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She stares at her reflection in the mirror, bruised and ichor-stained.
Her clothes are still ruined, not yet mended after the numerous battles fought today but for once she doesn’t really mind.
Pale hands drift up to her hair to begin removing pins but they’re stilled by warmer ones, scarred ones, loving and tender and gentler ones.
“Let me help.”
Dark eyes meet with violet ones in the mirror’s reflection as Laudna stares up into the face of the woman she loves, the woman who loves her just as reverently, and her heart skips a beat over the coy smile that spreads across her freckled visage.
“Please?”
“Of course you may, my darling.”
Imogen flashes a brilliant smile and it knocks the wind from Laudna’s lungs, so exquisite, she really should tell her more often-
“You’re so beautiful, Imogen.”
Just like it always does whenever Laudna compliments her, a steady flush grows under the surface of Imogen’s skin, carrying blood up her chest to her cheeks and the tips of her ears where they peek out from parted lilac curls.
“Not as beautiful as you.”
The final pin is placed on the dresser in front of her and black waves streaked with white fall around her shoulders in fragrant undulations, orange rind and patchouli. Imogen stoops down to nestle her face in Laudna’s hair where she inhales deeply.
“Mmmm… I’ve missed the way you smell.”
Laudna wriggles a little in her seat. “Probably stinky as fuck, sweating all day from fighting and anxiety-”
But Imogen just keeps humming happily into the hairline at the base of her neck and she can feel her little exhalations against her sensitive skin-
“Mmmbaby I don’t caaare,” she murmurs “Still my favourite, still your Laudna smell, yummy and nice and perfect.”
Fine hairs raise on end as Laudna’s skin erupts with gooseflesh in a ripple that radiates from the point where Imogen presses a searingly hot kiss to her neck. It carries a shiver with it, down her limbs and spine and into her gut where it bounces around her insides like an echo in a cave.
She feels hungry.
But not in the way Delilah used to make her feel.
Those hot lips continue their way down the long slope of her neck and Imogen gently noses away the fabric that covers her shoulder, letting it fall back as she continues to pepper Laudna’s skin with kisses so gentle they might be mistaken for the featherlight kiss of silk velvet. A rough hand smooths up the other side of Laudna’s neck to cup her cheek from behind and she leans into it, eyelids fluttering shut as she relaxes into the delicate touches of Imogen’s love.
Her head is tilted just so, the expanse of her throat exposed to the cool night air, no collar, no choker, just the shiny scarring of decades-old rope burn and the remnant moisture of Imogen’s adoration as she kisses her way, slowly, back up to the line of her jaw.
“C’mere.” It’s only a low whisper against her skin but it feels deafeningly loud in contrast with the silence of their room. Laudna sucks in a lungful of air and turns to look over her shoulder at her gorgeous, strong, kind, smart, and perfectly capable girlfriend.
Imogen’s looking at her with an expression so full of emotion. It’s obvious that she’s barely keeping the tears at bay but she smiles through it nonetheless, crooked and bashful with lips parting to show her cute little gap-toothed grin and if Laudna doesn’t hug her right now she might just fucking faint-
It’s not graceful in the slightest but it doesn’t matter, how could it? She stands from her seated position and stumbles with long, lanky legs over the chair that separates them to barrel into Imogen’s arms with all the force she can muster and because Imogen is weak as shit they trip and fall and land in a tangle of limbs and shredded, blood-stained clothes.
And it might be the fatigue or the pain or the ridiculousness of the day or probably all three but they’re laughing because how the fuck did they end up here? How did the impossible become possible in this sea of roiling uncertainty they have been sailing for the past few months? Heaving with laughter, Imogen’s chest is reverberating against hers and beneath her sternum there’s a strong, repetitive thump and wouldn’t it be perfect if they could press into one another deeper? Let skin slide over bone, let ribs slot together and interlock until they share a single space for their organs. Maybe that would make it easier for Laudna’s heart to learn the rhythm of what it means to be loved.
She can’t remember when but at some point Imogen’s laughs turn hoarse, choked, breathless as she whispers “I love you” and “I’m so proud of you” and “You’re so strong, baby” over and over and over-
“She isn’t watching, it’s just us now baby, s’just you and me.” Her hands cup Laudna’s face in that familiar, comforting way, her way of holding Laudna, that simple gesture that has always promised love and safety and dedication.
Laudna just sniffs back the moisture trickling through her sinuses and gulps at the air in an attempt to hold it all back but-
“I thought you would never want to be with me again, Imogen.”
And she finally lets go.
Tears fall from her tired eyes and it’s euphoric, truly, a sensation of weightlessness she has never experienced before and perhaps she could float away with Imogen now, not an anchor holding her down but a tether to the future. Their future.
Together either way .
Imogen’s hands move from her face and the shifting of fabric fills her ears and suddenly there are warm arms wrapped so tightly around her that her lungs barely have space to spasm through her sobs but she doesn’t care. The fire in her chest burns with the brightness of a star at the slowly dawning realisation of her new reality and she can hardly believe it but-
“You’re in control now Laudna, it’s all you, you don't have to worry about what is or isn’t real anymore.”
“I- it’s real, this is real, I can’t believe it, Imogen, you and I-”
“We can do whatever we like.” And she can hear the relief in Imogen’s watery voice, the choked smile in her giggle, the utter incredulity and joy in her tone as it washes through Laudna’s hair and into her cranium.
Laudna feels the smooth tug of cool leather against the skin of her legs where Imogen tries to wrap herself even closer to her love and the sensation takes Laudna somewhat by surprise; she hadn’t realised her dress had fallen open so revealingly. Laudna drags her thigh higher up Imogen’s leg until she can feel the rough abrasion of her trousers then slowly pulls Imogen’s hips in to meet hers with a leg hooked around her waist.
“Anything?”
There is a beat of silence and Imogen pulls back, still holding Laudna but at enough of a distance to look her in the eyes.
On the cold, wooden floor, their bodies are pressed together but it’s not the same as the painful embraces they’ve shared in recent days. Ever since Delilah had returned, Imogen’s hugs had changed, but now there’s no longer a sense of reserved rigidity or tenseness to Imogen’s form. Furthermore, where Imogen’s body heat usually feels like fire sinking through fabric and flesh to lick at Laudna’s bones, instead Laudna feels a fire of her own rising to meet Imogen’s at the surface. With each beat of her heart, the blue flame in the cage of her chest burns hotter, warming her ichor, thinning it, liquifying, flowing faster, pumping harder through her veins, and she can feel the heat transferring to her tissues as her lifeblood circulates her aching limbs, renew and awaken, muscles livening and readying and practically vibrating in anticipation of-
“What is it that y’want?”
Laudna’s eyes darken. Her gaze flickers up to Imogen’s for the briefest moment before darting down to her mouth when the subtle movement of flesh between teeth catches her attention. Imogen notices Laudna watching the way she worries at her lower lip with blunt incisors and she lets go of the bite, gasping ever so quietly as her lips part in a shaky breath.
There’s hardly any light in here, just the warm glow of slowly dripping candles but Laudna has never needed much to see in the dark. Her eyes lock onto Imogen’s once more and hold them there, unwavering as she watches the reflection of her own pupils dilating to unnatural extents.
Laudna’s voice comes out in a whisper.
“Everything.”
The quiet hitch of breath.
Imogen moans loudly into their kiss as lips and teeth and tongue collide in fevered desire, so desperate in the way she hungrily sucks in breaths between kisses to sustain her need for oxygen, a need that only grows and grows as their bodies crush together closer, closer, it isn’t close enough, fuck she’s so alive, Imogen is so alive and Laudna knows she’s still undead but Gods does she feel reborn.
She doesn’t remember the precise feeling of adrenaline coursing through her living, human body but the sensations she’s experiencing right now might just compare. The only other time they had been physically intimate, that one night at Zhudanna’s, had felt nothing like this.
It had been slow, soft and gentle. Delicate kisses to parted lips, closed eyelids, and pleasure-furrowed brows as they explored each other's bodies with nervous, curious fingers, coaxing quiet gasps of heated longing with each and every curl of digits just inside the entrance of their newfound lover. Darling Imogen, always so gentle in the way she handled Laudna, and Laudna had felt the need to breathe deeply at the time but not so much that she was completely out of breath.
Unlike now.
Maybe it was the exhaustion of the day catching up to her or the sheer heat of her need to crawl underneath Imogen’s skin but she was already panting from the sheer thought of it and her heart was thrumming so quickly that she felt dizzy and they were only kissing but it was good, so fucking good and she needed , she wanted , she was hungry and she had to have -
“I need you closer, Imogen.”
There’s no need for elaboration, not when Imogen clearly shares the same frame of mind because she’s already ripping through Laudna’s tattered clothes before the words finish falling from her dark, kiss-swollen lips.
Garments are torn, shed, thrown aside in heated urgency, need skin, need warmth, need flesh to soothe the ache of greedy teeth, for nails to mark in angry red lines, carve and sign with ink and blood the words ‘I am yours and you are mine’.
“I will never be hers .”
A pained sob wracks through Imogen’s chest at her recognition of those words. “I was so scared Laud, I was so scared every time she said you were-”
“Yours, only yours, Imogen.” And it’s messy and unceremonious but it’s so irrefutably them , the way they express their intent through pulls and touches, a wordless conversation that transpires between bodies and says ‘Take me to bed, my love. Unmake me so that I might be created anew, be moulded and shaped by your hands and yours alone.’
It’s through those touches that they move as one. Lips interlocked and breath shared between lungs, they move from the floor to the bed and Laudna needs to see her, needs to drink in the fucking sight of Imogen because this still feels like a dream and she’s terrified to open her eyes but she needs to just look .
They’re lying on their sides in an embrace, legs intertwined with thighs pressed firmly to the warmth of their cores, ribs and abdomens and breasts heaving against one another as they gasp the song of their devotion. Laudna’s fingers are woven with lavender strands, tight against Imogen’s scalp from where she hasn’t been able to let go but she lets a hand relax and Imogen groans at the loss of tension but she can’t complain, not when cool digits trace along her sensitive scars, trailing and wandering, alternating in pressure between light and firm, nails finally digging into the soft fat of her ass before dragging painfully down the length of her thigh.
Imogen cries out and Laudna swallows the ragged moan, wishing she could swallow her whole but instead hooks her hand beneath the crook of Imogen’s knee and pulls it roughly to her waist before rolling her onto her back. The force of gravity tugs them closer but Laudna looms above, pushing against every instinct to sink deeper, to melt into Imogen until they become one. She props herself up on a loose four, hands steady on the mattress on either side of Imogen’s head whilst straddling Imogen’s thick, muscled thigh, a warm lightning-scarred leg still wrapped around her waist.
A deep exhale, and she opens her eyes.
Beneath her lies the woman she will worship every single moment until she returns to the earthy embrace of soil, the woman she will worship from the grave and then beyond.
Fractal scars cleave freckled skin and radiate like waterways carving a godly landscape between hills and mountains and valleys, rivers backlit with a faint red and lilac glow. But it’s the slowly pulsing purple luminescence cast upon Imogen’s chest that leaves Laudna puzzled.
Imogen’s eyes widen in wonder and she raises her hands before her with a reverence fit for prayer as she beholds the light emanating from Laudna’s chest. Lit from deep within, she shines like a torch through dense fog, ribs cast in shadow like the frame of an oil lamp.
When she looks back up at Laudna in a question, she’s met with a gentle nod.
Leading with her fingertips, she smooths her hands across Laudna’s sternum, flattening them until her palms are pressed to her chest just above the sag of meagre breasts and Imogen’s eyelids flutter shut in recognition of the strong heartbeat that thunders against its cage.
“Gods, Laudna- I can feel it, your heart-”
“-is yours Imogen, if you’ll have it.”
Imogen opens her eyes only to lose herself in the ocean of Laudna’s, dark like the deep sea, silent and endless and glinting with the promise of both safety and danger.
The air leaves her lungs in a heavy gust only to be sucked back in on a sharp, shaky inhale. “Of course Laudna, of course, I will.”
Laudna can feel the tears welling up again and suddenly there’s a painful lump in her throat that forces her to gasp out her words, “I belong to you, you’re the only one, I need- I have to have you, Imogen-”
“ Then take me. ”
Like the destined collision of continents, Laudna subducts beneath Imogen’s raised leg to press their cores together as she sinks into a deeper stance and she can’t believe it’s only been sixteen days since she first felt the dizzying sensation of Imogen’s heat sliding slick against hers but it feels like a fucking year and a month.
She rolls her hips in a slow rhythm, reaching down with one hand and pulling gently at the skin above Imogen’s mons to draw back her clit hood and she knows she’s found the right spot when she rolls them once more only for Imogen to unravel into a whining mess.
“Oh fuck, baby, you’re- unhh - so wet and warm -”
“I know-” Laudna huffs out in an exasperated laugh, “I know, it’s strange, but good, I- mmfffuck - I like it.” She takes her time, delicate and precise with her movements, scarcely grinding her hips as she lets the growing swell of her exposed, tender clit press directly against Imogen’s. Muscles clench around nothing and the trickle of ichor that’s forced from her cunt cools rapidly in the night air as it drips languidly through her folds and into Imogen’s. The woman beneath her gasps out in surprise at the temperature contrast before an expression of primal heat flashes through her lilac eyes and they darken with desire, pupils blowing wider with the knowledge of just how tightly wound Laudna already is, so much so that she might freely pour forth into her mouth if only Imogen asks sweetly.
She doesn’t need to ask. Laudna is as willing to give her everything as she is to take.
It’s so fucking intense. The cognitive dissonance is truly astounding, laughable really, because the overwhelmingly intoxicating level of roiling heat that’s building where their clits press together does not add up with the scene they’ve created. They’re barely moving against one another save for heaving lungs and Imogen’s desperately clutching hands as they rake over the rippling lean muscle of Laudna’s back in an attempt to pull her closer. Laudna rolls her hips ever so slightly in barely perceptible circles and with each planet shaking thud of her heart she feels her lifeblood migrate further south, darkening her vision, filling her loins with ichor, and swelling her labia until they ache.
“I- I want you Imogen, a-always, want you to be mine- oh fuck! ”
Imogen can barely utter more than a broken “P-please,” before Laudna rocks into her once more and Imogen’s jaw falls open silently, breath held tight in frozen lungs as her body seizes up from the twitch of her throbbing clit against the hot pressure of Laudna’s.
It’s such a minute convulsion of muscles but the concentrated sensation of it, the heat of it, the fucking act of it sends Laudna tumbling into a mind blankingly intense orgasm. Mouths hanging agape, eyes screwed shut, knuckles bloodless and white, muscles locked and bodies stilled, the only movement is hidden between melded cores. Laudna feels her orgasm crest and when it falls, her entrance and clit contract with the steady, alternating rhythm of beating ventricles causing an animalistic groan to tear through her chest. It’s rough and rumbly but it pitches up at the end into a breathless keen when she feels herself immediately building up to another.
Imogen’s eyes are still closed and her expression is still in open-mouthed shock as she begins scrabbling at Laudna’s skin with aimless hands and fuck , Laudna just knows the younger woman is about to come but she wants the satisfaction of Imogen’s admission.
“Are you close my darling?”
She can’t even bring herself to respond with words. Imogen’s breath is bottled up and she’s too greedy to pour it out because what if it takes with it the world-consuming sensation that she’s feeling in the entire buried extent of her throbbing, blood-swollen clitoris? She’s painfully erect but it feels so good, too good, and she knows from the way the kaleidoscope of colours dance behind her eyelids that her self-inflicted asphyxiation is making it feel even better. Her lungs are fit to burst but she sucks in the tiniest breath to sustain herself before nodding obediently for Laudna because she wants to be good for her, wants to please her, would hate to be impolite-
“Good girl.” The older woman is hunched above her like a spider over tangled prey, spindly arms bracketing Imogen’s body and vertebrae stark against the pale grey of her taught, glistening skin.
Hips grind down once more with determination and Laudna sets the pace of a new rhythm, reaching back to grasp Imogen’s ankle. She forcefully manoeuvres Imogen’s leg from where it wraps around her waist and lifts it up to hook over her shoulder, leaning forward until their mouths are mere millimetres apart.
“Are you mine Imogen?”
She licks into her girlfriend’s open mouth, teasingly catching against tongue and lips and it’s all Imogen needs to finally let go. Her pent-up breath explodes in a shuddering moan that vibrates down Laudna’s hungry gullet as she comes around nothing, all of that delicious tension unravelling behind her navel in waves of pleasure that send fire down to her toes-
“Yes, fuck , I just want you Laudna, I’m yours, I’m yours, my heart is yours-”
Light bathes Imogen’s body as Laudna’s skeleton erupts with a symphony of splintering cracks. Her skin splits open where it can no longer contain the sheer size of her growing frame and Imogen pants and whines wretchedly as hot ichor pours from each gash onto her yearning body. The wounds quickly seal themselves as smooth, moss-covered bark grows in each ravine, tiny flowers blooming with seemingly sentient petals that undulate with Laudna’s every heavy breath.
It isn’t Laudna’s full Form of Dread, not the Mourning Veil nor the Sun Tree but something else that stirs at slumbering memories within the deep recesses of Imogen’s mind. Twisting branches grow from the tips of her shoulders and the crown of her head in an exquisite display of natural beauty and Imogen instinctively reaches out to tenderly caress the junction between wooden antler and scalp. The simple act draws forth a pleading moan from Laudna’s lungs as she presses into Imogen’s loving fingers and suddenly the branches shake with exertion before deep green leaves and pink-violet clusters of delicate, crinkled blossoms emerge from beneath the smooth bark like an exhalation of spring.
Imogen’s heart surges with a stuttering pang of aching realisation when she recognises the form Laudna has assumed; the old crepe myrtle that they first met beneath.
A tiny whimper escapes Imogen’s lips and tears sting her eyes, “You remember?”
“I could never forget a single moment spent with you my love, least of all the day we met.”
When they kiss, it tastes like salt. It starts as a firm press of lips, unmoving, simply crushing together with the force of their longing and the stillness of it all gives rise to the rest of their senses. Laudna can hear the soft rustling of leaves and petals as they gently pulse in time with her heartbeat; she can hear the way Imogen’s sniffling breaths are becoming strained through the tear-swollen inflammation of her sinuses; she can feel each and every square inch of hot, sweat-slicked skin that tingles against hers with suppressed electricity; she can see the steady pulse of her light radiating through her closed eyelids; she can smell the mouthwatering sweetness of Imogen’s skin, hints of lavender and vanilla, and she would devour her if she could, wants her, needs to consume, needs to taste her, Gods , she’s so hungry -
Overcome, she forces Imogen’s mouth open with her own and groans like a woman starved as she plunges into Imogen’s burning heat with her tongue, pulling it out not a moment later and leaving Imogen whining at the loss, squirming against her emptiness as Laudna sucks her plump lower lip between pointed teeth and bites down until she almost breaks the skin.
The pain is enough for Imogen to cry out and Laudna withdraws, concern etching her face because she didn’t mean to get carried away so quickly and they’ve never been rough before-
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking-”
Imogen sinks her fingers into the seams between skin and bark on Laudna’s ass and it sends heat flashing through her limbs, “I don’t want an apology, I want you to fuck me,” The look in her eyes is wild, violet flames burning into Laudna’s soul as Imogen pulls her girlfriends hips down into hers, seeking the friction of her proud, throbbing clit. Her voice cracks with a wrecked, needy keen, “I need you to fuck me Laudna, I’ve been waiting for so long, please , bite me, mark me, I want everyone to know that I’m only yours, please baby, please-”
Laudna descends upon the meat of Imogen’s shoulder with sharp teeth, skin rupturing like a burst tomato as copper fills her mouth and spills from her lips to pool in the depressions of the younger woman’s clavicles. Imogen’s breath comes quickly in high, breathy moans as she hyperventilates through the pain that radiates in ripples of searing heat from the place where her girlfriend is latched to her and the slick sound of cum-laden folds echoes through their room as they rut against one another with complete abandon.
Unnaturally long arms reach back to yank Imogen’s hands off the small swell of Laudna’s ass, and her monstrously large girlfriend pins both wrists above her head against pillows that have already stained red. A splatter of blood sprays across Imogen’s ichor-painted breasts as Laudna jerks up into a seated position, and with her free hand she raises two impossibly long fingers to her mouth, clasps the talon-like nails between her teeth, and rips . Black drips down Laudna’s chin, swirling with liquid ruby that’s still dribbling down the bob of her throat as she swallows heavily and Imogen feels her body tense up with need, her mouth agape in beseechment of Laudna’s mercy.
Please.
Laudna cocks her head slightly, then a knowingly smug grin curls the corners of her mouth.
“Do you want me inside you Imogen?”
She nods her head urgently, “Mhmm.”
“Do you need my fingers in your mouth?” Laudna can hear the smile in her own voice, she can’t help it.
“I do, fuck Laud, I need them-”
“Do you promise to suck them clean after I finish fucking you with them? After you finish coming around them?”
“Yes, Gods , I-”
Laudna tightens her hand around Imogen’s wrists in a vice grip as she rolls her hips in an achingly slow grind.
“Beg.”
“I promise, please, please baby I promise.”
Without breaking eye contact, Laudna reaches behind her body to run a finger through the ichor-marbled slick of Imogen’s tender folds and a growl rips through her chest at the sight of Imogen’s eyes rolling to the back of her head.
There’s barely any resistance, only the sinful sound of squelching tissues as she sheaths both fingers fully inside Imogen’s already fluttering cunt. Oh, she must be so keyed up, her darling Imogen, because the poor girl has only just been filled and she’s already crying out like she’s been waiting an eternity for this, hips stuttering, exposed clit twitching, internal muscles clenching and stretching to accommodate.
It’s hard not to feel powerful, not to enjoy the feeling of being fully in control for the first time in her life because there's a smile splitting Laudna’s face in half and the lurch of her lungs is cooling the blood and inky moistened flesh of her lips and she can’t help the surge of confidence through her veins nor the string of words that fall from her mouth when she sensuously murmurs “Oh my poor, sweet girl, I haven’t even started thrusting inside you yet and you’re already falling apart in my hands. Are you sure you want me to fuck you until you just can’t take any more?”
Imogen’s eyes roll back to meet Laudna’s and they struggle to focus through heavy, untimed blinks and- goodness, how is it possible that she’s already so out of breath?
A single tear falls from the corner of her eye and trickles down into her hair. She can only manage two strangled words, “Laudna, please. ” before her cunt clenches down on the sizable girth of Laudna’s elongated fingers.
Laudna pulls out slowly, in warning, until she’s barely dipping into Imogen’s entrance.
“You’re sure?” Her eyes glint with delicious danger like she’s daring Imogen as much as she is warning her.
Imogen tugs against the hand that pins her wrists to the bed and her chest heaves in defeat, the movement causing the river of ichor-swirled blood to cascade down the sides of her abdomen.
“Consume me.”
Laudna sighs.
“I love you, Imogen.”
Then slams her fingers deep inside her.
Her knuckles meet the aching flesh at the entrance of Imogen’s cunt with a wet slap and soon the room fills with the wicked sounds of Imogen’s high-pitched wines and their fervent love-making. Still connected to Imogen by the intoxicating, pulsing heat of her clit, Laudna grinds down against the sensitive bundle of nerves whilst she pounds into her gasping lover without restraint, contorting her spine into a freakish hunch so that she can sink her teeth into the muscle and fat just above Imogen’s breast.
Imogen’s voice rips through her throat in jolting moans with each vicious thrust of fingers inside her dripping cunt and when she speaks Laudna realises she’s crying-
“Laud- fuck - it’s so much-”
“I know darling, you’re taking me so well, my pretty girl.”
“Oh Gods, oh my fucking Gods Laudna please don’t stop, please, please- Fuck! ”
Imogen clamps down on Laudna’s fingers with an intensity that is so strong and so sudden that Laudna is almost shocked by her complete inability to move inside her.
“Baby, fuck , I’m-”
“Come for me, Imogen.”
And her mouth falls open in a silent scream.
The younger woman’s body is drawn tight like a bowstring, every single muscle locked and engaged until suddenly her clit finally pulses in a steady beat against Laudna’s, muscles convulsing in tandem around her girlfriend’s fingers as she rides through the throes of her orgasm.
Laudna should stop, she really should, but Imogen just looks so perfect like this and she can’t bare for it to end so she doubles down and fucks her fingers into Imogen at a cruel pace, offering her no reprieve and sending her straight into a world of overstimulation.
The response is immediate.
Tears spring forth from red eyes and Imogen begins to sob uncontrollably, her vocalisations completely incoherent now but her expression keeps breaking into moments of bliss as she holds Laudna’s adoring gaze and, Gods , if she isn’t the most beautiful woman in all of Exandria-
“ Oh fuck I’m coming agai- ”
Her gorgeous girl is so utterly fucked out that Laudna is able to keep pumping inside her as Imogen climaxes with a broken scream. It’s so unbearably arousing, so obscenely erotic that Laudna is overcome with the animalistic urge to devour her like a predator would its prey.
Teeth meet flesh and the world makes sense again.
She laves her tongue over each toothy imprint, soothing tormented skin as she works her way across Imogen’s chest and shoulders to leave no inch of exposed skin unmarked. With every bite she relishes in the way Imogen’s body reactively tenses then relaxes as she gives in to the pain with furrowed brows and forceful exhalations, battling to maintain some element of control over her own faculties.
Curious over the sudden silence, Laudna looks up from where she’s sucking a bruise into the soft flesh below a pert nipple and notices Imogen’s attempts to stay quiet.
“Is everything okay my love?” With a warm, tentative tone to her soft voice, Laudn slows the roll of her hips and the thrust of her fingers to something gentler.
“Fuckin’- my Gods Laudna, yes, yes - everything y-you’re doing feels so in-incredible baby I don’t want you to s-stop, you’re doin’ so perfect, it’s just very intense-”
Laudna surges forward to capture Imogen’s gasp-chapped lips in a burning kiss and it forces them both to breathe heavily through their noses, drinking in the scent of sweat and musk and the sweetness of their skin.
“I just want to make sure you’re feeling good.” She murmurs against Imogen’s needy mouth, fingers pulling half way out of her sex to curl slowly against the ruffled tissues of Imogen’s front wall.
Imogen’s responding laugh is as incredulous as it is breathless, and she has to swallow several quiet moans before she’s able to form words, “Honestly, I don’t- think there is a single thing you- you could do that I wouldn’t enjoy. I fuckin’ love you so m-much Laudna, you could- unhh - you could do anythin’ you want to me and I would love it- oh fuck - so long as it brings you pleasure.”
A love-drunk smile falls across Laudna’s features and it’s the most heartbreakingly exquisite thing Imogen has ever seen because how could she possibly be so lucky that a woman so spectacular would behold her with such adoring warmth?
Long fingers unravel, releasing bruised wrists to allow Imogen to wrap her arms around Laudna’s neck and pull her into a close embrace. There’s a series of pops and cracks as Laudna’s Form Of Dread reverts to her natural state, petals and leaves shedding in a breathtaking show of deciduity as they flutter down onto the bed and into Imogen’s hair.
With some normalcy returned to her bodily proportions, Laudna is forced to slide out from Imogen’s still-clenching core, leaving her whining a complaint at the sudden emptiness. But before Laudna can wipe her hand on the nearest pillow, Imogen snatches her wrist in mid-air, sucking pale fingers into her mouth with a starved hum.
“Ah yes, so you promised,” Laudna mumbles with a grin.
Imogen’s eyes light up with a cheeky sparkle as she puts on a show of cleaning her arousal from where it’s dripped all the way down Laudna’s hand. Her soft, pink tongue curls sensuously around knuckles and between fingers as she laps up her own cum, now white and thick and tangy from the friction of vigorous fucking. It’s impossible for Laudna not to let her eyelids flutter at the sight of it all, especially when Imogen offers a coy smile before taking the full length of her fingers to the back of her throat, bobbing up and down on them and letting her cheeks hollow out.
Laudna giggles and narrows her eyes, pulling her pruned fingers from her girlfriend’s mouth. “Oh, you’re just asking for it now.”
White teeth flash from between lightly freckled lips and Imogen cocks her head innocently. “What do you mean? I’m just trying to be good, clean up after myself so you don’t have to.”
“Mmm yes, ever so generous aren’t you?”
“Very selfless, yes.”
“And modest too.”
“F'course, my daddy raised me right.”
The curved peak of Laudna’s eyebrow raises with a mischievous look as she takes a moment to bask in Imogen’s energy.
It’s so natural how they fit together, and it has always felt that way between them since they first met. Effortless in the way they slot into one another’s lives, complementing and supporting each other like the push and pull of migrating sands. Even now, with Imogen’s arms and legs tangled around her, they fit together perfectly in the physical sense; the ample swell of Imogen’s curves filling the fleshless divots of Laudna’s angular body, the gentle harmony of their voices as they giggle bashfully under the heat of their sustained eye contact. And in Delilah’s absence it all falls together so perfectly, the reassurance they both so desperately needed that this, this is irrevocably real.
Laudna breaks their loving gaze to drag her eyes down the masterful painting upon the canvas of their bodies. Crimson blood pulled through with ichor as dark as the mysterious depths of space, dripped and smeared and swirled with the white splatters of Imogen’s friction-whipped cum on her inner thighs now painted upon Laudna’s too.
She makes a point of drinking in every single sinful brushstroke as her eyes travel back up to meet Imogen’s. “It seems there is still much left for you to clean up.”
Already fuck-flushed and pink, the air rushes from Imogen’s lungs as the rosy blush that colours her chest and cheeks deepens several shades.
The wet sound of parting skin resonates as Laudna peels herself away from her lover, “And because I’m merciful, I will help clean you,” a pulsing glow radiates from her chest as she uses prestidigitation to clean the art she birthed upon Imogen’s skin, “But you, my dearest girl, will have to use nothing but your mouth.”
Imogen is still lying there, boneless and panting, staring with a hungry, almost crazed look in her lilac eyes as she absorbs the intent behind her girlfriend’s words. Her jaw hangs open with a breathless slack to it and she licks the remaining smear of her own arousal from her lips before shakily pushing herself up onto her elbows.
“Are you ordering me to lick your body clean?” she dares.
But Laudna just flashes her a heavy-lidded smile and purrs “You’re such a smart girl.”
It’s obvious how much of a weakened state Imogen is in; her muscles tremble to support her body weight as she shifts positions with leaden limbs to kneel opposite Laudna.
She swallows heavily, “Would you lie down for me?”
It seems almost comical to Laudna how much confidence is bubbling through her veins, fluttering around in her abdomen with excitement as she contemplates how provocative it is of her to answer Imogen with a silent, sensuous stare, chin raised slightly so that she is staring down at the shorter woman in front of her.
Imogen bristles slightly in the pause, remembering this newfound, unspoken hierarchy that has been established in the safety of Essek Thelyss’ guest room,
“Please, baby.”
Laudna grins with satisfaction and reaches out with her ichor-smeared, talonless fingers to grasp Imogen by the jaw, thumb brushing along her lower lip to coax open her mouth. Imogen is obedient, her good little girl, and obliges immediately by sucking Laudna’s digit into her mouth and rolling her tongue against it. “I do adore it when you use such lovely manners.”
A quiet squeak slips from Imogen’s lungs when Laudna presses down hard with her thumb on her tongue, pulling against incisors and lighting-kissed mandible until Imogen’s face is just below Laudna’s. “You know, I’ve noticed how you react to my words when I praise you. For how many years, I wonder, have you had to hide how flustered you get when I talk about how capable you are?”
Imogen tries to fight against the tight grip locking her in place but her resolve is weak. She likes being handled like this. Enjoys the feeling of giving over control. Warm breath tickles the fine, peach fuzz of her upper lip as Laudna descends upon her mouth like the gentle, velvety wings of a death's-head hawkmoth. Her lips are still slightly colder, re-animated heart never quite as effective at circulating blood even with the new, firey warmth of the soul anchor, but they’re still as soft as yesterday, as soft as they ever were each time they’ve kissed both as friends and as lovers.
Their lips are merely brushing, not engaged yet in passion but the anticipation of countless possibilities vibrates energetically between them like static. Laudna pulls down slightly on Imogen’s lower jaw with her saliva-moistened thumb until her mouth is open and yearning before barely licking into it to steal a taste of her quivering tongue.
Imogen is too late.
She tries to kiss Laudna but the older woman is already pulling away with a smirk and sliding back onto the blood and ichor-stained pillows to lie below her, a feast for hungry eyes and a hungrier mouth. Her pallid skin reminds Imogen of an ancient marble statue, magically untouched by time, and for a moment she wonders whether it was the Gods themselves who saw fit to chisel her wife from the purest stone-
Wife?
And she certainly wasn’t just salivating over the beauty of Laudna’s sin-smeared body, but somehow Imogen’s choking and lurching for the water jug beside the bed to whet her palate.
“Goodness, is everything alright darling?”
“ I’m fine .” she wheezes, trying to hide her growing blush behind sweat-dampened hair as she gulps back cool water, shivering at the trickle that escapes the corner of her mouth in all of her urgency to roll down her chin.
“You’re looking very pink darling-”
“Just- choked on a lil’ saliva is all, nothing drastic.” It’s fine, everything is fine and she will unpack that internal dialogue slip later; they’ve only been an official couple for sixteen days, after all, and it’s barely been two hours since they were rid of their unwelcome third -
“Imogen.” Her eyes snap up to Laudna’s, warm and kind and hers and she feels her heart rate steady for a moment. “You’re overthinking.”
She’s right, of course.
Laudna reaches a hand up to cup Imogen’s cheek and the soothing chill of her palm is a salve to Imogen’s worries. Relief. She leans into it with a sigh as her eyelids flutter shut.
“I know.”
“Do you need to take a break?” Laudna’s voice is soft as her thumb gently strokes away the flush of Imogen’s cheek. Another hand comes up to tuck an errant curl behind a red-hot ear.
Violet locks bounce as Imogen shakes her head and she takes a deep breath before opening her eyes once more.
She wants this.
Needs this.
Needs to taste her because Imogen has only ever known Laudna’s tangy sweetness from a secret slip of scarred fingers to thirsting lips, but never from its source.
And by the weighted look that Laudna is giving her right now from where she lays sprawled against ruined linen, her chest rising and falling in growing anticipation, she knows Laudna needs it too.
Imogen holds Laudna’s eye contact for several beats before wordlessly and gracefully standing from the bed. The dresser is only a few strides away but she makes a show of walking there slowly, accentuating the natural swing of her hips as she saunters over to look at herself in the mirror for a moment before pulling her hair over one shoulder and bending forward at the hips.
A satisfied grin pulls at her lips at the quiet “ Oh for fuck’s sake. ” whispered by the very exasperated woman who is no doubt staring at the gorgeous, round swell of her ass, the way her pussy peeks ever so slightly through the tight gap of her upper thighs.
“Just… tryn’a find somethin’,” and she can’t help but bite down on her lip even in privacy behind the curtain of her hair as she deliberately clamps down with her pelvic floor.
A ragged breath and another stream of flustered, stifled ramblings stutter from Laudna’s lips as Imogen feels the lewd drip of her own cum trickle down her legs.
When she feels she’s given Laudna sufficient time to miss her, she mutters a decisive “Oh, here it is!” swipes a hair tie lying in plain sight, pivots to greet the older woman with an innocent smile, and casually walks back before crawling across the bed until she’s positioned over Laudna’s body.
With hands and knees bracketing Laudna’s slender form, Imogen makes sure that she avoids skin contact as she looms above.
The air between them is tense, buzzing with the expectation of what is to come.
Laudna’s eyes struggle to stay focussed on one place for very long, darting along each heavenly slope of Imogen’s body with the timidness of someone who is certain their gaze is unworthy. Perhaps a better view would help? So Imogen takes advantage of the other woman’s indecision, allowing her erect nipples to graze fleetingly against Laudna’s chest (the smallest taste, never enough) before pushing herself up to a kneeled position where she straddles Laudna’s hips, still ensuring they’re both starved of touch.
The act pulls a sharp gasp from Laudna’s undead lungs and Imogen wonders whether she could plant nocturnal flowers in the cavities of her chest.
As much as Imogen enjoys having the imposing shadow of her girlfriend lord above her, she certainly attempts to hide how much pleasure it brings her to have their roles reversed. Yes, it’s only been two weeks, but Imogen has been so desperate for privacy that she’s ashamed about how many times she considered forcing Laudna face-first against a wall or bent over the nearest surface just so she can fuck away the agony of the rift growing between them. An attempt to cling desperately to what they had, what they were supposed to have. Split Laudna open from behind and not have to confront the reality that She was there too, always watching, always listening, always poisoning because what if she let Laudna in too close? What if she let Delilah see the most vulnerable parts of her? Give the one person she hated most in the world the key to her heart, willingly hand over all of the secrets that could be used against her when she finally took over Laudna completely?
And then Laudna wouldn’t be alone.
Imogen would be her puppet too.
The memory of those feelings stirs something ugly in her chest, an arrow-flecked beast, hurt and bleeding and hungry for revenge.
But she doesn’t want to talk about it, not now, not when Laudna looks so perfect and happy and excited in that characteristically endearing way of hers, wide-eyed and innocent and full of love.
She can’t bring herself to- fuck, she- she can’t do this.
It’s jarring.
So jarring that it shakes Imogen to the core, feels like a horrible, dishonest, disgusting lie by omission, a sacrilegious desecration of Laudna’s unwavering trust in Imogen to continue along their current trajectory without coming clean first, she has to allow Laudna to make her own, informed choice about whether she truly wants to give over something so sacred to a woman so undeserving of her love. It would be hypocritical to deny Laudna her right to choose now.
Imogen’s hands pause in their anxious ministrations - oh, she hadn’t noticed that - and dismounts Laudna’s lap, sending confusion through her lover who sits up in question.
“I- I have to be honest with you about somethin’, Laudna.”
When Laudna’s expression falters for a moment, Imogen’s heart shatters.
Because tonight had been so perfect, so beautiful and so healing and so deserving for them after everything that has transpired but Imogen should know better by now than to think she can break the cycle of breaking everything she touches.
“Oh, that’s okay darling, you know you can talk to me about anything, I will always listen.” And that mask of a smile is tugging against Laudna’s lips but it never reaches her eyes, eyes that suddenly reflect too much moisture like deep pools of sadness and it pains Imogen to know that she’s already causing such an immediate shift to the previous atmosphere of uninhibited love that they had woven with their own doting hands.
But there isn’t any turning back now, so Imogen swallows through her remorse, words coming out in gravelly tones. “I know you’re probably already aware, but I’ve had a really hard time recently with being intimate with you both emotionally and… physically.”
Laudna’s reaction is horrible to watch, so instant the way hurt flickers across her visage before disappearing into a vacant smile, still encouraging and adoring. “Well, that’s really not something you can blame yourself for my love, I know I can be off-putting-”
“No- no I didn’t mean- fuck , that’s not what I meant, I should have thought about my words better first.” Imogen buries her face in her hands for a moment before ripping them away to hold either side of Laudna’s instead, violet eyes searching obsidian ones desperately for forgiveness.
“I was so scared Laudna, so fuckin’ terrified about how much she could see that I couldn’t bring myself to touch you like that, couldn’t bring myself to let her see me with my guard completely down because I didn’t know if she might find a way to weaponise my love for you-” Imogen can feel the waver to her voice, that complete loss of strength she only gets when she thinks she’s about to lose Laudna and it takes her back to the way the branches of the Sun Tree closed around her frail body like the skeletal embrace of death.
Emotion truly wells up in Laudna’s eyes now, her mask of obfuscation cast to the flames and left to burn as her tears breached the confines of her lids, trailing down the gaunt hollow of her cheeks. “It’s okay Imogen, I- if you had told me I would have understood- I wouldn’t have judged you, I would have- I’m so sorry you felt like you couldn’t tell me-”
“No baby-”
“It’s true my love I would have accepted it, I already had, I thought I was doing the right thing for us , for all of Exandria-”
“No you don’t understand Laudna,” she didn’t mean for her voice to be so firm but it was necessary. Laudna had to know the extent of Imogen’s guilt, her shame.
“I just-” Imogen sighs defeatedly and pulls Laudna’s face gently towards hers to leave a lingering kiss upon her brow. “I don’t know if it was my fear of looking into your eyes one day and seeing nothing but Delilah left, or if I just didn’t feel deserving of your love after what I said at Nana Mori’s... But somethin’ about the way my hatred for Delilah was mixing with the way I felt about myself just brewed somethin' so… despicable in my chest. I just had this unbearable urge-” She had to force herself to maintain eye contact. It was so painfully difficult when the trust and adoration in Laudna’s eyes refused to relent. “I had this… primal urge to seek and enforce… judgement.”
Laudna’s breath was quiet. Her voice barely a whisper as her eyes glittered with an impenetrable gaze. “Through what means?”
The truth left Imogen’s tongue coated in bile and her stomach roiling with bitter acid. “I don’t really know how to explain it. Kinda like… through sex but… not in the nice and loving way that we’ve done it.”
And still, Laudna didn’t look away, held Imogen’s eyes with the most unshakable sense of reassurance instead. That no matter what she would still love her. That no matter what she would gladly and enduringly entrust her languidly beating heart in Imogen’s hands.
“So, you mean in a less loving way?”
“No not exactly, it was always still loving, just not the same, not delicately. In my head, it always felt like there was anger and rage fuelling it but none of it was ever directed at you. I still only felt love, so much love.”
Laudna sat in silence for a few moments in deep contemplation before she finally spoke with the slow but colourful tones of curiosity. “Do you perhaps mean that you wanted to express some… complex feelings by finding a release through carnal violence?”
Imogen looked away. “Yes.”
And it always felt astonishing, really, the way Laudna so often found the best way to articulate Imogen’s feelings when she struggled. On the farm there had never been much need for eloquence; time was only ever allocated to gettin’ the job done. But Laudna? Thirty years is a long time to contemplate the intricacies of self-expression when your only companions are the spirit of a vengeful wizard, a dead rat, and trees.
“Well, Imogen, darling, have you yet considered the fact that there were already certain violent elements to the sex we just had?” Cool hands traced against hot skin to delicately worship the indentations and puncture wounds Laudna’s teeth had left behind.
Imogen’s blush creeps back at the comment. Her bite marks were painfully sensitive and the way her muscles twitched instinctively each time Laudna pressed a little harder dotted her bloody with ripples of pleasant aches. “W-well I mean that was different-”
“Why? If I was at your mercy would you not inflict judgement just as reverently?”
Fuck .
She was trying to be serious but the way Laudna phrases things is just always so hot .
“Well yeah, of course, I’m sure I would-” Dear Fucking Gods, Laudna’s fingers brushed over the tender hickeys on Imogen’s throat. “I guess I’m just still scared about what those particular intrusive thoughts meant and I- I’m not gonna know when and how those feelings might pop up again.”
Laudna hummed, a resolute vibration deep in her chest. “I’m grateful for your honesty, and I trust you with the most vulnerable parts of myself. And… if those feelings ever rise to the surface again…” her hand moved from where she held the nape of Imogen’s neck to delicately wrap her thumb around Imogen’s throat. She swallowed heavily against the meagre pressure. “Then I consent.”
Imogen’s heart dropped into the pit of her stomach and she felt herself leaning into Laudna’s hand without quite intending to. “But that’s not- I don’t want that for you Laudna, I don’t want you to do something just because you think it might help or please me, I don’t want you to be making decisions because of-”
“Imogen.”
Her name left Laudna’s lips like it was a sinful confession. A deep, heavy, pleading breathlessness, and she felt herself gasp at the sudden absence of Laudna’s hand at her throat.
“There was a moment after the ritual where you caught my eyes with yours and I felt you looking at me with…” Laudna shifted against the pillows and looked down to where her fingers now intertwined, not with their usual nervousness but instead with a slow, soothing comfort. “Your gaze shifted into something I’ve not seen previously. It made me think of all those times before we first kissed where I told you I loved you and something would fall away from your stare. Like… a crumbled wall in a building, tumbling brick by brick to reveal a room you never knew existed. I didn’t understand what it meant or where it came from until tonight.”
Laudna looks up to Imogen now, reaching out with calm hands to brush the backs of her knuckles against the dusting of constellations that adorn her cheeks.
“I think it was because you loved me more deeply than I was aware. You were holding back on all of the things left unsaid. But the way you looked at me tonight was different Imogen, and when you took me by the hand to bring me to this room I just knew -” Her voice gradually shifted in register as she spoke, ending in a low, gravely whisper.
The air between them felt static, so charged that it seemed to push and pull against their skin. Unawares, they had both leaned forward, drawn in like the opposite poles of magnets, a field of energy following a predetermined path, destined to end where they started as the serpent bites its tail.
Fated.
“Tell me, Laudna, I want to know”
Laudna’s hands turn over, knuckles to palms, cupping Imogen’s cheeks to hold her so close and at this distance, she can taste Laudna’s breath, the earthen sweetness of it mixing with the distinct scent of summer rain-seeped soil, petrichor, she would sooner bury herself beside the woman who held her like a lifeline than spend another day without her.
“Before I met you I knew nothing but hunger. It was all I ever felt. When Delilah was in control it was the urge to consume, a feeling that I was always empty, and whilst absorbing magical items felt good when we became emboldened with their power, I never felt satiated .” Pressure, fingers, nails dig into Imogen’s skin upon the emphasis of the word and she has to force a lip between her teeth, hoping it will be enough to hold back the pathetic noise that's threatening to escape her lungs. “That urge is gone now, for magical items at least, but with my rebirth, I feel hungry in a way that I never have before.”
Laudna’s eyes are impossibly dark, even in the low light of the room they look like two sinking pits into the Abyss and Imogen has never wanted more in her life to be swallowed whole.
“I hunger for you, Imogen.”
She lets go of her lip and a gust of breath breaks free as she whispers “ Fuck .” on the exhale.
Imogen clambers onto Laudna’s lap and shoves her hard with a rough palm to the sternum, feeling the energy thrum beneath her hand as her girlfriend falls with hair sprawled like wildfire-charcoaled leaves upon the pillows.
She wants.
She wants.
She fucking wants and it’s all she can do to hold back her fate-binding need to break Laudna apart beneath her fingers just to see what she’s made from. Too many times has she stared in wonder at Laudna’s form as it shifted into something Other and felt her fingers twitch at the crippling desire to be the one to rip her to ribbons instead.
Only ever with love.
And Imogen is suddenly hovering over her again, denying herself the all-consuming touch that she craves, energy curling off her fingers in sparks at the only place their skin makes contact directly above the prison they built to protect their love.
“Tell me-” She’s fucking out of breath already and it’s honestly pathetic-
Laudna’s breath comes out in an urgent moan and she tumbles into a fevered state, lungs heaving against the pressure of Imogen’s palm, “Even now I am bombarded with thoughts of your skin and mouth and hands and this overwhelming need for the franticness of hurried touching and desperation and panting like the rabid dog that lives inside my chest and none of it makes sense but somehow it’s the only thing that makes sense anymore-”
Darkness consumes Imogen’s vision as her blood immediately diverts to her cunt, cuts her brain off, no oxygen supply and she’s already throwing Dancing Lights into the air in reflex. It bathes their bodies in an otherworldly glow and overpowers the warm ambience of dying candlesticks. Imogen’s blood is still smeared and wet upon Laudna’s skin, its viscosity contrasting with thicker ichor and appearing purple in the combined glow of their magic.
“Baby, I just wanna tear you apart-”
“Then unmake me Imogen I’m begging you-”
Imogen descends upon flesh and feasts like a starving beast, sucking and licking and biting as she devours the cocktail of sin-stricken love painted across Laudna’s abdomen. She’s animalistic in her devotion, growl-like groans tearing from bloodied gullet as she consumes and consumes and it’s never going to be enough what if she can’t ever get enough and she can see her lights reflecting in the fine coating of saliva that covers Laudna in her wake-
Her wants have consumed her since their first night alone after the bread aisle, have tormented her mind through fervent fantasies that only felt more impossible with each turn of the hourglass.
To have and be had.
To create and destroy and be born anew.
She needs to have Laudna, take her into her mouth and drink until she is fit to burst because surely this was the only thing that would finally sate her throat-parching thirst. Hot tongue tasting pert nipples, nibbling and tugging teeth, she’s been so good, is almost done but still wants more, wants Laudna’s anoxic nectar dripping down her throat-
And she hasn’t done anything new, is still licking their combined blood off the woman beneath her mouth but suddenly Laudna's hands are in her hair and her name is a prayer on Laudna’s lips. Nails meet scalp and a ripple of gooseflesh erupts down the length of Imogen’s supple body, carrying a pulsing wave of electricity along her scars as it travels and the muffled noise she makes against Laudna’s skin is ungodly.
“ Oh fuck - Imogen my love, is that for me?”
Eyes dazed, hooded, blurred, Imogen halts her tongue’s course as it unravels the last seam of black thread sewn to bone-bleached skin. She’s staring through heavy violet lashes with a love-drunk gaze, mouth open and panting so rabidly that each exhale is a strained whimper. Hot, quivering tongue still plastered to the lowest rib of that Bitch’s cage, Imogen can feel the way her saliva is already starting to pool in the wake of her stillness.
A cool hand releases its grip on her roots and Laudna looks so intoxicated with desire that she can barely open her eyes, mouth still hanging open from her question as she strokes Imogen’s curls with unquestionable devotion.
“I- I felt you.”
The pause is enough for Imogen to bring her awareness back to her own body; hands cupping soft, age-deflated breasts, ass in the air, back arched dangerously and sweat-slicked thighs kneeling astride the mount of a lifetime. Gods did she feel empty-
The thought of Laudna filling her tongue-starved hole sent a fresh wave of tenderness through her throbbing loins and this time she actually feels the trickle of arousal as it parts her folds to roll down her clit. Chilled from the night air, a viscous string of moisture recoils against her erectile tissues as the weight of the drip snaps against the pull of gravity to hit Laudna’s sensitive skin.
A hiss escapes Laudna’s lips and she yanks Imogen’s hair in a spidery fist until their mouths are crushing against one another with careless teeth and clumsy tongues.
“All for you baby, only for you-”
“Please, Imogen, I need to taste her-”
There’s a sharp ‘pbbbt’ noise as Imogen splutters a giggle into their kiss over the third-person reference to her pussy, Laudna grumbling “Shut up!” before joining in with stilted laughter despite herself.
Her cheeks burn from her huge, endeared smile, “Mmm, but I want to taste you too my pretty girl. Besides, it’s my turn.” Imogen can’t wipe the smug grin off her face just yet because the sheer level of disappointment that colours Laudna’s expression is totally uncalled for, entirely unreasonable, and the poor darling looks so profoundly crestfallen that it’s both heart-wrenching and hilarious .
“B- b- but…” Laudna’s eyebrows slope into a fucking tragic furrow, “But I want to.”
Imogen is one hundred per cent certain in this moment that Laudna would have easily wiped the floor with her competition for ‘Exandria’s Biggest Puppy Dog Eyes’ because they’re practically quivering with emotion-
“I need to just. You know. Keep her in my mouth… for safekeeping.”
A roar of laughter tumbles from Imogen’s lips and the comical downturn to Laudna’s mouth makes it even worse somehow so she just throws her face into the pillow beside the poor woman’s head to muffle the aftershocks of her hysterics.
Laudna’s voice is tinged with warmth and barely suppressed glee as she goes along with the bit, refusing to relent. “I just think that considering you won’t stop complaining about how wound up and deprived you are, the fucking least I could do is just, I don’t know, keep that pretty clit of yours nice and safe in the warmth of-”
Imogen whips around eagerly and presses her lips to Laudna’s in a chaste kiss. “You’ve convinced me, sugar,” and the noise of excitement that Laudna squeaks is so outrageous given its unorthodox context, “But only on one condition.”
“ Anything. ” She’s practically vibrating with excitement.
Imogen cocks a thick, dark eyebrow and smirks at her own genius. “Do you trust me?”
Onyx eyes relax with warmth until they return to their gorgeous, natural shade of dark brown. “Of course I trust you. I trust you completely.”
It’s surprising how such a simple comment could be laden with such devotion, delivered with such deep, unwavering certainty. The sincerity of it snatches the breath from Imogen’s lungs.
“I trust you completely too.”
Once more, she cradles Laudna’s exquisite face with both hands and kisses her with the gentleness of their first time. When they finally part, a dusting of pink colours Laudna’s still-gaunt cheeks.
“Just bear with me a sec.”
Imogen strains against her stiffened legs as she wobbles off Laudna’s lap, groaning and cursing against the pain in her knees as she straightens them for a moment.
“Oh my poor darling, have you had enough for today?” Laudna teases.
“Now you better shut your mouth otherwise you’re gettin’ nuthin’.” she shoots back a lightning-quick warning.
Laudna clamps her lips together in a firm line.
“Good. You’re a quick learner.”
Air explodes from Laudna’s lungs in an exasperated groan when her eyes finally land on the soft fat of Imogen’s inner thighs to find them still sullied with creamy arousal from her previous jaunt to the dresser.
If Imogen were to attempt to explain the unparalleled ego trip she experienced as she slowly and deliberately moved to reverse straddle Laudna’s face, she would probably have to go on a book tour by the end of it. The image of clear, elastic slick, spiderwebbed between Imogen’s already cum plastered thighs was enough for Laudna to let loose a stream of obscene profanities under her breath.
But it was the loud confession of “ Oh dear Gods I am SO fucked .” that took the cake when Imogen finally settled astride the poor woman’s face only to lean forward on her hands, arch her spine, and really give Laudna a view to remember.
And yes, such a level of flattery should be enough for Imogen but fuck it, she’s feeling greedy and she can think of multiple benefits to removing her circlet considering her mouth is about to be very preoccupied.
The moment she rips it away from her brow, that familiar, echoing chorus of ghostly whispers undulates across the folds of her grey matter as she zeroes in on Laudna’s surface thoughts.
-holy fucking shit she looks so good- I- my Gods I cannot fucking believe this- might as well pledge myself to the fucking Lord of The Hells because I am about to do unholy things to this woman- absolutely fucking desecrate-
Words get lost in a swirling sea of colour, emotion, and sensation as Imogen kisses Laudna sweetly at the hilt of her clitoris where it extends from her pubic bone. She pulls back to gaze at the mouthwatering sight before her. The fragrant, musky skin of her core is darker than the rest of her body, like her lips and nipples. Salt and pepper thatching of pubic hair curls from mons pubis. Her proudly erect clit, so engorged that it’s peeking out from beneath its hood. Sparse, trimmed hair along her vulva, soaked black with ichor and Gods she must be aching to be touched because Imogen can very visibly see how swollen she is. Her labia majora are pumped full of blood, skin pulled taught at her entrance where the overwhelming inevitability of biology has her cunt begging to receive a cock and milk it for all it’s worth.
Imogen doesn’t know where to start, only knows that she wants it all, wants to worship Laudna at her altar and prove she is her most devoted disciple. So she hooks her arms under Laudna’s thin legs to spread them wider, uses her hand to cup the soft skin of a thigh and pulls it towards her mouth. Imogen kisses her so gently and without urgency, taking her time to inhale the natural scent of her woman and trace each of her silvery stretchmarks with her lips, relics from another life, still present although few in number due to the slightness of Laudna’s frame.
She can feel the way Laudna’s breath hits her cunt, still dripping beyond belief and she catches lewd flashes of herself in Laudna’s mind, feels Laudna’s desperation as the tangy sweetness of Imogen’s nectar hits her tongue. It’s agony for Laudna, the way Imogen is hovering just out of reach and she could reach, maybe, surely, if she were to lengthen her tongue just so-
Not yet, baby, I haven’t given you permission.
Launda’s music rises to a mezzo-forte as she writhes against her instincts to unhinge her jaw and extend her tongue beyond its natural limits until it’s swirling deep inside Imogen’s heat.
I promise you’ll get what you want, but only if you’re good.
Imogen continues her way up Laudna’s inner thighs, switching from one leg to the other until her lips slide against a patch of moisture and it sends her reeling . Long enough has she waited to drink the ichor from Laudna’s core and the taste she steals from her thigh in a moment of overpowering instinct suddenly reminds her how different it is to Laudna’s blood. It’s stringy and viscous and elastic and sweet and salty and tart and it’s everything she needs right now.
Even now she can feel the way her pupils are dilating, can sense her change in perception of the light in their room. And the sound of Laudna’s lilting gasps escaping like pleads and the heavy scent of her folds and pheromones and the mind-meltingly erotic sight of her muscles clenching down on nothing, clit twitching, lips parting for ink to spill forth with languid thickness and Imogen has to have her has to have her has to worship her-
Imogen would make herself into a sheaf of parchment if it were possible, if it meant she could inscribe her adoration for the woman she loves like tattoos upon her skin, for it to be bound and kept and read for the rest of all ages, be it fountain pen, quill, or Laudna’s sharp nails, Please carve into me with your love I beg of you.
She kisses Laudna’s sweet, wet cunt like it’s the only thing tethering her to reality.
Kisses her lips no less reverently than if it were her mouth, doting, loving, adoring, painting her nose and chin with the shadows that once threatened to consume Laudna, now only hers to consume.
It draws a broken moan from her lover’s throat when she finally traces the point of her midnight-dipped tongue from the base to the tip of Laudna’s clitoris and sucks it into her mouth.
Her arms are wrapped gently around Laudna’s thighs but the hands holding her in place press down with a bruising grip that is sure to leave marks for days to come. Imogen lets go of her breath in a shuddering groan as Laudna fucks up into her mouth to meet her.
What is it you want sugar?
Laudna’s shadows and whispers flicker across the tether with flashes of colour and sensation.
Anything, everything, just- please Imogen I need-
What do you need?
I-I need you to make me come, darling.
Imogen smiles into her folds as she draws her tongue down in a broad stroke, takes a deep breath, then plunges it as deeply as her biology will allow. When she breaches Laudna’s entrance her mouth fills with slick. There’s so much of it that she can’t breathe, lungs burning as she prods deeper into the warmth, feeling soft internal ridges and folds, her nose surely filling with moisture too where it’s buried in wet flesh so she has to swallow, has to gulp until she’s finally able to gasp against Laudna for air.
You want me to make you come?
Laudna responds mentally with weak words, Please Imogen, please- and even her internal voice is losing its strength against the hot sensation of Imogen’s tongue inside her.
And Imogen is aware she’s a tease but she can’t fight the desire to draw this out, not when she has no knowledge of whether or not Launda will be too sensitive for multiple orgasms. But there are ways around that, surely.
Say it out loud if you mean it.
Linen bunches as Imogen widens her stance to sink lower, and Laudna’s eyes must have been shut in a state of ecstasy because the way Laudna cries out with relief once she finally feels Imogen’s dripping curls press to her open mouth is positively obscene.
Her voice is wet and desperate, gasping between words as she laps at Imogen’s centre.
“Please, I want to come, Imogen, I need it, please, please- uhnn fuck! ”
Imogen moves from Laudna’s entrance and back to her clit, bringing her hand up to pinch at her nose and flick away the ichor that had dripped its way inside. But the fresh slick on her fingers pulls her into temptation so she traces them along Laudna’s aching pussy instead whilst she teases the firm, erectile tissue that twitches against her tongue. She circles Laudna’s clit with her bottom lip and alternates pressure against it with the hot meat of her tongue, flicking and stroking and gently sucking to her heart’s content, in no rush to pull Laudna over the edge just yet.
Anything for you, my gorgeous girl, just promise you’ll tell me when you’re about to come.
And if it weren’t for Laudna’s desperate mouthing at Imogen’s pussy, moans muffled and wet and gasping into high-pitched keens and squeaks every time she swiped over that delicious spot, then Imogen would likely be wearing a look of smug satisfaction over the noises she was coaxing from her lover. Instead, the added stimulation against that place of insatiable greed between her legs has her thick eyebrows furrowed with equal rapture and concentration.
Imogen’s jaw is swift to ache but the burn only strengthens her efforts. Lightning-kissed fingers scissor deeper into Laudna and she sucks at her clit, tongue flicking and knuckles curling and she sucks harder and pumps faster and she can hear Laudna’s stilted breaths become even more frantic-
“Oh my Gods- fuck - Imogen I’m gonna come, I’m gonna come, I’m-”
“ Stop. ” Imogen speaks the arcane command and Laudna’s body seizes up beneath her, bathed in the red and violet glow of Imogen’s scars. Her mouth is agape in a silent scream against Imogen’s core, her muscles clamped down with a vice grip around Imogen’s stationary fingers.
“Breathe.” This time it is only an instruction but Laudna complies in a heartbeat as the breath leaves her lungs in a tormented wail.
Laudna pleads an explanation for such torturous behaviour with a breathless whine, “Imog- why would you- darling wh-”
“Again.” And without further warning, Imogen latches on to Laudna’s clit, grateful for her sparse pubic hair as she creates a perfect seal for controlled suction. Again she focuses all of her efforts on simultaneously sucking and flicking the exposed head of Laudna’s sensitive clit with rapid, pointed licks as she alternates irregularly between fucking her with one, two, and no fingers at all. Her lips curl up in a smile each time Laudna expects another deep pump of fingers only to receive an external stroke and, oh, the way she whines and sobs and whinges in her distraught emptiness.
It’s fucking addictive.
Laudna’s breath has evolved into an almost constant moan now, each sharp intake of air resonating with a hopeless whimper as Imogen brings her to the edge over and over, commanding Laudna to stop each time she utters those perfect words, “Baby- oh fuck - I’m gonna come-” and she doesn’t know how to stop because how can she?
Not now.
Not when Laudna’s breath is hitting her pussy the way it is, desperate mouth so incapable of deliberate focus that instead she’s bruising her sharp teeth across the ample swell of Imogen’s ass.
Please please please plea-
One more time and then I promise I’ll give you what you want.
Please, darling, I’ve been so good, Imogen-
I know baby, you’re doin’ so great, so good, my beautiful girl-
Fuck- fuck- I’m gonna-
There’s a deafening series of cracks as Laudna unhinges her jaw to release her Dreaded long tongue and it slides without resistance into Imogen’s cunt, swirling and curling and filling her up past her cervix.
Imogen lets go of Laudna’s clit and throws her head back with a high-pitched squeak, white-knuckling Laudna’s thigh and exhaling into a series of lung-heaving moans, grinding down on Laudna’s monstrous mouth to relieve the burning pressure in her clit.
“Oh my Gods, fuckin’ Hells , Laud!” The sensation is so all-consuming and skin-crawlingly slithery that she can’t stop the shiver that erupts over her body. The feeling of being completely filled by a tongue, having it coil inside you, twisting and retracting to siphon the arousal from your depths only to shoot back inside and fill you once more, Gods , it's so unnatural and yet somehow that knowledge in and of itself is enough to send Imogen into a blinding orgasm.
Imogen’s spine curls over as heat crests through her body, travelling like a shockwave from her very core to her extremities. It’s going to overwhelm her, it’s an inevitability, so she uses her last ounce of energy to curl rapidly against Laudna’s front wall as she sucks back down on her swollen clit-
Oh fuck- Imogen - I-
You can come now, baby.
Laudna unravels completely.
In an explosion of violet blossoms and deciduous leaves, Laudna’s Form of Dread shudders as it cycles through the seasons beneath Imogen’s heaving, quivering body. They’re pressed so closely together now that she can feel each and every twist of bark that bursts in a spray of ichor from Laudna’s skin and still, she pulls herself closer, desperate to melt into her very being, to be unmade and consumed and created anew.
Steadily, with aching muscles and shaking limbs, they disentangle in a physical sense, staying connected along the mental tether that binds them. Imogen crawls up Laudna’s autumnal form to lay on her chest where she grins up at her girlfriend with a groggy expression, unable to contain her happiness. Branches creak and groan as Laudna shifts to cradle Imogen’s frame with an immense hand, and with crooked fingers like writhing roots, she winds herself into Imogen’s hair, pulls her gently forward until their lips press together in their softest kiss yet.
Time dissolves into its weird soup, and for many minutes, maybe hours, they sit in comfortable silence exchanging delicate touches. Love-drunk eyes drink in the image of their interlocked bodies under the undulating glow of dancing lights and marvel over the narrative of contusions and abrasions that tell the story of their past twenty-four hours. If they squint hard enough, each cut and bruise, delivered in battle or not, was a wound made dedication to their love, in honour of their undying will to fight for one another, to be together, to have and be had.
I love you so much.
I love you more than anything.
They lie together in the pool of shadows that was birthed from their love, and in the comfort of their melded minds, they finally deliquesce.