November Prompt: New Life (Patreon)

Masterlist

Notes: So the prompt for this one was simply 'Kiena and Ava are settled and happy in their married life', but it seemed time that I took their married life a little further, and this prompt evolved into something more. You'll see what I mean when you read :).

Breaking Legacies: New Life

Kiena was in one of our paddocks, carefully eyeing the most recent addition to our stables while I watched from beyond the fence. The young destrier was large, strong, and a beautiful gray with black spots, but most unfortunately, aggressive. Kiena never had been able to resist a challenge, though, especially where a wronged animal was concerned. Unable to train the horse, its owner had been determined to put it down until Kiena offered a small sum to buy it. It seemed to be proving more of a challenge than she’d anticipated, as she’d been in the paddock upwards of an hour on this day alone, going back and forth with the beast.

She’d drive it away from a spot in a mimic of lead horse behavior, but every so often, the horse would push back, unwilling yet to yield. Eventually, it would give her the respect she wanted and approach her gently rather than aggressively. It would even follow her, making it easy for her to begin training with the halter, but on this second day, it was clearly testing her patience. After another minute, Kiena strode toward me in need of a rest. She climbed through the gaps in the wood fence, pecked me on the cheek, and dropped down to lie in the grass with a heavy sigh.

"Giving up?” I teased, sitting down beside her and leaning back on my hands.

“Have I ever?” she asked. She rested her head on one arm, reaching behind me with the other to absentmindedly touch my back. “You know something?” I hummed my curiosity. “That grump reminds me of an old friend.”

I watched the horse graze for a moment before glancing over at Kiena. “Brande?”

She nodded and clicked her tongue. “Brande was a right pignut when I got him.”

“Indeed?” I laughed.

“Aye,” she said, smiling at my amusement. “He was stubborn, though, wouldn’t react at all to my advances.”

“How old were you?”

She pursed her lips in thought. “Twelve.”

“Ah,” I said, smirking, “a scrawny thing, then?”

“Listen here, you,” she laughed, poking me in the ribs with a jolt of her sparks. “I had heart.”

I giggled, twisting away from her finger. “I’ve no doubt.”

She sat up, scooting closer to my side and pulling her knees up to wrap her arms around them. “This one,” she gestured toward the small pasture, “he’s not been trained properly. They tried to teach him with fear and it’s only stoked his fire.”

“And using your magic?” I suggested.

She shook her head. “Control won’t bring trust. But I’m close, I can feel it.”

I reached up to twist her long braid of hair around my finger. “Back at it, then?”

She hummed an agreement, leaned over to give me a slow kiss on the lips, and then hopped to her feet. “You haven’t got to stay if you’ve other things to do.”

I held out my hands, and she lifted me to my feet as I said, “I like watching you work.”

“Oh?” she asked, leading the way back to the fence, and while she climbed through it, I leaned forward against it. “Treat for the eyes, is it?”

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth, deliberately gazing up the length of her body until I held her gaze. “Feast, more like.”

“Flatterer,” she accused, but she was grinning broadly as she turned to continue her work.

For a whole other hour, she continued gently asserting herself, showing the horse that she wasn’t afraid while also not making him afraid, waiting for the moment he finally relented. It seemed it would never happen. He’d run off, sometimes only for a minute before approaching her with his ears laid back, but then, after the countless time, something changed. Kiena asserted herself and made him move, and he did, but then she let him go and he came around again. He approached her slowly, with his head down and his ears cropped casually, and he nosed her hand. It was a show of respect, and after days and hours of trying and frustration that she kept well-hidden, all that patience and tension and running around the paddock had finally paid off.

Kiena stroked him, rewarded him with the gentleness of her touch, and then tested him by walking away. He followed. He trailed her loyally across the paddock, allowing her to stop and touch him again, and as her hand ran down his neck, she looked over at me with a beaming grin. I tapped my hands together in silent applause, feeling just as satisfied as she appeared. She strode around for a little while longer, and then fed him the two carrots she’d had in her pocket before letting him be.

She was still grinning when she reached me, saying as she climbed through the fence, “Knew I was close!”

“You’ll make a noble horse of him yet,” I praised, slinging my arms around her neck.

“With work, perhaps,” she agreed. She kissed me once before pulling away and nodding toward some ropes that were draped over the fence. “I need to return the ropes to the barn.”

“Think you can beat me home?” I asked mischievously. Our cottage was a little closer than the barn up the road. I knew that if we raced, Kiena would use her sparks, but I might still be able to run there faster than she could jump, store the ropes, and jump again.

Kiena glanced from me to the ropes, and then at our cottage before stepping closer to me, setting her hands on my hips and asking, “Do I get something for beating you?”

“If you can,” I teased, indulging her imagination by sliding my hands up her chest, “sure.”

“Anything I want?” she asked. I gave a consenting tilt of my head. “And if you win?”

I pushed onto my tiptoes to brush her lips with mine. “Then I know exactly what I want.”

“Ava,” Kiena whispered, skimming her mouth away from mine, along my jaw and to my ear. “See you at the cottage.”

She pushed away from me to dash to the ropes, and by the time she’d grabbed them, I’d already taken off running. There was no doubt in my mind that she’d use her sparks, if she hadn’t already. Maybe I could beat her if I ran as fast as I could, but this was a bet I wanted to win. A reward I wanted more than anything to claim. So I wouldn’t run. It wasn’t often I acknowledged the magic in my blood, wasn’t often I needed or wanted to, but now I did. I stopped my sprinting just long enough to focus on the image of the scar on my back. On the crow. That image sent a jolt up my spine that cascaded through my veins, and in the blink of an eye, I was becoming new.

I flexed my wings at the end of the swift transformation, and then I took off into the air. It happened so quickly that I could see Kiena just landing at the door of the barn as I took flight. But my wings gave me speed, and I beat them harder while she disappeared through the doors, soaring far faster than I ever could’ve run. I reached the small steps to our door just as Kiena landed on a bolt of lightning in the yard, and as she straightened out of her landing, I forced the change from my body. My feathers became clothing and flesh, and I dropped down to sit on the stairs as if I hadn’t been rushing.

Kiena’s mouth fell open, one side of it pulling into a disbelieving smile. “Well, that’s cheating if I’ve ever seen any.”

“Oh?” I laughed, standing as she paced over. “Was there a rule against magic?”

She wrapped her arms around my waist, lifting me up to spin me in a circle before setting me down and pinning me against the door. “I’ve been baited.”

I gave an exaggerated grin. “And I’ve become a victor.”

“Alright, Little Will-o’,” she chuckled. She reached behind me to open the door, and took my hand to lead me in to the nearest surface – our table. She lifted me to sit me at the edge of it, placing herself between my legs. “How should I reward you?” She dipped in to press a kiss to my ear as her hands found the bottom of my dress, sliding up my bare calves. “With my fingers?” she asked, and her eagerness alone was enough for heat to pool in my belly. “With my tongue?”

Both of those sounded incredible, especially as her hands slid further up under my dress, but I leaned back enough to find her lips with mine, pecking her once before setting my forehead against hers. “I had something a little different in mind…”

“I’m listening,” she whispered, but her hands continued their upward journey, and she was thinking solely about sex when I wanted something different. Something more. I grabbed her hands through my clothing to stop them, and she pulled back to look me in the eyes. “What’s wrong?”

I took in a deep breath. “It’s not something I’d accept should you be anything less than entirely ready and willing to give it.”

Her brows furrowed with curiosity and concern. “Let’s hear it, then.”

And it was something we’d mentioned, something I knew we both wanted, but the incredible desire for it in my heart kept me from being anything but nervous as I said, “Babies.”

Kiena let out a brief laugh, but stopped short when it truly sank in. “Babies?” she repeated. I nodded, staring into her eyes as she stared at me, trying to figure out exactly what she was thinking. “Have you just decided today that you’re ready?”

“No,” I said, thinking about the small box I’d stowed away under our bed months ago. “I’ve been ready. It’s been over a year since the war and you know I want this, with you, and sometimes I watch you with the horses or with Nilson, and you’re so patient and kind, and my heart swells because I think of you with our children. And I don’t want to wait anymore.” I looked down to trace the shape of her hand on my thigh through my dress, giving a self-conscious shrug. “I’ll wait if you’re not ready, but if you are, Kiena…” and I met her gaze again, “start a family with me.”

She pulled her hands out from under my dress and reached up to cup my face, her brown eyes bright with wonder as she continued to stare at me. For several long seconds, she stared, and then she laughed again and kissed me. Her lips met mine, and I felt the smile on them that kept it from being as deep as she tried. “How?” she breathed, taking my lips in another series of brief kisses. “Tell me what you want me to do. I want this too.”

“You do?” I asked, unable to keep a grin off my face as I leaned back, setting my hands on the backs of hers.

“Yes,” she said, “of course.” She pecked me again. “Tell me how, or where, Ava, and we’ll start our family. I’ll love our children as deeply as I love you, no matter where they come from.”

“What if,” I began, tilting my head to press a kiss to her palm, “I told you that I’d already discovered a way for us to have a child of our own?”

“Our own?” she asked, a crease forming between her eyebrows. “You’d… you’d carry a child?” I nodded. “My child?” I nodded again. “How?”

I slid off the edge of the table and took one of her hands in my own. "Come with me." She followed me across our cottage, through the doorway into our bedroom, where I let her go to kneel and reach under the bed. I pulled up that small box, setting it on the bench at the foot of our bed. “While we were in Ronan last,” I explained, “for the annual ball with Nira and Rhien, I asked Nira to find a way.” Kiena nodded, her curious gaze fixed on the box. “It’s not uncommon, you see, for women couples to want children, and Ronan mages have come up with ways.”

“You have been ready,” she observed with a smile, finally looking from the box to me. “Show me.”

I lifted the lid, revealing the four items tucked into the wooden box. There was a letter, describing the box’s contents; a small vial of clear liquid; another vial of green; and something else that was… well… a phallus.

Kiena’s eyes roamed the items, but when they landed on the last, she laughed, “Ava…” I hummed. “Is that what it looks like?”

“Indeed,” I said, trying not to smile at the confused amusement on her face.

“What are we supposed to do with this?” she asked, reaching out to grab it. The moment it was in her hands, she snorted with laughter. “It feels like flesh, Ava,” she snickered. “Are you certain someone out there isn’t missing it?”

"I'm quite sure,” I giggled. I hadn’t ventured yet to touch anything in the box but the letter, but I finally reached out with my own curiosity to feel. It did feel like flesh. “That’s eerie,” I admitted.

Kiena chuckled. “What’s it for?”

“Well, it’s only one of two options,” I told her, “the potions being the other.” She nodded. “I suppose, according to the letter, this part,” and I pointed to the bottom end, where it was curved into a deep ‘J’ shape, “goes inside you. And then the rest of it sticks out and you… you know… use it inside me.”

“Oh.” Kiena’s mouth fell open with realization. “Oh…” But she swallowed thickly as her eyes dropped over my figure, and I knew by heart that unmistakable look of arousal. “Mhm,” she hummed, “and you’d be alright with that?”

I shrugged. “I imagine it’s not that different from your fingers.”

One of her eyebrows rose, and she held the phallus up in one hand while lifting two fingers of her other for comparison. The item was decidedly bigger. “Not that different?”

“Alright,” I laughed, “a little different. But not alarming.”

“You’re not intimidated?” she asked almost skeptically.

“You don’t intimidate me,” I said, gesturing toward the item, “nor would you with that.” She nodded. “Are you intimidated?”

“A little,” she said, huffing amusedly. “But I’m interested…”

“There’s also the potions,” I reminded. She nodded again, dropping the item back into the box so I could explain. “You’d drink the clear one, and I the green one. Then we lay together, but there must be a joining of flesh.” She squinted at me in thought, trying to decipher what that meant, and then took in a breath as if to ask, but never did and only thought about it some more. “You know,” I explained, spreading apart the first two fingers on each of my hands, “just…” and I slotted that space between my fingers together. It still took a moment to sink in, but then she realized what I meant, and her face flushed a deep crimson as her eyes roamed my body once more. I couldn’t help throwing my arms around her neck to kiss her rosy cheeks. “I’ve missed this blush.”

She slipped her arms around my waist. “Honestly, Ava, I’m not sure how there’s any blood left for my face.”

I smirked, sliding my hands from around her neck, down her torso and to her hips, where I tugged at a string to undo her trousers. “Gone somewhere else, has it?”

“The ideas you put in my head…” she murmured. “The things I want to do with you...” She set her forehead against mine. “We don’t do both?”

“Just one,” I said, untucking her tunic from her undone trousers, “for now.”

Her hand reached to the front of me, untying the lace down my dress. “And your preference?”

I skimmed her lips with mine, feeling her breath stunt against them when I slid my hands beneath her tunic. “Whichever you’d like.”

"Both," she whispered, her hips pressing searchingly into my palms.

I huffed a laugh against her mouth, kissing her bottom lip. “One at a time, love.”

She was smiling when she returned the kiss, but then backed away to say, “The potions.” She reached down to run a finger over the clear vial, asking, “You’re sure I drink this one?”

“Let me see,” I said. I picked up the letter written by a Ronan mage, and read over the instructions another time to make sure. “Yes. That one’s for you.” Kiena grabbed it from the box, and then held the green one out to me. “You’re certain you’re ready?” I asked while I took it. “You’re not just doing this for me?”

“Aye,” she said, and uncorked the vial. “But if you’re not ready, stop me now.” She lifted it to her lips, pausing for a moment to search my eyes. I said nothing, and she poured the liquid into her mouth in one go, swallowing it down. She cringed at the taste, muttering, “Sweet,” under her breath as she put the cork back in and returned the empty vial to the box. “Well, then, your turn.”

I uncorked my potion with a grin, swallowing it in one large gulp before dropping the empty glass into the box. It was sweet, incredibly sweet, and I worked my tongue around my mouth for a moment while focusing on my body. There wasn’t a sensation or a feeling anywhere to tell me that the potion was working. Truly, I wasn’t even sure exactly what it was supposed to do, but I didn’t care much so long as it worked.

Kiena stepped toward me, cupping my face and leaning down to give me a slow kiss. “Do we wait?” she asked. I shook my head, and she reached down for the skirt of my dress, lifting it until she’d pulled the entire garment up and over my head, so all I had left was my underdress. She kissed me again, more deeply than before as her arms snaked around my waist. “How much time do we have?”

It was already difficult to let her lips go long enough to answer, but I managed to say against them, “Two hours.”

She hummed her content, using the grip around my waist to lift me up and carry me around the side of the bed. She set me down, mouth finding mine as she climbed onto the mattress, and I was lost to her the moment she settled above me. Even after all this time we’d spent together, I never tired of the weight of her. Never tired of her lips moving against mine, or her arm slipping beneath my waist to hold me closer, or her hips pressing between my legs with the start of anticipation. I loved every moment, always, and cherished every day with her. But this was different, and it wasn’t just because of the potions.

It was what doing this meant. There was never a shortage of passion or affection – I felt Kiena’s love for me even in our least intimate moments – but this was an intimacy I’d never known. This wasn’t the heat of her kiss, or the caress of her fingers, or the blossoming moisture between my thighs just for the sake of pleasure or closeness. This was love so deep that we’d made the decision to share it. This was the potential to feel new life stirring inside me. Kiena’s life. Our life. And the promise of carrying the children of the woman I loved, of raising them with her, and watching her love them as purely as she loved me, it was intimacy baring the promise of more than physical pleasure. It was an intimacy I was more than ready for, and that my body was fast readying for.

I kissed back as deeply as I could, slipping my hands under her tunic to run them up her back. My fingertips admired the firm but graceful lines of muscle on either side of her spine, traced the thin scar between her shoulder blades, and caressed the modestly feminine curves of her waist. I brought one hand to the front of her, grazing it up her stomach while I kissed away from her lips, trailing mine along her jaw and to her neck. I skimmed my tongue over her pulse as my hand reached her breast, and I felt the low vibrations in her throat against my lips as I brushed my thumb over her nipple.

The hand Kiena had at my waist pushed deeper between the bed and me, grasping at my backside while I massaged at her chest, clutching me closer with a push of her hips. It didn’t stay there long, but followed down the back of my thigh through my dress, along the bend of my knee and to my calf, where she slid it under my dress and back up. While her hand trailed up beneath my clothing, she pushed my knee outward, lifting her hips as she followed up the inside of my thigh. It created just enough space that she didn’t have to stop, and she slid that hand right between us, fingers brushing over the moisture at my core.

I hadn’t expected her to do it. Only to tease until she was certain of how badly I needed it, but she met sensitive flesh and I drew in a stunted gasp as my lips fell away from her neck. “Impatient,” I accused on a breath, but it was anything but a protest.

She circled deliberately around my entrance, where the moisture was most abundant, while her smiling lips found my ear. “I’m not the only one.” She kissed down my neck, pressing open pecks over my collarbone while her finger explored between my legs. “Am I allowed to do this?” she asked, kissing as low as the deep cut of my dress would allow. “The potion won’t be wasted?”

I shook my head, already finding it hard to breathe. “It’s fine,” I murmured, and my hand left her chest to rejoin the other at her back, clutching at her through the pleasure. “But you remember what we need to do?”

"I've not forgotten,” she said. She kissed her way back up, her breath hot on my neck. “Just want to feel you first.”

Her finger teased at my entrance, and my hips canted toward her touch as I nodded my consent. “Feel me.”

She pushed the very tip inside me. “Like this?”

“Yes.” My head fell to the side as she pressed a searing, open kiss over my pulse, but she teased with only another inch of her finger. I tried to push up against her, but her lips thinned against me with a grin as she pulled out to stroke upward. “You’re teasing,” I whimpered, and we’d hardly been doing this long. I’d hardly had time to grow desperate for her touch, but my body ached when she withdrew. I was desperate.

“Am I?” she asked, but she knew perfectly well what she was doing. And she did it again, dipping her finger low and deep enough to taunt, gathering more moisture only to avoid stroking exactly where I needed it.

“Kiena,” I breathed, digging my fingers impatiently into her back, “do you feel how badly I want you?” She made a testing circle over my clit that made my hips jump, and I struggled not to plead for it while she hummed her answer against my neck. Instead of pleading, I pulled my hands out from under her tunic, combing my fingers through her hair while guiding her ear to my lips. “Then you’d best get your fill of me,” I whispered, “before I ride you to a climax that leaves your limbs weak till tomorrow.”

She pulled back to meet my gaze, her face flushing with heat as her eyes lidded, focus darting from my eyes to my lips as her body responded with a wanton shudder above me. It did exactly what I wanted it to do – made her as desperate as she’d been making me. Her lips crashed onto mine in a heated kiss while her finger dropped low, slipping deep inside me without a semblance of resistance. I clenched with acceptance and need around the length of her as my back arched, hips pushing forward to take her even deeper.

I’d thought I was lost to her before, but I’d scarcely known a need so great. Scarcely known a need that only grew with every moment of pleasure she brought. Even through the searing depth of her kiss, her lips were soft and open and slow, and I felt the overwhelming warmth of her love. Her taste was everything I needed when her tongue dipped past my lips, when it met the tip of my own with every encouraging clutch of my hand in her hair.

And her hand, her finger was but a taunting sample of bliss. She knew exactly where to push, exactly how much to bend her finger so that she stroked my sensitive front wall with every thrust. When she pulled back, she drew her hips back too, using them as leverage with each push so that I couldn’t just feel the overwhelming pleasure of her inside me. I could feel her moving above me as well as in me. Over me, on me, hips rolling against mine in the same slow rhythm as her lips while I ground up against her, so that I knew I wasn’t the only one who was lost. So that I knew the entirety of her mind and body were consumed with me as much as I was with her.

But my desire for more of her flourished with every jolt of her forward thrusts. I needed as much of her skin as I could kiss and touch without navigating the barriers of her clothing. I needed the bare heat of her body. The soft press of her breasts at my chest, the firm plane of her stomach against me, the length of her legs tangled up with mine. And oh, more than anything, I craved the meeting of flesh. Craved the throbbing woes of climax against a part of her I’d never joined with so intimately.

“Kiena,” I panted against her lips, “I’m ready.” My hand left her hair, both of them caressing down her back until I found the bottom of her tunic, but though her hips halted with recognition, her mouth met my neck. She sucked hard at the muscle beside my throat, the suction of her lips leaving me so weak that I couldn’t protest. I loved the sting of it so much that my head tipped back, exposing as much of my neck as I could, but I could feel myself pulsing hungrily around her finger. “Please.” I slid her tunic up to her ribs, and though my body revolted against the withdrawing of her finger, I held on to the promise of skin as she straightened and let me take her shirt off.

I threw it to the floor, immediately lifting my shoulders off the mattress enough to press my mouth to her neck. I kissed openly along the column of her throat as she fell forward, my hands running up her naked back to press her more firmly against my lips. I nipped at the edge of her jaw, traced my tongue along the shell of her ear and then took her earlobe between my lips, savoring the expected moment that she hummed her approval. It made her weak, it always did, and I used the opportunity to push her sideways off of me and onto her back, rolling with her so that my mouth never left her flesh.

Even distracted as she was, it wasn’t enough to keep her from reaching down to grab the skirt of my dress. She pulled the length of fabric upward, forcing me to leave her ear as she slid it up and over my head, discarding the last of my clothing to the floor. Her hands immediately met my hips, drawing me down to her as she found my lips with her own. But the flushed heat of her upper body against mine made me more impatient than ever.

“Trousers,” I muttered, “off.”

Her hands left my hips for hers, and I got off of her just long enough for her to slip her trousers down her legs and over her ankles, so she could dispose of them with the rest of our clothing. I climbed over her again, straddling one of her thighs while I bent over and gave her one long, deep kiss before straightening. We were both panting with the magnitude of our need, her chest was heaving with labored breaths as her hands set on my thighs and her eyes lidded with anticipation, but we locked gazes and froze.

This was it. This was the point in our love-making where our lives would change forever. We both knew it, and the wordless acknowledgement of it passed between us as her focus held mine, but there was no hesitation. Not in her gorgeous brown eyes nor in any corner of my heart. Only love. Only the exchange of a silent vow that we both truly wanted this, that we were both ready and willing and eager.

Kiena was the first to move. She shifted the leg I wasn’t straddling outward, opening herself up to me as widely as she could, baring herself to my lead. I adjusted upward, leaving her thigh so that I could straddle the space between her thighs instead. I lined my center up with hers, lowering myself enough to meet flesh with flesh and then jogging my hips in one testing roll. Kiena’s hands shot to my waist as her back bowed, and I released a stunted breath while a hot wave of pleasure shot through me.

I could feel her against that most intimate part of me. Her heat. Oh, she was scorching, but so soft and slick against my sensitive skin. So wet. The next roll of my hips between hers was effortless as the moisture at her core united with mine, and that abundance of silk left nothing for want of friction. Every inconsistency of her anatomy was a point of pleasure on mine. The smooth delicacy of her folds were a long and almost teasing caress, the firm ridge of her clit against mine was the flick of pressure that would bring release, and I could feel and see and hear that Kiena felt the same.

She moaned as her hands clutched tighter at my waist. The arch in her back pressed her hips deeper into the mattress, threatening to pull her away from me, but she was as unwilling to sacrifice our joining as I was to let her go. The grip of her hands was a guiding encouragement to the movement of my hips while hers pushed up against me, and I was already growing weak.

She felt so good that I could hardly breathe. Every muscle in my body was tense with the building release, but at the same time so weak with pleasure, and it took a tremendous effort not to let my movement falter. One second of missed friction would have been torture. I was pulsing at the core, and a lack of contact would’ve left me aching, but I was so adrift in the pure arousal her sex stirred in me that I could hardly stay upright.

All I could do not to collapse onto her was lean forward and brace my hands against her chest. I wanted so badly to kiss her. To taste her and each ragged breath she might gift my tongue, but leaning so far would pull us away at the hips, would mean I couldn’t grind so perfectly against the throbbing swell of her clit. Kiena wanted it, too. Her hands left my hips to caress up my back, planting over my shoulder blades like she wanted so badly to draw me down to her and kiss me deeply. But she knew what I knew, and while our lips couldn’t meet, our eyes did.

Every thrust of my hips over the sensitive point of nerves between her legs caused her lashes to flutter, but she held my gaze and drank me in the only way that she could. She was beautiful, the light and joy of my life, and though her eyes were glazed with lust and pleasure, they were also full of adoration. Just like me, at the back of her mind, she hadn’t stopped thinking about what this meant. It was physical pleasure like I’d never felt it before, but the spiritual intimacy of this act joined us in a way our bodies couldn’t, and that depth of our bond heightened the pleasure beyond words. I was too breathless and weak to even moan. I simply held my weight over the racing pulse in Kiena’s chest, gulping air to feed the constant meeting of our hips.

"Ava," Kiena panted, and I recognized the plea in her voice as her fingers dug into my back and she squeezed her eyes shut. She was close, and she struggled to ask, “Do we have to finish together?”

I shook my head, gathering the air to breathe, “But I want to.”

“Please,” she whimpered, meeting my gaze to beg with more than just her words. “Gods, Ava, I need you.”

And I was close, so close. I forced myself upright, reaching for her hands and placing them over my breasts, knowing it would bring the additional pleasure I needed to throw me right to the edge. Oh, and it did. Kiena knew just how to touch me, massaging in time with the cadence of our hips, pinching a stiff nipple between her fingers and then soothing it with a brush of her thumb. And I couldn’t help but keep my hands planted firmly over hers, pressing her harder and encouraging the dexterity of her fingers.

It flooded every bit of my body with warmth that wasn’t already consumed by the pressure building between my hips, and as I crashed toward the peak, I focused what was left of my mind on how Kiena felt beneath me. I thought solely of how the potion might be working to join us, to bathe me with her life, and I could almost feel it. There was no telling anymore what silk between us was hers or mine. It was ours, but that didn’t mean that my body didn’t recognize her. That I couldn’t feel her filling the depths of me even without being inside me.

I could feel the swell of the magic at my core, in the incredible moisture between us, and I knew in my heart that this would work. That even now, on the brink and before completely losing myself to climax, Kiena was within me. As deeply as she’d ever been, body and soul. And that realization was what sent me careening over the edge.

I cried out as Kiena’s hands left my chest for my hips, clutching me as her back curved deeper than ever, letting herself go because she no longer had to wait. She tried her best to maintain a rhythm as she came against me, but the strength of my own climax made the grinding of my hips jagged. I rocked into her by the sheer force of the waves that rolled through me, whimpering breathlessly every time my pulsing clit brushed hers and sent a tremor of sharp pleasure shooting between my hips. Kiena moaned low in her throat, but her gaze was locked on my writhing body as she watched me fall apart on her.

As soon as I fell over the consuming peak into ebbing waves of pleasure, I braced myself once more on her chest, swaying my hips to keep working my core over hers, drawing out every last throb that I could. I rocked until I was almost too sensitive to bear it, and then until Kiena had settled into the stupor of bliss. I kissed her once and then collapsed onto her chest, my body completely limp while I buried my face against her neck. Her arms wrapped around me, and for the next few minutes while we both recovered, she caressed my back and my waist and my hips. Her fingertips traced down my arms or along the outlines of my scar, her palms rounded the curve of my backside and fell into the dip of my lower back, touching everywhere she could with the affection that I loved. That comforted me while I breathed her in.

For several long minutes, we simply lay there. Eventually, Kiena gathered the strength to roll me off of her, putting me on my back so she could adjust to lie over me. She kissed inward from my shoulder and down the center of my chest. Scattered gentle pecks along my ribs while lowering her body between my legs, until she’d settled against my lower half with her face at my stomach.

“It worked,” she said, rubbing her hand beneath my naval. “I could feel it.”

I smiled, nodding. “I felt it too.”

She pressed a kiss to my stomach, leaving her lips against it while she said, “Are you in there yet, little baby?” My whole torso shook with my laughter, and she passed a beaming grin up at me as her eyes gleamed. A hopeful excitement radiated between us, and Kiena was brimming so thoroughly with it that she was wiggling between my legs. “That’ll be my baby there in my wife’s belly. Our baby.”

“It will,” I agreed. I reached down to cup her face, feeling so overjoyed that all I wanted to do was laugh.

She turned her head to kiss my palm, eyes never leaving mine. “I love you, Ava.”

“I love you too,” I told her, tracing her bottom lip with my thumb.

She kissed the pad of that finger before laying her head face down on my stomach. “Soon I’ll be able to feel you,” she said, her voice muffled against my skin.

“And soon they’ll be able to hear you,” I teased.

Kiena chuckled, rising to lift herself back up and giving me a joyful kiss on the lips. “You know something, Little Will-o’?” she asked, and I hummed curiously as I slid my arms around her neck. “It’s probably good we need the potions to get you pregnant doing that.” She set her forehead against mine. “Because I think I’d like to do it again…” She kissed me. “And again…” Another peck to the edge of my lips. “And again…”

“As many times as you’d like,” I laughed, stealing a kiss of my own. “At least until my belly gets too big for us to fit together…”

She immediately bounced downward again until she could nuzzle her face into my stomach. “Big with my baby.”

I giggled, both because it tickled and because she was being unbearably endearing, and I reached down to pull her back up to me. I cupped her face and kissed her deeply, then set my forehead against hers and shut my eyes, basking in the feel of her and her love. “I can’t imagine any life better than this one.”

Even with my eyes closed, I felt the smile on her lips when she kissed me. “Neither can I.”