Thirty Six

          I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It was always pleasantly warm and a touch humid near Asteria. I had found the cave with no trouble, skirting along the edge of the chasm around the fortress carefully, sticking to shadow where I could lessen the glare of light against my white wings so they could not give me away. I had met with no opposition, seen no shine of red eyes nor had I felt the shadow of dark ebon wing. I had flown the length of the cave and landed lightly at its other side where it opened into the abyss. I stood there, leaning my staff against a nearby rock within reach and felt vulnerable without my chain. I had dressed lightly in a red skirt and blouse. Sin had made it clear to me should I be seen in armor or with mace and shield anywhere outside Sanctums’ practice grounds my suspension would be a permanent one. I could not risk it, and so I wore only cloth and had flown carefully and set myself up for evasive maneuvers should they be necessary.

          I waited nervously, pacing gently watching the cave both where it deepened behind me where I had come in and where it opened out over the vast nothingness. The globe of fire that was a part of the Abyss and that gave Elysea its golden light gave me no indication of the time of day here, though I knew that sunset must be close in the land far below me. My chest felt tight and I wanted to gasp for breath my anxiety was so high but I forced myself to breathe slow, deep and even.

           The snap of feather and the flutter of cloth caused me to whirl and face the ledge; I caught a swirl of black wing and blue cloth and the fierce red glow of combat ready eyes as the thud and scrape of clawed feet caused me to start and he stood there, warm and alive and so very real it near broke my heart that we stood in proximity to one another once again. Elethor’s wings disappeared in a swirl of aether and he strode toward me eyes glowing fiercely his voice a rough growl as he said,

          “What are you doing here!? You should not have come!” but I was not afraid as he swept me into his arms and I wrapped my legs around his hips and he crushed his mouth over mine. He strode deeper back into the cave his momentum from his landing carrying us back until finally I was fetched up against the cavern wall. My head snapped back and our kiss was broken and I saw stars as my skull connected with the rough brown stone, but I didn’t have time to think, not with him so close, clawed hands on my ass holding me to him, braced between his solid body and the hard stone. I tightened my legs around him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders; my head was swimming, white starbursts still going off in my vision. His voice came to me, muffled as his lips played along my neck and collarbone. I shuddered in his embrace and tried to make sense of what he said to me. Finally he drew back, the red gone from his eyes, their color back to the beautiful crystal I loved so much and he asked me again…

          “Do you want this Sirona?” I pressed my lips to his and drew back to look him in the eyes and answered from my heart.

          “Yes. I want this Elethor; I want you more than anything.” He shook and bowed his head and said to me.

           “I cannot promise to be gentle.” I didn’t care and I held to him tighter and told him…

           “Then don’t be.” … and it was enough for him. He set me down, buttons from my blouse flying as he parted the material to kiss down my neck and across my breasts. I worked the buttons and clasps on the front of his tunic while he was occupied, dizzy with desire pushing the cloth back off his shoulders and down his arms, he let me and all too soon the silk fluttered and settled to lay forgotten on the cavern floor. He turned me then, fetching me against the wall once more, pinning me from behind with his body so tender with an edge of violence that left my pulse pounding in excitement. One of his hands he buried in the back of my hair stroking my neck the other working the clasp at my skirt, all the while so careful and mindful of his claws near my skin.

            He stopped his breath hot and lovely against the skin of my shoulder and he just held me there against the stone for several long moments. His lips rested against where the curve of my neck met the curve of my shoulder, playing lightly against the hollow there. My skirt slipped over my hips and down my legs to puddle on the cavern floor beside his tunic and we were still like that just wrapped in one another for a heartbeat. He spun me again and took both my wrists in one hand, claws gently prickling my wrists as he raised them above my head and pinned them against the rock wall his other hand working his belt loose before tearing the silk of my panties with a wet angry sound. He let go of my wrists and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders again as he lifted my hips and pinned me between himself and the wall again. My legs naturally wrapped around him and cradled him to me and we stared each other in the eye and he went very, very still.

           “Tell me again that you want this.” His voice was low and velvet to my ear and I could hear the restraint in it as he trembled, still quite the gentleman even after a thousand years of wanting.

           “I want you.” I said against his lips, my breath warm against my own mouth as I kissed him, flicking my tongue against his lower lip, my body strung tight with need wanting him to kiss me back. He groaned deep in his chest and crushed his mouth over mine once more tongue slipping passed my teeth to conquer my mouth completely and with a rounded movement of his hips he took me, fiercely gentle thrusting inside me… and the tears of joy leaked from the corners of my eyes and I held to him so tightly and we made love for the first and quite possibly the last time.

            He was rough but at the same time oh so careful not to hurt me. His movements deliberate and controlled, despite how he trembled to keep himself in check. He alternately held me helpless, wrists pinned against the wall in one hand while the other roamed freely across my body, and other times he let me touch him while his hands remained locked to my hips, thumbs caressing over my hip bones. He never gave up kissing me, his mouth trailing fire across my jaw, down my neck across my collarbone… My skin was awash in a tingling euphoria that was simply his effect on me, I could feel him trembling as his hold on me began to weaken through the sheer exertion it took to support us both despite the stone at my back. He withdrew from me and let me down, drawing me against his body as soon as my feet touched the ground.

              “Elethor…” I began but he cut me off.

              “No, no. I have not waited a thousand years to be sated so quickly. I am going to take my time with you keairrah.” He began to kneel with me in his arms and I sank to the ground with him, he laid me back carefully on a makeshift bed of our discarded clothes kissing me so softly. I buried my hands in the mane at the back of his neck as he cradled me close and moved me in a better position to take me and began his careful ministrations all over again. He stroked the side of my face and stared me in the eyes his other hand cradling my thigh as he pressed himself against me. He kissed me deeply as he sheathed himself in my body stroking himself so carefully over that place inside me, my body filling with pleasure as if it were water being poured into a cup. My breath came louder and in uneven gasps and I twined around Elethor’s body as if to pull myself through him with the need to be so close.

             He remained so careful with me, yet still with that edge of desperation that bordered on sheer roughness. He brought me several times, yet would not allow himself the same, always stopping or slowing to bring himself back from the brink, denying himself that final bit of release as long as he could until he could deny himself no longer and with a wrenching cry he drew me tightly to his chest and held me with such a crushing force that I never wanted him to let me go. He held me against him, for long moments after while I rested on his chest and listened to his heartbeat steady and slow. Our breathing slowed and evened as well, and the sweat dewing our skins began to cool and evaporate.

           I looked up at him and he kissed me softly and I kissed him back and finally he said what I had longed to hear for a thousand years…

            “I love you, Sirona… my keairrah. I love you.”