Chapter 20: Chapter 20: The Touch of a King

When I finally surface, I wonder if I have taken too long, if Helos will be annoyed, but he only watches me with his usual impassive look.

“How is it?” he asks.

I grin up at him. “It’s incredible,” I gush.

“I’m pleased that you’re enjoying it,” he replies.

“Don’t you want to come in?” I tease.

He hesitates for a moment. “Do you want me to?”

I nod. I am safest when I am in the water. There’s little he could do to hurt me here.

“Okay,” he says and then he pulls his boots and cloak off, but he keeps his shirt and jeans on just the same.

I raise an eyebrow as he walks down the haphazard rocks and jumps in. He’s a better swimmer than I thought, and within seconds, he’s floating beside me.

“Why are you still clothed?” I ask him.

“I thought it was best. For both of us,” he says like we don’t know where this night is headed.

I laugh. “You cannot hurt me in this water,” I say before I can stop myself.

He frowns. “You really believe that?” he says seriously.

“Yes. If you do something right now that I think would endanger me, I can simply pull you down into the depths and drown you,” I say, and then I feel my jaw drop.

That was a stupid thing to say. A damn stupid thing.

“I thought it was you trusting me, but now it appears I am the one trusting you,” he says, and I can see the amusement in his eyes.

“How does it feel, King Helos, to be at my mercy for a change?” I tease.

His lips curl. “Better than I thought.”

I laugh, but I also am infinitely aware that I am flirting with him and he’s obviously not putting up any blocks now.

“How long can you hold your breath for?” he asks.

I shrug. “I don’t hold my breath. I can breathe in water and on land. But if I am underwater and I stop moving, eventually, the water can soak into me too long, and then I would drown.”

“And if you stay on land too long?” he asks.

“Then I would choke,” I say.

“So, you need both to survive,” he states.

“Yes,” I say.

“Do you want to swim some more?” he asks.

“Do you want to swim with me?” I reply.

“How? I cannot breathe underwater like you can.”

I can’t help but laugh. “You really know nothing of my kind,” I murmur, amused, and he frowns.

I take his hand and pull him under, and I think for a minute he does think I will drown him. Only his eyes light up and realization hits him. That he can breathe too. That I am somehow transferring that ability to him.

I laugh at him and pull him further and further.

We are deep now. Deeper than a human would be able to reach. The water at this depth is so old that I think my ancestors would have once swum in it.

I let go of his hand and pirouette again. I twirl myself, dancing under the water, and all the while, he is watching me with fascination and awe.

He can’t see my body fully, but he can see enough for it to feel worth it. And I know I’m enjoying the look on his face more than I should be.

When I feel like he might be getting close to his limit, I pull him back up to the surface and we float.

“Why did we come back up?” he asks.

“If you’d stayed much longer, you would have drowned, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop it,” I reply.

“So, it takes that long to drown someone?” he says.

“No, I can give the ability to breathe if I choose to. If I truly wanted to drown you, I would drag you down and you would be dead within minutes.”

“Good to know,” he replies and I laugh.

We sit on a small ledge. My body is submerged, but my shoulders and head are out of the water, while Helos’s body above his chest is out.

His shirt is stuck to him, and I can see the outline of his muscles so clearly that it makes my mouth water.

I look around us, at the cave. There are stalactites coming down from the roof. There are so many, and in just the shadowy light of the torches, it looks like they form some sort of an elaborate carving.

“How did you know about this place?” I ask.

“I did some research,” he says. “I kept thinking about what you said and I figured there must be some sort of compromise.”

“This is a good compromise,” I muse.

“I’m pleased you like it.”

“Thank you,” I say, and his damn amber eyes sparkle at me.

I move closer to him. I don’t know if it’s intentional or instinctual, whether it’s being here in this water, or whether it’s all the strange buildup that I’ve felt between us. But my hand is on his chest before I register it.

He looks down at it and then back at my face.

“Kera,” he says softly. It sounds like half of him is objecting while the other half is absolutely not. “Gods, what are you doing to me?” he mutters.

And it feels like his words light a spark. Like his eyes glow more than ever, and then he pulls me over him so that I straddle his body.

He runs his eyes over my nakedness, and in this moment, I don’t even blush. I just sit there, with my heart racing, letting him admire me.

He moves his hands up the outside of both my thighs slowly, watching my face to see how I react.

When his fingers reach between my thighs, my breath hitches.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asks.

I shake my head. I don’t want him to. Not in this moment. Not ever.

I can’t stop staring at him as his fingers slowly start to touch me. I gasp. My mouth is open and I’m sucking in air, but in this moment, I can’t breathe.

I can’t focus on anything other than what this man’s fingers are about to do.

What they are doing.

He runs them lightly down between my lips and then pulls them back, and then he does it again as I shut my eyes and moan. His touch is sending shockwaves through me and he hasn’t even gotten started.

He teases my entrance with his one finger, circling it, probing it, and I desperately want to grab his hand and just plunge it in, but I don’t.

I move one of my hands to his jeans, but he stops me.

“No,” he says quietly. “This is about you.”

I frown. It doesn’t make sense. No man has ever made it about me. It’s always been about their need, their desires. What I want doesn’t factor into it.

But what his fingers are doing take away any thoughts I have, and then I’m holding onto both his arms, gripping his biceps, holding myself steady.

My legs are spread so that my knees are on either side of his thighs, and in a way, it gives him perfect access to me.

The whole time, he’s watching my face. He hasn’t taken his eyes off me. Every touch, every move he makes, he watches as my face shows what ecstasy it is.

He places his thumb on my clit and I cry out.

I’ve been so desperate for him to touch me there and it feels so damn incredible that he finally is. He circles it, just like I would, just like I do, and I wonder if he is repeating back what he saw when I was in the bath.

His hands are so big that he only has to make tiny movements, and they make me melt.

I can feel my arousal growing. The water is muting the smell of it, but we can both smell it.

And I can smell his clearly for the first time. It smells just like I’d imagine. Strong, forceful, commanding. It’s enough to send me closer to the climax.

I lean forward and brush my lips against his. His lips are soft, softer than I realized. He kisses me back slowly before parting mine and slipping his tongue into my mouth.

I gasp at the sensation of him wrapping around me as his fingers slowly begin to plunge inside.

My nails dig into his skin. I’m trying to hold myself up, but suddenly I can’t take it, and I throw my head back as he holds me. His fingers plunge quicker and quicker.

I want this.

The creature in me wants this.

She’s here, reveling in this, but not interfering, like she somehow understands that this moment here is mine, not hers.

Helos circles my clit more ferociously, and I writhe. I don’t care what I look like. I don’t care if I look like the wanton thing that he thinks I am. He is doing this, he is making me this, and I need this moment from him now.

My body is so close. We can both feel it. We can both smell it too.

The scent of our arousal has mixed into something even more mesmerizing, but mine has changed, grown heavier, more intense, as I get closer and closer to my inevitable conclusion.

“Kera,” he groans, and my name from his lips is enough to send me over the edge, and my body explodes.

I scream out so loud it feels like I might bring the entire cave roof down.

I writhe against his fingers.

I know that I am cumming all over them, that when he pulls them out, they will be covered in my arousal, in my juices.

He keeps plunging his fingers, teasing my clit, keeping me right there as my body pulsates with wave after wave of euphoria.

And then I fall, panting, onto his chest, and his arms hold me to him.

I have never been touched like that, not by another person. Not even by myself. I look up at him and he has a strange mix of lust and apprehension in his eyes.

My heart is thumping in my chest and I feel his through his muscles. It sounds like they’re beating in unison.

“Kera,” he murmurs before stroking my hair, and I nuzzle into him with my eyes shut.

I want to feel his heat, his body. I want him to hold me in this moment and let me just lose myself.

I lie on him for what feels like forever, and then he shifts under me and I look up.

“Do you want to swim some more?” he asks.

I shake my head. I’ve had enough enjoyment for one evening. I don’t need any more.

“Then we should head back,” he says.

“Okay,” I reply.

I still don’t understand why he hasn’t fucked me. Why he hasn’t fully claimed me, but in my post-orgasm haze, I don’t care right now. I’m too content to dwell on it.

I clamber reluctantly off him and we swim to the side before he helps me from the water.

I’m still naked and he’s technically fully clothed, though his clothes are sticking to his body, outlining every inch of him, and I try not to look at the bulging mass between his legs.

I grab my underwear and dress and put them on. My dress sticks to my wet skin, but I ignore it. Helos wraps my cloak back around my shoulders and leads me back out of the cave, to where his horse is still tethered.

The wind has picked up since we left, and I feel the chill in my hair and through my wet dress.

“Your clothes are soaking,” I say.

He shrugs. “I don’t feel the cold.”

“Seriously?”

“Not really,” he says, and his eyes appraise me for a second. “Are you cold?”

“No, but I’m not warm either,” I admit.

“Then I’ll have to hold you closer to me so that my body heat warms you,” he states as he lifts me into the saddle and climbs back on.

Yeah, I certainly won’t be complaining about that.

We ride back fast. Faster than when we’d come. I wonder if we’ve stayed away too long, but if Helos thinks it, he isn’t saying it. His arm is pressing my body tight to his and I can feel his heat more than ever.

We don’t speak as we ride, just like last time, and I take the time to revel in how good he feels against me.

Will he take me to his bed now? Is that his plan? Tease me in the cave, then truly claim me back in his home?

When we get to the stables, he dismounts, then pulls me from the saddle, and the stable boy takes the reins to lead his horse away.

“Thank you. For the cave. For the water. For this evening,” I say before I can stop myself.

“You’re welcome,” he says.

“King Helos?” a man says, coming up to us, and Helos moves to hide me from view, but the man looks, and despite my hood, his eyes widen in surprise and I know that he knows who I am.

“What is it?” Helos snaps.

“We’ve had a dispatch. The Council is meeting,” the man says.

“When?”

“Now. They’ve been waiting on you,” he states, casting his eyes in my direction.

“Fine. Tell them I will be there soon. I need to change,” Helos says before leading me back toward the narrow stairway we left the castle by all those hours earlier.

“As you wish, your Highness,” the man replies, bowing, but he’s not looking at the king; his eyes are focused entirely on me and I can feel them boring into my back.

We climb the stairs quickly. Helos is clearly anxious to get back to the Council and I pull him to a stop.

“If you need to go, go. I can find my way,” I say.

“It’s not safe. Besides, they can wait,” he states, pulling me on.

When we finally reach my rooms, half the guards look asleep, and they jump to attention when they see their king.

Helos cups my face with his hands and then pulls me into his chest before taking a long deep intake of breath with his nose buried in my hair, as if he is trying to store up my scent. Trying to remember it.

He releases me and steps back while I’m standing on the same spot, staring up at him.

“Goodnight, Kera,” he murmurs.

“Goodnight,” I say and watch as he walks, just like before, the wrong way up the corridor.

I slip into my room. In truth, I am freezing.

Helos’s body heat kept me warm the entire journey, but as soon as we got off the horse and my body left his, the cold started to set in. It feels like my very bones are chattering.

I throw off my clothes, tossing them into the clothes bin, and realize that Helos hasn’t taken my cloak this time. Usually, he always does, as if it is some way to ensure I won’t leave the castle.

I climb into the bed, pulling the blankets around me, and slowly the thickness and heat of them begin to warm me back up.

As I curl up, contented, I think of him, of the night, of how my body felt under his touch. The creature is thinking of him too, and she’s purring with such a sense of delight I can’t help but giggle.

Slowly, I drift off to sleep, wondering when Helos will visit me and how far he is willing to take this now that he’s finally crossed the line.