Chapter 73Ael took her wife’s hand, helping her up. She leaned into Nereida, breathing deep, assuring herself that they were both alive, both fine. She was exhausted, her body covered in mostly-healed scratches and bites. Nereida smiled at her, a soft, inviting smile.

  “I think this shirt is beyond saving, love,” Nereida said, tugging at the frayed cotton that left Ael exposed.

  “I don’t know if I have another,” Ael admitted. “I remembered to get clothing for our children, for you… but I can’t recall if I thought of myself.” Nereida chuckled, pushing hair off Ael’s face.

  “Typical, my darling.” Her touch was soft, and a shiver coursed down Ael as she leaned into the soft, familiar hands. “I guess I will have to take care of you.” Nereida stepped closer, her hand shifting to the back of Ael’s neck. She leaned in, as if to kiss Ael, but stopped just out of reach. Ael’s heart hammered in her chest, threatening to burst forth. “Can I kiss you, Ael?”

  “Yes,” she breathed. Nereida’s kiss was firm but gentle, a little demanding. Ael melted against her wife. Gently, Ael let her hands roam over Nereida’s hips, enjoying her curves even through the fabric. “Nereida…. It’s too dark to travel still. Dawn’s at least an hour away.” Nereida murmured encouragingly, and Ael pulled her wife in tighter. “I want…” she struggled with her words for a moment. “I want to worship you, love.” Nereida moaned at the words, encouraged by Ael’s wandering hands. It was sacrilege, but she needed to remind herself she was alive, that she was human and not just a vessel for the Moon’s power. “Can I worship you here, on this altar? Every st piece of you.” She kissed her wife’s neck, enjoying how Nereida shivered beneath her touch. “I want to make love to you until morning light.” Nereida moaned her assent, leaning into her urgently. “That’s the way, love. My ocean…” she kissed Nereida’s colrbone, her fingers already working at the sloppy knots of Nereida’s overdress. The noblewoman had deft hands, but never paid attention to her knots. It was a habit Ael pnned to help her break.

  The fabric fell from Nereida’s shoulders, revealing her thin shift underneath. Ael took a moment to appreciate her wife’s curves under the soft cotton. Feeling mischievous, Ael stroked Nereida’s nipples through the fabric, watching them peak. She carefully moved her thumb across the erect nipples, making small circles until a moan escaped the princess’s mouth.

  “My princess,” Ael whispered, kissing her ear as she cupped her wife’s marvelous voluptuous breasts. “You are my ocean, my rock, my saviour.” With each noun she nibbled on Nereida’s neck, making the siren’s knees buckle. “May I remove your clothing, your grace?” she teased. Nereida chuckled despite herself.

  “Permission granted,” she replied with another little ugh. “Are we going to be formal today?”

  “Well, not too formal,” Ael replied, slipping the shift off over Nereida’s head. “Unless you want me to properly consummate the marriage.” She slipped her hand onto Nereida’s hips, running her fingers down her stretch marks, beautiful silvery flesh that revealed some of what she went through to bear her children. She met Nereida’s eyes, smiling mischievously. “As a member of the court, I suppose we could properly consummate our love.” She grinned, slipping her fingers inside her wife without warning, pressing her cheek against Nereida’s. “How do you think the court would like it if they watched as did this?” She began drawing little circles with the fingers inside her wife. Nereida let out a gasp of delight.

  “You’re terrible,” Nereida managed, kissing Ael’s ear as she shifted about, trying to get more. “What happened to my shy lover?”

  “Do you want me to be a blushing maiden? I’m not sure I’m a good enough actress to pull that off now.” She pced a kiss on Nereida’s neck, just behind her ear. “I know what I want now, love.” She gently bit down, and Nereida made a delightful noise. “Will you let me take what I want?”

  “Yes love!”

  Ael smiled, stepping back to better look at her wife. She knelt before the siren, pcing gentle kisses on Nereida’s stomach. She was thinner, now, after months at sea and weeks marooned, but still maintained her glorious curves, and a little belly. Nereida made a little sound, almost an embarrassed one.

  “You can’t possibly like that part of me,” she muttered. Ael smiled into the soft flesh, kissing her wife gently.

  “I like your soft curves, love. All of them. The silk that hides steel.” She pced her hands on Nereida’s hips, holding her tightly. She could feel the muscles beneath the wide hips. She pced a kiss just above her wife’s hair, all curly and blue. “Or perhaps the ruffles that hide the knife?” She trailed her kisses lower, until Nereida grabbed on to her shoulders to steady herself. “My glorious wife,” Ael whispered, kissing Nereida’s inner thigh. She trailed the tip of her tongue upward, slowly, deliberately. Nereida’s fingers dug into her shoulders as she mewled encouragingly. “Will you accept all that the moon will give you this night?”

  “I will,” Nereida managed. “Please, love!”

  “Lay down on the grass, Ner. Let me see you, all of you, spread beneath the moon’s light.”

  The princess lowered herself to the ground, groaning a little as she did so, a reminder that neither of them were precisely young. Ael kissed her wife, a hungry, desperate kiss that left them both breathless, needing more from each other.

  “Take my clothing, love,” Ael whispered, staring directly into the stormy eyes of her wife. “Show me that you want me.” Nereida moaned, her hands hurrying to strip the remains of the shirt from Ael’s body. Her trousers and under-things went next, piled on the ground without care. Ael stepped out of them. She looked over at the altar, pnning to move the body of the cat before things continued in earnest, but it was gone. There was only the faintest smear of blood on the stone. Magic. What use had a dragon for a dead cat?

  But her thoughts were purged from her when Nereida took her breast in her mouth. The princess’s deft, if stubby, fingers were pying with the other. Ael moaned, reaching up and grabbing Nereida’s hair firmly. The strong, clenched fist made the siren shiver in anticipation, even as her mouth kept busy. Ael gave a gentle pull, enough to signal to her love to break off her amazing touch, if only for a moment.

  “My ocean,” Ael whispered softly. She lowered Nereida backwards, onto the cool stone. “My love,” she kissed Nereida, holding her lower lip between her teeth for a moment when she broke off for air. Nereida panted beneath her, spreading her legs in silent invitation. Ael released the lip to grin at her wife. “My wife.” She slipped her fingers inside again, while taking Nereida’s breast in her mouth. She pyed her tongue across the nipple, feeling as her wife came close to coming apart beneath her. Ael slowed her pace, being rewarded with Nereida’s frustrated moan.

  “Love, please!” the princess begged.

  “Soon,” Ael promised, enjoying how her wife tried to twist and get what she needed. Nereida was so reactive, so easy to rile. Even her words seemed to have a great effect on the princess. “I want to taste you as you come apart, love. I want you inside me as I do, until neither of us knows where one of us ends and the other begins. Will you do that for me?” Nereida cried out a yes, before pleading more.

  “Are you my ocean?” Ael asked, settling her body across Nereida’s, pressing their skin together. The air was cool, and their sweat was making them both shiver. She licked Nereida from her navel to her lower hair.

  “I’m your ocean,” Nereida managed, panting as she tried to gain control of herself. She took a breath. “Will you accept all the ocean that the ocean will give you?” she managed, squirming as Ael trailed her nails from her knees up toward her center.

  “Always,” Ael replied. She lowered her face to Nereida, tasting her as Nereida’s tongue and fingers began to explore her. Sensation burst through her, need and want burning through her. She could hardly breathe, hardly see, all she wanted to was to taste her wife as she shuddered apart.

  Nereida obliged, coming apart with a gasp, her teeth grazing some of Ael’s more sensitive skin. The feel of the siren’s teeth sent a thrill through the Admiral. Ael’s hunger for her wife was not satiated yet, and she sat up, touching her, pying with her.

  “I’m yours,” Ael told her, as she moved again to be face to face with Nereida. She gently stroked the short, bright blue hair of the siren. It was so soft. She entwined her fingers in the hair, pulling ever so gently until Nereida moaned. “Forever yours.” She pced kisses on the siren’s neck, trailing them down to her breasts and then back again. “Are you mine?”

  “Yes,” Nereida whispered, pcing her own, needy, demanding kisses wherever she could reach. Ael pushed her wife back down, kissing her until they were both breathless. “I’m yours,” Nereida said, shivering. “Please love.”

  “Not yet…” Ael put her braid into her lover’s hands. “Undo it, love. Beg me to be wild, untamed, and let me touch, explore, taste every little bit of you.” She kissed her again, deeply. “Then tell me what you want, and let me give it to you.” Nereida shook, the anticipation clearly overwhelming her.

  “I…” she flushed red. “I want you touching me again, deeply, and… I want you to bite me. Hard.” She cleared her throat nervously. “Is that alright?”

  “How hard?” Ael growled as her hair tumbled free. With her hair free, she was free to be wild, to forget society rules. She pinched Nereida’s breast gently, a teasing kind of pinch. “Like that?” Nereida made a lovely whimpering sound. “Or like this?” And she pinched harder, hard enough she knew it must hurt, hard enough that the skin would redden. She waited for the dreaded word to be uttered, but instead Nereida arched her back as if she was about to come undone. Oh.

  “The second,” Nereida managed, her breathing ragged. Ael felt a rush of heat flood her. Dragons, was her wife perfect.

  She leaned in to kiss Nereida. Once she came up for aid, she smiled, feeling her lust nearly at a boiling point.

  “Your thigh does look good enough to nibble,” she said, her teasing smile feeling very feral. Nereida nodded, her eyes shining in the moonlight. She absolutely ached with need, looking down into her wife's eyes. Her whole body was filled with a strange lightness, that was also fiery. Her magic? She didn't know, didn't care for anything but touching her wife right now. “But then I want to feel your teeth the same, as I bite you, you take me too.” She rubbed her wife’s nipples as she spoke, enjoying every little reaction.

  “I… my teeth are sharper,” Nereida warned, sounding a little embarrassed. Perhaps just apprehensive.

  “I need this,” Ael promised softly, kissing her. She knew it was true with every once of her being. “I need to feel the danger, the pain. I need you to leave your mark on me. Forever.” Nereida made a strangled, needy little sound, before she agreed, her voice husky.

  Ael y on the stone beside her wife, pulling the heavier woman on top of her. The long, wild hair tangled in the grass, spread out like an offering to the gods. An offering to her wife. Nereida lowered her face between Ael’s thighs, her tongue pying along. Ael shivered, maneuvering so that she could bite her wife as well.

  “Bite me, love. On three, Nereida,” she said clearly. “Please.”

  She counted down, her voice firm, before Ael slipped her finger into her wife once again. As she did, she bit down. Nereida’s teeth, more like fangs, bit into her leg at the same moment. Ael had expected pain as teeth pierced her, but instead she felt something entirely unexpected. Blinding pleasure. The sensation of euphoria overwhelmed her, broke all rational thought. She only knew need, lust and pleasure. She cried her wife’s name, begging for more, coming apart violently. The urge to do anything Nereida wanted, if only she’d bite her again, came crashing over her. She lost herself in her wife, kissing, tasting, touching, delirious and demanding. She was drowning in the touch and taste of her wife, and never wanted to come up for air. Nereida gave in to the demands with equal ferocity and lust. Ael could feel a throbbing where her wife had bit her, warmth that spread through her whole body, burning her with lust.

  The need for her wife burned in her, was everything, until she was at st spent. Nereida had slowed her own pace, until both had come apart together, wild, untamed, a tangle of sweaty limbs.

  “You alright?” Nereida asked her softly. “That was wild, love, more so than before.” Ael opened her mouth to answer, but her mind was full of cotton. She blinked at her love stupidly, trying to express how very amazing it had been. But as her need had cooled, it was as if she had been plunged into icy water. Her limbs grew heavy, her eyes too.

  “I’m fine,” she mumbled, before promptly falling into darkness as her wife called her name.