Jory Strong - Elven Surrender

Silver woke to a room warmed by a spring breeze and smelling of exotic flowers. Sunlight filtered through gauzy curtains and birds sang in nearby trees. Her lips curved upward in a smile. It was a fitting way to wake up after a night of fantasy.

For a moment she luxuriated in the warmth radiating off Wraith and Tynan. At some point they’d rolled onto their backs but they’d remained close, pressed against her as if even in sleep they wanted to keep touching her.

Don’t , her heart warned. Don’t make it more than it is .

She’d never been casual in her choice of bed partners. Always before they’d been warlocks or nulls who were friends first and friends afterward, men who understood she wasn’t free to give her heart until she finished her training and went through the Rite of New Beginnings.

Silver opened her palm and looked at The Mark. If anything it seemed more pronounced, darker and deeper than when it first appeared.

It had followed her into her dreams, the circle spinning wildly, the spiked lines in the center burning until she’d felt turned inside out, recreated. She closed her hand and eased into a sitting position, preferring to contemplate the men still sleeping on either side of her.

Stray tendrils of hair had escaped from their braids, but not enough to cover the delicate tips of their ears. She leaned down to study Tynan more closely.

He was mouth-wateringly gorgeous, beautiful and yet fiercely masculine. In sleep he was his brother’s twin. Awake they seemed as different as night and day.

She wondered what he did with his time, what his interests were. A glance around the bedroom revealed carved chess sets, some finished, some in the making.

If she hadn’t known otherwise, she would have guessed this cottage was his, that he tended the exotic garden in the bathing chamber and created the tiny playing pieces with his hands. Both required gentleness and patience.

Maybe not so different after all, she thought, turning her attention to Wraith and growing wet. He’d pulled the covers past where his cock nestled beneath a small thatch of downy pubic hair. Even soft he was alluring, making her imagine kissing down his chest and taking him in her mouth.

Tynan moved and she turned to find him watching her. With a casual sweep of his arm he tossed the covers off to reveal his hardened cock.

“Bathe with me,” he said.

They slipped from the low bed, parted company only long enough to attend to more private business before sliding into the heated water of Wraith’s spring-fed tub.

Silver selected a blue fruit from one of the bushes and crushed it in her hands. “My turn,” she said, urging Tynan onto the ledge beneath the water’s surface.

She lathered his chest and shoulders, positioned his arms on the edge of the sunken tub. “Stay,” she murmured, giving him the same command he’d given her in the bath the previous night.

Tynan’s laugh turned into a groan when she straddled his thighs and rubbed her mound against his jutting cock. She’d thought to tease, but the feel of his erection against her clit tempted her to rush.

Later, she told herself, remembering her earlier questions about him, wanting to take more than just the memory of sex when she left. “What do you do when you’re not visiting Wraith?”

“Until recently I hunted for gems. The most valuable of them I cut and sold to merchants and craftsmen.”

“And Wraith?”

“He’s been a bodyguard to merchants and nobles.”

“But not anymore?”

“No. Duty requires that our paths merge now.”

Tynan took her hand in his and rubbed his thumb over the elfling mark. Though his body craved pleasure, his heart rejoiced in these moments of conversation.

He was glad for the chance to talk to her, to try to prepare her for what was to come. Her fate was written in stone, her destiny clear to him. She would become elf. She would he his wife and Wraith’s.

Time was running out and he was forbidden from explaining the meaning of the mark. It was one of the most closely guarded secrets of his race. Still, he longed to ease her way, to offer her a future as appealing as the one she currently envisioned for herself. His conscience demanded that he not steal her dreams for the sake of his own.

“And you?” he asked. “If you choose to go through the Rite of New Beginnings, will you remain in New Holyoak ?”

Silver shook her head. “No. By custom only one warlock and one witch offspring from each home is allowed to remain here. My aunt and uncle raised me. My cousin Joelle is the most gifted new witch in their home.”

“What of your parents?”

“My mother died in childbirth without revealing the name of my father.”

“So you will be sent away?”

“I’ll be given a territory elsewhere.”

“This is something you want?” He stroked her palm again and watched as her gaze settled on the mark and her expression grew pensive. “Tell me,” he coaxed, abandoning her hand in order to pull her against his chest so they touched more intimately. “Does your heart demand that you serve as a witch?”

Silver ran her hand over his shoulder and up his neck, stopping when she got to his ear. She traced the outer shell then gently explored the delicate tip. His beauty clogged her throat with emotion, or perhaps his question had caught her at a vulnerable moment, juxtaposing fantasy against reality, highlighting the uncertainty and insecurity brought on by The Mark.

Perhaps the Goddess had looked into her heart and seen it was filled with a desire for a husband and children, a home to call her own instead of dreams of serving those in her territory. Perhaps that’s why The Mark had appeared. And yet she did want to use her magic and training to aid others. She did want a life that held meaning.

Tynan shivered as she stroked the tip of his ear. His cock throbbed against her mound and belly, making sexual hunger curl and build inside her.

Silver looked into his moss-green eyes. The tenderness she found there compelled her to answer his question honestly. “A witch’s path is the only one I know.”

“Wraith and I can show you another,” he whispered before he captured her mouth and thrust his tongue against hers.

Hope flooded Silver, but she listened to the silent warning of her heart and allowed it to be swept away by heated need. She unbound his hair, combed her fingers through the luxurious black locks before returning to his ears.

Tynan groaned and shuddered. His hips jerked and his cock ground against her clit each time she stroked the sensitive tips.

“Enough,” he panted, pulling her hands away from his ears when the kiss ended. Eyes that had been full of tenderness only moments earlier now blazed with fiery desire.

“Enough?” Silver teased, rubbing her hardened nipples against his chest, rising so the tip of his cock slid along her soft, swollen folds.

Tynan caught her hips, lifted them further and thrust upward, partially sheathing himself in her depths. “I was wrong,” he said. “Not enough, but more.”

Silver slid downward, taking all of him inside her. “You feel so good,” she whispered, bracing her hands on shoulders. “Lean back. Let me make love to you this time.”

“Anytime. Always.”

He was chiseled perfection, a face she could spend a lifetime looking at. Her eyes never left Tynan’s as she moved so his cock head kissed her entrance, then lowered so he pushed through her cunt lips and was swallowed by her channel.

He shuddered each time she rose. He groaned each time she took him all the way inside.

Small waves formed in the bath water around them. Swirling heat added to the sensation.

Endless spirals of desire twisted inside Tynan. He felt enthralled, completely captured in another’s magic. She was liquid fire and pure temptation, a fantasy made flesh.