The ceremony for the deceased was as somber as Edward expected it would be. Those well enough to walk and those who could be helped along gathered in the front courtyard before heading to the water’s edge where the pyres waited. Esme did not feel up to using her bow, so Jasper, Tanja, and Irina were in charge of sending out the flaming arrows. As they made their way across the beach, Edward kept his arm snuggly around Isabella’s waist. He didn't need the physical support as much as he thought she needed the moral support. She mourned for the lives lost, for the responsibility she felt toward their deaths.
Carlisle, Emmett, Eleazar, and Tyler—Lauren’s mate—pushed the pyres into the waves. Tyler’s struggle not to break down was almost Edward’s undoing, but he turned his face into Isabella’s hair and breathed in an appreciative lungful of air. She held the familiar briny scent of the ocean and the rose petals she favored in her bathwater. Her shoulders shook when the archers loosed their arrows, the flames reflecting in her sorrowful eyes. He hugged her a little tighter and watched the flames catch and grow, the pyres creating a blanket of smoke on the horizon. Isabella ran the tips of her fingers over the runic symbols on his leather cuff, and he understood the sentiment. They would not have been so lucky if not for the favors of the sword.
The citadel was subdued for several days after that. Edward and Isabella took their meals in their chambers while Edward regained his strength, resting more than he was accustomed to and trying not to complain. He didn't mind being tended by his wife, whose spirits were lifting, but he grew more and more restless as the days passed. They entertained his brother and sister-in-law on occasion, but it wasn't enough to stave off boredom.
Throughout his recovery, Edward missed one thing the most. He and Isabella were able to spend plenty of quality time together, for which he was most grateful. Dining in their receiving room, no training time required, and the chance to talk about everything and anything was precious to him.
But there came a time when he realized he needed to be intimate with her once again. So much had transpired to make him feel the need to be connected to his mate, to celebrate life. They were healing both physically and emotionally; he found more of his strength returning each day, and his cock certainly had ideas of its own.
Edward had an idea while they were sitting together over a game of cards after they’d eaten supper and Peder had cleared the dishes. “How are you feeling this evening, dear wife?”
She paused with her hand halfway to the table. “I feel well, husband, and you?”
He grinned to himself but kept his countenance carefully blank. “I can’t help but notice I’m missing something.”
She looked at the cards he held, then around the room with a frown. “What would that be?”
He dropped a card on top of the one she’d played. “It’s been too long since I’ve had a taste of your skin. Since I’ve felt the way you open to me, warm and wet. Entirely too long since I’ve had the pleasure of hearing the erotic sounds you make when I touch you between your legs or roll your tight pink buds in my fingers.”
She made one of those sounds just then, shifting her legs and staring at the fingers he referenced as he casually placed the rest of his cards on the table.
“I want to sip from your juices, swallowing every drop of your arousal as I spear your core with my tongue.”
Mesmerized by his every movement, she whimpered and waved a hand in front of her overheated face.
“After you fall apart, I want to take my time running my tongue over every dip and curve of your warrior’s body.”
“Edward,” she gasped, her heart banging against her ribs. “No more. I cannot stand it.”
He met her gaze. “Then join me in bed so I can fulfill both our wishes.”
She sucked in air. “What if it’s too soon? What if—”
“I know my body, and right now it says it wants you under me.”
Isabella stood so quickly the cards on the table fluttered to the floor, her chair scraping back as she launched herself at her husband. He rose to catch her, crushing his mouth to hers. His tongue stroked across her lips, pushing into the warm velvet depths of her mouth, his breath mingling with hers. Her eyes were closed, her lips parted, and she tasted hungrily of his tongue, drawing him further within. Isabella furrowed her fingers through his hair, digging into his scalp and clasping his head to hers. They stumbled through the doorway and bumped into the clothes chest, somehow managing to make it to the bed.
Isabella yanked at his shirt, freeing it from the confines of his waistband. He helped her pull it over his head, then hissed when she closed her lips over one of his nipples. She scratched across his chest and around to his back, cherishing the warmth of life running under his skin. She cupped and squeezed his buttocks to bring his hardness in contact with her body, running her tongue over his throat when he moaned.
Edward pushed her hair over her shoulder and sucked on the skin behind her ear, flexing his hips as she ground her pelvis into his. She stood on her toes, breath fanning against his neck, as he felt his cock pulse in response to her heated core. He wanted to savor the intense fire throbbing through his veins, but he also wanted to push her down and slam into her. He settled for pulling at the hem of her dress and removing it, followed by taking her tunic off and tossing it in the corner. She stood bare and lovely before him, tall and lithe in her strength.
“On the bed,” he ordered.
Her nipples were hard and straining in his direction, her chest flushed red and her lips swollen. She did as he directed and climbed onto the bed, affording him a view of her round bottom. His hand itched with the need to reach out and touch, so he did. He placed his palms over the lowest section of her spine and below, rubbing over the globes of her cheeks before she settled on her back. He joined her, kissing her breasts and feeling her body arch. She tunneled her hands back into his hair to hold his head to her chest when he laved his tongue over one nipple, tugging the other between his thumb and forefinger.
“Edward,” she gasped.
He shifted, trailing kisses down her ribcage and across the span of her waist. Her muscles loosened, she let her legs fall open as he settled between her thighs.
“Pink and pretty,” he murmured.
The flush covering her chest deepened at the shock of his words. He spread her with his fingers and went in with his tongue, mimicking the movements of his cock. Isabella cried out, fisting the sheets on either side of her. Experimenting, Edward licked her in various ways, flattening his tongue or curling it, all to hear the gasps and pleas fall from her lips. He knew he hit the right spot when she clenched around him, when her knees came up and her thighs tensed. He continued worshipping her in that manor, sucking her most intimate spot as she grew wetter.
“Oh!” she cried. “Oh my god!”
Satisfied that she was, well, satisfied, Edward kissed her inner thighs. His wife lay inert, a content smile on her face, as he moved up to pluck at her nipples. He enjoyed the way they looked and that he was capable of making her squirm when he touched them.
“How do I begin to repay you?” she muttered.
“You needn’t.”
Edward was busy putting his mouth wherever he could reach, so when Isabella began to fool with the waist of his trousers, he thought nothing of it. He lost track of his thoughts when she touched his tip, when she pushed him until he was on his back and studiously worked to remove the last few barriers of clothing. She repaid his attentions by kissing along the length of his cock, flicking out her tongue to taste him as he’d tasted her. She roamed her hands over his inner thighs until she caressed his most sensitive skin at the same time she lowered her mouth over his entire length.
He was positive there were explosions behind his eyelids. He’d never felt such pleasure, not even all the times he’d lost himself inside his wife’s delectable body. The more she moved, the more he was positive he was going to lose what little control he held within his grasp.
“Isabella.”
She looked up at the urgent tone of his voice, and he was met with the enticing sight of her lips wrapped around his shaft. She hesitated, but backed away a few inches. “I was enjoying myself.”
“I was too, immensely, but I don’t think you want this to end before it truly begins.”
She crawled her way up his body, a gleam in her eyes. “What makes you think one time is all you have in you?”
He groaned as he felt her wetness surrounding him and gripped her hands when she sank down fully, taking him in slow and deep.
“We have never tried to do it any other way,” he said. “I assumed—” He broke off on a gasp as she rolled her hips.
All other thoughts left his head. She lifted and lowered, her gaze never leaving his and their hands remaining joined. He realized how fucking lucky he was to have this gorgeous woman all to himself. She was his, for all of time. Not only because he wanted and needed her, but because she wanted and needed him in return.
He rose up to meet her, biting her lower lip and sucking it into his mouth, then rolling them and pushing into her as deep as he could go. Love and desire warred in her expression, filling him with a satisfaction so thorough he couldn't bear it. With one last thrust he spilled his seed, pressing firmly to her hips and leaning forward to capture her mouth softly with his.
He shifted to lay beside her, trying in vain to catch his breath. “That was exactly what I needed.”
“Mm. Me too, so thank you.”
After a moment, she rose and headed to the ewer and bowl on the low table by the bed. He shifted to his side to watch her, taking the opportunity to run his gaze hungrily down her strong back, the nip of her waist, the flare of her hips, the curve of her backside, and the long sweep of her thighs glowing in the candlelight. “My love, you do look tempting.”
She aimed a saucy wink over her shoulder. “You said something about once being all you had in you.”
“I may have made a miscalculation.”
She laughed and finished up. When she turned back to the bed, a frown flitted over her forehead. She reached for the mattress, giving him a tantalizing view of her breasts. “What’s this?”
She picked up what she’d spotted glinting in the light of the flames, and recognition hit him. “It’s your necklace. Here, I’ll put it back on for you.”
“Nay, the clasp is broken.” She smirked as she showed him. “We were a tad rough.”
While he laughed at that, she set the necklace on her dressing table and returned to the bed.
“Let me see if I can prove how wrong I was.”
“I’ll grant you that chance.”
“You’ll grant it, will you?” He pushed her down on her back, lowering his mouth to within inches of hers. “What if I simply take it?”
“You cannot take that which has already been freely given.”
Edward kissed her to stop her from talking further, finding that she still tasted of the sherry she’d partaken after their meal. She responded eagerly, wrapping her legs around his waist and attempting to draw him in. He resisted, taking his time with running his open mouth along her throat and behind her ear. She squirmed, breathing hard, but he kept her pinned. He darted the tip of his tongue into the shell of her ear, and she whimpered.
“You do not play fair.”
“Who said anything about fair?”
Isabella lifted her hips, attempting to make him enter her aching body. When he resisted, she groaned and fisted his hair. He merely moved his head to run his tongue along her pulse, finding it beating double-time.
“Give it to me,” she demanded, tightening her grip on his hair.
He chuckled. “Nay.”
He was rather enjoying her plight at the moment. Instead of giving her what she craved, he ran his left hand down her flank and wedged it between them to circle her wetness. She arched under him, bringing their lower halves tighter together. Realizing he couldn't have his cake and eat it too, he backed away enough to plunge two fingers inside her. She let out a strangled cry and gripped his wrist to hold his hand against her.
“Please. More.”
Edward loved the way she lost control with him. He watched her face briefly, saw the emotions crossing it which ranged from pleasure to desperation. She bit her lip when he curled his fingers just so, and he leaned forward to take one of her nipples into his mouth.
“Edward!”
It was there just under the surface, the broken tether they both longed for that night. She shuddered, her inner walls clamping down on his fingers until he withdrew them to slip inside her. She cried out once more as he pumped deftly in and out.
“Open your eyes, Isabella. I want to see you.”
She complied, prying open her heavy lids and meeting his hot gaze. She couldn't withstand it, the way his body pinned her to the mattress, the burning look in his eyes, and the tingling which had not stopped assaulting her nerve endings. She broke apart, clinging to him with the knowledge that he would put her back together. It didn't take him long to follow her into bliss, barely stopping himself from collapsing his entire weight on her body.
He picked up her hand and squeezed it. “Until the sun turns black in the sky.”
“That is how long you will love me.” She turned her head and kissed his shoulder. “And how long I will love you.”
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