Chapter 124 Extra: “Say it again.” [E]
“I am yours, Astra.”
Astra kissed her deeply. Sandalwood and chocolate and the impossible taste that belonged only to her. Eydis felt it all the way down, a slow ache that asked to be believed.
“Then do not dare take it back,” Astra whispered. The edge of her voice trembled, and in it lived relief. “Say it again, Eydis.”
Eydis swallowed. Suddenly, the weight of her own words sank in. It wasn’t that she wanted to take them back, for they were true, but it frightened her how deeply she meant them. Like something she had always meant to say.
And not just in this lifetime.
She blinked hard.
“I… must you ruin my shirt?” she aimed for a tease, though the words lost their edge when Astra only stared, hungry.
And amused. "Yes. I must. You’re still playing coy.”
“I don’t think so.” Eydis wanted control back. Surrender, in her world, came by negotiation. She let a finger drift down Astra’s abdomen, felt the fine tremor of muscle, reached leather trousers and slipped inside the waistband.
Astra gasped, hips tilting forward involuntarily.
“I trust my meaning is clear.” Eydis eased the zip, revealing the faint line of royal blue silk beneath. The lace was fine. Too fine to hide much at all.
“And you…” She reluctantly looked up, her fingers exploring the lace. And the heat beneath. “It seems you’ve been waiting for me.”
The sound Astra made was low and unguarded. Aroused. Eydis recognised it and delighted in the knowing.
“Only because it makes you look at me like that,” Astra stripped off her white sweatshirt and unclasped her matching blue bra.
Eydis drank in the sight, pale skin, the elegant lines of Astra’s body, the soft curve of her breasts with their pink peaks already tight.
“Like what?” Eydis’s hand moved to cup Astra’s breast; her other barely reached the blue lace before something unseen seized her wrists, lifting them until they stayed locked above her head, until her breath hitched.
“Like this.” Astra propped herself on one elbow and looked down at Eydis. Her other hand combed through dark hair.
Eydis could have broken the binding.
But she didn't want to.
Warm hands moulded to her breasts, kneading, coaxing, circling sensitive peaks until soft sounds replaced thought.
“The one that says you want me to take everything.” Astra’s voice dipped intimately. “The one that says you are already—”
“Do not say it,” Eydis warned breathlessly, then shivered when Astra’s mouth found her throat.
Astra’s fingers slipped beneath Eydis’s skirt and traced the inside of her thigh with torturous slowness. She stopped a breath shy of lace, smiling at the way Eydis instinctively arched off the bed.
“Soaking,” Astra whispered in her ear. A light flick of her finger over silk stole a sound Eydis would never admit to making. “Wet.”
A thumb traced her through the damp fabric. Confident, as if it knew exactly where to press, exactly how much pressure would make Eydis’s toes curl, and she nearly came undone from that alone.
Astra’s touch stayed feather-light. It drove her halfway mad.
Eydis bit back a curse and tried to rock up for friction, but Astra's other hand pressed down on her lower belly, holding her in place.
"And soft." Astra bit the tip of Eydis's ear. "And… tense." Another flick, this time directly over her clit, and Eydis saw stars. "And desperate, Your Majesty."
“Stop narrating.” Heat flooded Eydis’s face when she lifted her hips for more and was denied. "You're being cruel, Your Holiness."
“Wrong.” Astra pulled her hand away.
Eydis nearly whimpered at the loss. “Wrong?”
Astra’s smile was pure trouble. “Speaking of which.” Still on elbow and knees, she twisted slightly, hand sliding to her back pocket. Tight leather sighed in protest. Impossibly… intoxicating.
“Truffles. Picked them up with the cake.”
Eydis tried to focus through the heat. “Now? You can’t possibly need more sweet.”
“No where near enough. You gave me an idea. Temperature play. It’s still cold enough for that.”
Oh. Oh no.
Astra removed the wrapper and set it on Eydis's sternum. The chocolate softened at once. She pressed with two fingers, drawing a gleam down the curve of Eydis’s breast, circling her nipple without touching, trailing lower to the edge of her ribs, then tracing the path back with her mouth.
Warm tongue, cool chocolate. Eydis strained against the invisible bind that held her hands.
Astra moved up and finally took Eydis's nipple in her mouth, sucking gently, then harder. She mapped Eydis in kisses and small bites, until she writhed.
Another wrapper whispered open. Astra lifted a second truffle to Eydis’s mouth. “Taste.”
Eydis touched it with the tip of her tongue. It was bitter, then fruity, then sweet.
Astra’s breath caught low when she licked again, tongue and teeth grazing her fingertips as Eydis took the chocolate fully. When the shell broke, thick, dark liquid spilled across her tongue.
Cherry liqueur, she realised, and moaned. “Tasty.”
“Is… that so?” Astra’s voice had roughened. She kissed Eydis deep, sharing the bitterness and the liqueur and the sound of both their breaths.
She pulled back, panting, and licked a smear of chocolate from Eydis’s lip. “See. Everything tastes better on you.”
“Naughty girl,” Eydis rasped. She felt a fire surge in her lower abdomen that needed Astra now, needed her touch, needed attention.
As though reading her mind, Astra dragged the damp lace of Eydis’s underwear down her legs and pushed her skirt up to her waist, baring her completely.
A teasing thumb parted her slightly. The weight of Astra’s gaze felt tangible. Eydis grew wetter beneath it.
Paper crinkled again.
“For the love of, Astra, no…”
"You did call me naughty." Astra set the third truffle high on Eydis’s inner thigh, at the crease of her hip.
Eydis went rigid. Heat melted the chocolate in an instant.
Astra licked the skin around it, nudging it with the flat of her tongue, smearing a shining trail closer to where Eydis wanted, but never, ever touching.
“If you aren’t going to do it, I—” Her protest broke into a gasp when Astra’s tongue swept deliberately over the most sensitive place. “Fuck.”
Astra moved back up to kiss her jaw. Two fingers eased in without resistance and curled.
Eydis’s head snapped back at the sudden intrusion.
Filled,
stretched,
claimed.
“You are… wetter when I’m like this.” Astra began a slow, rolling rhythm. “Look.” She withdrew her glistening fingers, spreading them for Eydis to see. “Look how much you want this.”
Eydis gasped, tried instinctively to close her thighs but found them being prised apart, locked in place. Heat flared across her face.
“You’re being very unfair right now.”
“Then be honest with me, Eydis.” Astra brought her middle finger to her lips. “Say it again.”
"You… You already know.”
“Say it.”
“Touch me, babe.”
“Stil wrong.” Astra simply licked her finger clean, her eyes never leaving Eydis’s.
Eydis’s growl was primal. “Astra…”
“Say my name again.”
“Take what’s yours.” Eydis snapped her restraints and pulled her close, their bodies colliding. “Fuck me, Astra.”
Astra moaned. She obliged with a hard and deep thrust that made Eydis’s vision go white. A third finger joined, stretching pleasure until it shook through her. Her palm rolled, grinding relentlessly and making sounds that would have mortified Eydis if she weren't this far gone.
She kissed Eydis, gentle and tender, while her hand kept a punishing rhythm.
“Be good for me,” she said between kissed. “Maybe I’ll taste you properly.”
“Stop talking.” Eydis tangled her hand in Astra’s hair.
Their tongues fought for dominance, even as her body tightened around Astra’s touch, drawing her deeper, even as pleasure built like a wave about to break.
And surrender had never tasted this intoxicating.
When it broke, Eydis clung to Astra as to an anchor. It was always like this. She didn’t want to yield, and yet she wanted to give her everything.
They dragged apart, breathless. Astra looked at her with a tenderness that nearly hid the hunger beneath. “Say it again.”
Eydis’s mind finally caught up. She groaned. “You really do love the sound of your name.”
The look on Astra’s face was utterly unfair.
Eydis sighed, fond despite herself.
“Astra. I am yours.”
Her bare foot traced the inside of Astra’s thighs, coaxing the leather down to her knees. “Just as you’re mine.”
"I am." Astra kicked the trousers away impatiently. "But not yet. Today, you just take what I give you."
Before Eydis could protest, or agree, Astra's hands were on her knees, parting them. She followed the line of sweat down Eydis’s ribs to her abdomen, then looked up.
“Good girl.”
Oh…
Whatever Eydis meant to say dissolved as Astra’s tongue touched her, hot and thorough and devastatingly patient.
It was going to be a very long night.