Shameless: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (The Carnal Court Book 3) Page 2

  Aeric pulls my hands in front of me and wraps my wrists in the remnants of fabric, binding them together before he sheds his own clothes. He’s so incredibly beautiful, and I don’t know that I’ve ever had the chance to properly and thoroughly explore him. Pale green skin with darker, swirling marks like tattoos flowing over his back, arms, and shoulders. Hair that’s such a dark green it shimmers like the feathers of an exotic bird. And eyes like the vibrant forest, pinning me in place as he reaches out, spins me and pushes me onto the bed on my knees.

  With my hands tied this feels so much more vulnerable than otherwise, and I shiver. Aeric’s hands skim my hips with his fingers before climbing up behind me. He doesn’t wait or ease into his thrusts, he takes me in one thrust—just like I told him too. I moan, sinking deeper into the bed, unable to balance properly.

  Aeric’s chest is hard against my back, entirely heat and power and dominance. I’m bathed in waves of magic every time he drives into me, my own magic swirling up to meet his. It feels like all the oxygen in the world is gone. Aeric is fucking me, swift and brutal and I can’t catch my breath. I’m drowning in him.

  Fingers tangle in my hair and Aeric pulls me up onto my knees, not losing the furious pace that he’s set. His hand slips that same around my throat. It’s not a threat, just a restraint, holding me flush to his body while he takes what he needs. I lean back into him, surrendering to the feeling of him in control. My pussy is so wet that I’m dripping, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the feeling of being impaled.

  The magic flowing through me is glowing under my skin—throwing shadows on the walls and spiraling into my gut. It steals my breath. Aeric’s mouth is on my skin, biting lightly into my shoulder while his free hand once again finds my clit. I’m overloaded with sensation and on the brink of tumbling into another climax, so I force the words out that I know he expects. “May I come?”

  Aeric bites harder, soothing the sting with his tongue before he groans a single syllable: “No.”

  My mind goes blank. I can’t think, can’t breathe, only try not to give in to what my body is begging to do. I reach for his hand—still stroking my swollen clit—to slow him down but my hands are bound and I am at his mercy. “Please, Aeric,” I beg him. I can’t take much more. Soon I won’t have the choice.

  Lips on my neck, rumbling on my skin. “You will wait for me.”

  I can’t stay quiet anymore, my voice pouring out of me in moans and whispers, asking over and over again to come even though I know that the answer will be the same. He will tell me when he’s ready. I’ll ask anyway.

  Aeric thrusts harder into me, and deeper, if that’s even possible. He fills me completely, groaning with every move of his hips. “Now,” he grits out. “Come with me now.”

  His magic flares in me and on me, carrying me over the edge and I collapse into bliss, unable to even scream. It’s an eclipse of pleasure—it blocks everything else out. Aeric hollers his own climax, voice echoing off the walls and filling me with heat.

  The fingers on my clit don’t stop moving and so it feels like my orgasm doesn’t stop. I’m shuddering and shaking and completely spent when Aeric slips out of me and lays down with me on the bed. He unties my hands and gathers me against his chest, both of us trying to catch our breath. That was visceral and needed. Almost feral.

  My mate tilts my face up to his, kissing me with equal tenderness and heat. He rolls over me, pressing me down into the mattress with his weight, pinning me in place just as effectively as when he bound my hands. I raise an eyebrow. “That was different.”

  Aeric smirks, and it’s the most normal that I’ve seen him today. “Bad different?”

  No, that certainly wasn’t bad. I bite my lip as I shake my head. “No. I just…I didn’t know.” He raises a questioning brow. “That you liked that kind of control. I mean I did, and I didn’t.” A blush rises to my cheeks and I stutter trying to get the words out. “You’ve held me in place before but never used…anything else.”

  He searches my face carefully before speaking. “You seemed to like that I did.”

  I don’t think I’ve ever felt my face so hot. I never thought that I’d be the kind of girl to like that—being tied up—but then again, none of this is something that I thought I would be into. “Yes,” I say. “Not every time, but yes.”

  He grins. “No, not every time.”

  Reaching up, I run my fingers through his hair. “If you like to be in control then why are you not—”

  “In the Court of Dominance?” He finishes my question for me.

  “Yeah.”

  I’m very distracted by his fingers, which are tracing patterns on my neck just below my ear. “Because my power still flows from physical pleasure, and not directly from the exchange of power. I like to be in control because I find it pleasurable, and I know what it can bring me…and you. But I don’t desire submission the way someone in that Court would.”

  “Why do you like it?”

  Aeric doesn’t answer at first. He grabs my wrists in his hands and pulls them over my head, holding them there. In spite of myself my pulse kicks up a notch, and it’s not lost on me that I can feel my heart beating between my legs. “Because of that,” he says, leaning down and kissing my chest. “It sharpens pleasure. I like knowing that you’re bound for me and no one else. That I have you exactly where I want you. That you’re mine.”

  The word is so fierce that it makes my heart ache. I am his. But I’m not only his. Taking my hands back from him, he doesn’t stop me when I raise his gaze to mine. “I need to know what happened,” I say softly. “I thought you would be happy.”

  He looks away. “I am happy.”

  “It doesn’t seem that way.” He sighs, and I feel some tension comes back into his body. “Talk to me, Aeric. Please.”

  “I grew up in a family like this.”

  My eyebrows rise into my hairline. “Your mother had multiple mates?”

  “No,” he shakes his head. “Our situation is unique and rare, but she did have three different partners. And it—” A slow, even breath. “It was not easy. Even though her partners all loved her, they were not friends. Adding to the fire was the fact that she would not tell them who I belonged to. It caused resentment.”

  Now my heart is aching for a different reason. “Did they hurt you?”

  “No. I wasn’t as badly off as Verys, or others that I know. But there wasn’t any investment or care either. Until my magic settled and proved whose child I was. But by then it was too little, too late.

  “I swore that I would never do that. I would never be a part of a family like that. I wanted a mate. I wanted someone who was only mine. So there would never be any questions about loyalty or whose children were whose.” He smiles at me gently. “And then there was you.”

  The moment hangs between us. It lasts forever and no time at all.

  Slowly, softly, he brushes my mouth with his. “I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t fathom that it had happened. Not only that the Goddess had given me what I had asked for, but she’d done it in the way I’d wanted the least. I tried not to want you.” He can’t meet my eyes when he says that last part. “But there was never a moment I didn’t. I knew from the moment I saw you, you were all there was for me.”

  He rests his head on my chest, and I hold him there, wrapping myself around him as best I can, blinking away tears. “Aeric, you know that I would never force you—”

  “No.” The word comes from him fast as a whip. The raw look on his face matches his voice. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever doubt that I want you. That I love you. It’s just that this isn’t as easy for me as it seems to be for everyone else.”

  I laugh softly, snuggling down underneath him more so that our faces are closer. Without moving too much, Aeric reaches and pulls up a blanket over us together. “It’s not easy,” I say. “It’s not. There’s a reason we’ve been taking it slower. For me? Learning about all of you is a big job, and it’s going to take time. I should
have noticed it before.”

  Aeric kisses the sensitive space below my ear. “This isn’t your fault. It’s my history. And I’m lucky. I’m sharing a mate with my closest friends. And I like Kent and Urien too. I just—” His jaw works, and he looks anywhere but at me. “I want you to be mine.”

  “I am yours,” I tell him. When he looks at me I silence what he’s about to say before he can even speak it. “I know that’s not what you meant. But it’s true. I am yours. I belong to you. But I belong to them too,” I say softly.

  “I know,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

  I take his face in my hands and make sure that he’s looking at me. “Jealousy isn’t a crime. And it’s not exactly avoidable in situations like this. We’re all new at this, and figuring out what we need.”

  We rest together for a moment, and I can sense his relief, and his frustration. Despite his desire for me and for peace about my other mates, he can’t help but feel how he feels. Magic is spinning in my gut, but it’s not the Goddess’s borrowed magic, it’s mine. It’s reaching for Aeric like a flower seeking the sun. Yearning for him. “I love you,” I say. “So much that I don’t understand it.”

  He looks at me, but says nothing. His arms curl underneath me, holding me closer.

  “I can’t promise to be only yours,” I say.

  For a moment Aeric looks stricken. “I would never ask you to do that.”

  “I know,” I say, smiling. “But I can be only yours for a little while.”

  Aeric goes completely still in the way that only fae can do. “Kari.”

  “Bond with me.” The words are out there, and I can’t take them back. I don’t want to. My little piece of magic leaps in response to the idea, stretching and purring, reaching out to Aeric’s power almost without me helping it.

  He’s silent and still so long that I wonder for a moment if he’s turned to stone. “If you want to,” I finally add.

  “Want to?” his mouth collides with mine, his magic blazing so bright I have to close my eyes against it. He’s hard and aching between is, molding our bodies together so tightly I’m not sure where either of us end. “Want doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel about that.”

  “And you’ll be all right?” I ask. “When it happens with the others?”

  “Right away? Probably not,” he says, and I love him for being truthful. “But I will be, eventually. I’m not going to let history repeat itself. I love you too much, and respect them too much, for that.”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Right now it’s just you and me,” I say, and Aeric’s self-satisfied smile makes me laugh. “You guys said it was—”

  He takes the words out of my mouth. “A selfless act of pleasure. If you were fae, it would be mutual pleasure. But since you’re human…” he trails off and places his lips to my ear with a whisper so soft it makes me shiver. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve imagined your mouth on my cock?”

  A tendril of his magic tangles with mine, small and intimate and sparking heat under my skin. I slip out from under his body and off the bed, reaching at the last moment to catch him by the hand and pull him with me. I’m moving on instinct, kneeling in front of him, those delicate coils of magic still linked together, twisting and dancing.

  This feels important for him and me, this kneeling and this offering. And at the same time I know deep in my gut that this might not be the way it happens with the others. Sudden nerves sparkle along my spine. What will it feel like? To be bound to another person? Forever? Feel their emotions along with mine?

  “Kari?” Aeric says.

  I manage to laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever been nervous about a blow job before.”

  He strokes his hand through my hair. “I understand.” Then he smiles. “But I’m still looking forward to it.”

  Aeric’s cock is gorgeous up close, fading from a dark green near the base to a much paler green near the head. He’s thick too, and when I wrap my hand around him I marvel at the size. I haven’t been this close to any of my fae mate’s cocks except for Verys before he stopped me. The temptation is too big for me—I like being the source of that kind of pleasure.

  Ignoring the nerves that are still jangling I lean forward and press my lips to his skin. Just the barest brush at first, breaking the contact barrier. Aeric hisses out a breath and the fingers still in my hair tighten. The tangled strands of our magic brighten, green and violet together, dancing.

  Slowly, I drag my lips down Aeric’s shaft and kiss my way back up. He’s so hard that his cock jerks under my lips, and he groans. I smirk up at him. “I haven’t even used my tongue yet.”

  I can see his jaw working as he grits his teeth. “I know.”

  The tail end of his words transform into a moan so raw it makes me wet just hearing it. I’ve covered him with my mouth, sucking just the tip. Aeric’s fingers spasm in my hair before gripping. Tightening. Guiding me forward.

  The nerves fade away as I sink down onto his cock. With Aeric guiding me, it all clicks into place. He likes to be in control, and with him, it seems, I like to give it. I like the sensation of his shaft gliding across my tongue and the friction of him slipping between my lips. Deeper, and deeper still.

  I already taste him, traces of pleasure and magic that make their way onto my tongue. He tastes exactly what I imagine his power tastes like—like mint and Christmas spices and cardamom. I move faster, diving onto his cock and pulling back before taking all of him again, and Aeric lets me do it. His hand on my head—for the moment—is a reminder of his presence and his power and his control if he wishes to use it.

  Aeric’s gaze is locked on me. So when I look up at him—my mouth full of him—I’m treated to a look so full of lust that I start to shake. Energy is spinning back and forth between us at a pace I can’t keep up with. The only thing I can do is focus on his cock, and I do.

  I take him deeper, stretching myself to the limit to take as much as possible. I’ve always been good at this part. The few lovers I’ve had in the past have assured me of that, and Aeric’s curse under his breath assures me of it now. His cock is at the back of my throat, and I can take more of him—can swallow him all the way, but I don’t. It’s instinct again, holding me back.

  I need to taste him. Swallow his power by choice and not because I can deep throat him—though I will certainly be doing that in the future. I suck him harder, changing my rhythm to one that swings. Down fast, back slow, and again. I pause when I reach the head of his cock, brushing under it with my tongue, and I’m rewarded with seeing him shudder, abs in front of me tightening.

  Magic pulses from me and from him, and I swear to the goddess that I can feel it beginning to merge and to bind. It’s not scary the way I thought it might be. Instead it’s soothing. I don’t have any questions about what to do, only to keep going. Follow the mating instinct. That same impulse has me folding my hands behind my back and sucking him harder. Faster. Careening towards the inevitable end. A selfless act of pleasure.

  I don’t notice the moment that he takes control. It’s so seamless that I can’t doubt it. Aeric pulls my mouth deeper onto his cock while he thrusts his hips, and I relax into perfect peace and pleasure.

  “Kari.” My name is rough on his lips, and his movements become erratic. I look up at him to find his eyes locked on mine, and it’s then that he comes. His hand fists in my hair and he holds his cock deep in my mouth, spilling heat and magic across my tongue.

  I don’t look away as I swallow him, power flowing down and in and through. I feel it happen. The threads of magic that were drawn towards each other like magnets fuse. His magic flows into me and settles in my chest, behind my breastbone. At the same time, I feel a little piece of my magic disappear into him. And in its place I feel an echo right where that magic is settled.

  Awe.

  Pleasure.

  Love.

  Gratitude.

  Neither Aeric nor I have looked away. Those are his emotions that I�
�m feeling like reflections. Present but separate. Tinged with the flavor of his magic, and so rightly settled in my mind I wonder how I lived without this knowledge of him.

  Through the bond I can sense that he feels the same. There’s no thoughts, just the shape of things and emotions. But I also feel that I could put through words. If I tried.

  Aeric pulls himself from my lips and lifts me off the floor in one swift motion into his arms. The tears I’ve had to keep fighting back this morning overflow. Not from sadness, but from the overwhelming relief and love I feel from Aeric.

  Stretching me out on the bed, he’s suddenly kissing my skin—kissing any part of me that he can reach and roaming with his hands. I feel his intention: to show me exactly how deep his love is. That he wants to give me selfless pleasure back. To savor me.

  “Aeric.” I pull him back to where we were before, with our faces close and his comforting weight on me. “Just hold me.”

  “I want to make you moan, Kari. I want to feel you come.”

  “You will,” I whisper, letting him feel what I’m feeling. “I want that too. But for a little while, I just want to feel how this feels.”

  He rolls to the side, cradling me against his chest. I can feel his contentment and satisfaction, and underlying it all, his happiness. I love you. I send the words as clearly as I can through this new space that connects me forever to him.

  He doesn’t have to speak to send it back, the feeling ringing so deep and so true that I won’t ever forget it.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ________

  AERIC

  My mate. My mate. My mate.

  My heart seems to beat with those two words. I can feel her. Like her own heart is fluttering next to mine. It’s overwhelming, sensing her emotions like they’re my own. And all I can think is Thank you.