I lifted her up and spun her around, her legs wrapping around my waist. She tucked her head into mine and ravaged my lips, my chin, my cheeks, my jaw, nibbling at my neck.
I shoved aside the small tools and ornaments on the workbench and set her down, back pressed into it. She pawed at my pants, dropping them down, just as I did the same to her, stripping one, boot-clad leg out.
I spun her around and pressed her back low, finding my way under her shirt, memorizing the shape of her spine with my fingertips, and she was soon hugging the workbench. She giggled, lifting one leg a little, as I eased in behind her.
As I gripped her hips and slid my hard cock into her wet, tight, warm, inviting pussy from behind, she gripped the wooden bench and then smacked her hand to her mouth to stop herself from screaming.
Her hips were perfect grips in my hands. I flexed my fingertips into their flesh, pulling her back into me with each thrust, mesmerized by how well we fit together.
Zaya crooked her elbow across her mouth and bit her sleeve as I thrust in and out of her, her moans screams muffled into the clothing.
I opened my mind to her… She was there, waiting to hear my thoughts and embrace my soul...
“Come into me harder, harder!”
“You’re so damn tight, I don’t want to hurt you. I will never hurt you, Zaya… I will do everything I can to protect you… You are mine, and I am yours…” I still pummeled her, her body rocking back into me and then clenching the workbench, but I was wrapped in a warmth of undeniable connection with her that made each movement feel like the flow of a waterfall, cascading, crashing downward, overflowing power and intensity.
I was starting to see sparks and snowflakes mingle inside, and I couldn’t tell which was inside the shed and which was out. My hands pulsed rippling ribbons of glowing light into her ripe, luscious ass as I touched it. She looked back at me as I gripped her hips harder, I could barely see her face through my climax-blurred eyes, and when I saw she was crying, it tipped me over the edge, a crashing crescendo of orgasm, ricocheting lights and butterfly wings through my entire body, torn asunder by the most painful feeling I had ever experienced: that of her sorrow.
I gasped, trying to catch my breath, bending over her, weak-kneed, afraid I was going to fall to the ground. She slipped my cock out of her and spun to catch me into her arms, hugging me close to her. I couldn’t believe how good she felt, how beautiful she smelled, how her smile lit up my entire body.
I steadied myself, and we pulled on our clothes in silence. She couldn’t take her eyes off me, worried and tense, tears still trailing down her cheeks.
I pulled her close and brushed the tears away. “If you have--”
“It’s Blatson, Cartari. That’s who I have been running from. I’m his pledged bride. He bought me a year ago. I’ve lived at different compounds since then. I finally escaped when I was going to the southern precinct to do some shopping for our upcoming wedding. But… I slipped up and got caught. That’s why I was in jail… And I can’t… I just don’t know… I mean, Blatson must know you are with me and he will never sign a trade deal with the man who has his soon-to-be wife.”
She clearly struggled over the last word. Her hands had been pulling at my clothes the whole time she spoke and she was hardly able to meet my eyes. When she said the word wife, my heart sank low, squelched in the agony of imagining her with another man, even pledged to another man. It just couldn’t be… She is mine.
She had told me… Finally… It was Blatson that I needed to fear in this regard. And the best thing I could do for Farian was to hand her over. A goodwill gesture. I could even lie and say that had been my plan all along, to bring her here. I could win back the trade deal, that, she was right, was most likely lost, by giving her up.
She knew it, too.
“I know what you should do, Cartari. I can see it on your face without even needing to read your mind. It will be best for Farian, and maybe for Vailstor, too, if you give me to him. And maybe that would work, maybe I would be able to escape again, if he doesn’t kill me…”
I grabbed her flurrying hands and held them to my lips, kissing them all over, smiling at her with my eyes as she looked at me in surprise.
“Zaya, you’re my Destin. I’m not using you as a tool in a trade negotiation. That was never a possibility. You have my heart. Giving you to Blatson would be giving myself. And I like myself far too much to do that.”
I winked at her as she pulled me into a tight hug, ecstatic, her emotions rebounding off our mental connection in a blurry, euphoric, sad, loving, tender, excited, hopeful mess of emotions that I couldn’t imagine having tied up inside me.
I held her tightly and soothed her hair as the snowflakes started to fall more profoundly outside the window. I knew what I had to do. There was only one solution to this. I had one goal with a nebulous plan… It was without official declaration by Farian, but, hey, I was the only Farian here. It was my decision to make. Besides, if the General knew who I was, and who I was with, the decision might already be made for me.
Eighteen
Cartari
I threaded my way through the forest, heart beating quickly,
