Go beast for me, Leto. I want you big … everywhere.
Leto closed his eyes and just let the pleasure of her mouth on his neck ride him. He could feel how much she enjoyed her lips on his skin, and sucking at him. But it was all too much.
The only question he needed to answer was simple: Where? Then he remembered how much she liked water. He groaned and tried to calm down.
He pushed her away. “I have an idea, but you need to be naked.”
She nodded. Her lips were so swollen. She waved a hand, and her flight suit disappeared.
He had to close his eyes again for a couple of reasons. One of them involved how easy it would be to just spill all over the floor, but the other was much more critical. The hidden colony was still covered in mist—Endelle had seen to that, and she’d covered his cabin as well. But not the hot spring. Mentally, he got the deed done. Yep, power was great.
“How about a soak?”
She drew in a deep breath. “Your bathtub might fit us both, but not if you’re in a beast state.”
His woman had a one-track mind. “I’m thinking about the hot spring.” He waved his own hand this time, and his clothes disappeared.
Her turn to shudder. Her knees buckled, so of course he had to catch her. “I’m going to fold us both to the edge. You ready?”
She nodded. “Uh-huh.” Then she kissed him.
He landed on the rocks, and because her lips were still pressed to his, he barely kept his balance. He drew back and smiled. “You’re so anxious.”
“I’m hungry,” she whispered.
“Well, let me feed you then.”
She listed sideways, so he did the only sensible thing: He fell sideways, pulling her with him straight into the pool.
The warm water helped to calm things down. For a reason he couldn’t explain, some inner desperation perhaps, he really needed this time with her to last. He felt oppressed with things he didn’t understand. Yes, they’d had a victory tonight—and yet had they done anything more than just infuriate a tyrant, a man with no conscience, who had a vast army?
“Leto,” Grace whispered against his ear. “Why so distressed?”
He looked at her. “You can feel that?”
“Yes. Your whole body has grown tense. I want to make love to you, and your thoughts are practically shouting at me.”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure exactly what’s bugging me. I’ve been uneasy ever since seeing the southern sky lit with those bombs. Greaves will want revenge. We’ve wounded something far worse than anything physical.”
“His pride.”
“Yes, at the very least his pride. But we’ve stripped him of his advantage.”
She pushed away from him and threw herself backward into the water only to rise and float, her br**sts like two small islands, her eyes closed.
Leto watched her float. Dammit, he’d ruined the moment for her. He had only been thinking of his own fears and concerns. But Grace was the one who had done the heavy lifting tonight, and her success should be celebrated.
“I feel like an ass.”
“Well, then come feel my ass but not until you’re ready. I can wait.”
He stood up and pushed through the water to get to her. She stayed floating on her back. She was looking up at the dark night sky.
“The mist you created over the pool is beautiful. You have a small swirl that’s quite elegant.”
He dipped down and put his hands beneath her back to support her, then he moved her in a circle faster and faster until she was giggling. But the restraint was there, within him, almost screaming at him: Don’t get involved, don’t get close, don’t give your heart, don’t forget how quickly a war can rob you of everything. Would he ever be free of this terrible holding back, this unwillingness to engage fully with her?
He feared the answer.
And he was definitely being an ass.
So he gave her the one thing he could give her, but this time all he had to do was think the thought and he began to transform.
* * *
Grace felt the movement in the water, like gentle pushes here and there. Leto had released her back. She sighed. But her eyes were closed, and she was trying hard not to be so disappointed.
All she had wanted was to be with Leto, and have him go beast for her, but he seemed lost in his worries and she couldn’t fix that. So, she floated and tried not to think about him or the tangible space that seemed to always be between them despite the fact that they were fully bonded.
Then she realized what that pushing sensation was.
She popped her eyes open and stood up in the water.
She gasped. “How did you do that? I didn’t know except the movements in the water felt a little different.”
He looked down at her from his increased height. His fangs had emerged. All that former desire came rushing back to her, especially since the moist air of the hot spring smelled heavily of the forest and man, Leto and beast.
Her nostrils flared as she took in his scent. At the same time, she put her hands on his massive pecs and began to fondle him. She loved his body in this state. She could hardly explain it. But he was just more of himself: more to touch, to feel, to experience from both his sensations as well as hers.
She slid her hands around his waist intending to hug him, but she felt his wing-locks and they were dripping.
She drew in a sharp breath. “Turn around,” she commanded.
His eyelids sank low. “Meadow scent.”
“Just turn around.”
He obeyed, and the water sloshed from his heavy thighs; small waves washed over her. She began at the lowest wing-lock and rubbed back and forth. He arched his back and roared.
The sound gripped her low, which caused him to roar again.
She glanced around the pool and found a large boulder that was smooth as it angled into the water. She took his hand and guided him over to the rock. “You must let me do this to you. I want to. Will you let me?”
He chuffed his response and spread himself out on the rock facedown. The water came up to the tops of his thighs.
Her lips trembled as she moved into him. He was a visual feast, and he was hers, both to command right now and to enjoy.
She moved behind him and pressed her h*ps against his bu**ocks. He groaned.
She leaned over him and licked a line straight up the center of his back. She stroked the sides of his h*ps from his waist down to as much of the thigh as she could reach below the water, then she came back up. The whole time she moved her hands closer to the front of his thighs, slower and slower until she wrapped her hands around the base of his stalk. At the same time, she started licking his wing-locks.