CHAPTER 14

 

Damon went after Ria immediately, only taking the time to grab his clothes from beside the lake and throw them on. They were soaking wet, and he wondered if he might have been better off without them as he felt them sagging on his body.

She hadn’t gone far, which was a minor miracle, as he doubted he would have been able to track her far. She had her back against a tree, but she spun around as Damon’s foot snapped a twig during his approach.

“I am leaving,” she said bitterly. “Save your words.”

“You’re a child,” he said.

“You think to throw insults at me, young Damon?” Ria set her hands on her hips and jutted her chin out. “You call me a child while you still cling to the strings of your aesta’s apron, waiting on her every word?”

“What are you even trying to accomplish?” he snarled. “What would killing aesta do for the world, Ria? Have you even thought that far ahead, or are you just reacting to the whims of your anger?”

He glared at her, though he was almost as annoyed at himself. He wasn’t going to get through to her with insults and loaded questions, but it felt impossible to issue anything else when she was so quick to dismiss his feelings.

“How can you, of all people, say that?” she hissed. “Where have you been these past five years, husband ? Do you not hold her complicit in stealing that time from you?”

“She’s our aesta,” he said, as though it was an explanation, an argument winner.

“She should not be free of consequences!”

Damon shook his head. “If you think the world is that simple, then you really are a child.”

“You will not speak to me that way!” Ria jabbed her finger into his chest.

“Or what?” He leaned his face closer to hers, holding her gaze as the moment pulsed with a variety of different forms of tension.

They were against each other in the next instant, wrestling, at least at first. Damon’s mouth found hers somehow. She kissed him back, and then bit his lower lip sharply, and then they were wrestling again. He pressed her back against the tree, using his body weight to hold her there as she growled and pawed at him, tearing at his wet shirt.

“You… stupid… bastard!” she hissed.

“You’re an idiot!” he yelled. “If you want to leave, Ria, then go! That’s all you ever do, isn’t it? Run away, attack people, throw a fit when things get hard!”

“I am not running away!” she snarled. “Holding a servant of evil responsible is the furthest thing from running!”

“And if I get in your way when you try it?” he asked, grabbing her by the wrists. “Will you fight me, then?”

“I could, if I so chose,” she said, voice pitched quiet and low.

“You couldn’t handle me.”

“You are more arrogant than I ever was.”

“Is that right?”

She gave a small nod, and they were suddenly kissing again, hands roving over one another as though they really did both want a fight… but something else simply took priority. He could practically sense the annoyance and frustration through the movements of her lips, the breathy noises she made as they both come up for air.

She yanked at his shirt again. She really was going to rip it, if she kept at it like that, which infuriated Damon. That would be just like Ria , he thought, as he palmed one of her breasts. Tear his shirt while they were kissing, while they were undressing, and blame it on him somehow. She was such an unbelievable…

His mind went blank for a second as he felt he slip her hand into his trousers and cup his manhood in a fashion that sent a pleasurable tickle straight to his core. He pressed her against the tree again, feeling her slide a thigh upward, opening herself to him. He kissed her neck, stopping to lift his arms up as she finally got his shirt off.

They just stared at each other for a moment. Damon glowered at her. He couldn’t help himself. It felt like losing somehow to admit that he wanted her, as though he was admitting she’d been right, and she had this smile on her face as though she knew it. He kissed her again, grinding his erection against her body, and then spun her around roughly by the shoulders.

She leaned back against him, letting her soft butt do all sorts of interesting rubbing. Damon took her arms and set her hands against the trunk of the tree, bending her forward. She let out a fuming growl and started to pull back, but he was already yanking her leggings down.

Her butt looked pale under the shadow of the trees, despite how tanned it was. He heard Ria start grumbling something, but he was a man, a horny man, and it took him less than a second to get his cock out.

“You can’t even argue with me anymore, young Damon , let alone fight me,” she said, in a mocking tone. “What makes you think you can—”

He thrust into her hard, expecting some resistance, some dryness, but meeting one of the wettest lanes into which he’d ever thrust. He didn’t have the snark in him to call her out on it, and it would have been hard to form words over the brutal, begrudging pleasure of the moment. He delivered a stinging slap to her ass and bent her forward again against the tree.

Ria could be such a bitch sometimes. True Divine, he loved her so much. He loved her body, the way that, even now, she could seem so tensed and ready, muscles collectively coiled like a spring. But she was so soft underneath, so wet, so accessible to his roving hands.

He gasped as he pumped into her, and Ria let out a tiny squeak. This was… Well, it was better than arguing. It would bring them to a point faster than a fight. He pumped into her, feeling the cushion of her buttocks as he gave it to her with hard movements. She could take it, and if she couldn’t, he would smirk and gloat over getting her to beg him to stop.

A few birds took off from a nearby tree, clearly offended. Damon was taking her with enough force to rattle the trunk Ria was leaned up against, and the rhythmic clap of his hips tapping into her ass wasn’t exactly quiet, nor were the noises they were making.

He twisted his fingers into her intricate tunic. She flung a hand back, knocking away his grip and glaring over her shoulder. Damon leaned in and kissed her, breaking his angle, but needing to taste her lips in the moment. Ria kissed him back eagerly, and for an instant, their fingers laced together.

She posed for him, sticking her butt out again, and the sight was so hot that he almost came before getting back into motion. Again, the sensation stole his breath away, so tight and so wet. Ria arched her back and shook with pleasure. Damon reached one of his hands around to tease in between her legs and felt her reacting powerfully.

It only took a few thrusts to get her off, combined with his playful fingers. She tensed suddenly, throwing her head back, mouth open but no sound escaping, at least at first. She let out a low, sex-drunken groan. Damon ran his hand over her neck, took hold of one of her breasts, and took a victory lap.

He really did love her, and it was hard, if not impossible, to stay mad at her while she was all but melting into a puddle onto his cock. He held her hips gently, but firmly, and set an even pace, accelerating as the pleasure approached like a cresting wave. He was going so fast by the end that he started losing his footing against the pine needles carpeting the ground and had to pull her closer in. Ria could never be too close.

She covered his hand with hers as he finally had his moment, grunting and losing himself in the perfection of the pleasure of his release. He made no effort to pull out, and she didn’t say anything about it. Whether it was a good habit for them to fall into remained to be seen. Right then, right there, he simply couldn’t help himself.

“Husband,” whispered Ria.

“Wife,” he replied.