Ihsan tossed and turned for most of the night. Climbing from his bed and crossing the room to the terrace, he looks up into the night’s sky. His mind drifts to the assassin sleeping only one room way. He loves her more than he loves his kingdom. It appears as though both his mother’s and his father’s flaws have passed on to him.
The longer he stands staring at the doors he knows lead to her bedroom the less willing he is to accept her rejection.
When she came into his room at the alumni camp while he changed she couldn’t look away. She told him she’d often dreamt of seeing him in his naked glory. He made a promise to himself once he kicked her out of his room. If she came to him, he would fuck her into oblivion, and she hadcome to him. Well…she was sentto him. The Majii’s conscious must be weighing on him after years of scheming and plotting to keep them apart. Perhaps sending her here was his way of atoning for that sin.
Although she’d rejected him, he didn’t feel rejected. She was playing it safe. She didn’t care about his kingdom or Navi. She only cared about herself. She didn’t want the guilt that sharing his bed would bring her. She didn’t want the full brunt of Malich’s wrath to reign down on her, but he owed them both. Yes, perhaps that isindeedwhy he sent her. Ihsan wouldn’t presume to know the inner workings of a madman, but it’s the only thing that made sense.
His feet brought him to the door of her chambers. It was locked from the inside but with a small flicker of his power the door popped open. Arya shot up flinging a stiletto in his direction. He catches it effortlessly as he’s done millions of times before during training. She always aims for the space between the eyes so it isn’t hard to intercept its path.
Arya takes one look at him and he sees the fear in her eyes. She knew he’d come and quickly looks away. He walks over to her bed taking in the sight of her. She’s as beautiful as he remembers, give or take a few messy curls. She’s dressed in nothing but her tunic, the sheer fabric unable to hide her bare breasts, and her long tone legs extend from the bottom of it. He hardens in an instant.
“This is a bad idea,” Arya whispers to him nervously.
“Probably, but a wise girl once said it would be worth it.”
She opens her mouth to speak but no words come out. Sitting down beside her on the bed he gently tilts her face towards his with his index finger. She’s starting to tremble. Soon she’ll take flight, but he has no intentions of letting her go again.
Ihsan drinks from her lips, but it isn’t enough. He wants more of her, all of her. His hands ache to touch her and he can no longer deny his male instinct to claim her. As he sweeps his tongue through her mouth she battles with what to do. She pulls him in to her and then she pushes him away, warring with herself and her emotions. He had the same war with himself as he contemplated coming to her chambers. There’s no recovering from what this would do to both of them, but he refused to think about it. Consuming her was the only way he could release the hold she had on him. So he did just that.
His free hand climbed the slope of her breast, gripping a handful while grazing her hardened nipple with the pad of his thumb. Again she gasps and pushes him away, but only slightly. She was still holding back. Malich had his hooks in her deep and he was going to rip them all out if he had to. She was his long before Malich managed to charm his way into her heart and her bed. Tonight, he would reclaim that which was taken from him.
Leaning into her he uses his body weight to force her to lay back. This is the first time he’s seen her so powerless and he relished being able to affect her this way. She still loved him. She’d said as much and he could read it in her eyes.
She wouldn’t touch him. Her hands stayed planted firmly beside her on the mattress, propping her up. It was the last bit of resolve she clung to as his tongue, his lips, and his touch slowly destroyed it. He slid down the length of her body; her legs propped up on his shoulders and smiled when he realized she wasn’t wearing anything underneath her tunic.
Descending between her legs he lapped his tongue, invading every corner of the folds between her legs. Her back arched, her knees clenched his head and she put a pillow over her face, biting into it to stifle a moan. It isn’t long before her body shudders and he can taste her explosion on his tongue.
Sliding back up to meet her gaze he sees her smile, her eyes lingering shut. “Holy Gods,” she pants. He offers a smile of his own and relieves her of her tunic.
He takes her bare breasts into his mouth, curling his tongue around her nipples and she curses, biting down on her bottom lip. Her eyes plead with him to stop, but he’s come too far to stop now. He’s already on the verge of exploding.
When he’s sure she’s ready to take a tumble off of the cliff she’s been clinging to indecisively, he spreads her legs once more and breeches the proximity of her center. Like Arya he’d dreamt of this moment but the fantasy came nowhere near how divine the reality felt. The pleasure was far beyond his expectations. It took all of his strength not to spill his lineage inside her.
On more than one occasion his body sought release, but he wouldn’t dare. He wanted the moment to stretch for as long as he could, filling her with the purest, sweetest love he hoped she would ever experience.
As she shuddered beneath him a second time he too lost control of his resolve. She pushed him off before he could spill his lineage inside her.
Breathless they lay beside one another, staring up at the diamond encrusted ceiling, panting and allowing the cold air to blow against their sweat-soaked bodies. “He’s going to kill me,” Arya clenches her eyes shut.
“Then don’t go back. Stay.”
“You don’t want a war with him and that’s exactly what you’ll get if I don’t return,” she shakes her head.
“I helped train his army or have you forgotten?”
“Of course I haven’t forgotten, but their loyalty is to Malich, not you. As far as they’re concerned, you’ve deserted them.”
“And Navi?” A spark of jealousy flared in her eyes at his mention of Navi and the look of guilt he knew shone in his eyes. It appears she isn’t the only one with conflicts.
“You made her a promise that you must keep.”
“How? Once he hears of what we’ve done, there will be no reasoning with him.”
“I’ll arrange it, but you must agree to his terms.”
“One that will be to stay away from you. I cannot honor that term,” Ihsan refuses.
“You are still rebuilding your kingdom and he now has two at his disposal. You must,” Arya argues.
Ihsan goes over his options in his head and none of them fare well for him. “You knew when you came here you’d be going back to him,” Ihsan realizes. “This was only ever going to end one way, wasn’t it?Arya, he will punish you for what we’ve done.”
Taking a deep breath she sighs, “I know.”
“How can you love someone so cruel?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugs, “I just do.”
Ihsan starts to talk her out of going back, but he knows her. It doesn’t matter what he says, she would go and she would suffer the consequences to be with him. Malich and pain defined her entire life so it only makes sense she’d go running back to what was familiar.
“If you ever grow tired of life with Malich Jarrah, you will always have a place here,” he offers. She smiles and kisses his lips.
“You’re too kind. Perhaps in another life we could’ve been something more.”
“Perhaps.”
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