This chapter was written with Hozier's "Cherry Wine" as the background and inspiration for the general vibe here. So if you enjoy listening to music while you read, I highly recommend it.
Also, this chapter is a little smutty, but also contains some developments for Rhone and Kali's relationship so fair warning. Hope you enjoy!
Rhone had never felt himself with trembling hands as he traced the curves of a lover, but with Kali's grey eyes on him his heart shook in his chest. She submitted to him with a grace that moved him, his wild wicked woman surrendering to him, welcoming him into bed.
He hovered above her now, unable to tear his gaze from hers - a new world of emotion filling the shell of his body with every heated breath shared between them. A gentle amusement tugged on the corners of her lips and he tasted them without hesitation. Her skin was addicting and he trailed kiss after kiss down her jaw, around her tiny throat.
So fragile, so small.
Instincts swarmed him to protect her, to claim her.
And he understood that what he felt was more than anything he'd ever felt before.
Her eyes closed, her head tilting back to expose the flesh of her throat to his lips, his teeth, and he continued to descend as she arched her back, thrusting her breasts toward him.
She reacted to his every move in his bed the same way she had when they fought together. Her body reacting to each brush of his fingers, instinctively pressing closer and opening herself to his caress. Pleasure and something deeper thrummed against his mind, the curling warmth making his breath come faster as Kali dropped her shields without hesitation to let him feel everything she did. It made something in him twist and reform into a wild heat that consumed him.
Rhone had been an island for so long he hadn't noticed the day the two of them had become a team. It was something he wasn't sure he would survive without ever again.
He wrapped an arm beneath her, feeling every wave of her scars as he pulled his fragile love to him. "Kali," he breathed, an ardency in his voice he hardly recognized, but hoped would remain.
Her body bowed beneath his touch and her eyes opened for him, the thrill of her attention washing over him like it could erase any sin he'd ever committed.
Rhone claimed her lips once more, slowly, fully. His need called to him, rolling against her and he knew she felt him completely. Still, he found the strength to pull away, "I want you to cut my hair."
She blinked, passion fading into something fragile, hopeful. Her face crumpled into a foreign thing and one of his hands flew to her cheek to comfort her. He had never been one to hold back, to regret, but there was almost a pain in her gaze as a tear spilled from just one of her eyes.
Kali wiped it away before he could, sitting up beneath him and scooting to the edge of the bed. He pulled back to give her space and found himself dumbstruck by how hard it was to let her move away from him, to crawl out of bed without him.
He'd never felt such a chill.
Moving quickly, she padded into the washroom, digging through a few drawers before coming back to him and he let the dopey grin at her barely clothed body return to light his face. She had no idea how beautiful she was, moving with a liquid grace that made his body go rigid. Rhone had almost forgotten what he'd told her by the time she had neared the bed and he tried to pull her back into the sheets with him. But she rolled her eyes at him and grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him behind her into the bathroom.
She gestured to the toilet and he sat without arguing, without shame. "Do you know what this means to me?" she asked him and he leaned toward her to kiss her collarbones, the swells of her chest.
The reminder of their conversation in the house of murdered man, the way he'd told her the marriage symbols of his tribe without knowing why, made him smile again. Even then, even when he'd thought her to be a reckless criminal, his heart had known the truth of her.
"I am yours," Rhone replied solemnly.
Kali said nothing in return, but he relished in the overflowing magic of her emotions that brushed against his senses as she grabbed the tie holding his long hair together and sliced right through it. The absence of the weight of his hair made him grin like a fool, watching the concentration on her face as she claimed him. Kali trimmed every side of his head carefully, with the same caution and passion he would use when he made love to her the moment she was done.
Rhone waited through every pause, every time she pulled back to see what he looked like after each snip. Amusement swam through him at his woman's ministrations when he knew full well she was aware he could care less what he looked like. All that mattered was that the rest of the world knew he belonged to her. That he'd chosen her.
The breeze of his missing hair felt like the same weightless freedom he felt in Kali's presence. The second her shears touched the counter, barely out of her fingertips, he wrapped his arms around her and stood, a yip of a sound spilling from her as he carried her back to his bed.
His fingers traced the web of scars that marred the smooth skin of her back beneath her shirt and she flinched, looking ashamed. Rhone kissed the edge of her mouth, then pulled the shirt over her head to expose the physical reminders of the horrors she'd faced. Pressing kisses down her spine and shoulders, he counted each of the scars he'd memorized the night she'd saved Juno. "You're beautiful, Kali. Don't hide from me," he whispered against the largest mark left by the whips.
Her eyes remained fixed on the sheets she twisted in her hands. "You knew?"
Rhone loosened his hold so he could tilt her to face him fully and nodded.
"How long have you known of my scars?" she asked, a roughness to her voice he longed to soothe, a slight nerve vibrating through him that she might not forgive him for the invasion. It made him think of the way she'd been so careful to keep her back out of his sight the first time they'd made love.
His knuckles found her cheeks in a gentle touch. "Always," he answered.
She sat up her voice a familiar bite. "And you said nothing?"
"There is nothing to say," he whispered laying a soft kiss to a thin white line that curved over her shoulder, the first he'd ever seen. "The animal that did this to you is already dead, so I cannot kill them. And I will rip apart anyone who touches you again-other than that, what else is there?"
Her chest heaved for a moment and he felt her magic shifting through the air like a living cloud.
"You don't pity me," she said, not a question.
Rhone took her face in his hands and kissed her again, savoring the taste like he needed it to live, to breathe. "Only for my addiction to you-you will never be able to get rid of me now."
Kali relaxed in his grip and pulled him onto the bed above her, kissing him with the same fight and fury he'd fallen in love with from her. His hands fell down her silhouette, resting on her hips, his thumbs rolling in heavy circles against the curve of her bones. Her body responded, legs curling around him.
She welcomed him and his heart thundered in his chest.
He tore at the brief underthings she wore until they gave and her body was finally open to him. Her breasts rose and fell to the same rhythm of his leaded breaths and he was filled with the thrill of their symmetry. Her hands fell on his bare chest, weaving in needy swirls across his muscles, over his shoulders and around his back.
Rhone kissed her breasts slowly, in sweet circles around the bud of her nipples before taking them completely, his tongue flicking against the tight, sensitive skin. She clenched beneath him and he felt her flex the depths of her core as his body responded in kind. Rolling his hips against her, Rhone gave an almost feral grin at the soft gasp that fell from her lips.
His hands grabbed her hips and she tightened her legs around him, pulling herself to him. Rhone laced an arm up her back and rose to a sitting position, her lean body wrapped around him entirely as her arms squeezed around his neck. Petal soft lips trailed down the column of his throat and nibbled at the pulse thundering there.
He lowered his pants, removing the final boundary between them, and laid her back on the bed, suddenly overcome with how precious this moment was to him.
Kali pulled him down to her trailing biting kisses along his collarbone as he drank in her scent from the crook of her neck. His fingers wove through the power rippling off her skin as he touched her - her stomach, her hips… He opened her thighs and she complied, linking her heels around his waist.
Rhone's trembling returned and he let it show. There was nothing he wanted to keep from her, nothing he wanted for his life that he did not want her involved in.
Her small hand found his cheek, her sweet, knowing eyes were a balm to his overwhelmed heart.
He kissed her fiercely, entering her in the same breath. She bucked beneath him and the joy of the moment burst through him, the heat prickling his naked skin. He tasted her pleasure, the rolling of her need - her love.
Rhone moved in her and she turned and ebbed and flowed and crashed beneath him. He suckled on her neck, her breast as her fingers clawed down his chest. Tears fell down her face and he only pressed his cheek to hers, feeling their falling together as the waves of his motions and the weight of this moment moved them to a new place, a new realm.
She was a dream - a fallen angel sent to bless and torment him. He wanted every ounce she had to give.
A deeper heat dropped in his chest and he pulled his face back to look into hers, knowing she would pick up on his emotions almost instantly. Her eyes turned heavy lidded, a glint of curiosity in them as her body arched under his.
"Say you're mine," he growled, ignoring the neediness in his voice as a single bead of sweat dripped down his forehead from his now short hair.
A cruel, wicked grin captured her face and he mirrored her, the pleasure of her body building in him with every slow thrust as he took her. But his claim of her body did not make her his and he watched her with fiery uncertainty as she decided his torture.
But for once, Kali did not fight him-she did not deny him.
"I am yours," she whispered and only then did he realize what those words meant to her beyond his own selfish need for her. His eyes fell shut, the gravity of her feelings pulling him under the surface of everything he felt for her.
He kissed her again and again-desperate to show her he was worth everything she was giving him in this moment until she bucked and crashed under him in her own world of wild pleasure and finally, he could do the same.
When their hearts finally began to slow, Rhone settled her into the curve of his body, trailing soothing strokes of his hand along her back and the bend of her waist. They fit together like they were made for each other-her head pressed against his chest over his thundering pulse, his arm wrapped around her tiny body. He smiled up at the ceiling, utterly at peace with this moment.
"I love you, Kali," he murmured into the silky silver of her hair. His thief froze and he felt her lashes brush against his chest as she blinked in surprise.
Then, like the brilliant warmth of the sun in the Summer lands, the room filled with the wild light of her happiness.
Thank you for sticking with me for another spicy chapter of The Thief and the Soldier! I love love love each of you who have taken the time to leave me a review and let me get to know you, the reader, a little better. Thank you thank you thank you! You are all so wonderful and I'm so glad that you've been enjoying this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it.
Also, I opened a poll to see how many of you would be interested in ready a spin off story about Stryker and his mate. Please vote!