Idris

We shooed everyone out of the room. Even Amelia seemed happy to give us time alone. I made Celia eat some more and she managed half a protein bar and some water before she said that was enough, that she’d take it a bit at a time. I wasn’t thrilled, but understood.

“Your brother isn’t too angry with you?” she asked.

“He’s forgiven me,” I said. “I’m grateful.”

“I look forward to getting to know him better. He wasn’t so happy to know me last time we met.”

I heaved a sigh. “That feels so long ago, and it was only days.”

“A lot has happened since then.” She grinned. She stood up and walked toward me. I didn’t love how shaky her limbs were, and she was still a little pale, but her eyes were clear and bright. She was beautiful.

“That bathroom have a shower?” She pointed to the door behind us.

“Yes, it’s my private bathroom.” I smiled. “Pays to be the king’s brother.”

“I’d like to wash up. I was…kind of dead for a couple hours after all.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

She took a step back, but stumbled, her legs not supporting her weight. I picked her up. “That’s it, I’m coming with you. You can barely stand.”

“Will privacy not be a thing between us?” She smiled at me.

“Not for a bit, not until I know you have your strength back.”

I stripped her in the bathroom, her clothes revealing more pale skin. But her body was working to build up her blood supply, and already her flesh was pinking up again. Her lips were full and red, and the way she kept biting them was making me hard. I tossed off my clothes and turned the silver knobs of my tile shower. I also had a claw-foot tub in the corner, which I never used, but now I imagined Celia lounging there, me sitting on the floor beside her, lazily dangling my fingers in the water while she smiled at me, face flushed from the heated bath.

Right, those were fantasies that might actually come true. Now, though, I had to focus on getting her clean. She gazed around in awe at my bathroom, poking at the tiles with her toes, and stroking my marble sink with her fingers.

I directed her into the shower with firm hands on her naked hips. As she tipped her head back to wet her hair, a small groan escaped her throat. I stared at her tits, her nipples hard and rosy. She sluiced the water through her hair, and I grabbed some soap and worked it into a lather. I ran my hands down her neck, over those beautiful full breasts, her hips, legs. I picked up a foot at a time, working the soap between her toes while she kept her balance with a hand on my shoulder.

I slipped my fingers in the crease of her ass, and her breath coasted over my wet skin. I was hard. It was nearly impossible not to be, not while standing this close to the woman I loved. The woman I’d thought was dead.

She brushed the head of my weeping cock, and glanced down to see it standing at attention. She blinked the water out of her eyes and wrapped her little hand around the base, squeezing and stroking.

I slapped a hand against the wall above her as I dropped my head between her shoulders. I never thought I’d have this again, that I’d feel this, be able to look into her eyes while she touched me. I slipped my other hand down her stomach, and she sucked in a breath just as I reached the top of her mound. I didn’t want to tax her, but fuck, I needed to touch. “Celia.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “Touch me. Prove to both of us that I’m alive.”

I reached her pussy, her flesh heated and slippery not from the water, but from her own juices. She moaned again, rubbing her legs together, trapping my hand there.

She stroked me again, and I entered her with one finger. She gasped, her body going tight before she relaxed around the intrusion. “Idris,” she gasped, her eyes falling closed. “Oh, God, that feels so good.”

I pumped in and out of her, rubbing her clit with my thumb. She was wet and squirming against me, those pretty tits rubbing my chest.

I didn’t want to draw this out, and neither did she, we needed it so badly. “Fuck me,” she said, locking eyes with me. “Please.”

I didn’t hesitate. I lifted her up so she could wrap her legs around my waist. With her back against the shower wall, I entered her. Every inch of her squeezed every inch of me, and I nearly came the instant I was embedded to the hilt. I quivered under her gentle hands, the way she stroked my shoulders, my neck, my face. “I love you,” she whispered. “You’re my man. My man.”

With a growl, I pulled my hips back and snapped them into her. She cried out, and then held on as I fucked into her with abandon. I knew this angle was good for her. I could tell with every breathy little whimper she made when I slammed my hips against hers. She shook—her legs, her arms, her entire body, and before I knew it, she was coming on my cock, trembling against me, saying my name, and squeezing my dick so goddamn good that I threw my head back and spilled inside her.

The water was still warm as I washed her again, paying special attention to the area between her legs. She swayed on her feet, yawning and mumbling about wanting to sleep.

I turned off the water, dried her with one of my softest towels off my shelf, and then wrapped her up in a long T-shirt of mine and some underwear Tendra had helpfully brought to us.

I made her eat the rest of the protein bar, and drink some more water, before laying her down in the bed. She smiled at me sleepily. “I’ll get my strength back soon. Then we can do two rounds.”

I laughed and pushed her wet hair off her forehead. “I don’t care about two rounds. I care about you being healthy and happy.”

“Mmm, well, I’m definitely the second, and we’ll work our way to the first.”

“Rest, little one,” I said. “You need to heal.”

She puckered her lips, and by the time I pulled away, she was asleep.

I now had something to live for. Not just something to fight for, something to live for. A reason to come out the other side intact and whole. A reason not to plunge like a madman into something without thinking first. Every moment had led to Celia. Now she was here, and I’d live like hell to deserve her.