Naamah's Kiss - Jacqueline Carey [21]
Him inside of me—it was like nothing I'd ever felt. For a moment, I almost panicked. His weight pinned me to the ground, pressed the air from my lungs. His chin ground against my neck. His hips moved convulsively. Over and over, Cillian drove into me, and the fullness was overwhelming.
"Slower!" I gasped.
He shuddered and grated out a single word. "Can't."
And then, at the end, it changed. Just as his buttocks began to quiver and his back arched, discomfort gave way to pleasure.
"Ah, no!" I clutched his shoulder blades. "Not yet!"
"Sorry!" He spent himself helplessly in me.
We lay quietly for a moment. Cillian's breath was ragged in my ear. I waited until it slowed. "Can we try it again?"
"Aye." He rolled off me and propped himself on one elbow. "Forgive me, will you? That's a winter's worth of wanting you like I've never wanted anything else." He traced a line between my breasts and down my belly. "Gods," he whispered. "There's no one else like you, Moirin. No one in the world."
I smiled. "No?"
His fingers slid between my thighs. "No." He pulled his hand away. Milky seed glistened on his fingertips. "No blood." Cillian frowned. "Was I not the first?"
"You were. Who else would it be?"
"Don't lie to me." There was a note in his voice I'd never heard before. It made me angry.
"Why would I?" I retorted. "I'm a free woman, Cillian. If I chose to take another lover, I would, and it would be no concern of yours. But I'd not lie about it. There's no one else."
Cillian sighed. "I'm sorry! It's only that the thought of anyone else having you puts a knot in my guts."
I thought, choosing my words with care. "You do not have me, Cillian mac Tiernan. No one has me. I am my own to give. Is that understood between us?"
After a moment, he nodded. "It is."
"Good." I reached for him. "Now let us try this again. Only this time, I want you to go more slowly and not spend so quickly. Is that understood?"
He grinned. "Aye, mistress."
The second time was better. I was slick inside with his seed and there was no discomfort. Cillian moved slowly inside me, propped on his arms, watching my face. I felt a quickening deep inside me and found my hips moving to match his rhythm without thinking. Cillian thrust harder and this time I wanted him to. Stone and sea! He was so big and so deep inside me. Faster, now—faster and faster. What my body wanted seemed just out of reach.
And then it wasn't.
Deep, deep ripples of pleasure burst inside me. I abandoned myself to it, grabbing his buttocks, moaning mindlessly. The bright lady opened her hands and an entire flock of doves took flight.
"Oh, gods," Cillian whispered reverently.
When it was over, I felt calm and happy. We lay drowsing in the meadow, limbs entwined. A curious dragonfly came to investigate, hovering above us on gossamer wings. I stretched out one languid arm. It lighted briefly on my forefinger, regarding us with eyes faceted like gems.
Cillian's breath stirred my hair. "Magic?"
"Only the ordinary everyday kind." I watched it take wing.
"Moirin."
I looked at him. "Aye?"
His face was solemn. "Marry me."
I sat upright with a jolt. "What? "
"I'm serious." He leaned on his elbows. "I miss you when we're apart—and I daresay you miss me, too. So why ever not?"
I said the first thing that came into my head. "I'm too young."
Cillian gave my naked self a pointed look. "Oh, aye?"
It made me smile reluctantly. "I'm not ready, Cillian. I've not even begun to think about it."
"Surely you don't plan to spend the rest of your days living like a wild thing," he pressed me.
"Why ever not?"
He made an inarticulate sound. "Dagda Mor, girl! You look like something that just stepped out of a fairy tale, and you run around in a dress that might as well serve as a gunny sack with twigs in your hair and no shoes on your feet."
I felt at my hair. "So?"
Cillian tried