He stripped with urgency, joining her in the soft glow of their not-quite-real world.
“Let me taste you. All of you,” he murmured, his voice dark velvet.
She expected him to movedownher body and was all for it. What she didn’t expect was the sudden, unmistakable sensation of being lifted. “What—Gael?”
He didn’t answer, at least not with words.
Magic wrapped around her like a second set of hands. Warm, firm, and entirely confident in its intent. Her stomach flipped as the world spun, and before she could form a coherent protest, she was being turned, slowly and effortlessly, until she straddled his face, with her face hovering above his majestic dick. It was just as beautiful as the rest of him. “Oh,” she said. “Hello, gorgeous.”
He chuckled against her pussy, which was oddly hot, and his hands slid up her thighs as his mouth went to work between them like he was feeding on starlight. Her breath turned wild, hands braced on the ground as the world narrowed to nothing but his tongue, his grip, the way magic curled around her like vines pulsing with greed.
She lowered her mouth to him in return, letting her lips part around the thick weight of him. His hips jerked up in a sharp inhale, a curse muttered in Elvish, and his tongue faltered for just a second before doubling down.
They moved in tandem, gasps and groans drifting into the wind, bodies trembling, the illusion alive with flickering light and whispering grass.
Gael growled something low and urgent, and with a flick of power, spun her again. One moment she was straddling his face, her mouth full of him; the next, she was flat on her back beneath him, his body pinning hers with desperate, aching need. “Let me in,” he said, breath ragged.
She opened her legs, her body, her heart. That was it. That was yes.
He entered her in one deep, slow thrust, so hot and thick and overwhelming she forgot how to breathe. Her nails bit into his shoulders as his hips rocked into her. The meadow bloomed wider. The wind sang. And between one heartbeat and the next, they fell into each other like they’d never been separate at all. Beth arched beneath him, chasing the rhythm, her moans breaking free with every thrust. He kissed her like he needed to taste the sounds she made, and when she cried out against his mouth, he swallowed it like it was sacred.
“Look at me,” he demanded, voice wrecked. “I want to see you when you fall.”
She did. Gods help her, she did.
Her fingers curled in his hair, her heels pressed into the back of his thighs to pull him deeper, closer. The illusion shimmered around them, petals spinning in the air, light flickering through branches that weren’t really there. But none of it mattered.
The tension snapped first in her. She shattered with a cry, clinging to him as her body clenched around him, pulsing in waves that made her see stars.
Gael followed her with a growling sound, then slumped forward, breath shuddered, face buried in her neck, hands fisted the blanket.
For a long moment, neither of them moved.
The illusion pulsed once—light dimming, petals dissolving—and slowly gave way to the garden around them. The rustle of wind through tomato vines. The scent of soil. The cool hush of early evening settling in.
And still, everything felt lit from within.
Beth smoothed a hand down his back, fingertips tracing lazy paths. His skin was warm against hers, the weight of him a comfort she didn’t know she’d wanted until she had it. He kissedher then, slow and sweet and real. The magic might have been gone, but nothing had faded from her feelings
Beth ran her fingers through Gael’s hair, brushing grass away from it. “You realize I’m never going to be able to look at my garden the same way again.”
He huffed a laugh against her shoulder. “We’ve officially defiled an ecosystem.”
She smirked, stretching just enough to glance at a cluster of thyme. “My plants are never going to emotionally recover.”
“I’ll talk to them,” he said, rising to his feet with majestic grace. He pulled her up, then swept her into his arms.
“Are we going inside?”
“We are,” he murmured, already carrying her toward the house. “Where we’ll start it all over again. With fewer witnesses.”
Chapter 8
DAYS BLURRED INTO ONEanother in the best kind of way. Early mornings, long walks, shared meals that turned into long conversations and even longer silences that somehow said more. Every scrap of free time they had, they spent it together, trying to make up for all the moments they’d missed before.
Now, in the hush of night, Gael lay still beside her, one arm tucked behind his head, the other curved loosely around her waist. Her breath rose and fell against his chest in even pulses.
The bond between them, once an ache and a question, had settled. It was real, solid. Every brush of her energy against his own felt like a thread weaving them closer.
