STORY EXCERPT

“Take him down, and slit his fuckin’ throat already!” Trikyia said, glaring at the young soldier in the middle of the defense ring.

“I-I-I’m sorry, Captain,” the soldier said defensively. “I don’t want to hurt him.”

“Are you kidding me?” Trikyia walked over with purpose to stand next to the soldier, staring up at the smile playing on the lips of Ailiahs, the baenthahndorse that was the soldier’s defense partner in the ring. “What’s your name, soldier?”

The soldier suddenly snapped to attention. “I am Vikailah, daughter of Vikailihn of the people of Urhd and Disiahl. The fourth people of Kaidis and…”

“Oh, please stop,” Trikyia said. “I just wanted a name. Not your familial history. Vikailah, this is Ailiahs. He’s a fuckin’ baenthahndorse. You know what that means, right?”

Vikailah stared at Ailiahs, starting at his eyes and slowly scanning down his body, stopping a little too long at his bulging pecs and ripped abs, before she looked back to his eyes. “Um…that he’s large. H-h-he’s very large,” she said swallowing hard. “And tall.”

Trikyia sighed heavily. “Yeah, there’s that. It also means that he can’t be harmed by your knife. His skin won’t be harmed in any way.”

Vikailah was looking at Ailiahs in disbelief. “How is that possible? I felt his skin. His skin is soft. Very soft and…and warm. He has soft and warm skin,” she smiled slightly.

Trikyia didn’t blame Vikailah for smiling at Ailiahs. He was a very attractive, virile, muscled, and gorgeously gifted looking man. But now was not the time to appreciate the man that stood in front of her. She was the captain of the defense guard. She was to train and ready troops for battle. The baenthahndorse had graciously agreed to help train the troops since they couldn’t be harmed by knives, tracer guns, hand-to-hand, or any other ways normally used to kill. The only thing that could harm them were the teeth of fairies.

“Yes it is, isn’t it? You have soft skin, Ailiahs.” Trikyia smiled warmly at him.

“I don’t know how he can’t be harmed when his skin feels so…soft,” Vikailah said, with the last word coming from her lips as more of a whispering sigh.

“I assured her that I couldn’t be harmed, Captain Trikyia,” said Ailiahs. “My skin may be soft, Vikailah, but you won’t damage me in the least.”

“You’ve been in Yaeltaran for a few months, right?” Trikyia asked, as Vikailah nodded. “You’ve seen me demonstrate my own skills. The things that I can do? I can walk on ceilings, Vikailah, yet you’re doubting the fact that Ailiahs can’t be harmed? How old are you, Vikailah?” Trikyia asked.

“Twenty, Captain,” the young girl answered proudly.

“By the goddesses, I thought they’d put the cut-off age at twenty-two.” Trikyia sighed, but looked back at Vikailah. “Ailiahs come at her with everything you’ve got. Do you hear?” Ailiahs nodded to her. Trikyia trained her stare on Vikailah. “Use the defense move I showed you. Take the knife when you’re at his back, and draw it across his throat. If not, I’ll send you back to whatever slug farm you came from with my boot stuck up your ass. Got it?”

Trikyia walked back to the side of the training arena. “Fight!”

All of those in the arena began to fight once again. There were five other baenthahndorse facing five other soldiers, but Trikyia’s gaze stayed on Vikailah. The young girl used the move showed to her that morning, and once she’d worked her body up the back of Ailiahs, positioning herself on his shoulders, she let out a defeated yell, dropping the knife and falling back to the ground. Trikyia silently shook her head.

She turned to give Raenos a knowing glare. “I told you. She’s too inept. Send her back home.”

“Or, you could have some patience and give her some time,” he said.

“No! I don’t have time to hold anyone’s hand here, Raenos. And I for damn sure don’t want a soldier unwilling or hesitant out on the battlefield. Send her back home.”

Glywyn and Draedon walked over to her from the observation deck. “You’re putting so much effort into training them, Trikyia,” Glywyn said, looking out to the girl walking defeatedly over to the other side of the arena. “She admires you, you know. She just kept saying how much she wants to train with Captain Trikyia of the Yaeltaran military. You’ve put time and effort into training Vikailah specifically. You have time. Nothing has happened for four years. We haven’t even heard or seen any real major movement in Teveoch from Balaedras.”

“Have you stopped training?” Trikyia asked, looking intently at Glywyn.

“No. You know that.”

Trikyia made an exasperated sound. “Listen. I know it’s been comfortable lately. In the past few years it’s seemed peaceful even. Peace becomes too comfortable. In times of peace, complacency sets in and you stop preparing for conflict or threats. I think that in a time of peace you need to be vigilant and prepared. Not comfortable, until you have good reason to be. That girl,” she said pointing at Vikailah, “will end up dead in her first battle. Not because I haven’t trained her well enough. I can train her, and train her, and train her, until we both fall dead to the floor with exhaustion. She’ll die because she doubts herself. She doubts her abilities. She doubts her training, and she doubts what she sees to be truth. I don’t want her in my unit. If you want her to stay, then…Put her in the palace unit. Have her guard the grounds. I don’t want her.”

Trikyia turned and walked away, knowing she was right. It might be peaceful now, but it was coming. They all knew that war was coming. She wasn’t being cruel to Vikailah. It was just the opposite. She was being kind. Because giving the girl false security that she could go out in battle would only be sending her to die. She wasn’t ready. 

ADULT EXCERPT
 

She looked over shoulder to see him standing braced with his shoulder against a nearby tree. Why he had to look so sexy, she didn’t know. But he definitely did. “You know,” she said. “I eventually have to come out of here. Are you going to do the gentlemanly thing and turn your back? Or,” she said turning to face him, as she used the cooling waters to cover her body, “are you going to stand there and watch me walk out of here naked?”

“As I said, it all depends on what you want. It always depends on what you…want.”

She continued to stare at him, but he didn’t move. There were other things moving inside of her, though. Need moved to nestle itself between her legs, making her ache for him. It hardened her nipples, as he continued to gaze at her with heat in his eyes. Even from the distance where he stood, she could see the passion he wanted to unleash on her. But it was more than that. She’d always known it was more than that with him. He wanted more than a quick lay—a casual fuck. He wanted the one thing that frightened her the most. Love.

But the question wasn’t whether she was willing to love him. It was whether she was willing to admit she was in love with him. But she chose to put that question aside, as she always did, and focus on the way he was making her heart beat so fast inside of her chest. She wanted to focus on the promise of pleasure that he held in his gaze.

She slowly walked out of the pond, letting the water drip from her body, and knowing how the water, mixed with the chill in the air hardened her nipples. He took a skin he’d draped over a tree limb, and came toward her, wrapping it around her body.

He dipped his head to kiss her gently at first, but then more passionately when she wrapped her arms around his neck, sending her tongue deep into his mouth. He was so tall, so large, so…Ailiahs. She thought they would walk back to the canopy of the trees, but even as she thought it, he picked her up into his arms, carrying her so effortlessly to the shroud of trees, and with one, free, strong arm, pulled another skin from a branch to cover the ground with. He knelt onto the skin with her in his arm, as their lips continued to explore and pleasure one another.

He quickly began to remove his clothes, and she hurriedly helped him until they both lay naked with each other, with no secret denied or hidden. Their hands caressed, and traced, and committed to memory each and every nuance of their bodies. Their lips followed in suit, tasting, licking, and savory their shared passion and desire.

“Tell me what you want,” he whispered to her.

“I want to feel your tongue inside of me,” she said, gazing at him with unbridled lustful desire.

He smiled slyly at her, as she slowly spread her legs to him. She closed her eyes in anticipation, and he didn’t disappoint. She felt his tongue move as if he were born to do only that. His tongue was meant to delve, and lick, and send her to dizzying heights with one touch. But he did more than that. He flicked his tongue over the tight nub of her clit, making her squirm under him. Her body shook with an intense orgasm, but it was obvious he wasn’t finished. He brought her again with his tongue, slipping it inside of her pussy before planting soft kisses on her inner thigh.

She opened her eyes to see him staring down at her. “You do have skills,” she said to him softly.

“A few,” he said kissing her deeply. “Let me show you.”

He held her in his arms, gazing down into her eyes and making it so hard for her to think rationally. To breathe without thinking. But when she felt all of his gloriously, thick, and wondrous cock begin to push inside of her—fighting for each inch he gained—rational thought could go to hell. She wrapped her legs around his body, moving her hips in rhythm to each thrust of his. The heat of his lips melted away any and all trepidation she had about what she was feeling. She was immersed in the most intense pleasure. But it wasn’t new to her. She felt it before. With Tythahn.

Ailiahs cupped her large breast in his hand, dipping his head to suck on the tight pearl of her nipple, and then did the same to the other. He gauged each movement he made by her reaction, as she trailed her hands down his back to caress the taut muscles of his ass moving between her thighs in sensual, hedonistic, carnality. Feeling his cock stroke her pussy with expertise, elicited soft moans from her lips. She whispered words for more, and he gave without question. He was in control. All she could do was enjoy the most exquisite ride of pleasure, as his hands caressed her flesh, and his mouth kissed with abandon. He moved like the waves of the sea. In tempo to a silent beat, or perhaps it was to their hearts. All she knew at that moment was intense pleasure. And when he began to speed his tempo, she knew he was close. She felt it also, as their breaths came as one, and all that could be heard in the silence of the woods were the echoes of their passion, and the slap of their bodies striving to reach the ultimate peak of gratification.

Ailiahs cried out his release, as she did the same, and they held onto each other riding out the final ebbs of their orgasm together.