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Not many people surprise me, Miss Starkov , he had said all those months ago. In the time when his lips were warm from her kiss and West Ravka was not swallowed by shadows and the space between them was still filled with lies.
Now, Aleksander sits back on his heels and looks down at his beloved Sun Summoner, his pretty little pet reduced to a mess of trembling limbs and gasping breath by his hand.
Or rather, by his cock.
“Still surprising me, solnyshka ,” he says, his own chest heaving as he runs a hand up Alina’s bare back, his index finger sliding up the notches of her spine. She is curled onto her side, face pressed into a pillow, but he can still see the fierce blush on her cheeks.
Aleksander grabs her by the waist and drags her closer to him, shifting them both to the side so that she doesn’t have to lie in the dark, damp circle in the bedsheets, the mess she had so beautifully created just seconds before.
Alina takes the pillow with her, keeping it clutched close to her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, her voice muffled by the fabric. “I’m sorry, that’s never happened before.”
The Darkling frowns, and then cool tendrils of shadows wrap around Alina’s ankles and wrench her legs apart. He grabs the pillow and tosses it to the floor, revealing her face to him. Her eyes, red-rimmed and glassy, blink up at him, and he is shocked to find the apprehension in her gaze, the spark of insecurity that he thought he had long since extinguished in her.
“Don’t be ashamed,” he says sharply. His shadows spread her legs even further and he settles between them once more, the bend of her knees finding his waist and his cock brushing along the soaked seam of her cunt. He ruts forward once, twice, relishing in her sharp gasp as the thick head of his cock drags along her sensitive little clit, puffy and flushed red from his insistent fingers.
“You should know by now, zolotse ,” Aleksander continues. “That you never have to be ashamed with me. Especially not in our bed.”
The muscles in Alina’s thighs strain as she fights against the hold of his shadows. He releases them, and her legs immediately wrap around his back to pull him closer, his cock easily sliding into the warm grip of her cunt.
“But it’s– it’s so–” Alina says softly, biting her lip. Her toes curl as the sound of them reaches her ears, the filthy squelching noise of him fucking into her. Aleksander drops onto his elbows, an arm on either side of her head, one hand snagging a fistful of her silken hair so that she cannot turn away from him again. He drags his nose over her tearstained cheek.
“What is it,” he murmurs, kissing the line of her jaw, the hollow of her throat, the sharp bone of her stag collar. Her nails dig into his shoulders. “Hmm? Tell me. Tell me, malyshka , my sweet.”
Alina’s eyes flutter closed, her breath escaping her in a soft whimper when Aleksander increases the frequency of his thrusts, the angle of his cock hitting her just right, just hard enough to wipe all coherent thoughts from her mind.
A lock of dark hair, a singular curl, falls loose onto Aleksander’s forehead, his skin shining with perspiration. As if she can sense it, Alina removes one hand from his shoulder and threads her fingers through his hair, pushing the errant curl back into place and dragging her nails over his scalp. He grits his teeth, his shadows writhing around them, licking up her legs, her cheeks, her breasts. A cool whisper over her hardened nipples, a teasing pressure over her throat.
“It’s too much, isn’t it?” Aleksander says, his voice low and patronizing in her ear, something that would have earned him a glare and a few biting words if his Sun Summoner had been in a more... lucid state. “You’re so sensitive, aren’t you? My sweet, filthy girl. So sensitive after I made you come so hard you soaked the bed?”
He’s had five hundred years to build his stamina, yet the sight of her gushing around him was nearly enough to make him finish right then and there.
“ Aleksander ,” Alina hisses, pushing at his chest in a weak, futile motion, as if that could stop the dirty words from leaving his mouth. She tries to hide her flushed face in his neck, but his grip on her hair tightens and she cannot turn her head, is forced to look in his eyes as he looms over her, her little cunt clenching as she takes in the heady darkness of his gaze.
His voice is a growl that she feels reverberate through her very bones.
“ Do it again .”
Later, she sleeps beside him. Two hands clasped together under her pillow, left cheek smushed against the fabric. Long hair fanning out around her, free of any tangles thanks to Aleksander’s restless hands. He’s never managed more than a few hours of sleep, but it seems to be even harder for him to rest when she lies beside him, too focused on watching her, touching her, reminding himself that she is real. That she is his .
The sheet which is normally draped around her ribs has been pushed down to her ankles. The Darkling sits in the center of the bed, one hand resting on the curve of Alina’s waist, idling drawing patterns onto her skin. The other smooths over the mattress until it rests over the wet spot on the sheets. It’s sticky beneath his fingers and he traces the little patch reverently, the sight of it making him hard again.
Alina shifts in her sleep, drawing her right leg up until the knee is bent. Aleksander can see the pink flush of her cunt, the fat milky beads of his cum that leak out of her when she moves. Two fingers push it back inside of her, and he relishes in the low moan that his touch draws from her, even in sleep.
Five hundred years, and there has never been a shortage of people to share his bed, but it has been a long time since he had seen a release as powerful as hers. Aleksander licks his lips, chasing the faint taste of her that still lingers there.
He is a patient man, but his sweet little Sun Summoner has a habit of making him insatiable.
The military officials slink out of the war room, footsteps just quick enough to give away their poorly hidden haste to leave. The drüskelle have been growing bolder, and an attack near the Fjerdan border in the early hours of dawn has resulted in the loss of two Inferni who had laid down their lives to ensure the safe arrival of the Grisha child that they rescued from a drüskelle transport.
Shadows swirl around The Darkling, thick and black and shrouding the room in their oppressive darkness. He will have to leave for Fjerda himself soon. Perhaps the drüskelle could do with a visit, a reminder of his power. With Alina by his side, he is one step closer to putting an end to the senseless loss of precious Grisha life.
The door opens with a low hum and The Darkling turns sharply, a biting word poised on his tongue, only to see Alina slipping through the doorway. A simple wave of her hand banishes his shadows and bathes the room with a soft yellow light. Something in his chest tightens at the sight of her, the brightness of her eyes and her red bitten lips as she pads over to his side.
How easily she comes to him now, after her months of stubborn refusal had faded into resignation, then tentative compliance, and now– he can see it sometimes, the adoration that he knows permeates his own gaze, reflected in her own. How powerful the two of them are, now that they face the world together.
“I thought I would sit in on your meeting with the dignitaries from Kerch,” Alina says lightly, running a hand down the side of his arm in greeting as she perches herself on the edge of his table, sweeping his pile of papers to the side.
Aleksander’s eyebrows jump into his hairline. “Did you?”
“The trade minister’s wife just had a baby. It would help to smoothe over negotiations if we both offered our sincere congratulations.”
“So we shall.” Aleksander leans forward, placing a hand on either side of her thighs. Her elevation places their faces at the same height. “Is that all you wish to join me for?”
“Well.” Alina looks down, scanning the table. She grabs a loose paper and holds it up. A map of the continent, updated to reflect the growth of the Shadow Fold. “I am an excellent cartographer, lest you forget. You might need some of my expertise when discussing...um...trade routes.”
“Oh, of course,” Aleksander says seriously. He leans in, his lips ghosting over hers. She arches into his touch but he pulls back, loving the way that she follows him. Greedy little thing. “And your presence here, alone with me, twenty minutes before the meeting is due to start is purely coincidence, I’m sure.”
“Naturally.” Her legs spread and he slots himself between them. “Completely unrelated.”
“Hmm.” His deft fingers work open the buttons of her kefta , his touch burning her waist through the fabric of her shirt as he pulls her closer to him. “So if I were to slip my fingers into your little cunt right now, I wouldn’t find you desperate and dripping for me?”
Alina’s lips twist into a petulant pout, but he doesn’t miss the way his words make her breath hitch.
“I’m not desperate.”
“Oh, Alina,” Aleksander tuts, almost sounding disappointed. “My sweet girl. My kukolka .” He tugs the hem of her shirt out of her breeches, replacing it with his hand. She jolts at his touch. “You feel desperate to me.”
When he removes his hand, her arousal glistens on his fingers. Aleksander’s eyes flash, his pupils blown so wide that she can no longer see the slate grey of his irises. He drags his fingers over her lower lip, painting them with her shine.
“Tell me, solnyshka . Do you taste desperate?”
Alina ducks her head, but he can see the pink swipe of her tongue behind her curtain of hair. The next second finds her on her back, the following with her breeches being shoved down her legs, the next with the rough scrape of Aleksander’s beard tickling her inner thighs.
Two thumbs spread her cunt open, all pink and glistening for him. Aleksander’s tongue draws a hot line up the seam of her, the sweet, heady taste of her arousal making his cheeks ache. He licks her languorously, unhurried, hyper aware of every twitch and gasp and sigh that escapes her.
“Oh, oh ,” Alina cries out, fingers threading through his hair. “Yes– Sasha –”
Aleksander looks up, his beard wet and his fingers leaving bruises on her inner thighs.
“Do you think you can squirt again for me, zolotse ? I want to taste it this time.”
She throws her head back, eyes clenched shut as if doing so could block out his filthy words. Aleksander smirks. She can play coy all she wants– he could see the way her cunt clenched around nothing when he spoke, just begging to be filled.
“Not he –re,” Alina pants, her voice cutting off into a high-pitched whine when he slips two fingers inside of her.
“Then why’d you come here, Alina?” Aleksander curls his fingers, dropping his thumb to her clit to rub in quick, unrelenting circles. “You mean for me to believe that you didn’t come for this? For me to fill your needy cunt and make a mess all over my table?”
“I–I–”
“Don’t fight it, solnyshka .” Aleksander ducks his head between her legs again. “Give me everything.”
Alina writhes on the table as he brings her up, his mouth and fingers working in furious tandem. Her wrecked moans are punctuated by the filthy sounds he makes between her legs, devouring her cunt as if the taste of her is what allows him to breathe. When her legs clamp down around his ears and he can feel her walls start to flutter around his fingers, Aleksander pulls his mouth off her clit and licks his lips.
“Sasha, please . It’s too much.”
“You want it,” he says, his fingers unceasing. “”You want it just as bad as I do. Do not deny me.” Shadows move behind her, pressing up on her back and neck so that she can look down at him, can watch him make her fall apart. “ Come, malyshka .”
And she does.
Aleksander watches in awe as the warm droplets soak his hand, his wrist, the sleeve of his kefta . It pools on the table beneath them, streaks down her thighs. He does not stop until Alina is crying from it, twisting away from his touch and her skin is glowing from the sheer force of her release.
He extricates his hand from the vice-like grip of her thighs and brings it to his mouth. His cock throbs painfully as he licks her cum off his skin, savoring every drop.
Alina pitches forward, nuzzling against his chest and burying her face in the hollow of his throat. Aleksander uses his dry hand to stroke her hair, pressing soft kisses to the top of her head until she stops shaking.
“ Sankta Alina ,” he says reverently. “My sun. You are astounding.”
Alina peers up at him, her face flushed and a few sweaty hairs curling around her temple. “You seem to be in the habit of making me do things I never thought I could.”
His kiss is demanding, all-consuming. Alina can taste herself on his tongue, has half a mind to beg him to cancel his meeting, lay her back down on the table and fuck her until there’s not a thought left in her head.
“We are meant for each other,” Aleksander says simply when they pull apart, “and everything that we do together shall be magnificent.”
The sound of approaching footsteps makes Alina squeak in surprise. Aleksander calls his shadows to block the door, but the move is wholly unnecessary. No one would ever dare enter The Darkling’s quarters without his permission. No one except for Alina.
Aleksander helps Alina to her feet, slipping the silky black handkerchief from his pocket and gently running it between her legs. Once her breeches are back on and her kefta is properly fastened, Alina turns and sees the soaked mess of the table, the ruined papers that she had carelessly placed herself upon.
“Oh, Saints ,” she groans, hiding her face.
Aleksander smirks again and peels her fingers away from her face, smacking a kiss to her cheek. One twitch of his hand and his shadows swipe over the table, clearing away the mess and sweeping the soiled papers under one of his thick, ancient books.
Of course, as her luck would have it, the first official to speak once the meeting starts asks to look at a map, aiming to assess the viability of an alternate route that avoids the Shu Han ports, which have been growing troublesome.
“The maps were damaged,” Aleksander says smoothly, his face a blank mask. He places a hand on Alina’s lower back, subtly tugging her closer to him. “But not to worry. Our beloved Sun Summoner also happens to be an excellent cartographer. She will see to the creation of the new ones.” He cuts her a look, eyebrows raised innocently. “Isn’t that right?”
Alina bites the inside of her cheek, her face so red she fears that her light might burst out of her ears.
“Of course, General,” she says, addressing him formally for their guests’ benefit. There is a playful excitement behind Aleksander’s eyes, one that makes her stomach flip and gooseflesh dance across her skin. “It would be my pleasure.”