To see him on his knees before me filled me with an instinctual love so far beyond my conceptual understanding that it sent me to tears as a smile broke across my mouth. Even with that spiral of fulfillment exploding in me, I knew this wasn’t right. I could feel it in my gut that it was not Fletcher’s duty to pledge; it was mine. But, I watched him and enjoyed the swirls of my aqua magic glittering up his back in intricate patterns of circles, soft stars, and arches. He wasbeautiful. And seeing my magic gracing his skin pulled something at my core.
I watched in awe as my magic gathered at his fingertips, and when he began to speak, it shot out over the floor like a sheet of crystalized ice in a straight path. It shimmered in liquid stardust as it coated the ground on its way to me. “I pledge to you, Princess Ripley Griever.”
His voice shuddered through my entire body like he was claiming me. My magic swelled at the sound and my body warmed in so many lovely ways.
When the frost of magic reached an inch away from my toes, it separated, and curved around me.
“To protect you.”
I trembled in anticipation as the circle surrounding me unfurled outwardly in a symmetrical pattern like a celestial snowflake. I gasped at how breathtaking it was—at how Fletcher could command my magic with precision and elegance. I marveled at the delicate patterns weaving themselves through every inch of the house. Warmth engulfed my feet, and I looked down to see green vines winding around my ankles and spiraling upward in helical ribbons. And as the vines continued to climb, a garden of fluffy roses bloomed with gentle layers that softly caressed my skin.
“To love you.”
The vines wrapped up my torso, tickling my belly and coaxing a giggle out of me.
“To respect you.”
The magic near my feet continued to expand outwardly in straight lines with sharp edges then bent toward each other to make hearts for a brief moment before they curled around each other. Like a gorgeous synchronized dance.
I brought my eyes back to Fletcher on his knees before me as he whispered, “Ibelong toyou, Ripley.”
The rose vines coiled up my breasts, down my arms, up my neck, and over my head in a crown of divine love.
Fletcher’s magic awakened within me, taking hold of me. And for the first time in my life, it overpowered my own magic. It exploded in me, taking up all the spaces of my body. It shined strong and bright as it vaulted in electric violet bands and corkscrews along my arms and legs.
Tears spilled down my cheeks as Fletcher sat up, smiling at me. His eyes roamed over the beauty he had created around me as the recoil of magic glistened in starry clumps from his hands to his elbows, fading out toward his shoulders.
“Fletcher, I-I-I didn’t know this is what I was supposed to do. I didn’t do all this for you.”
He nodded once, resting his hands on his thighs, elbows pointed outward. “Yes, you did. You made me a garden, don’t you remember?”
I did. After my magic had taken over and I had unknowingly forced him to have sex with me that very first time. I had found him in a canyon and directed my magic to build him a vast garden across the cliffs and narrow path beneath us as I bowed forward at his feet.
“Now, typically this would be done with my own magic so that it knows my desires and my intent. So that it can remember this always.”
I felt a ping of sadness looking at Fletcher’s eyes roaming my skin with a longing for his magic. If only I could give it back to him. It would have been that much more meaningful for him if he had it. “Clearly your magic is very happy,” I gestured to my glowing lilac limbs. “I think it knows.” As if his magic knew the pledging was over, the violet coils reversed as they drained, and my magic replaced it for a moment before it winked out completely.
He smirked as he got to his feet and stepped into the glittering star around me. The warmth of his bareskin radiated over mine as he cupped my cheek in one hand and played with the petals of a rose on my shoulder with the other. “Ripley, you are the most beautiful woman I haveeverseen.”
A harsh blush took over my cheeks, matching the color from the roses climbing up my body, petals gently moving.
He lowered his head and took my bottom lip between his teeth, sucking on it before his teeth nibbled.
I drew in a deep breath, startled by just how much pleasure filled me. It was as if the scars from today had disintegrated. In this moment, Iwasmarried. I was married to Fletcher.
He bent closer to me, hands running down my back, my bottom, then my thighs before bringing them up around his waist. He turned and marched me to the dining room table, bent over, and lowered me slowly onto my back.
“You meaneverythingto me,” he whispered as his tongue traveled down between the valley of my breasts, “and I would,” over my belly button, “do anything for you,” and down to my wet entrance.
My back arched off the table at his first lick. His hot breath covered my sensitive flesh as he chuckledsoftly. In a long, drawn-out stroke of his tongue, he licked me, every fold. And when his tongue lapped down with a wave of passion, a moan escaped from my lips. His tongue entered me with intensity as his hands went under my thighs and back over to keep them steady on his shoulders. The pleasure was so extreme that I shivered and bucked my hips toward him, goosebumps rising along my skin.
He moved upward and unwrapped one hand to let one of his fingers slide deeply into me.
“Fletcher,” I gasped.
He increased the speed of each treacherous lick and twitch of his finger until I was on the cusp of throbbing around him. The need was almost unbearable—all-consuming.
“Say my name again,” he whispered against me before pausing with his finger buried to his knuckle in me.
