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The soft light from the scones bathes them in a hazy glow that feels a little magical; given that Cardan stands only a few feet away from her, a Fae King, Jude knows it is very much possible that there is actual magic in the air of this utterly drab and mundane motel room somewhere on the West Coast of America. For the last year or so, they find time to visit Vivi and Heather and whenever they do, Cardan insists on making a trip out of it. The last time they were here, they spent a weekend in New Orleans.
“Have you done something to the air?” Jude asks her husband, still standing in her drenched black dress that is clinging to her body like a second skin.
“No, darling-” Cardan says, his mouth curling in a smirk, “Might it be possible that it is merely my presence that is taking your breath away?”
Jude does not smile at the quip; in fact, most people would wither under her glare but Cardan only smiles wider, his dark eyes glitter like shards of stars as he holds her gaze till everything south of her body turns into liquid heat. It does not help that Cardan is in a dark green turtleneck that is damp and hugging his torso underneath his sleek black leather jacket that still has droplets of rain glistening on it. It is almost abhorrent how sinful he looks, the power of his beauty painful and all-consuming. Jude huffs and turns around, still needing a moment to gather herself despite the fact that they’ve been married for almost three years now.
“You may scoff at me as much as you like-” Cardan continues, inching closer to her as she begins to take off her boots, “but I am sure that the girls at the diner sneaked a few photos of me.”
Jude knows that Cardan is only playing, pushing her buttons till she snaps and argues with him just so that he can shut her up with kisses, and yet the idea of girls staring at her husband while she is right there - oh, how she would love to rip off their nails slowly with the dagger strapped to her thigh right now. She would make it slow, painful.
“If you don’t believe me,” Cardan seems to be right behind her, toying with a piece of her hair as he says, “we can always go back to check how many fawn over me then.”
A bolt of anger- irrational and uncontrollable- slices through Jude; in a flash, she turns around and looks up at Cardan, too gleeful for her liking. And yet, something dark lingers in the depths of his onyx eyes- something sinister, something dangerous. A wisp of desire curls around her anger and it is so maddening, so overwhelming that Jude lets her body take over her mind. Her hand reaches up and laces through his damp hair, pulling him down for a kiss. It’s not gentle- far from it, actually- and neither is it even pleasant at the beginning. It is a clash of lips and teeth, much like everything between them.
Cardan pushes her against the wall, the sharp points of his body pinning her down. One of his hands snakes around her waist so tightly that her body opens for him on its own, while the other rests at the nape of her neck. He bites down on her lower lip, possibly drawing blood and Jude wonders if he does this on purpose, to taste her in every possible way he can; as depraved as it is, she’d be lying if she denied how it makes her toes curl in delight.
“Take this off-” Jude gasps between kisses, pushing against his jacket.
“Only if you take off yours.” Cardan rasps against her, leaving a trail of wet kisses down the side of her jaw.
Jude opens her eyes and is immediately met with Cardan’s gaze, hot and hungry; his pupils are blown wide, and his lips glisten with spit. Jude peels the soaked black dress off her body, standing in nothing but a set of scandalously lacy underthings. In Elfhame, they’ve both seen people in nothing but their skin at revelries but the Fae are lean and willowy; they do not have the softness of humans. They do not have the dips and curves like Jude, ones that Cardan begins to trace with his hands immediately. He groans in appreciation as he cups and squeezes her breasts, tracing a teasing line down her stomach and towards the apex of her thighs.
“Take this off, Cardan-” Jude says, pushing him away and pointing at his damned jacket, “I need to touch you.”
“And I need to taste you.” in a movement so quick that Jude almost loses her breath, Cardan has her flat on the bed.
His thumbs press down on her hip bones and her legs fall open for him; the small piece of cloth that covers the apex of her thighs is pinched between the lips of her cunt and Cardan, ever the tease, tugs on it so the fabric pulls against her clit. Despite her best efforts, a moan- breathy and far too needy- escapes her mouth before she can clamp her lips shut. Even though her eyes are screwed shut, breath so heavy in her chest, she knows that his lips are curled in a grin as he leans in to pepper kisses and bites along her inner thighs. Her hands twist the sheets underneath her, lower lip caught between her teeth.
“Cardan-” she does not know what she wants to say because all thoughts are lost as he unties the strings holding her thong together, peeling it away from her cunt.
“Always so soaked,” Cardan breaths against her clit as he flicks it with his tongue, “always so delicious. No magic can recreate the taste of you, darling.”
Jude feels another desperate moan bubble up inside her as her back arches off the bed, sending her hands to his fine, dark hair; Cardan is always so ravenous . His tongue laps at her, dipping in and out of her in a rhythm that is too slow and deliberate for her liking right now. One of his hands snaps up to pin her hips to the bed while the other caresses the undersides of her breasts. When Jude starts squirming under him, tugging at his hair as curses fly out of her mouth, Cardan bites down on her clit so hard that it sends waves of pain and pleasure rippling through her.
“You are my Queen, Jude-” Cardan says as he slips two of his fingers inside her, locking eyes with her, “but you are also just a girl, my girl . And you will let me devour you however I want, for however long I want.”
Jude does not know if it’s his words or his fingers or the utterly filthy sounds that they’re making as they ram into her, but she falls apart in his hands with a scream that only pushes Cardan into absolute delight, his smile almost too radiant.
“Always so perfect, Jude-” Cardan breathes against her neck as he strips out of his clothes and climbs on top of her, “always so good for me.”
Jude is still blinking back stars when their lips meet again and she hates the blush spreading on her cheeks as she tastes herself on his tongue; his hands play with her nipples, while his knees push her legs further apart. When they part for air, something that is sizzling with magic and want on catastrophic levels, Jude finds herself saying-
“I might be your girl, but there are definitely other ones that look at you a little too long.”
“Are you jealous, Jude?” Cardan asks, his eyes ablaze with something dark and sinister as his long, willowy fingers trace the curve of her jaw.
“Never.”
Cardan only laughs, and before Jude can comprehend what is happening, her hands are held over her head in one of his hands while he moves upwards till his cock is right in front of her face; the tip is already leaking with arousal. Jude would rather die than say this out loud but she loves his cock, how it’s long and curves upwards. How every inch of it stretches her, fills her to the point of splitting. Cardan guides it towards her mouth and she wraps her lips around the tip, rubbing the flat of her tongue against the underside of it. Cardan groans, the sound rumbling through him. Jude works her mouth up and down the shaft, tracing the vein on the side. He starts moving his hips- slowly and surely- and soon enough, he’s fucking her mouth. Tears gather in her eyes but she loves this, thrives on the fact that Cardan always claims her so thoroughly.
He must have suspected her thoughts to be more coherent that his liking because she feels the tips of his tail brush against her bare, throbbing cunt. It caresses and teases, brushing her clit with enough pressure that it is pleasurable but not enough to give any actual relief. Her moans vibrate through his cock as her eyes roll back into her head, her hips grinding against the bed. Just when Jude is about to lose her mind, her dignity , and beg for something- anything - Cardan pulls his cock out of her mouth and slides down her body.
“You are not jealous, Jude-” Cardan breathes against her lips as the tip of his cock presses against her entrance, cupping the side of her face to get her to lock gazes with him, “because I have only ever had eyes for you , even when I hated you.”
Jude loses her breath when he finally slides inside in one fluid motion, burying himself to the hilt as they both gasp for air. Her cunt squeezes around him and he groans against her skin, sinking his teeth into the juncture connecting her neck and shoulder. He starts moving, his pace so agonizingly slow that Jude squirms her hips against him to pick up some speed; this seems to incite something inside Cardan, for he looks down at her with eyes so dark and feral that a wisp of a strange mixture of fear and excitement unfurls within her. He props himself up on his elbows, leaning in to kiss her before he starts pounding into her with no restraints. The motel’s rickety bed creaks under them, the force of their fucking, and it only encourages Cardan to go faster, harder . It seems like he wants to tear the place apart as much as he wants to tear into her.
“Oh-” Jude breathes, half a moan and half a cry as she feels her cunt clenching, “Cardan.”
Mercifully, he slows down a little to kiss her softly even though her wrists are probably bruised by the strength of his grip by now; his free hand caresses her breasts, the shape of her ribs and her stomach.
“I only love my name when you say it.”
Jude feels herself smile into his mouth, and when he lets go of her hands, she runs them through his damp hair. He peppers wet kisses along the curve of her jaw and the valley between her breasts, murmuring sweet nothings that sink into her skin. When they were younger, Jude had hated how sharp and cruel his tongue was; she’d hated how his words cut her deeper than blades. But now, one lick from that very tongue and she is melted butter in his hands.
Cardan drags his teeth down the shell of her ear and her whole body shudders, her cunt fluttering around his still hard and throbbing cock.
“Good-” he whispers, flipping them around so that his back is against the headboard and Jude is straddling him with him still inside her, “because we are not done.”
Jude gasps as his hand wraps around her hair and tugs so hard that her entire throat is exposed, forcing her to thrust her breasts out so that he can capture a nipple with his teeth. One of her hands shoots out to clutch onto the headboard behind him while the other goes for his shoulder, digging crescent moons into his pale, alabaster skin as he starts moving underneath her. Cardan, like most Fae, is well endowed and has endless stamina but when they’re positioned like this, he reaches so deep within her that it is just shy of too much.
He could kill me like this , Jude thinks as he pounds into her and litters bites across the tops of her breasts and her shoulder blades, he could kill me right now and I would be happy.
“Look at me-” Cardan says, his voice like steel wrapped in silk as his thumb presses down on her bottom lip, “give me those eyes, love.”
Jude locks gazes with Cardan, feeling her chest tighten with affection at the raw desire on his face; he’s always been depraved and debauched, chasing highs with anyone he’d found pretty but he’d always been so nonchalant, so indifferent. Not right now though; right now his want for her is translated in his bruising grip around her hips, in his pronounced thrusts as he brings her closer to her orgasm. Just as her eyes begin to tear because of the sheer ecstasy blooming at the very pit of her stomach, Cardan’s tail trails up the column of her spine in a feather light touch, making her toes curl and her body shake in his hands.
“Do not close your eyes, Jude-” Cardan hisses as his tail wraps around her neck, tight enough to make her feel a little dizzy but not enough to hurt, “They belong to me, just like you do.”
“I do- I do. ” Jude moans as one of his fingers press down on her clit and she feels like she is at the precipice of release- so fucking close- and that is when her husband chooses to stop.
Every second takes an eternity to pass and her dignity does not seem too much of a price to pay if the sacrifice of it would make him let her come.
“Cardan-”
“No-” he kisses up her jaw, the tip of her nose, her fluttering eyelids, her forehead before locking gazes with her, “You will remember that you belong to me, just like I belong to you , and none of those halfwits at the diner should even be allowed to gaze upon you, let alone smile like you might gaze at them too.”
Jude blinks at him, almost tempted to laugh, because Cardan Greenbriar is the High King of Elfhame, their sovereign and savior, and the love of her entire mortal life. He’s held her heart in the palm of his hand for so many years that sometimes it feels like he is the only one who stands crystal clear in her memories while everything else is a hazy film of nothingness. And to think that Cardan could even entertain the idea that she would look at anyone else- when he is hers, with his cruel mouth and bedroom eyes- it is just laughable to her.
“You will remember?” Cardan asks once, tugging at her strands.
“That I am yours?” Jude breathes against his lips, squirming her hips to get him going again, “Always, love.”
Cardan smiles- the soft, subtle kind that is a true rarity- and curls one of his hands around the nape of her neck before fusing their mouths together. He starts moving, slow and torturous as if he wants both of them to savor every single thrust. Jude feels her eyelids flutter with pleasure as the tip of his tail trails up and down her spine once again, in tandem with his gradually quickening pace; her fingers lace through his hair as his teeth break through her sweat-slicked skin and mark her. Maybe it is the words exchanged, hanging low between them; maybe it is both of their cores- wound so tight for so long- that when they come undone, it is complete. It is almost cataclysmic. Jude presses her forehead against Cardan’s while he explodes inside of her. She doesn't know if it is depraved or not- might be, just a smidge- but her husband gently lays her flat on her back after a few minutes while he kneels between her legs, watching his seed drip out of her swollen cunt.
Never in her life had Jude ever anticipated feeling this safe with anyone, let alone the infamously mercurial Cardan, and yet her guard is so lowered and she is so uninhibited that she barely remembers how they end up tangled underneath the linen comforter, listening to each other’s slowing heartbeats and the soft pitter-patter of rain outside. He cradles her in his arms while she prays circles on the expanse of his bare chest; their breaths come and go in sync and Jude’s thoughts slowly but surely come back to her.
“High King of Elfhame-” Jude begins and Cardan just groans, rolling his eyes,”did you just confess to being jealous of mere human beings?”
“Absolutely not.” Cardan huffs, yet there is a smile tilting the corners of his mouth upwards, “You must have misunderstood me. You were too wrapped up around my coc-”
“Filthiest mouth I know.” Jude hits him playfully across the chest.
“You still kiss it.” Cardan whispers before leaning in to kiss her.
She lets him; of course she lets him.
Jude is still breathless and giggling when they break apart- two things she’d never envisioned herself doing, for a boy at least- and Cardan is looking at her like she is the first streak of light after eons of nothing but darkness.
“If you must know, Cardan-” Jude says, cupping his face and brushing the pad of her thumb across the highest point of his perfectly sculpted cheekbone, “nothing in this world has ever belonged to me, except my heart within my chest. Nothing in this world has ever been free- not even my father's affections- but my love. It’s always been mine to carry, mine to keep, mine to give away till you . And now all of it, every bit of it, is yours.”