
I clench around nothing as he threads his fingers in my hair, bucking into my mouth and worshipping me with his moans and praise. Out of nowhere, he pulls my mouth off his cock and pulls my lips up to his.
“Hey!” I protest, and he laughs.
“I want to come in your cunt, Falon, not your throat,” he declares, his lips kissing me into submission.
He pulls away and palms my breast, dropping his mouth to suck on my nipples as I reach down and position him at my entrance. I drop down on top of him, and sure enough, I come right away. Incredible sensation shoots out to the tips of my body and then gets sucked back to where his cock is buried deep inside of me. I ride him and my orgasm as it ricochets through my body.
I grind against his base until his brown curls are soaked with my release and his lips are against my ear.
“Yes, that’s where you belong, my Huntress. Your body against mine, your lips screaming my name, your cum all over my dick, my mouth, my fingers. This is where you should always be, and this is my place now too. I live now to feel you spasm with pleasure around me. I exist to worship you, your mind, your heart, your body. You’re mine now,” Ryn declares.
He flips me onto my back and lets his body claim me the way his words are trying to. I throw my head back and float on all the exquisite sensations his dick and mouth are calling from my body. He nips at my neck and jaw, palms my breasts, and he fucks me hard. It’s all so good that my staccato moans turn into a steady thrum of just his name spilling out of my lips. Ryn bites at my shoulder hard enough to register the pressure but not enough to break the skin. He buries himself between my thighs and roars out his release, the meat of my shoulder still between his teeth. His thrusts get more and more shallow as he empties himself inside of me. Then suddenly, just when it seems like things are slowing down, he grinds into me, and it hits everything just right and sends me over the edge one more time.
He plays with my nipples as I come apart again, chuckling when I slap his hands away. He rests his forehead between my breasts, and we both work to catch our breaths. He doesn’t pull out of me, and for some reason, I’m grateful for that. It’s as though we’re floating in this in-between world of pleasure and connection and intimacy. But the minute he moves, it will shatter. I’ll have to crash back down to a world where I don’t belong, dealing with shit that’s way out of my paygrade.
I just want to stay in this moment, Ryn between my thighs, pleasure echoing in ripples of warmth through me.
I play with the short strands of his brown hair. The light catches streaks of blond as the locks move through my fingers, and it’s like the sun is proudly pointing out all the places it’s kissed his soft hair over time. Ryn’s fingers trace up and then back down my sides in a slow, hypnotizing rhythm.
“We’ll be leaving by the end of the week,” he tells me, his voice and body relaxed against mine.
“What?” I ask, surprised by that statement.
He looks up at me, his gray eyes studying my face. “I had to change the normal exit strategy to accommodate you and several others who have been working behind the scenes here, but it’s all arranged. Five more days, and we can all be free of this place forever.”
“And go where?” I ask.
Ryn’s brow dips as if he thinks the question is odd. “We go with the Hidden and put an end to this war once and for all,” he states, like it should be obvious.
Zeph’s face surfaces slowly in my mind until it comes into focus. It’s as though I can still feel his hands around my throat and see the way his face contorted with cold rage when he told me to leave. His words play back in my head as if he’s snarling them at me still.
“Get home if you can, hide if you can’t, and hope a Cynas gets to you before the Avowed can, or worse, the Ouphe dregs track you down.”
“You’ll throw me to the wolves, just like that?”
“It’s where your kind belongs. Oh and, Falon, if you ever come back here, I’ll kill you myself.”
Ryn’s fingers tracing up my side pull me from the memory, and I shiver, not able to help it. Ryn doesn’t notice, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. I watch as he debates something for a moment. His eyes go far away for a beat and then they focus on me again as he settles on a decision.
“I was sent here to find information on what Zeph and I think might be a secret weapon. I found it, and now we can destroy the Vow once and for all,” he tells me, like this solves everything.
“Wow,” I state in response, not sure what else to say.
Ryn must hear hesitation in my tone, because he sits back, like my lack of excitement just slapped him across the face. He pulls out of me, and just like I suspected, I feel the peace around us shatter. I sit up, and we both stare at each other for a moment.
“What am I missing here?” he finally asks, and I release a deep weary breath.
“I can’t go back, Ryn. I want you to be where you’re safe, so I understand that you have to go, but that’s not an option for me. I’m still trying to get home, and I think I may be able to figure out how...here.”
The line in my mother’s journal about my gran finding a way for them to be safe resonates in my mind. Gran was a gryphon, and yet she must have figured out that there was something going on with the gates. I’m hoping there’s a book or something in the archives that will help me figure them out. It may take ages to find it, but I sure as hell won’t find it with the Hidden. Especially not if Zeph kills me, like he promised to do.
Ryn’s eyes harden, and his nostrils flare with anger. I can tell he’s trying to control his breathing, but the fury is etched all over his face.
“Your place is here, Falon. This is home now,” he declares, slapping his palm against his chest. He angrily gestures in the direction of Kestrel City. “You can’t stay here. It’s not safe, and I can’t just leave you. That’s not in me.”
“Ryn...” I start. “Zeph—”
“This isn’t about Zeph!” Ryn snaps, cutting me off. “I know you two got off on the wrong foot, but he doesn’t trust easily. If you knew what he has been through—”
“I don’t fucking care what he’s been through,” I shout at Ryn, not meaning it, but pissed all the same.
I get up and move in the direction of my clothes. Ryn steps in my way.
“He put his hands around my throat and told me if he ever saw me again, he’d kill me. This is about Zeph, and I can’t go back.”
Ryn opens his mouth to argue, but I shut it down.
“We fucked, it’s fine. You don’t owe me anything, and I don’t expect anything. I’m not some weepy girl who gets too attached because you stuck your dick in me. Maybe I’m not safe here, but I wasn’t safe with the Hidden either. I wish you all the best with this war. I just hope I can get as far away from it as possible,” I tell him, and then I try to step around him.
He blocks my path again.