ELRETH

The world fell away.

She'd been eager to be close to him, shaking for it actually. But she'd forgotten how it was last time when he touched her, when their bodies sang together, forgotten how everything else disappeared until there was nothing but his skin, his breath, and the incredible feelings he wrung out of her body.

Something glittering with promise was rising inside her and she sought it, but didn't know how to find it.

But Aaryn did, apparently.

He'd begun by sliding his magical tongue into places she hadn't even imagined tongues should ever go. At first she was mortified. But then she shuddered and the wave within her began to build.

He danced on her flesh, flicking, pulsing pressure, and long slides that made her hold her breath. One hand pressing down on her hip, the other cupping her calf.

He dipped, and rolled, and flicked and her body shuddered again and again, the strange mix of thrill and heat and cold promising something.

Something.

"Aaryn!" she gasped again. She didn't have words, didn't know what to say. Didn't even know how she was supposed to respond to this. But every time she cried out to him, or her hands slapped on his shoulders because she was near-blind with lust, he chuckled, or hummed and her eyes wanted to roll back in her head.

Her hips kept rolling without her permission. She gripped his hair in both fists and had to fight not to pull him in.

Then, with the hand cupped at her calf, he lifted her leg and put it over his shoulder and the angle changed, and Elreth began to keen.

"Aar… Aaryn… I…" she panted, shuddering, her skin prickling under his touch.

"Just relax, El," he whispered against her, and the movement of his lips made her suck in.

Then he set to work again and she lost the ability to judge time. Her entire world became his hard shoulders, his tongue, and then, as she began to tense, and clench, as her belly began to trill, he slid one finger inside her and curled it up, as if he beckoned her to come to him.

And she exploded.

A high pitched keen, broken by her panting breath, echoed around the bathing pools. She would have been embarrassed, but her entire body was jolted, broken under a wave of sheer pleasure the likes of which she'd never imagined. Her skin felt too tight, her muscles too loose. And as Aaryn cursed and continued to wring every little sensation from her, she wanted to weep.

Then suddenly, she twitched, the air left her lungs in a heaving groan, and she sat bolt upright, trembling.

Aaryn rose out of the water like a creature from the deep, the water sluicing down his torse as she pulled him up and he buried his fingers in her hair and pulled her into the most frantic kiss they'd shared.

He was hard against her thigh, rubbing himself at the crease where her thigh met her torso, and she suddenly realized…

He hadn't felt that pleasure. He'd only given it to her.

With a shaking hand she reached for him and he groaned. "Tell me how," she whispered against his mouth. "Tell me what you like."

He pulled away slightly then and, holding her eyes, took her hand at the wrist and pulled it up. Without breaking eye contact, he licked her palm, then placed her hand back on him, groaning and his head dropping back as he showed her gently how to hold him, and the slow-but-increasing stroke that made his body shake.

"Oh, El…" he groaned, fisting her hair with one hand and kissing her as if he might die if he didn't.

When she had it right and he was beginning to twitch, he opened his eyes and looked down at her. She was too aware of how her legs were spread open for him to stand between them, how his eyes hooded when he looked at her breasts pressed together by her arms. But he swore under his breath, then groaned again and cupped her breast with his free hand.

Then he gripped the back of her neck and his jaw slackened as his breath began to tear in his throat. "El, please don't stop… please don't stop…" he gasped.

So, she didn't, increasing the pace and pressure of her stroke as he began to thrust into her grip.

He cursed under his breath, over and over, then with a low, guttural groan, he spasmed, bellowing her name until it echoed through the cavern, pulling her close as he twitched and jerked, his body overwhelmed with pleasure.

Watching him lose control like that made her belly fizz again.

Then he slumped, cupping her face in one hand, he dropped his lips to her hair and clung to her.

His entire body trembled.

"That was… incredible…" he breathed.

"Are you okay?" she asked, awed by how completely he'd been overcome by the experience.

"Oh, El," he rasped, pulling her chin up so he could meet her eyes, his own blazing with a fierce light of love. "I am so much more than okay, you gorgeous, amazing woman."

He kissed her, still desperate, but more gentle this time, a little slower. She whimpered as that trilling ache started in her belly again when his tongue danced with hers.

"So much for getting clean," he whispered into her ear, then chuckled.

She giggled and pulled him in, kissing him. "I don't know what that was… but I think I'm going to write into law that everyone needs to do that at least once a week."

Aaryn spluttered, but kissed her again and as their breathing began to slow, then return to normal, their kiss softened with it.

She gripped his waist and held him close, suddenly not quite so shy. Not quite so worried about her own nakedness.

Then he pulled back and combed her hair away from her face, staring at her, shaking his head in awe.

"I love you, El," he murmured. "So much I can't even put it into words."

She nodded, swallowing tears. "I love you too. And I'm… I don't even know how to say it… but I'm grateful. Thank you for not giving up on me, Aaryn."

He groaned like he fought emotion too, then let himself tumble backwards into the water, pulling her with him until they were both neck-deep in the warm water, their bodies throbbing, but sated, though Elreth wondered how long she would remain so. As soon as he kissed her, she began to shake again.

"At least once a week, huh?" he said dryly a minute later when they broke the kiss.

"Is that possible?" she said, suddenly uncertain.

Aaryn laughed. "Oh, my gorgeous mate, just you wait."