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Chapter 7: You and me forevermore
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The house had quieted down, everybody leaving, just him and Oriana. The wards were armed to their teeth and he was certain that if Cassian ever tried to force his way through them again...well he would probably lose.
Oriana would have patched every weak spot there was as soon as she realised that there was one.
Still, she was the one who more or less poured him into the bathtub and then scrubbed his hair, using the kind of soap bar she used, not him. It left his hair too soft to his own touch. Still, he let her do that because he knew that she was doing that not only to care for him but also to calm herself.
She tucked Azriel into bed, giving him potions to drink and he did so without any protest, immediately feeling his muscles relax as the pain lightened.
"How are you feeling?" she asked him quietly.
"Good," he promised her. "I am alright," he repeated, leaning back against the pillow, trailing a finger down her cheek. "You don't need to worry."
"Sweetling," she protested, her voice hoarse.
"I swear I am alright. I promise," he repeated to her. "I promised I wouldn't lie to you. And I won't."
Not when he knew that she could immediately pick out that he did indeed lie.
She sighed, but she took him at his word.
She moved throughout their bedroom, wearing that cobalt blue dressing gown that he had come to connect with her, picking up her hairbrush and starting to pull it through the length of it.
"May I?" he asked. He didn't need to say anything else. She would understand.
"Of course," Oriana agreed, sitting down at the edge of the bed and handing the brush to him.
He started at the ends, gently starting to tease out the knots in her long hair that fell down her back in waves. It was beautiful, long and thick and curly when she didn't use the brush to tame it into silky waves.
He didn't know what he liked more. It didn't really matter. He loved her every which way he could.
"Every time I do that, I feel myself calming down. I am at peace here," he said quietly.
Azriel didn't think that he ever going to reach a place where he could be that. But somehow Oriana had become that for him. Become this oasis of peace and quiet in his life, a sanctuary and paradise at the same time.
As long as he had her, everything was well in his life. "I love it," he whispered.
"I love it here too," Oriana agreed softly and they lapsed into silence, like they sometimes did, completely content to be in the same room and ignore each other if that meant that they could be in each other's nearer vicinity. And he thought about that evening about his family all coming together, about Oriana surrounded by his brothers, and Feyyre and Nesta, Amren and MOore...and Nyx, baby Nyx who seemed to have his first crush on Oriana of all people when his wide blue eyes and grins were any indication.
She had slid into place with them as there had always been a place for her.
And still...
"The only reason why I didn't introduce you to them sooner was Rhys. It had nothing to do with you," he finally said, and Oriana twisted around, staring at him. The Flames in her were dancing wildly, surprise written all over her face. "I swear. I know you probably thought that it had something to do with you, but it didn't. It was on me and I was scared." He sighed. "I am not good with words," he told her quietly.
"You seem to do it alright," Oriana quipped, but he shook his head.
"I...I know, but...I... Oriana," the words stuck in his throat.
"You don't need to say it. I know," she promised him, a hand gently cupping his cheek. "It's written all over your face, in everything you do...I feel through the bond every day, Azriel. I didn't need the words."
Maybe she didn't. "But I want to give them to you," he whispered. "I love you." And suddenly it was easy. " These words don't seem to be enough to describe my feelings for you. I love you so much. I am grateful every day that you came into my life. And that I get to sleep next to you and wake up with you...that I get to spend time with you and watch you and see your mind at work. I love you so much."
"I love you too," she whispered, and then she was leaning down and she was kissing him and all there was anymore was Oriana. Oriana's lips and the way she tasted and every warm spark that flew from her.
"I love you," he whispered against her skin, again and again and again. "I love you."
She pulled back finally, warm hands still gently running through his hair.
"Still interested in that treat?" she asked him. "Even when you didn't stay in bed."
"Sorry, but it's not every day that you dangle a High Lord in the air in front of our house," he told her drily.
She just shrugged.
There was something else that tingled at the edge of his brain though. "Where exactly did you meet Mor?" he asked her and she laughed, pure amusement pouring from her.
"I met her in a lingerie shop on the other side of the Sidra, run by a friend. But I never got a name," she said with some amusement.
Oh.
"What did you buy? he asked her and she grinned.
"The lingerie for our mating that I never got to wear," she answered honestly. He swallowed.
That was...That was... "Will you put it on?" Azriel asked, his voice hoarse.
"Ah, you have requests," she teased him. He could just nod.
She seemed more amused than anything by that, but he did go to their closet, picking out whatever she had bought and then disappeared into the bathroom.
He hadn't been sure what to expect, had no bloody picture in his mind...but he was sure that nothing that he could have come up with anyway would be able to match the sight of her in the blue lace as she stepped out of the bathroom.
He swallowed once again.
"I would ask you if you liked it, but I think you need to have some blood in your brain to answer me, and you don't. So that is probably an answer," she quipped as she stepped closer to the bed.
The arousal that was normally tightly blanked came over him like a wildfire, pouring all over the bond and Oriana's eyes brightened.
"You are so gorgeous," he finally managed to bring out. So fucking gorgeous.
And she was all his, from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes.
The lace left nothing to the imagination, nearly see-through in places, but it rams and surrounded her in bright cobalt blue, contrasting sharply to her skin.
It was utterly enchanting. He wanted to reach out and touch as she climbed onto the bed, but she caught his hand into hers, linking their fingers.
She clucked her tongue at him lightly. "No. Not right now," she told him softly. "I said I wanted to return the favour."
Oriana was going to be the fucking death of him, he thought weakly as she worked the loose linen pants he wore down over his hips. He hadn't even bothered with a shirt after his bath and now he regretted that. Because like this, he was stretched out underneath her, as she pressed a kiss against his skin, every single touch of her mouth on his skin like a spark of fire, of pure ecstasy against his skin...
He bucked against her, but she didn't let up as she worked down his body, against the muscled wall of his stomach, drew sharp nails against a tight nipple that made him hiss and then finally kneeled between his legs.
"You tell me to stop when it's too much," she warned him.
It was all the warning he was going to get.
She swallowed him down without much further of a preamble, full lips stretching over the heart-shaped crown of his cock. His back bowed, a whimper leaving his throat.
"Fuck, love," he whispered, threading a hand through her face, not trying to set a pace, just watching her, feeling the tight heat of her mouth against him, the fluttering off her tongue that made him moan deep in his chest.
Her eyes met his, the flames burning brightly.
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There was something to say to have Azriel at her mercy, reduced to a whimpering mess beneath her. For once he wasn't fighting her for dominance instead let her do to him as she wished, hearing every bitten-off moan and curse that he tried to swallow down as hollowed out her cheeks and sucked.
He threw his head back, the line of his throat as he moaned, the sweat that had broken out over his body. She wasn't going to pull this out for much longer. He was still not completely better, still not...
"Stop," he whispered. She immediately pulled off him, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "I want to come inside you," he told her, sitting up and pulling her towards him, already moving to bury her underneath him but she pressed him back into the pillows.
To her surprise he actually went, letting her straddle him.
"By the cauldron you are gorgeous," he whispered.
She took that as an opportunity to pull the blue nightgown over her head, the blue lace ending up on the floor somewhere behind her. She hadn't even bothered with underwear.
"You want this?" She asked him, letting a hand slide over her body, her heaving chest..."Then you are going to stay right like this," she told him pointedly. "And you are not going to put any pressure on your stomach." He looked at her nearly startled. "Think you can do that?" She asked as she leaned forward to kiss him. "Or do you want the shadows?"
It was a sudden thought that came into her mind but as she could feel his throat bob and him nod, the shadows came out to join them, surrounding them in velvety darkness and pin him to the bed.
A thought of him would be all that would be needed to let him go and she knew that was the only way how he could even stand that.
"You say stop and it stops immediately," she said quietly as she leaned forward to kiss him.
"I know," he whispered against her lips. "I trust them. I trust you."
That was all she needed as she leaned back, placing her hand on his chest, as she got him at just the right angle...She shuddered.
Oriana knew that she wasn't really ready for him, even when she was absolutely drenched with her own slick, even when she could feel the arousal through their bond, even when... she rocked down, enough to take the head at the entrance of her slick passage.
"Oriana."
She relented, taking him in. She had to breathe through it, for just a moment wondering if she could actually do this, if...
And then...then suddenly without a thought from either of them, there they were. His shadows, swarmed to her, right there where they were joined and she couldn't help the shudder that trembled through her whole body as they slid against her slick and overheated flesh, up and up until they found the bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs.
They concentrated there, nearly bodily, massively, pulsing against her skin, nearly vibrating against it and the only thing Oriana could do was to shudder through it, was to pulse around him as his shadows pushed her to her peak. She came with a whimper, her thighs trembling, her body clenching and unclenching, opening up for him, letting him slide inside her as she collapsed half on top of him, as the pleasure took over for her.
But they weren't done with her. Azriel wasn't, his shadows weren't either...They pushed her forward and up and then down again. Her nails squabbled against his chest, moan after moan tumbling from her mouth as she started to find some form of rhythm, the shadows wrapping themselves around both of them, around her, around him...
Azriel was hard and thick inside her, hips bucking up against her, even with the shadows holding him down...and still, the shadows seemed to know that there was more.
They were still pulsing against her, even as she could feel one wisp move, probe the point where they were joined, something that got another gasp out of both of them...She felt them move back, felt them spread her wider.
She could feel the blood burn in her cheeks as she had never even thought about this, that any of this could be used to make the pleasure burn even brighter for her...
But his shadows managed that. Their touch was cool and soft and still insistent, probing.
They slid against her other hole and she choked with pleasure, every muscle off her body locking up for a second, even as they wrapped her up and caressed her. They pressed back against the bundle of nerves, concentrating on that until she had relaxed...and then pressed into her there.
She thought that she was so full that she couldn't possibly...couldn't possibly take more, even if she wanted to...but they gave her more before she could even voice a thought of protest, filling her up as far as she went and then filing her up even more, until she was sure that she couldn't even breathe anymore, the only noise that still left her mouth a high keening whine...as it felt like she couldn't even breath anymore, as she whimpered and shook and clenched and unclenched...
And then it all came to a point where her body shuddered through another climax as his hips pushed up sharply into her. The pleasure seemingly exploded, burning so brightly that for just a moment she was sure that she blacked out.
She whimpered as she fell against his chest, as she felt the shadows disperse, leaving her and him alone, letting Azriel#s arms wrap around her back, his cock still buried inside her.
"Your shadows have the dirtiest mind of all of us," she finally managed to get out, making him snort with amusement as he shifted her so that she was lying next to him, with one wing wrapped around her like a cocoon.
"I told you they like you more than me," he whispered against her skin, his voice hoarse, as she felt his heart beat against her fingertips, just as rapid as her own. And then, completely out of the blue: "You know, you should give me treats more often if it ends like this for both of us."
She couldn't help but start laughing, her laughter skittering over both their skins. "I definitely should. We both win," Oriana declared. "And I love every damn minute I get to spend with you."
He pressed a kiss against her sweat-damp skin and she couldn't help but smile as she felt him pour all his affection and love for her into their bond.
As long as they were together, everything was going to be just fine.
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So Notes: Thank you so much for everybody who read and liked and left kudos and wrote comments! I read every single one of them and they make my life that much brighter and make writing that much more fun! I love y'all 😘
So, this series isn't finished, I'll pop in and add stuff whenever I think of something (or if you think of something, leave me a comment and I'll add it to my horde of plot bunnies!) but I wrote nearly 125k of this in less than 2 months and I need a bit of a break before I burn out and never wanna see these characters again 😂
So...I have a question for you. If I wrote an Azriel/Rhysand's sister thing would anybody be interested in reading it? 😅
I have a title and a working summary and most of the plot...
The Starlight Princess
There is a pool of starlight in the Spring Court. A piece of the Night Court that has no business being in the land of Eternal Spring. So how did it come to be?
Or: How the Spymaster of the Night Court finds a pool of starlight, accidentally frees a princess, kills a High Lord...and finds his mate all at the same time.