ARDELLE'S POV:
"Do you want 'me' as your… token? Tonight, Ardelle… however you want?"
I couldn't answer at once. Second thoughts crowded in—what does this mean? What would change?
Whether a commander like him could ever truly be mine?
My lips parted, but no sound came. I had absolutely no idea what that meant.
He watched me for a moment, then a low, velvet murmur left him.
"Perhaps," he began, "I should help you decide."
Before I could protest, his hands slid under my arms and he lifted me easily, settling me on his lap.
I let out a 'Ooh' from astonishment.
Water slapped softly against the sides of the tub. My bare back met the hard planes of his chest and thighs.
Shame flooded my face when his breaths on my neck, inducing a heat I had never experienced before.
I tried to close my bare legs to stop myself from being exposed but he kept them apart by using his leg.
"M-My Lord—what are you doing?" I dared to ask, tilting my head.
"Looking at you." His voice was quiet, almost gentle, yet it left no room for escape.
One hand cupped my jaw, tilting my face up so I had no choice but to meet those dark eyes.
"Keep your eyes on me too, Ardelle."
His other hand rose, slow and deliberate.
Warm fingers brushed the underside of my chest, then higher. He stroked the swell, circling, learning the shape of me.
When his thumb finally grazed my nipple, a soft gasp tore from my throat. He did it again—gentler this time, a feather-light caress that made the peak tighten and ache.
"Kaldric…"
"Shh." He rolled between thumb and finger with a focused, patient hunger that left me trembling.
"Feel that? That is only the beginning."
He switched to the other breast, giving it the same careful attention—stroking, teasing, coaxing until both nipples were stiff and aching under his touch.
"My Lord… it's… I…"
"You what?" He raised one eyebrow perfectly. "Do not like it or…" He placed a kiss just below my ear. "Or you do?"
Pleasure coiled low in my belly, unfamiliar and dizzying.
"How could I say that?" I whispered in shame, trying to look away but he didn't let me.
Before my body could sway in the heat, a voice called from outside the bathing screen.
"Commander? Forgive the interruption—Earl sent word. The scouts report movement on the southern orchards."
Kaldric's eyes flashed, something dark and predatory waking in them.
He did not release me.
Instead his free hand slid down my stomach, between my thighs, and two long fingers found me down there.
I jolted when being touched so explicitly for the first time in my life.
Though surprisingly, I did not want to pull away either.
"Stay quiet," he breathed against my ear.
His palm clamped over my mouth just as the first finger pressed inside me.
A muffled cry vibrated against his hand. He stroked slowly, deeply, while the squire waited only a few paces away.
"Report," Kaldric said, voice perfectly steady, almost bored.
"How many?"
"Four riders, my lord. Still distant. Earl asks if we hold position or move the perimeter."
All the while his fingers worked me—curling, thrusting, finding a place that made my senses vanish into a blur I had never seen before.
What was happening to me?
Why was I getting wetter?
I shook in his lap, hips twitching helplessly.
He pinched my nipple hard enough to sting, then soothed it with a circling thumb, never stopping the relentless rhythm between my legs.
"Tell Emerson we hold," Kaldric ordered calmly.
The dual sensation was too much. I couldn't think.
I couldn't understand why my body was opening for him, why every stroke made me wetter, hotter, why I was pushing back against his hand instead of fighting it.
"How long do we hold, Sire?"
"I will join him." He paused, locking his eyes strongly with mine.
"...In quite a bit."
My eyes widened.
"Dismissed."
"Yes, Commander."
Footsteps retreated. Only when they faded did he lower his hand from my mouth.
I sucked in a harsh breath, face burning, body still pulsing around his fingers. My mind fails to comprehend the reactions of my body.
"What… what in God's name was that, My Lord?" I whispered breathlessly, voice shaking.
A slow, satisfied smirk curved his mouth.
He withdrew his hand, but kept me seated firmly on his lap, moving his knuckles all over my body.
Watching the way my back arched, eyes narrowing when I had no idea what else to do other than shiver.
"That," he said softly, "was me helping you decide for both of us."
I stared at him, chest heaving, the ache between my legs still sharp and demanding.
The last of my hesitation crumbled under the weight of everything he had just made me feel.
"I want you," I breathed out, clutching his forearm. "As my token. Tonight. Make me yours."
"With pleasure."
I looked away, my face burning, digging my nail into his forearm as a sudden wave of shy uncertainty crashing over me.
I realized the magnitude of the moment and my lack of knowledge.
"But... I don't know... what do I have to do, My Lord?"
I unknowingly led his hand back down to my lower region, my face burning with shame but also a thrill I didn't know I had.
"Why… were you touching it like that?"
Kaldric's hand slid into my damp hair, his fingers tilting my chin up until I was forced to meet that silver, molten gaze.
"I was preparing your body for me."
"How?" I gulped. "What are you going to do? What do I have to do?"
"Vex not. I am here to guide my fairy."
He rose with me still in his arms, water cascading from our bodies.
My heart rapidly beating against my ribcage while clinging onto him with a trust I had never granted to my very own heart.
In a few strides he carried me to the furs spread near the bath and laid me down with a care that belied the tension coiling through him.
The soft pelts met my back. I had never been so exposed, so uncertain of what came next.
Intimacy was a language I did not speak.
He settled over me, bracing his weight on his forearms so he would not crush me, and looked down with an intensity that stole my breath.
"I have spent my life breaking things. I have spent my life taking what I want by force."
He leaned in, his nose brushing against mine. The scent of him—smoke, rain, and raw skin—filled my senses.
"I am a knight. We are not taught the soft ways, Ardelle." He swallowed hard.
"I will be heavy. I will be fast. And I will likely be more than you are prepared for."
The blunt honesty of his words sent a thrill of pure fear through me, but it was a fear laced with hunger. A hunger to be complete, to be connected with him physically and spiritually.
"Will it… will it hurt?" I asked worriedly. Slowly bringing my hands to brace them over his chest.
Kaldric paused, his gaze dropping to the pulse leaping in my throat.
"I will try to be gentle, fairy," he whispered, unsure of his own words.
"But I am a man of war, and you have spent weeks starving me of you. I am not sure 'gentle' is a language my body remembers how to speak."
He claimed my mouth, deep and possessive. The sensation of his lips upon mine blinded me of everything that ever existed for me.
I kept my eyes open. I wanted to convince my heart that it was real. That my body had greeted him in my senses, with all my heart.
Our lips moved in a magical movement though he used the rough efficiency he applied to everything else in his life.
He claimed my lips as his possession before trailing kisses down my throat, across my collarbones, over the swell of each breast.
"Ardelle, I swear." He parted just to catch his breath.
"I had no idea how to handle something as fragile as you."
His lips closed around one nipple, then the other, sucking, tasting, leaving fire in their wake.
Lower still—across my stomach, the soft insides of my thighs—until every inch of me trembled beneath his mouth.
"You don't have to…" I moaned, pressing myself harder into him. "I need you however you are, My Lord–"
When he rose again he covered my lips with his, muffling the soft cries that kept escaping me.
"Whisper my name, Ardelle." he ordered against my ear, voice rough. "Over and over. Let me hear it."
"Kaldric…" I breathed into his palm. "Kaldric… Kaldric…"
He shifted, guiding my hand down between us so I could feel the thick, hard length of him resting against my entrance.
"This is me, Ardelle," he hissed into my ear, his teeth grazing the lobe.
"I want to take what I want to protect. May I?"
"You may."
"It might hurt. Bear with it."
When he finally entered me, it wasn't the tentative touch of a lover; it was the inevitable claim of a conqueror.
The stretch burned, sharp and overwhelming, forcing a broken sound from my throat.
"My—My lord, it's—"
"Shh. Shh. Take a few deep breaths, you'll be alright. I am here, Ardelle. Look at me. I am here."
He held still, buried deep, giving my body time to adjust to the thick intrusion.
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes from the stretch, yet the burn was already melting into something fuller.
"Breathe with me," he ordered, voice strained. "In… and out. That's it."
I obeyed, chest rising and falling against his. His forehead rested on mine, silver eyes locked on me as if daring me to look away.
Slowly, carefully, he began to move—shallow thrusts at first, testing, claiming inch by inch.
"Kaldric…" My voice cracked.
"Say it again."
"Kaldric—"
A low groan rumbled from his chest.
He withdrew almost completely, then drove back in with a controlled power that stole the air from my lungs.
"You feel… tighter than I imagined," he rasped against my mouth. "So perfect. So mine."
He kissed me hard, swallowing the soft cries that kept escaping.
One hand slid beneath my knee, lifting it higher, opening me wider for him. The new angle made every thrust land deeper, heavier.
Pleasure and the lingering ache tangled until I could no longer tell them apart.
"Look at me while I take you," he demanded, hips rolling in a steady, relentless rhythm.
"I want to see every flicker in those eyes."
I couldn't look away even if I tried.
His face was pure intensity—jaw clenched, eyes dark with hunger, beads of water still clinging to his skin.
Each powerful stroke dragged a broken sound from my throat.
"It… it doesn't hurt as much now," I whispered, surprised by the truth of it.
A wicked, almost tender smirk curved his mouth.
"Then take more."
He gave me more—faster, deeper, the wet sound of our bodies meeting filling the tent.
His free hand found my breast again. The sensation made my back arch off the furs. Tears of unforeseen pleasure rolled down my temples as I dug my nails harder.
"Kaldric—ah—"
"That's it. Let me hear you." He covered my mouth with his own for a long, devouring kiss, then moved to my ear.
"Whisper my name. I want only my name to exist on your tongue."
"Kaldric… Kaldric… Kaldric—"
The words tumbled out with every thrust.
Heat coiled tighter and tighter low in my belly, an unfamiliar pressure building until I trembled beneath him.
He felt it—felt the way my body clenched around him—and his control frayed.
"You're close," he growled, voice rough with restraint.
"I can feel it. Let go Ardelle. Let your body sway. Do not hold it."
"But– but– that–"
"It is what it should be. Let go, Fairy. Let go." He insisted, silencing me by placing his lips upon mine.
The pleasure shattered.
A soft, choked cry tore from my throat against his mouth as wave after wave crashed through me.
My body tightened around him, pulsing, pulling him deeper.
He followed with a groan, burying himself as his own release overtook him—hot, powerful, endless.
For long moments we stayed locked together, breathing hard, hearts pounding against one another.
He remained inside me, reluctant to leave the heat he had claimed.
My eyes were locked on his face, running my fingers through his locks, twirling them around my fingers, caressing his hard edges with a tender I had always wanted.
His forehead slowly pressed to mine once more, voice low and rough.
"This is what intimacy is, Ardelle." He pulled back slightly, a little curious. "What do you think?"
"I think…" I chuckled breathlessly. "I think I got more than I imagined."