empress of storms (13 page)

He rolled her under him in a quick movement, making her giggle, before returning to their kisses. Danaë let her hands roam over the muscled expanse of his back, loving the way he moved under her touch. His chest brushed against the tightening points of her breasts, and she could feel his own nipples harden against her skin.

As if reading her mind he eased her gown up, nuzzling his way down her neck and covering her breasts with warm, teasing kisses. To her surprise he started kissed a line down her sternum to her belly, then lower.

A flicker of hope grew. She loved giving him oral pleasure, but he hadn’t shown any interest in reciprocating and she wasn’t sure how to bring it up. “Matthias?”

He paused at her mound, lips warm against the sensitive skin there. “Please, little bird, let me do this,” he murmured. “I swear I’ll give you nothing but pleasure.”

She reached down and stroked his hair. “You never have to ask permission to do that, love.”

“Ah. Good.” He urged her thighs apart, kissing and nuzzling the soft skin on their inner surfaces. The light scratch of his stubble added a teasing prickle to the sensation, something that was trebled when he bit down. The unexpected sting sent a wave of sensation flooding upward, and she gasped in pleasure.

He raised his head, grinning at her. “To borrow your own words, I take it you liked that?”

“Yes,” Danaë managed, breathless. “In fact, do that again.”

“As you wish.” He repeated the process on her other thigh, laving the bite mark before kissing it. She could feel herself growing wet, wondering if he could see it shining on her flesh.

He teased closer and closer, rubbing his nose across her pubic curls and laying closed mouth kisses along her outer lips. The sensation started out as ticklish, but transmuted into pleasure under his slow, deliberate nuzzling.

He paused. “I’m going to open you now and kiss you inside, all right?”

She suppressed a growled order for him to get on with it, wiggling under his hands instead. He chuckled and stroked her with his thumbs, parting her and exposing her wet inner core. “Oh, yes, all slick and eager for me,” he murmured. “I’ve wanted to taste you here since our first night together. And now I’m going to feast on you, little bird.” 

She felt his warm breath gust across her, and then the deliberate brush of his tongue. She shuddered as desire flamed through her, heating her belly and making her moan. He licked her again, more firmly this time, sending up another rush of need.

“Gods, yes. More, please,” she begged.

He settled in, hands curling around her thighs as he alternated between licking and suckling her clitoris and nibbling along the edges of her inner lips. At one point his tongue slid inside her, swirling around and making her squeak at the delicious sensation. She couldn’t help wriggling in his grasp, but he held her in place as he licked and sucked the aching point of her pleasure. She reached down to press his head closer.
Oh, gods, yes, do this as much as you like, I love feeling your tongue inside me, worshipping me, oh my love…

Then two fingers slid deep inside her, pressing against the upper side. They found that wonderful spot that sent so much pleasure arrowing through her, and Danaë shoved a desperate fist against her mouth to muffle her scream. She felt Matthias chuckle, then he drew her throbbing clitoris between his lips and sucked hard as he pressed against that spot again. 

Her back arched as she exploded, white stars blurring out her vision. She bit down on her fist but still heard the high, keening sounds pouring out of her throat as Matthias continued to lick and suck her through her orgasm. After what felt like a marvelous eternity he eased off and rubbed his face on her thigh in a kiss. “Thank you, little bird. That was wonderful.”

“You, my king, are the master of understatement,” Danaë panted through what she was sure was a very silly grin. “That was
amazing
. My gods, why didn’t you do that before?”

He rested his cheek against her leg. “Hanne didn’t like it,” he admitted. “She said it was too intense. I wasn’t sure how you would feel about it.”

“Well, now you know.” She reached down, urging him up. As she expected his cock was hard and hot underneath his nightshirt, and she palmed it. “Of course, there’s a problem with giving me such pleasure.”

“There is?” His own breath was starting to grow choppy at her touch. 

“Oh, yes. It makes me want even more.”

“Ah. Well, then.”

He shifted up a bit more, then slid into her. She was so wet from her first orgasm that she took him easily, wrapping her legs around him and tilting her pelvis so that he could go even deeper. This wasn’t a time for finesse, nor did she want it at the moment. She wanted to be ridden hard, filled and fucked and made to spend shuddering around him.

Matthias obliged her, using short, hard thrusts to rock into her at a steady pace. Each thrust rubbed his shaft against her already sensitive clitoris, and soon she felt her pleasure starting to build. 

He shifted again, pushing her legs over his shoulders and pistoning into her. “I adore you,” he breathed, sweat beading on his face. “I adore you, little bird, and I’m going to fill you like this every night, plant my seed deep until it takes root. I want my babes in you, my love in you.”

Keening, she clamped down on him, digging her fingers into the meat of his back as she soared into joy. He groaned her name one last time as he thrust deep and spent inside her.

Panting, he sagged down, kissing her throat and chin and mingling their sweat. “My beautiful, perfect queen,” he breathed.

“My wonderful, perfect king,” Danaë breathed back, stroking his shoulders.
I hope you got your wish.

The next morning Danaë, Matthias, and the rest of the royal party took breakfast with their host and hostess before rejoining the convoy camped outside the estate walls. Marthe made sure that everyone was well-fed, and the twins presented Danaë with a paint-spattered scroll that officially welcomed her to the d’Vrengny estate. A quick addendum invited her to return at any time. She thanked the children with the appropriate graciousness for their gift and promised that she would do her best to stop by during her next visit to Ypres.

“With a baby,” little Elusine reminded her. “We like babies, don’t we, Gaspie?”

Her brother rolled his eyes and Danaë had to bite back a snort of laughter. “I’ll do my best,” she said to Elusine. The little girl beamed at her, and she caught a flash of the same expression on Matthias’s face as he stood off to the side listening.

****

As the convoy got ready to head out, Danaë excused herself and went to ride with Ife in the wagon. Matthias understood her need to practice her magic, but missed her presence at his side as they rode along.

He wondered what it would be like to be father to a pair of twins at his age, especially ones as active as Gaspar and Elusine d’Vrengny. The idea didn’t seem all that dismaying.

And then there was Danaë. Beautiful, intelligent, and fearless, she had also turned out to have a sensual side that delighted him every night. It wasn’t that he hadn’t enjoyed that aspect of married life with Hanne, he told himself. He had, and he had done his utmost to make sure that Hanne had, as well. But his first queen had been reserved when it came to certain bedroom activities. Over the years he’d learned to be happy with the acts she felt comfortable with, learning not to ask for more.

But Danaë was a revelation. Nothing seemed to faze her when it came to intimacy. What they’d done last night alone had been astounding. He loved the way she tasted, and driving her into a mindless delirium of need with his lips and tongue had made him harder than he’d ever been in his life.

Did I plant my seed, little bird? Do you have a new life in you already?
He cautioned himself not to get his hopes up. Even if he hadn’t, there would be more than enough nights together before he had to leave her in Hellas. One of them would be the night where they created a new life.

And if it happened to be two new lives as Danaë said might be possible, all the better. The eldest would become heir to the throne of Ypres as dictated in the treaty, and the youngest would take the throne of Hellas. His beautiful little witch queen could secure the futures of two countries with a single pregnancy.

His thoughts were interrupted by Darius. “As my sister is otherwise engaged, I thought I would ride with you for a while, your majesty,” the Hellene prince said with a cheerful smile. “I hope our visit to the good count was a fruitful one.”

Matthias gave his new brother-in-law a sideways look. For all his personal excesses, Darius was a very clever and observant man, and undoubtedly knew of d’Vrengny’s political connections even in his so-called ‘retirement.’ “I’m unsure of its usefulness yet, but I hope to learn more soon,” he hedged. 

Darius nodded at that, glancing over his shoulder at the wagon where his sister and Ife now rode. “May I speak to you frankly, sire? About my sister?”

“You may.”

Darius frowned, searching for the right words. “Did Danaë ever tell you about the day our father died?”

“No.”

The Hellene’s frown deepened. “As she got closer to her majority, our father had started indulging himself by taking a few hours off here and there, letting her attend a council meeting in his stead or oversee a royal event while he did whatever he liked. One of his favorite activities was to take one of our sailboats out by himself. It used to drive his guards mad, but all they could do was follow along in another boat. I think he took a certain amount of pride in making them chase him.”

A bleak expression replaced his frown. “The day he died, Danaë had been attending a council meeting that broke up early. She decided to use the unexpected free time to practice a storm-calling spell. It was a festival day in Hellaspont, so after talking me into joining her and gathering some bodyguards we rode out to one of the cliffs overlooking the sea, where she could create rain without ruining anyone’s day. She ran through the spell a number of times until she was sure she’d mastered it, then dissolved the clouds she’d called. Once she was done, we all returned to the palace and Danaë went about her duties. Father’s guards returned a few hours later with news of his drowning. They said that a rogue wave came out of nowhere and capsized his boat. They almost died themselves but were able to ride out the worst of the wave and limp back to the harbor. ”

Matthias’s grip tightened on the reins. “I heard nothing of this, only that he’d drowned in a boating accident.”

Darius let out a slow breath. “We were very careful not to let it be known. The Royal Council and the Grand Magister Aqua of Hellas convened a star chamber, questioning all of us about what Danaë had done that afternoon. The grand magister, an officious little toad named Nikos Pelas, finally decided that Danaë’s spell practice hadn’t caused the rogue wave and that Father’s death was an accident. He was buried with all due ceremony, Danaë ascended the throne, and didn’t work another spell until that day in your chambers.”

Matthias rode along for a moment, thinking. “She didn’t believe the council, did she? She thought your father’s death was caused by her storm-calling.”

Darius gave him a bitter smile. “Of course she did, and it horrified her. It didn’t help that Pelas kept sliding in offensive little questions in about Danaë’s desire to rule. I had to point out that even if her loyalty could be called into question, which it couldn’t, my sister wasn’t foolish enough to cast a fatal spell in plain sight of three witnesses. That led to some charming questions about my own loyalty, as you can imagine.”

Matthias could. “So why are you telling me this now?”

“Because someone will make sure you hear the story after you arrive in Hellaspont. Considering what you now know about your son, I would prefer you hear the true version from me instead of the twisted version from others. I tell you now, Matthias, Danaë was blameless in my father’s death, and her loyalty to you is without question. You never have to fear that she’ll betray you.”

Matthias flashed on Margot’s warning. “I’ve already been advised against trusting Danaë.”

Darius straightened, his expression going blank. “You have.”

“Yes. I ignored it. When the mirror demons attacked she stepped in front of them to protect me. They could have killed her if she’d faltered before Magistra Ife arrived. Her actions shocked me at the time, but now I believe I understand them—and her—better.” He remembered watching her block the mirror, her hair rising in a dark cloud as she summoned her elemental magic to do battle. “I have complete faith in her. And I’ll make sure she completes her training. If I can’t be there to protect her, I want her to be able to protect herself.”

Darius relaxed. “Thank you, Matthias. You’ve lifted a great weight off my shoulders.”

And put it straight on mine.
But he would shoulder it if it meant helping Danaë.

****

The convoy arrived at a small town that night near the foothills of the Arpinnes Mountains. Its inn was a large one, servicing the merchants who traveled along the trade road, and Danaë and Matthias were given the best room at the top of the building, with the other available rooms allotted to the various courtiers. The servants and soldiers would sleep in an encampment near the inn, and patrols were set.

After dinner, Danaë sat with Matthias, Schrader, and her own royal guard captain, a competent man named Kostas, in the now-empty taproom as they consulted maps and planned out the next day’s travel. She knew from traveling along it that the Kasterlee Road cut up through the foothills and across the Arpinnes mountain range, after which it descended to the shared border of Ypres and Hellas. But she couldn’t remember much of the trip to Mons, having been far more concerned with the wedding ahead of her. Now she found herself fascinated by the process of estimating how far they could travel each day, and where to camp if there wasn’t an inn, town, or estate available to shelter them.

“There’s a tiny mining village called Creswaal not far from the route, about eight miles before we reach the pass,” Schrader said, tapping a point on the map. “We can stay there overnight and refill our water bags, then clear the pass and make camp on the other side.”