"In his arms, I was not a Fae with dangerous magic or a secret to guard. I was just Caelan. And somehow, that was enough."
His breath warmed my skin, his body a firm wall above me, and yet, it was the way he looked at me that undid me most. Like I was a secret the sea had whispered into his bones. Like he did not know whether to worship me or fear me. My fingers curled into his hair, dragging him closer. I could not breathe unless he was near.
A trembling breath left my lips. "I need you," I whispered hoarse, aching, raw with want and truth. "Not just now. Not just this." I pressed my forehead to his, swallowing the tremor in my voice. "I need you, just like the tide needs the moon. Like I have needed you before I ever knew your name."
His eyes darkened. His jaw clenched like he was holding back something deeper than desire, something fragile, sacred. And when he kissed me again, it was not just fire, and it was home. Morkai did not answer me with words, and his hands spoke instead. Fingers trailed across my jaw like I was something precious, something that terrified him to touch too roughly. He kissed me with reverence, like he was still trying to understand how I was real.
And I let myself fall into him completely, willingly. His weight above me was grounding, anchoring me to this moment. My thighs wrapped tighter around his waist, drawing him impossibly close. My hands gripped his shoulders, tracing the rise and fall of every muscle, every scar, every inch of the man who had ruled an abyss but looked at me like I was the storm that shook his core.
Every brush of his skin against mine sent my senses spinning and but it was more than lust. It was the way his breath stuttered when our foreheads touched again. The way his fingers trembled as they slid through my hair. The way he looked into my eyes, searching, almost afraid.
"Caelan…" he whispered, voice rough, unsteady.
My name had never sounded so fragile or sacred, and I reached up, brushing his hair back, letting my fingers linger on the side of his face.
"I'm not going anywhere," I murmured, heart thundering in my chest. "So don't hold back."
A sharp breath escaped him, and then he leaned down, kissed me again, deeper this time. Messy and Desperate. Magic stirred between us, slow and powerful, our powers mingling, not just dancing around each other now, but fusing like they had always been meant to meet. My skin lit with golden threads of my Fae magic. His darker, oceanic aura surged in response, curling over my skin like a tide tasting the shore. We moved together, no rush, no need to dominate, just feel. There was something sacred in the way we touched. In the gasps, the sighs, the way we clung to each other like this was the only truth we had ever known.
And when we finally stilled, wrapped in tangled limbs and heavy breaths, the silence between us was not awkward or heavy. It was full and complete. Morkai pulled me into his arms, his chin resting on the crown of my head. I could hear the beat of his heart slow, steady, real.
"I don't understand what this is," he said quietly, his thumb brushing lazy circles on my hip. "But I know I want more of it."
I closed my eyes and smiled softly into his chest. "So do I."
And for once, in the strange safety of this cursed palace and tangled fate, I felt wanted, seen, and just maybe, loved. His hands roamed slowly at first, reverent as if memorizing me through touch alone. And I let him. I welcomed it.
"Morkai…" I breathed, barely recognizing the way my voice trembled. My body arched into his, craving everything his warmth, his weight, the power that coiled just beneath his skin. He growled softly at the sound of his name from my lips, the noise so raw, so low it sent a jolt straight through my chest. His mouth was back on mine, hot, demanding, not asking but claiming, and I melted into him, my soul catching fire with every stroke of his tongue.
I did not realize I was trembling until his hand cupped my cheek again, grounding me.
"Look at me," he whispered, voice husky. I did.
And gods, the way he looked at me and not like a weapon or an object of fate. He looked at me like I was his, like I was everything he did not know he needed.
"I need you," I whispered again, this time not out of desperation, but truth. "All of you."
A flash of something passed through his eyes. Hunger. Devotion. Fear. But he did not hesitate. He lowered himself over me, one hand braced beside my head, the other sliding down my side like he was anchoring himself to the feel of my body.
"I am yours, Caelan," he said, voice raw. "Even if I shouldn't be."
That was all it took. I surged up, kissing him like the world was ending and he was the only salvation I had ever known. We moved together with growing urgency, no longer careful, no longer hesitant. It was feverish, breathless, wild. Our magic sparked around us like a living storm, his abyss surging into my light, my ancient power rising to meet his, twining together in something almost sacred.
Every sound he made lit my nerves aflame, and every sigh that escaped me drew a shiver from him.
His mouth trailed down my neck, across my collarbone, and I gasped, clutching at him, my legs tightening around his waist.
"You drive me mad," he murmured against my skin.
"Then lose yourself in me," I said, not begging, offering. Because I was already his.
Morkai undressed me in a matter of minutes, and he ripped his clothes off his body, and when he pressed his body on mine and we rolled on the bed, rubbing on each other and moaning in pleasure. Morkai kissed me, his tongue driving me wide as he rubbed his cock on mine, and I gasped as how large he felt. I ended the kiss and then pushed Morkai on the bed and got on top of him and my eyes widened as how beautiful his cock was. I leaned down and heard the hitched breath that rose on Morkai, and I smiled as I leaned down and licked his cock and loved how he tasted.
"Oh Sweetheart" Morkai hands went to my hair, and he held it as I proceeded to push his cock into my mouth and gagged at the first swallow as Morkai cock was too large for me to take it. I moaned into it, and it came out as hum and fuck, his cock enlarged, and I gagged again and pushed it out.
"Your majesty, "I whispered in a rasped and then I heard the light chuckle that came from Morkai, and I raised my head, and our eyes clashed. His blue eyes met my green ones, and fire rose between us, and Morkai pulled me up, and we kissed hungrily.
My body trembled from the haze, and Morkai turned and pinned me on the bed, and rasped, "Caelan, this is a first, and if we do it, it will sizzle the Abyss and make the Pearl Castle tremble, and this is called the Tide bonding. If the Abyss mates, the whole realm will feel the Abyss feel it. "
"What?" I gasped in shock. He groaned and attempted to get off me, and I pulled him back. "Are you saying that if we fuck the whole Emerald Gulf will feel it?"
"Yes," Morkai's nose flared, and he moved to lick my lips. "The perks of being an Abyssal Sovereign"
" Shit" I chuckled as I rubbed myself on him and we moaned together and rubbed one other, friction and the our lips locked and then over and over rubbing until Morkai grabbed both our cocks and rubbed them faster and the orgasm hit both us and Morkai swallowed all my moans and it was a while before we came down from the high.
The room was quiet now, eerily still, save for the rhythmic sound of our breathing.
I lay draped across his chest, my body still humming from the aftershocks of what we had shared. My skin was flushed, slick with sweat, and glowing faintly where our magic had mingled, kissed, clashed. Morkai's fingers idly traced circles against the small of my back, like he could not bear the thought of breaking contact. For the first time in a long time, my body felt not just used or wanted but cherished. Worshipped. And it terrified me. Then, quieter, "You healed something in me."
His hand stilled. The silence stretched between us, full of things neither of us dared name.
I lifted my fingers and lightly traced the jagged scar across his left collarbone, the one I had noticed even in the dark, old and angry, a mark of pain I did not yet understand. "Does this still hurt?" I asked softly.
His eyes met mine, haunted and dark. "Not anymore."
We lay there in the soft hush, the sheets tangled around our limbs, our powers gently lapping at one another like tides kissing the shore. It was strange, the quiet. I had expected awkwardness, regret.
"You're quiet," I murmured, fingers sliding down to rest over the thrum of his heartbeat. "Are you thinking?"
"Too much," he admitted.
"About what?"
He stared at the ceiling for a moment, then turned toward me, brushing a loose strand of hair from my face. "About how dangerous this is. About how I want it anyway."
My throat tightened, and I reached up, took his hand, and pressed a kiss to his palm. "Then stop thinking," I whispered. "Just be here. With me."
His gaze softened. "That's the most dangerous thing of all." Wrapped in his arms, our bodies still tangled, I allowed myself for the first time in a very long time to hope. This was not just lust or magic or the whim of fate. This was the start of something we were never supposed to find.