Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Callum once commented that Rayla was the most amazing person he's ever met. He knows that it's completely true. No hint of exaggeration or falseness. Rayla. Is. Amazing.

She's especially amazing when doing something that makes her happy. Something where he can sense the smile in her very being even if she doesn't always let it show on her face. 

Case in point: the transformation Rayla undergoes as she wields her swords, or, in this case, a single wooden practice sword, strikes Callum as something amazing and ephemerally beautiful like the rising of the sun or the play of clouds passing over the moon during the night.

Seeing her as simply Rayla one moment and then catching the shift as she becomes the back-flipping, tree-climbing, sword-stabbing elven warrior that always lingers within her in a state of relaxed readiness leaves Callum comparing her to a force of nature. After mentally sifting through various different types he decides that Rayla is like a thunderstorm. 

Her fast strikes and constantly building speed and strength has him picturing churning clouds of power, gracefully falling rains, fierce winds, and awe-inspiring forks of lightning flashing brightly. She's beautiful and deadly in equal measure. He could watch her for hours. It doesn't matter that sparring is still hard for him even with all of the practice and help Rayla's given him. Having Rayla spar with him will always be difficult, he figures, yet for additional reasons entirely unrelated to his lacking aptitude for swordplay.

He can't help but get distracted, deeply enjoying the dazzling show of her abilities on display at their swiftest, surest and most breathtaking outside of her actually being in a serious fight with real stakes involved. From the very first time he saw her years ago she had cut an impressive figure, and she's only gotten even more impressive with the passing of time. There's just something about how she looks circling him, daring and deadly and breathtaking without even trying.  

Callum feels himself falling all over again. 

Her body lithe and elegant, movements swift and agile, Rayla's combination of beauty, strength, and competence all converge to contribute in how formidable she is. Even in this gentle, informal exercise as she spars with him using just a bare fraction of her capabilities, he's just as sidetracked by her as he is aware that there's no question of her background as a trained assassin.

It's all there in the rhythm of their mock-fight. He tells from the way she anticipates his every strike with an intuition born of experience. It's in the way she allows him to read her footwork, her body language, and the quick flick and dart of her eyes. The accuracy and efficiency of each of her movements, the certainty in every parry, advance, or retreat tells of a long dedication to her art.  Her ease with using a single sword offers no inkling that she typically fights as a dual-wielder, and he'd never suspect it based off her movements if he didn't already know. Instead of being a source of intimidation her skill serves to motivate and inspire him, among other things.

It's almost like dancing with her from the way there's a pattern and tempo to the soft shush-shush of their footsteps through the grass. Her steps are so certain and precise, easily grounding him and guiding him perfectly into the next move. It's kind but also appropriately demanding the way she both directs him and leaves him space to push himself to learn.

Callum wholeheartedly enjoys their sparring, amazed that what he once dreaded having to participate in has now become nearly as engaging as mastering a new magic spell or as satisfying as seeing a vision come alive under the careful strokes of his charcoal.  The rush of breath and blood, the physical exertion and the pure exhilaration of extending himself to match her and succeeding — it's easily the most fun he's ever had during training.

"Don’t go too easy on me," he says, unable to keep the grin from his face.

Rayla grins as well, shaking her head and wagging a finger at him. "Wouldn't dream of it. Just trying to gauge where you're at is all. You're doing great, but watch your feet."

It takes him a few seconds more than usual to get himself to pay attention to following her advice instead of following her figure with lingering eyes. He has to stare until he can identify the grain patterns of wood in her sword or he knows his eyes will fall back into the multiple traps provided by the mesmerizing length of her legs, the swell of her hips, the dip of her waist, the contour of her breasts, the tempting bow of her lips, and the charming points of her ears.

Never mind the constant trap of her eyes. 

He swallows, mouth having gone dry, and exhales a bit louder than intended while mentally scolding his head to get it together.

In his distraction he completely misses Rayla's own loud breath out and minute shake of her head as her eyes forcibly look away from the lines of his lean, slim physique emphasized by his fighting stance. Her gaze immediately locks onto his lips for a scant moment before she blinks it away.

 In retaliation for her loss of focus she goes a bit harder, stepping faster, striking with a tad more force. When he finds himself matching her, feet moving without his conscious input, when he feels her upping her own tempo to challenge him within reason, he discovers a new joy welling up inside and knows from the warmth of her smile and the encouragement and pride in her eyes that she shares it, too. 

For some time the meadow fills with the steady clack of wooden swords meeting, the gentle rustle of grass underfoot, and intermittent grunts and shouts of exertion. The sun begins its descent in the sky. Shadows elongate. Callum hopes having her instruct him with sparring helps to burn off some of the restless energy she'd been suffering from all day.  It had been his suggestion that they spar in the first place, and, like every time they do, he's enjoyed learning from her and sharing with her something she loves.   

Rayla pauses, lowering her sword from a guard stance to signal a break. Callum wipes his forearm across his forehead, grateful for the rest. He's sweaty, hair damp and spiking slightly at the tips while his shirt is dark down the middle. It's a little uncomfortable how it clings to him as his chest rises and falls rapidly. 

Rayla, on the other hand, looks fresh as a rose.  She doesn't seem to have broken a sweat and her breathing seems unaffected.  Looking her over he notices the grip on her sword tightening to the point of turning her knuckles white. Eyes dart up to her face to question why she's so tense all of the sudden, but when he sees her eyes track up and down his body Callum knows precisely what's seized her undivided attention. The way she can't tear her sight from him sends his heartbeat speeding up and pounding as an echo in his ears. 

He looks at her face and how her eyes shoot up to fix on him, how her ears twitch and lower knowing she's been caught, how her mouth parts slightly like she's trying to say something but lacks the words. It is a look from her that he's seen throughout the day. A look he's been quietly puzzling over, patiently waiting for her to reveal an answer for him.

Rayla swallows and all Callum can do is stare at her mouth like he’s staring at the invisible words she's not ready to say just yet. She takes a breath as if to speak but bites her lip instead. For some reason that just makes his heart beat quicker.

He decides to make it easy for her and bridges the space between them. 

"Hey, what's going on up here?" He brushes back some strands of Rayla's hair behind her ear. "I can tell something's up, Rayla. I mean, I've noticed you've been a bit distracted today. Anything I can - " He stops and tries again. "Anything that you feel like sharing?" 

His palm moves to fit against the warmth of her cheek and holds there. Rayla tilts her head into it,  momentarily closing her eyes. Her nose nuzzles the inside of his wrist to send sparks down his spine the same time her eyes open to pierce right through him.

"Distracted?" She seems to mull it over. "I'd say so, yeah. I've been more than a bit distracted actually." He's not sure when her eyes had grown so intent and luminous. They drift across his face in an invisible caress. Her breath huffs out in a huge sigh. "Do you have any idea just how distracting you are? I haven't been able to stop thinking about you all day, Callum. All. Day."

She's gone and said them, those words he knew she'd been withholding. They're not anything along the lines of what he'd been expecting.

"I'm distracting you?" 

The way she rolls her eyes and sighs again causes him to wonder why she would think his puzzlement is displaced, as if he should somehow be aware of how much of a distraction he is capable of being. 

"Yes! You are always distracting. It's just today you're...especially so."

Confirmation that something between them had been off today, a subtle tension that was very different from their usual flirty quips and playful teasing, fills him with relief. It certainly helps explain the odd moments he's noticed.   

There had been the charged shocks racing through his arm when they touched hands, and seeing how Rayla had drawn her hand back he knew she must have felt the static jolts, too. 

More than once she seemed preoccupied while talking with him. At one point she'd trailed off mid-sentence as a quiet smile swept over her face.    

She couldn't seem to stop looking at him either. He'd felt her eyes on him throughout the day whenever their paths crossed. It hadn't been his imagination playing tricks on him when he'd seen the blushes and actually caught a furtive glance on more than one occasion.

Now Rayla's eyes openly search his. Quick as lightning they dip down only to shoot back up to his eyes. Once — twice she does it before he catches on. She wants a kiss. Rayla has zero problems with taking the initiative. It's unusual for her to be so shy about it. 

She must be holding back for a reason. 

Callum's eyebrows raise as he starts to see all the hints she's left him over the course of the day for what they are. She's been keyed up all day, filled with thoughts of him. Sneaking looks at him. Seemingly tongue tied over telling him that she's been feeling...physically affectionate? 

Like a strike of flint on steel, an idea about what has her so self-conscious and restrained has his face blushing.

He's not the type to constantly need to shove his hands in his pockets around her, but there's been more than a few times he's spent the day in an aroused haze, unable to really think of anything besides her and wishing for time alone with her or just time alone. He knows what it's like to be distracted.

Had she been struggling all day with trying to indirectly get his attention...and he'd been too dense to notice until just now with her all but spelling it out for him? She's direct about a lot of things, but something like this tends to send her into a shy, hand wringing, blushing wreck unable to voice what she wants. At least that's true until either her patience runs out or she finds her courage and determination to embrace the fact that she's hot and bothered for him. Then it becomes a different story entirely.   

She must see the moment he realizes her desire from the expression in her eyes.

Their swords drop into the grass, forgotten.

There’s a noise Callum makes in his throat like being so far from her is painful. He shifts closer. She rises a little on her toes, steadying herself with one hand on his shoulder and the other slipping up the column of his neck, eager fingers in his hair. His knees feel a bit weak from the hot rush of breath as Rayla leans forward to meet him halfway. 

A swell of affection grips his heart as her soft lips not-quite chastely press to his in a light tease before pulling away and then pressing forward again. Rayla's kiss is just like her. Callum can't describe it as anything else; it's loving and adventurous, warm, playful, and fierce. She takes great care in every lick of her tongue, every nip of his lips.  

Slowly, achingly, he moves back only to brush his nose against hers as he tilts his face to the other side to kiss her again.  And again. Hearing her softly moan sends crackling charges arcing through his whole body, hot sparks followed by a heated passion. Rather than showcase the increasing want to devour, she follows his lead and savors him as she rests her forehead against his before diving in once more, her teeth gently claiming his bottom lip and soothing it with the tip of her tongue.  

Each and every kiss of hers seems to hold an underlying meaning. He's having trouble deciphering this one because it's complex but mostly because all the blood has left his brain to rush south.  

She slants her head to deepen their kiss, and Callum tastes how she tries to put all the words she doesn’t quite know how to say when the tip of her tongue sweeps the seam of his lips. Breathless pleasure races from his lips to tingle in his chest and travel down to the very tips of his toes.

He pulls her in closer with a hand between her shoulders. Rayla's arms welcome him. She moves flush against him, chest against his own. "Callum…" she breathes, scarcely more than a moan trembling in the air. Her arms loop around his neck and she kisses him again and again, eager to converse. 

She always has so much to say. 

Callum replies with a brief curl of a smile against her lips. She smiles back, and his knees turn to jelly once her fingers start to trail up and down his back.  He is left a bit parched as Rayla slakes her thirst. They kiss, again. And again. And again. Softly, tenderly. Every caress igniting something within both that feeds the urge to deepen their kisses. When he hears her moan  quietly against his mouth he gives in to that urge and chases the sound until he isn't sure where he ends and she begins. 

Their kisses turn rougher, hungrier, and it instantly sends a flash of white-hot heat soaring right to the center of his groin.

Rayla opens her mouth ever so slightly, her tongue toying with his in a misbehaving flirt before backing away. Lightning shoots through his veins as he carefully runs his tongue right along the inside of her upper lip. In retaliation she circles the tip of his tongue with hers, licking his top lip as she withdraws in a very clear gesture of wanting. He cups her jaw to kiss her deeper, less careful but still precise in his technique, a fire rising inside of him as she pulls him closer.    

For a heart-stopping moment it feels as if they are stumbling. The ground seems to be unstable and giving away beneath their feet. He realizes it's just Rayla swaying them, entirely caught up in the rhythm of their kisses and swaying to and fro slightly. Having her be so consumed is heart-stopping all on its own.  Callum slides his hand up her back to press her forward to help steady her against him. Her hand rests on the side of his face to help adjust the angle of their kiss and to subtly play her fingers along the edge of his ear.

He lets out a delighted sigh when she parts from him to nuzzle her nose on his in a caress. Callum smiles the same time she does, joy and contentment flowing through him like a fresh breeze. It has him wrapping both his arms snug around her trim waist. He's reminded that, for as powerful and strong as she is, wrapped in his arms she feels delicate — a treasure to cherish. It always inspires a sense of protectiveness and care. A need to hold her just a little closer, a little tighter, if only to reveal to her and obliterate any shadow of doubt over just how deeply he feels for her.  

He simply wants her close and for him to be close to her. There are times he feels dizzy with the need. This is fast approaching one of those times. 

They way she melts into their embrace and clutches at his shirt makes him groan quietly, suddenly feeling much too warm. One of her hands tangles into the hair at his nape as they kiss again, the both of them only stopping when they force themselves to breathe, foreheads resting together and sharing air.
       
When he pulls away his face is flushed, breaths coming deep with his hands coursing smoothly up and down her back.  It takes him a moment to open his eyes. Just one glance at the awed, dazed look on Rayla's face has him closing them again and leaning in. They meet in another intense kiss, her palms sliding down his chest and lips lightly nibbling on his own as the hard pounding of his heart under his shirt reaches her touch.

Callum has only a split moment of forewarning that she means to do far more than just kiss when she smiles against his lips and a muffled noise of amusement escapes her. Her foot hooks around his ankle, and for a stunned moment he is lost in a blur of Rayla sweeping his legs out from under him. His arms pinwheel frantically before shooting to clutch onto her for balance as he feels himself falling. It's easy for her to guide their descent as she falls with him, both letting out an oof as they meet the ground. He attributes the breathless, swooping sensation in his gut more to her than to actually having solid footing yanked away.  

Somehow she has him down on the ground so he’s completely sprawled out on his back with the tall grass cushioning him and forming a partial enclosure around them. She crawls over him swiftly, legs straddling him with hands braced on either side of his head. The smile she sports is both tender and mischievous, her eyes sparkling in the waning sunlight streaming through the canopy of woodland trees surrounding them.  

A bolt of heated excitement shoots through him followed by the reminder that breathing is necessary. 

Callum is weak against her assertive attentions, and she knows it. She dips her head down to lean in close to brush the side of his neck with the tip of her nose. Her hair falls over one side of her head to tickle and bathe his senses in the heady scent of moonberries and midnight forests. 

She kisses him, one hand running over his chest to leave his body burning with heat. He feels the dizzying sensation of teeth and tongue dragging over skin to graze along his neck and jawline as well as the heavy breaths Rayla takes as her passionate cuddling grows more intense. 

Callum can’t help the way he moans out for more of anything, her fingers clutching through fabric to hold him closer to her. His own hands roam wherever they can go, brushing through silvery hair and skirting across shoulders, gripping at slender arms, curling around her hips and gliding along her thighs.

In between kisses and the distraction of her hands he manages to speak. "Not that" - kiss - "I am complaining in any way" - touch - "but, what exactly" - nip - "brought this all on?" 

Suddenly she's pulling away far enough to meet his eyes. The blush on her face from exertion and desire darkens though a flash of guilt and embarrassment crosses her expression.  

"Callum...I wasn't going to say anything, but I just can't stop thinking about it. And, well, I - I saw you. This morning. I got back from my run early, and I saw you." Her eyes dance around but meet his once she continues. "It's all I've been able to think about. Seeing you like that while you were thinking of me...I've been wanting this all day. Wanting you like this. Like how..."

She trails off and his dazed mind finishes her thought. 

...Like how you were wanting me.

He's frozen. An embarrassed panic blazes through him only to leave an icy numbness behind as he blinks in reluctant comprehension.

Oh.

Oh.

No. 

There's only one thing she can possibly mean. 

She saw him this morning. 

She saw him. 

This morning. 

She saw him wanting her. 

He feels hot and lightheaded. A groan follows, embarrassed by his undeniable lust and longing that she had definitely gotten an eyeful of. 

He needs to find a good, nice rock and take up immediate residence under it. Or maybe if he stares hard enough at the ground and asks very nicely it might do him the favor of swallowing him whole right this very instant. 

He's not picky. A convenient ditch to fall into would do.  

Opening and closing his mouth like a gasping fish Callum attempts to speak. All that comes out is a garbled choking noise as he tries to breathe. He spectacularly fails at not picturing her lingering in the early morning shadows of their doorway as he —

He’s been having dreams about bedding her. Or, more often than not, about her bedding him. Vivid dreams. About her eyes so full and bright in the dark. About her hands yanking on his belt to pull him in closer as they kiss.  About the searing heat of her bare legs snug on his sides, pinning him down as she rides him in a bed bathed in moonlight. About her writhing under him, whining and moaning against the sheets as he gives her what she wants.

Dreams with such sweet, aching hunger that their spell follows him into the day and either leave him primed to act or in dire need of a fresh pair of pants.     

Knowing she had been there that morning causes a mighty blush. His head begins to spin as it fills with thoughts of what she possibly saw and heard. Did she watch him, he wonders, her eyes startled and wide in shock, stunned at his unintentional display? Or had it been with a growing redness in her cheeks and a deep smirk, wildly pleased with knowing just how he drove himself crazy over thoughts of her? 

The direction of his thoughts makes his face burn even more. Inexplicably it also makes other parts of him burn with the phantom weight of Rayla's eyes having been on him.     

"You, um, y-you saw me? Oh, oh no! That — I wasn't —" He takes in a shuddering breath wondering if it's always been so sweltering outside. "Well, you see, I had this dream last night. I was dreaming of you. Respectfully. A respectful dream of you." His voice climbs higher as he attempts to not dig himself deeper.

She levels him with a pointed look, one eyebrow creeping up to her hairline.  

"Yes, fine! It was dirty. In a respectful way. And I just — I mean — when I woke up things were awake. I got a bit, um, carried away. Okay, clearly more than carried away. It — it happens. Not that it happens all the time! Sometimes! It happens sometimes. I mean I'm not constantly — Not that you're not — " Callum gulps, finally bringing his troublesome mouth to a stop before changing direction. "So, um, how long were you there? I had no idea. How — how much did you see?"

Rayla blinks. She looks away and blinks again before making eye contact.

"Not too much. I heard you calling my name, and then...I didn't mean to. I thought you were sleep talking or something!  Not...That. You sounded so..." The reddening blush on her cheeks and across her nose shouldn't make her look so ridiculously attractive and cute, and yet it does and it's doing things to him just as much as her words are. "When I realized, I should have left right away.  I just couldn't move. At all. And you were doing all the moving, and I could only — You were really giving your staff and spell books quite the workout!" Her eyes widen as if she is seeing the moment she'd inadvertently witnessed once again. 

"...Quite." Callum's throat is dry. 'Workout' is one word for it, except it hadn't exactly been push ups he'd been doing. He can't even laugh at her colorful description of his privates. 

"I'm sorry. I should've said something, done something to let you know I was there."

"No. No, it's alright. If things were different and it was me seeing..." That is the kind of thought he shouldn't be having when they are trying to have a conversation, especially with her still on top of him. The idea of seeing her touching herself while fantasizing about him pulls blood racing towards his crotch. When he twitches against the front of his pants he feels hot all over again at the realization that he's growing hard. 

Rapidly. 

A bead of sweat runs down his temple. 

He shrugs, trying to draw attention away from his groin. "I would have done the same."

At his acceptance and lenience she loses most of the embarrassed, guilty expression and instead takes on a skeptical one. "Really? You think I wouldn't hear you? You'd be crashing into the door frame and having one of your sweet little rambles and sputtering all the while."

"I'd — spu-sputters?! WHat are you — I don't — You think I'd run into — wait, sweet?"

"Yes. A little bit just like that."

"Oh. Huh, seems that I do." The smile playing in his eyes gives away he'd been laying it on thick for her, simply because she likes it.

"Callum." She looks at his lips again. "You said you had a dream about me. I've had dreams. I know how intense a dream can be. What were you thinking of?  When you were...?"

The blush on his face might never go away at this rate. It takes a couple tries to clear his throat.

"I-It was umm...Just you and m-me. I uh..well," his stuttering doesn't stop. He can't look at her. 

"Don't." Rayla's hand on his jaw gently turns his face back to her. "It's okay. It's nothing to get all worked up about. Not much of a secret, but guess what." She drops her voice into a whisper. "I get needful for you, too. I think about you...respectfully." Her face blooms in a blush but she never looks away. 

"You...do?" His eyes slowly look back toward hers. It's one thing to know it in an abstract sense, but it's entirely different having her state it. His pants suddenly feel a lot tighter. 

She levels him with a look, rolls her eyes as if to say Don't ask such silly questions, my big dumb human.  With a teasing shake of her head her eyes go half-lidded and her grin turns lopsided, "You have no idea." A single brow pops up and down suggestively.

Both of them seem to still, staring at one another. There's just heart beats and breaths between them as they contemplate. Busy feeling the weight of their want.  

Callum breaks the tension, "We're never hearing back from them, are we?"

Instantly Rayla's on the same page as if he simply beat her to voicing the thought. "The apothacaries? How long's it been since we wrote?"

"Two months and twenty-four days."

"It's no use. They all probably took one look and, once they understood what we were asking, burned the letter and are having nightmares to this day."

He rests a hand on the side of her face and rubs her cheek with his thumb. "You don't know that. What if they're trying to bag themselves a human to try things out with. I mean, not everyone can scale a cliff and infiltrate a heavily guarded castle to find one."

"True. But it's clearly the best method. Worked out for me, you know." She leans into his hand with a smile spreading across her face.

"It couldn't be something as simple as waiting for the new moon, could it?" He jokes, half serious.

Rayla grins widely, laughing. "It'd be something if that was how it worked. Forget about figuring if human herbs work and just leave it to my Arcanum to sort out. Way too conveinient."

"At this rate it might be best to just ask Lujanne. I'm sure since she and Allen -"

Horror crosses her face in a instant. "No! No. Just - no."

"Yeah, as soon as I said it I knew she'd never let us live it down."

"Well, yeah. Besides she's old...It's not even an issue."

"Might still know somethi-"

"Noooooo."

"Then I'd better just ask...Opeli." He can't manage a straight face and a snicker as he says it, and Rayla whacks him lightly on the arm even as she can't quite hide her own amusement.

"Shut up." She leans down closer to speak softly as if to share a secret and guard it from eavesdroppers."Callum, how about I tell you what I was thinking about this morning."  He's entirely snared by the shift in focus.

"I was thinking how you've got a real cute tush in those lil' shorts of yours. I was thinking how absurd it is to be jealous of blankets and a bed. Mostly though, I was thinking of how badly I wanted to be making you say my name like that. It wasn't enough seeing you. I wanted to be there with you for real."

"Rayla." His voice shakes, holding flustered surprise and a tinge of warning. One she entirely ignores.  At her wide smile he realizes she had just made him say her name.   

"I wanted to feel you." Her eyes burn with all the want that had steadily grown hotter and built throughout the day. "You always feel so good. Holding me, kissing me — being close to me."

"You always feel amazing, too. Rayla, you make me feel like I'm flying even if I'm flat on the ground. I can’t get enough of you." Callum knows his own eyes had to be burning, too.  There'd be little more talking from him.  Not when he could tell her the things residing in his heart without using words.

"Better hold on then, 'cause I plan on making you soar." She kisses him in a flurry, lips parting barely enough to gasp in air before she resumes, slanting her head one way then the other before pulling away.

His breathing speeds up at her words and her fingers resting on the side of his jaw. She gathers herself in a deep breath like she's about to plunge into water and when he sees the determination and devotion shining in her gaze his own breath nearly catches in his chest. 

Of the multitude of emotions in those purple depths he clearly sees love, desire, and eagerness but also a glint of nerves. His mind echoes with the one thought that, while she is already painfully beautiful, it is in the quiet, private moments between just the two of them that she manages to elevate her beauty even more through the strength involved in choosing to be willfully vulnerable. 

"We don't have to if you don't want to," she says, her voice so soft he wouldn't have been able to hear it if he'd been even a few more inches from her. She avoids his eyes, color flooding her cheeks, before they bravely drift to look into his. "Callum...I — Would it be okay if — I want to make you feel good. Let's have some fun now." She wraps one arm around his neck, drawing him up so she could lick the rim of his ear and whisper. "And a little later on I want to — Is it okay if I try something else with you?"

"Something...else?! What do you have in mind?" His voice squeaks with a bit of a stammer, thoughts now racing with scenarios she'd just inspired. 

She watches him as her hand moves downward. His eyes grow rounder the further down it travels. Down and down it goes, brushing over his chest, meandering down his abdomen, carefully trailing down the side of his hip, then finally arriving high up on his thigh. It slides precariously close to crossing into new territory to drive her point home. Her eyes flick down to it then back up to check if he's understanding her meaning.  

Did she — ? Is she — ?

He's sure he must've heard wrong, jumped to conclusions or just plain misunderstood. Is she suggesting...? 

She just quirks an eyebrow at him, devastating him with a smirk and brings her hand up to wiggle her fingers at him.

Oh. 

Oh, she is suggesting...

He gulps, nodding rapidly in agreement with his jaw gone slack.   

Frantic to keep Rayla on top of him and take anything she wants to give, he starts to run his hands wherever he can reach and raptly listens to her litany of whispers in his ear about how beautiful his eyes are, how hot his hands on her make her feel. The next second has her sliding elbows along the grass so she's flush against his chest and pinning him down like trapped prey.

Callum's eyes nearly roll back in his head when she moves her hips to rub herself against him. Seeing her bite her lip at finally moving closer to what she has wanted all day long is like blowing wind on the fire within him to fan it into an inferno.

"Rayla," he moans out softly. His hips jerk and his eyes close for a moment. 

She rolls her hips once and then again before leaning her face down just inches from his.  Smoldering eyes meet his own with absolute reverence as he watches her close the distance between their lips before his eyes fall shut again. Nimble hands rake through his hair and cradle his cheeks. 

He exhales in a groan through clenched teeth as he feels the slight weight of her hot and urgent as she presses closer with her hips to begin a slow, steady grind against him.  A thrill crackles through him like a thunderbolt and he knows she must feel him hard against her.  The pressure and searing heat of her causes a sharp inhale on his part. His hips jolt up twice of their own accord before he calms himself, the heels of his boots creating furrows into the ground as his legs shift restlessly. 

Both of them are already panting for breath.

"Oh, beautiful, what are you doing to me?" His head tosses back into the soft grass beneath him, breathing harshly through his words as his heart picks up speed.  

Rayla hums in pleasure as she rocks gently, sliding up and down his body slightly. 

"Hmm. I don't know? "She feigns confusion before a sly grin slinks across her face. "Seems like a big feeling of some kind's involved though. A big, big feeling...in your pants."

He doesn't want to find it funny but he can't help but laugh a little. He can do her one better though. "Not as big as the feeling in my heart." 

Her eyes immediately roll even as her lips curve into a radiant smile as she tsks at him. "Shush, loud mage." She shakes her head at him, a small smirk on her lips and eyes glittering with humor.

"Doesn't make it any less true," he's smiling wide as he says it.  

To get things back on track his hands run down her back. Since he knows he's welcome lower, they descend to settle over her ass and press her closer into him. Her blissed out moan of approval slips out by his ear. 

"Oh, was that a big, big feeling there, huh?" He's careful not to allow too much smugness into his tone.

"Mmhm, the biggest." Her voice is strained.

They're back to kissing.

Rayla tucks her head in against his neck, rubbing herself against him with her whole entire body while she licks and bites and sucks along his skin. All he can hear is his own panting and Rayla’s soft addictive hums and grunts. He works his flattened palms down harder on her butt so she can shamelessly grind against the increase in friction. Her arms slip under his back, hands clutching over his shoulders, keeping him more or less in place as she moves. He feels her lips on his neck, hears her gasping every few seconds as she rolls her hips steady and constant. 

Relentless. 

"Is this too much?  Not -" She interrupts herself to moan, and his whole body shivers at the low, husky timbre of her voice. "Not too rough?  You doing all right?" 

He can't even find it in himself to be embarrassed at her unnecessary concern. The Chafing Incident™ is what they both called it, and ever since she'd been taking certain things into account and being all around more careful.  He appreciates her consideration.  It's sweet of her in a way.  

"I'm good.  So good. Everything's incredible," he whispers and runs a splayed hand up her waist and torso, letting his thumb brush firmly against the side of her breast. "Don't worry. I'll say something if we need to change anything." 

"Better to take off my belt though. Just in case.” She stills and strokes his jaw as he fumbles for a few long moments before finally tossing the offending bundle of leather and metal off to the side. 

With her belt gone Rayla moves even more freely over him.  

His breathing hitches to teeth biting lightly into his skin sparking a sharp flare of want through his entire body and reverberating to shoot straight down to his groin. Hot wet tongue roves over the newly bruised spots of skin on his neck. 

She wants him marked.

The thought of her leaving proof of their affection, claiming him, wanting him and showing her territorial, possessive streak on his skin has him groaning, breathing quick and shallow. He's not sure if she's aware that she’s borderline whimpering for him seemingly with no way of stopping herself since he can still hear her well after he first noticed the sounds. 

Or maybe it's him. 

Her intensity always makes him lose his mind a little; that she craves him —  that she loves him in this way.  

He reaches for the back of her neck, hand a bit shaky, and she descends on him with purpose. Her focus is diverted into pressing messy kisses to his neck and jaw before changing into a slower, more sensual exchange of amorous affections expressed by lips and tongue against his.

The tender albeit hungry contact sends shudders through him, and she holds onto him tighter as he takes the lead to reciprocate in full. 

She takes that as a cue of some kind, pushing and undulating her hips against his in earnest with her heels tucked under his thighs. The heat and motion of her body sends his desires soaring past merely hard to hard and diligently testing at the confines of his pants. He isn't completely aware of what the steady gyrations of her hips have done to him until after her mouth is on his in a series of kisses that travel from his lips to his jaw and finally to his ear. 

Callum's shoulders aren't the only part of his body that jolts upward a little and his face grows warmer when he catches up with the barrage of sensations. Rayla simply smiles, delight and affection shining in her eyes, and starts to move with more force until his toes curl. He holds onto her hips to both draw her nearer and to anchor himself from floating away with the pleasure coursing through him. 

Hands don't linger long in one place. They're constantly on the move as are their lips. Callum's breath becomes ragged gasps at the intense feeling of Rayla's hips moving unforgiving against his, pressing down on him, her body sliding over his and creating torturous, blissful friction. 

The next moment is a blur. 

Rayla's panting loudly against him as she rolls gracefully in one quick motion. Callum suddenly finds himself above her between her legs, his clothed erection pressing against her as she nudges her hips upwards. The groan deep in his throat as he pushes back in response is exactly what she hoped for judging by the smug grin beaming up at him.

Their eyes lock.

Hold.

And then his lips are on hers.

He dives down for a kiss so much like how he dives through the air with his wings. The way her hair glides coolly like night through his fingers as he slips his hand to the back of her head makes his heart beat fast. She whimpers slightly and visibly shudders when his fingers brush by one of her horns. 

The desire between them flares hot and bright in an instant. 

When her hips push up into his again, this time more forcefully, he nearly collapses over her, gasping her name into her hair before biting back a groan as he bucks his hips down and forward. 

Rayla throws her head back with a mangled, gasping moan, "Oh!" 

Attentive to whatever she might say, Callum freezes mid-motion. 

Rayla's voice is a shaky mumble. "No, it's okay, you don't need to stop. Just feels really good. You feel so good." Her hand eases it's tight grip on his sleeve from where she'd instinctively grabbed hold and moves to his cheek. "Giving me lots of big feelings in my heart..." She bites her lip, face flushing before she finishes with a lopsided grin. "...as well as in my pants." 

Warmth and want overpower him at her admission. 

"You know how I feel about big feelings," he laughs gently as he runs his hand over her hair to push it out of her face. His cheeks burn red with arousal as he looks at her with obvious interest in finding out ways to help give her more reasons to gasp out like that again.   

She drapes her arms around his neck and makes the prettiest soft little noises as he starts to languidly snap his hips against her as they kiss. Her heat through their layers of clothing sears him, and the pace of his body moving over hers becomes steady very suddenly. 

Their intensity grows fierce, and Callum's last coherent thought before his mind goes fuzzy with feeling is about how attuned Rayla is to him, how she had spread her legs wider and perfectly matched the grinding motions that he was making into her hips. His hard length presses even more firmly to her warm center with every roll of their bodies. Whenever they pause to share a grin, Rayla's breathing is strenuous, her gaze intent and consuming. He can't get enough of the gleam in her eyes or how they grow progressively darker each time they meet his.       

His heart's not just beating fast anymore; it's tripping and stumbling over itself, fluttering like a butterfly caught in a tornado.

He presses his hips down harder and moans loudly at the way Rayla’s fingers rake down between his shoulder blades, a gasp escaping her right into his lips. In their passion they continue clumsily rolling again this way and that until she's straddling him in a tangle of limbs. 

They both start to laugh lightly between kisses, the mood turning giddy and playful as they situate themselves more comfortably. Rayla giggles as he peppers her with kisses randomly over her cheeks before he manages to sneak a few to her forehead and jaw. He lets his head fall back to look into her eyes. A soft, spine-tingling kiss is followed by brushing his nose against hers in an affectionate caress. Their smiles grow deeper, fuller somehow.    

Her quiet laughter fills his heart, but the lone finger that runs slowly down his nose over his lips to linger on the underside of his chin to bring him in close for a kiss fills his heart in another way.  Laughter turns into moans as she picks up where she left off grinding against him as if she'd never stopped, arms holding one another closer and hips colliding in a frisson of need.  

Callum often thinks that, between the two of them, Rayla is the true mage. The spell she casts over him just by being close to him and wrapping him up in her arms, the feeling of her lips pressed to his and how they travel over his skin, the crackling storm within being driven higher and stronger to blaze throughout every part of himself that he can feel is like nothing else. No magic comes close, and Rayla is a master given how easily and simply she is able to light him up and cause all kinds of sensations to spark to life. 

Their kisses grow desperate but the palm that slides down Rayla's back is deliberate. 

He's a mage, too, after all. Callum is determined to give as good as he gets.  

He loves how she shudders a bit against him, gifts him with a drawn out moan of his name into the corner of his mouth. 

The sound breaks him, makes him feel feverish and dizzy.  Her voice is beyond husky and breathy. 

Needy. 

Hot.    

She reaches out, scrambling and haphazard before she clasps her hands with his, interlacing their fingers and stretching their arms out above them. They are nearly as close to each other as they could possibly be. Skimming her lips across his cheek, she brings her mouth to whisper hotly by his ear, "I love the way you feel, love how you're making me feel. I want this forever with you."        

He knows what she means by forever, feels it deep in his heart. The sensation of forever.

A lifetime.     

Suddenly it’s almost too much.

"I love how you feel, too." He rasps. "Everything is - it's all so good. You're so good. I can't - words don't - I want forever with you."

Purple eyes fill with even more emotion, and Rayla doesn't have any words either. She speaks with him in another way.  

Feeling her all over him, the heat of her touch, the scent of her, the sinuous movements of her hips alternating from being deliberately restrained to being enthusiastically vigorous in a way that bordered on being flat out wild and free of inhibition.  He likes that she's struggling a little. He likes that her greatly valued self-discipline is showing signs of fraying and perhaps unraveling completely.      

He's struggling, too.

His cock is a stiff, swollen heartbeat in his pants, throbbing steadily in an echo of his pulse and messily seeping precum. Deliciously sandwiched between them, he ignores it the best he can. Rayla is far more important. Instead, his hands slip up her body and then to her face to caress and bring her in for a loving kiss. 

When they part he licks his lips and focuses on her gaze — so intense and beautiful as her eyes nearly fall closed as ragged puffs of air escape her mouth next to his. She brings a hand to the back of his head, fingers delighting in his thick hair, and he wraps her up in his arms, one around her lower back and the other curling his hand over her shoulder.

Her eyes finally do fall shut for a second when she presses her forehead to his. "I love you, Callum. I love you." It's a whisper that causes her whole face to light up from within. Violet eyes open and crinkle at the corners lending her a softness that Callum immediately answers with his own tender smile, heart so full it feels like his chest is glowing.  Shivers wrack his body, but he's feeling the extreme opposite of a chill.  

Her returning grin is so big and beaming he never wants to look away.  It reminds him of the moon's bright, mesmerizing luminescence. If he is like the sky, he thinks, then let him always be her night sky if only to give her someplace to shine so brilliantly, so vivid and dazzling.   

"I love you, too." It's long stopped being strange the way saying it makes his eyes a little wet and vision blurry when the feeling of love is as close to tangible as he can imagine.

For a moment his arms tighten around her, their embrace closer to a hug than an impassioned frenzy. With her forearms resting on his chest she brings her hands to the sides of his face and neck, holding and cupping the back of his head and cheeks so tenderly.  Her eyes are gentle and liquid. Dark yet bright at the same time. 

She lightly rests her forehead against his again. Her breath washes over his face, noses nudge together, and he lifts a hand to clasp against her cheek. With each ragged inhalation their breathing becomes more in sync until they match. Soon they inhale and exhale together in slow, deep breaths. He looks into her eyes and savors the intensifying connection growing between them like thickening clouds of a building storm.

Rayla stares down at him, wonder in her eyes as she touches the side of his face and strokes her fingers through his hair. 

Callum fails to draw breath for a moment at the magnitude of love in her expression. His hands mirror hers on her face and he kisses her, fingers running through and entwining in her hair as it turns more hungry and weighted with feeling. Because he knows what it does to her he nips at the lobe of her ear, catching it between his teeth before licking up to the pointed tip and roughly mouthing at it. The high whines that escape her drive him crazy, pulse roaring in his ears like gale force winds and pounding much lower.        

He's imagined what it might be like many times before — making love with her — and his body suddenly can't help but try to move as if he is. 

He can only buck up so far, and Rayla instinctively allows his lower body the freedom to meet her halfway, shivering as his hips raise up while his hands rest on hers as a solid reassuring presence. She moves her arms around his head to lean in for a lustful kiss that turns into a panting tease of open lips just short of brushing against his as she grazes his nose with hers, looking deeply into his eyes as they shift gently against each other.

She intently watches his face as they move. Callum bites his lip in his flustered state as his eyes peer right back at her. Even though they are divided by all the layers of fabric he feels connected to her. He squeezes his hands on her hips then boldly slides them just a bit lower to cup her bottom. 

Her eyes dilate further. The dark pupil ringed with purple reminds him of the evening sky when the sun has sunk below the horizon and day is in the midst of transforming into night.   

It's inspiring. 

She's inspiring. 

Words bubble up and out of him before he even knows what he intends to say.

"You're beautiful. So gorgeous, so amazing. Strong, fast, graceful, kind, funny.  You're so good, so sweet and hot. Beautiful, Rayla. So incredible...I love you so much. I love you," he mumbles against her lips as he cups the side of her face and brushes her cheek with his thumb.

Her lashes are wet with unshed tears and her breath catches when she speaks. "Callum, you're my heart." She kisses him and it's equally scorching as it is warm and loving. "My heart," she repeats, her hand coming to rest over the left side of his chest.  

Something deep and primal courses through him hearing her call him that. 

Does she know? 

How her heart beats for her. 

How it aches for her. 

How her heart is so full of love for her.

How her heart wants to do everything he can to be sure she knows how loved she is.   

Callum slides his hand along her arm and wrist until it's pressed over hers. He intertwines their fingers and slowly tightens his grip as he feels his whole body tense with wanting. 

His hips jerk hard and an anguished moan escapes him, so sudden is the need to press himself to her. 

It all abruptly reminds him of what happened the last time they did this.   

He had made an absolute mess of his pants. 

One moment he'd been managing well enough and then the next he'd found himself tightening the hold of his arms around her. They'd hardy even gotten started doing more than kissing but she had gone and looked at him a certain way and called him her heart. Knowing how much it must have taken to admit it to him but also to herself...he'd grunted and moaned under her, the pace of his thrusting increasing until it became erratic, throwing his head back as his hips pumped up harshly and held for a moment. 

He perfectly remembers how Rayla gasped over and over as he worked his way through his climax, cock twitching and jumping against her as he spilled in his pajamas. A few short thrusts later he finished pulsing in release until he could not continue to move any more, sapped of strength and energy just as surely as she'd drained him. Flaming hot embarrassment sealed his eyes shut, keeping him from facing her right away.  

It had been so mortifying losing control so completely. 

Rayla had been more than understanding. She'd tossed him a saucy smirk, clearly just as impassioned as she was amused and gladly waited as he left to clean up and find a change of clothes. When he returned she happily set about introducing his hands to the art of pleasuring her until she found her release, too.

Just the thought of her hand over his leading it down, her face as he gently explored her for the first time, how molten hot she felt, the way her breath shuddered and how she bit at her lip — leaves him aching. He knows if he lets things continue his pants will run the risk of being ruined again.  

He's willing to risk it. 

Let her ruin him if it comes to that, but he vows to hold out for as long as possible. He knows his limits better this time. He hopes.

He's thankful for the rather satisfying release from the morning. Lost entirely to a blend of memory and fantasy, he'd thrust himself vigorously against his bed as he bit the corner of a pillow held tight to his chest while chanting Rayla's name. If he hadn't taken care of himself then, he would probably be a mess already. Just like last time.     

A deep breath in helps to center himself and mentally refocus. The concern over whether or not he will be able to get his body to cooperate with what he wants to do gets muted. It's almost like a giant hand has scooped up the worries and dumped them in a vault at the back of his mind. They're shut away for the moment, and he turns his energy to the present.  No worries intrude about what may be, or how he might mess up, fall short or disappoint. 

In his mind's eye he sees moonlight piercing ominous clouds like a pure, gentle light from a candle in the dark. Callum feels lighter, more free. He just wants to please her, hear her sounds, feel her satisfaction and praise from how she moves with him. The reminder that Rayla loves him -- clumsy, not the best coordinated, awkward, weird him -- puts to rest the anxieties before they can truly form.    

"Is it okay if we switch?" His heart is beating so loudly as he asks. 

She nods eagerly against him. "Perfectly," she leans in, voice low, "Make me your dreamgirl."

Her words scorch, bring an instant heat to his cheeks, and the way her eyes do most of the talking has his heart pounding in his ears. 

"You are my dreamgirl," he breathes, swallowing hard before he tilts their bodies to the side to roll her onto her back and clamber over her. 

He's careful not to put too much of his weight on her, not wanting her to be uncomfortable but aware she enjoys it when he drapes himself on her like a warm blanket.  It's easy to understand why when he finds the same pleasure with her above him. The feel of her lithe body pressed down against him, her arms folded around him to hold him tenderly, her breath hot on his cheek as they pause between kisses... 

Knowing he's able to do something similar for her with the same action makes his heart skip and threatens to shake him apart at the same time. There's a slight quiver in his arms, except he knows it's not from fatigue.  Once he feels her under him so welcoming and wanting it's all he can do to restrain himself from immediately pummeling fast against her where he knows she needs him the most. 

Another deep breath is needed to regain the calm focus he so swiftly lost.

He spares a quick moment to fully drink in the sight of her. Her sultry, heavy-lidded eyes looking up at him. The spilling of her soft, lustrous hair around her face and shoulders. How stray white strands cling to her slightly sweaty neck and temples. All of her being seems to beckon him closer. With one hand he tucks a wisp of hair behind her ear then traces her warm blushing cheeks then her lips. Rayla keeps her eyes on him, waiting, wanting. His eyes flicker away from hers to follow along the path his hands took and finally submits to her pull. He takes her mouth as ardently as she takes his, both ever seeking for a little bit more closeness as they melt into one another.  

When he pins her not just with his body but with his darkening green eyes his hips can't help but give a single hard thrust against her. She gasps, mouth dropping open, hands clutching his back. He continues to grind his hips against hers, shameless and desperate. Rayla effortlessly starts moving together with him. The firm, solid heat against her puts the sweetest pressure right where he knows his fingers can make her fall apart. 

"Oh, holy hell. Callum, you're so...Do that again." she's breathless, eyes huge and blushing to the tips of her ears.

His hands plant themselves flat on the ground next to her sides before bucking again and grinding harder into her, sinking the both of them deeper and deeper into the downy grass. He swears his heart is singing, humming, soaring in his chest at her unspoken praise.         

Callum hears his boots drag across the dirt with his efforts to offer more of himself for her. He eases onto his forearms closing the bit of distance between their bodies,  hands cradling the back of her head preventing her horns from scraping on the ground. 

Rayla gasps loudly. 

Four-fingered hands can't decide where to grab at him. Her body arches as his hard length presses more firmly against her through their clothes. He thrusts again and again, finding something like a rhythm, making sure to drag out the motion in such a way that her mouth keeps gaping open at the feel of it.

He seeks her out, catching her lips with his own. A spark zips down both their spines as he runs his tongue over her lips before she parts them to welcome him in. One leg wraps around him and the sole of her boot slides up and down the back of his calf. Rayla begins to rock faster against him. Her hands run along his back, dragging up the hem of his shirt and slipping under it. His self-control takes a blow and totters dangerously when he feels them roaming his bare back before finally sliding to curl over his shoulders, pulling him down against her as they move.    

Without much conscious thought Callum steadily rolls his hips forward and back. His passion demands that he move – do something, anything to use his body for her pleasure, to draw forth a response to measure her satisfaction and give her more. The hands around his shoulders fall to his waist and one reaches down to grip and squeeze his rear as they kiss, helping to pull herself up towards his hips while pressing him down into hers.

A startled squeak escapes him, pulling back in surprise to see her eyes shining playfully, and then he’s groaning into their kiss, certain he can feel the self-satisfied smile she's sporting against his lips at his reaction.  It causes him to start mouthing at Rayla’s neck with a sweet desperation as they grind their lower bodies together, rubbing out every ounce of agonizing pleasure they can manage.

He gathers a handful of grass to bunch under her head as a pillow and re-positions slightly, interlacing their hands as he raises them up above her head to rest clear of her horns. Her kisses grow hotter. Lips refuse to part from his as they slant their heads restlessly for better lip locks and to glide tongues together. When he does inevitably have to draw away from her mouth, he's smiling as she tries to follow his lips and he presses his forehead to hers in apology for needing to catch his breath. He starts to trail feather light kisses over her cheek to the corner of her lips before she grows inpatient and frees a hand to curl her fingers in his shirt and drag his mouth to hers.   

Every move of their hips starts to arouse depraved thoughts in his head.  He had shocked himself that morning with the images that had flipped though his mind like pages filled with sketches drawn out on paper. He is comfortable enough with expressing his feelings and needs, but not his desires. His wants. 

His only way to really let his mind and heart speak of those things is through his art. 

Except now he's found the courage to share his lustful fantasies with the one directly responsible for inspiring them.  

Lips move up towards her ear and after laving it with his tongue to tease and cause her to tremble he pulls back, forcing himself to stop moving.  Her eyes opening to meet his does dangerous things to his resolve and control. When he speaks to her quietly he can't stop his voice from wavering and shaking a little.
She has no idea of the war that's currently being waged inside him – how his heart beats erratically, and how his stomach twists wildly as he tries to get the courage to tell her exactly what prompted his morning activities.

"Earlier when you asked what I was thinking about this morning - I thought about us riding double on a shadowpaw. My arms were around you, and you were snug against me doing your best to steer into every single obstacle and make it into a very bumpy ride.  You were being all subtle about it but I knew. I thought about holding you.  Kissing you." He faltered, courage escaping and halting his speech before he managed to say in a rush, "We did what we did together last time...what we did with my hands and how I touched you...inside. "

He wonders what it would feel like to slide his hands inside her pants and touch her like last time.  Feel her grow tight around his fingers. Know with certainty just how hot and slick and wet she's gotten.  

"I think I've had a few dreams like that before," she jokes lightly. "What other moments have you imagined?"

He raises an eyebrow at her. "What— what do you mean?"

"You said you’d imagined us being together like last time. What else have you imagined doing to me?" She smirks. "Or me doing to you?"

He feels his whole body burn with embarrassment, quickly glancing away, lips pursing in a half-pout at being so easily figured out. 

"I've thought about it, too...things like that. A lot. But what else? I know you must have thought about some other things because of that face right there." Rayla nods at him, her pupils huge, a blush on her face, mouth open and breathing hard.

"What face?"

"Your cute, sexy idea face." She says it like it was obvious. She moves a hand to his face, stroking his cheek. He leans into her touch and gives a full smile, marveling at how she had done it once again: dispelled his nerves and reassured him that his fantasies were a welcome subject that she wants to hear about.  

"I imagined that we were in bed." He tried not to choke on nothing, focusing on her and not his burning face. "You were showing me a new meaning to being 'spread eagle' and using a feather from my mage wings to drive me crazy. Then I drove you crazy."            

He watches as she swallows slowly and wonders whose face is redder.  

"I ruffled your feathers real good, huh? Did I have a cute little blow spell, too?"

"You did. You really did. We ended up on the floor." 

"How did we...I mean - no, you don't have to say anything - "she is flustered, blushing and looking away to try to hide how she'd been hanging on to every word and image he'd been sharing.    

Heart hammering and caught up in how Rayla is responding to hearing about his deep private desires for her, he wants to make it real for her. Bring one of his pictures to life. Just a little. 

"At first it went a little like this." His fingers run along her side in a light, quick tickling motion that has her smiling and releasing a loud surprised laugh.

"Then it was a bit like this." He nuzzles her neck up to her ear causing her smile to change into open mouthed anticipation. 

"And then," He hadn't been aware his voice could go so low or sound so gravelly. "Then it was just like...this." 

With a strained grunt he begins a long, slow and powerful grind against her as firm and sensual as he can stand. There's barely any space between them and he shivers all over from the friction of her warm center right against his arousal. She makes a strangled sound in her throat that causes a ripple effect of pleasure to tremble all throughout his body. He kisses and sucks on the spot on her neck where her pulse races and it ignites a frenzy.

Rayla's hands scramble all over him. Fumbling, gripping, pulling at his shirt with the need to be closer.

Her hips suddenly pushing upwards into his own match his pace and he kisses her deeply, taking his time before his lips move fluidly and teeth lightly brush against sensitive spots he'd taken great care in past encounters to thoroughly map out. It's his hope to draw things out for as long as possible to get across even a fraction of what she makes him feel, no matter how impossible going slowly seems with her so eager and responsive.

She whines as he licks along her ear and draws the tip into his mouth to suck at and bite softly. Hands clutch at his waist while she buries her face in the crook of his shoulder to leave a haphazard trail of open mouth kisses all along the bare skin there. Her hot, panting breaths hit the side of Callum's neck and the soft noises only grow more insistent and encouraging. 

Callum..." she murmurs in his ear. "You are..so...Youfeelsogood. You're so good to me. Oh, Callum, please.” 

Rayla’s muffled cries are like a magic spell cast over him. Colored with the hint of surprise he notes. As if she couldn’t entirely believe what her body is being made capable of feeling. The wonder and implied praise of it drives him on like a force of nature. 

Suddenly the thought of going slow and drawing things out is preposterous. 

He grunts frantically above her, kissing and nosing against her neck, and ground his hips faster as he takes her hand and holds it pinned up next to her head, fingers twining together again. "Rayla," he whispers by her ear, sounding absolutely wrecked, his voice rough and rumbly like thunder rolling low and deep in time to his movements. "Rayla, Rayla, Rayla."  

His mouth hangs open as he pants for breath when long, strong legs hug his waist and start to help control how fast he moves against her. Rayla's quick to dig her heels into his rear and slide them to the back of his thighs, pleading without words, helping to increase the drag of friction and pressure between them. 

It's fast becoming overwhelming. Rayla’s breath is so sweet, and her lips so warm and eager, her free hand finding his shoulders, back, or his hips and pulling at him, trying to feel him all over. It is almost frantic the way she touches his body. Like she’s thinking about things that inspire her own cute, sexy idea face. 

Like she’s thought about them for as long as Callum has, maybe even longer.

She adjusts her grip on his hand. “Callum, I know what I said before about doing something else, but…keep going. Don't stop. Just keep going. Please. Callum.” She says those same two words over and over again, legs tight around him, ankles pressing down and aiding his movements. 

He has a choice to make. He'd keep going at her request, but he wanted to also let her touch him with her hands, learn and explore him as he had done with her. Let her finish him off that way instead.  He hoped he could prevail through bringing her to her peak without reaching his own.  One way or the other he'd still enjoy a little piece of the bliss found in the afterlife Rayla bestowed upon him. He swallows heavily, steeling himself for what he's about to do, a choice resolutely made. 

They both sharply inhale as the contact turns more wild and urgent. His hand runs along her torso, caressing the side of her breast to enthrall her even more as they move together, plummeting down a pathway with the end growing closer in sight. 

The fabric of her shirt is soft with wear. While he's sure she can feel the heat from his hand, he isn't convinced it's enough for her. He plucks at her shirt ready to ask is he can undo it a little. When the motion of Rayla sucking in a deep breath emphasizes her chest he rationalizes that there's no way he could be held responsible for where his eyes have dropped to focus on.  

"Take it off," Rayla croons. 

The words douse him like ice cold water, freezing him in place. 

Her hand scrambles to find the hidden clasps and two are undone by the time it takes Callum to close his mouth and look back up. 

"Wha-what?" His voice cracks. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! I wasn't - I just meant to - I was gonna ask if it was okay to just, um...loosen it a little. Just a bit. Only a small, little, very tiny - not all the way." He gulps. "The grass could be prickly. The opposite of romantic. I wasn't trying to - your shirt! It's - You don't-" He stops himself with a huff. It's frustrating how all his thoughts have jumbled together and are tumbling out of his mouth before he's able to sort them into something making any kind of sense.  

Rayla just smiles patiently while he struggles through his words, a big grin on her face forming as he finishes. She puts her hand gently on his cheek. "As a matter of fact, it's quite romantic and I'm fairly sure I wouldn't even feel the grass, prickly or no. Just you, Callum. And I want to."

Heat floods his cheeks and the back of his neck as a smile tugs at one side of his mouth. She doesn't feel pressured. She doesn't feel like she has to just because he said something.

Rayla takes his hand and helps his fingers find the next clasp on her shirt. "You can relax. It doesn't have to be a big deal." She winks, smile small and coy. "Just a little bit is quite fine. Nothing you haven't already seen before anyway, so why don't you go ahead and tease the both of us." Sharp, serious, badass Rayla is one thing, and sarcastic, jesting, witty Rayla quite another, but this fond, flirty, warm, intimate Rayla is something special. Callum can feel himself trembling a little, or maybe that's his heart skipping a beat that he feels. 

It has to be the husky tone that gets to him. That, or maybe the look in her eyes. 

He's more than quite fine with teasing her and chooses to make a show out of undoing the top half of her shirt, unfastening each clasp with a flourish. "No big deal, she says." One clasp done. "Relax, she says." Another. "Tease us, she says." He quirks an eyebrow at her. "Maybe I will." 

She can't seem to stop looking at him with a smile shining in her eyes, and Callum momentarily abandons her shirt to cup her face and kiss her. When he eventually finishes with the clasps, her shirt's rumpled and open enough to bare her torso well past where her bindings peek through the folds of fabric.

Peeking through is also a glint of her necklace from where it had been safely tucked away, just as his own is resting secure beneath his shirt. 

Reaching up, he traces along the outline of her pendant. As his fingertip first makes contact with the warm metal, Callum inwardly smiles at the memories.

He kisses it and then his fingertips move to lightly trace over where he plans to kiss next.  

"Can I-? Is this alright?" His gaze skitters between her newly exposed skin and seeking assurance in her eyes. If the croak in his voice didn't give him away it would have been the freshly blazing blush on his face or his wide, awestruck eyes.

It's beyond alright as she slides her hand over the back of his head and guides him down, a hasty "C'mere, sweet prince" gasped between them. She jolts like he's shocked her with a weak lightning spell as he hesitantly kisses the skin before him. 

What starts out as tentative quickly becomes sure and playful. Between one breath and the next it becomes assertive the further down he travels. Confidence growing by the second, he's quick to press hungry kisses at the base of her neck then along her clavicles as his hips pick up a steady, seeking rhythm against her. 

He's burning as Rayla's uneven gasps trigger a blaze tingling everywhere along his body. Seeing her eagerly turn her head to the side yielding more space to his attentions, feeling her hips press up against him in desperate wanting, it all serves to unleash a heat that slams over him like the arrival of a thunderbolt, electrifying and chaotic in the purity of its might. 

He wants to unleash the storm and show her what she's conjured within him.    

Skimming his fingers up her neck to sink his fingers into her hair and then tease in his favorite spot along her ear, she's now the one who sounds wrecked this time, brokenly moaning as her ears twitch and flush red to match her face. 

His hand slips past her partially opened shirt to rest over her breast.  The thin fabric wrapping is all that separates them here at this point, and Callum immediately wants her to feel more. He cups her breast. Slow and caring movements chart his course as he ventures forth with precise and careful touches. Gentle strokes to the top, bottom, and side of her breast alternate with light kisses to her neck, earlobes, and collarbone. 

Her breath catches audibly each time his palm starts to pass over her hardened nipple. He smiles against her neck when Rayla swears as he circles around it with a finger. Changing tactics, his thumb smooths over it slowly, following an imaginary pattern as it hardens even more at his touch. 

It's almost like playing with the wind. The swirling, subtle movements similar and well practiced. Callum has no idea he's been holding his breath in, spellbound with watching Rayla's building pleasure. He pauses his hand and shifts in order to see her properly, wanting to make sure it isn't all too much.

"Do you want more?" 

He's afraid his eyes must be burning, betraying his own want.    

"M..More…" she pants, her gaze so heavy with desire it sends hot shivers down his spine.   

"Magic touch, right? Or is it the five fingers?" He waggles his eyebrows up and down.  

Her body shakes with silent laughter and the quiet order she gives him to shut up is as mirthful as the sparkle in her eyes and the curling of fingers through his hair.

"The five fingers. Mmm, yeah. Those pinkos just do it for me." It's a husky whisper, breathy with humor and excitement. Rayla laughs again, but it's quiet, low and amused. Something about the sound makes his head spin. It sends shivers cascading from his ear to sizzle along his chest and ultimately settle down into his crotch. 

"More," she says again, this time less of a breathless plea and more of a command, a promise.

Lips tangle again, teeth clashing while they ache to offer one another more pleasure. She clutches at him as he hotly trails his lips along her neck, laving and sucking the hollow beneath her ear. He cups her other breast to give it needed attention. Under his touch her heart thrums. Her loud, quickening gasps of breath sends fire down his spine and makes his balls tighten.  

Using his tongue to very lightly draw circles around her nipple causes her writhe. He doesn't mind the dry taste of fabric when gentle flicks to her peaked nipple coax her to moan louder. When he does that a few times getting moans in increasing volume he slowly and gently takes the nipple right into his mouth, licking and sucking through her bindings until the cloth is wet and feels like it's not even there at all.

Time slows but also races forward as she tightens her crossed ankles behind his back and arches up against him.

His hips surge forward. 

Her arms loop around his shoulders to pull him up for a frantic kiss. 

Rayla's lips brush over his ear, along his jaw, and down his neck as the pace of their grinding hips pick up speed. They'd been teasing each other by keeping their lust at a simmer, mindful always of the need to be cautious, an undercurrent of desire allowed to bring satisfaction but an entire loss of control kept at bay.

The need and longing between them rises to a sudden boil when he retraces the same path of ear, jaw and neck along her skin with his mouth. 

It grows even hotter when Rayla's hands dance down his back to grip his ass and push him down against her. Even with their clothes dulling the feel of her soft heat he screws his eyes shut, mouth hanging open, as he humps against her urgently at the pace her hands set.

Callum has no idea how he keeps it together when she starts non-stop moaning low in her throat, giving off keening sounds, each one driving him more and more wild. He answers her back with desperate moans of his own into the crook of her neck followed by his breathing growing even heavier. 

His hands stumble at her waist, slide up her sides, then grasp her arms and shoulders before finally slipping underneath her back to hold her trembling form flush against himself. He's faintly aware of her gasping out his name at his shoulder as he thrust his hips with increasing force.

"Please, don't stop,” Rayla whispers against him sounding so breathless he almost doesn't hear her. “So good.... Want you so bad. All I could think about today. Just like this. Want you just like this. Oh, Callum," she groans, succumbing to the storm of passion engulfing them.

He wants to say that he feels the same, but he's having problems forming actual words and all that comes out are panting gasps and pleasure filled noises. Callum's hair dangles on her forehead, tickling for just a moment before he lightly presses his forehead to hers, eyes glazed with lust. After nuzzling her temple his lips travel down to graze the sensitive skin of her neck below her ear with his teeth.

The sensation of his lips on such a delicate spot turns her even more vocal, a storming quake of pleasure runs through her and the noises from low in her throat slam his hips into hers.   

He moans long and deep, flustered and still someplace beyond words. "Rayla," he finally chokes out, fighting off a familiar tingle beginning to form at the base of his spine. Callum grits his teeth trying to stave off his impending finish. He has to slow down, just a little, if he didn’t…

He pulls away to clench his jaw in effort.  He'd have to warn her, tell her it was getting to be too much even if every fiber of his being wants to give her whatever she needs regardless of whether or not he could stay in control of himself.  

“Close,” he grunts, cautioning her even as he strives to meet her and pounds faster, “You've got me real close. I think I'm - I'm g-gonna -"

Before he manages to finish speaking her arms suddenly tense and she's holding him closer, hugging him so tightly from beneath, nails raking up and down his back as she fails to muffle a moan against his neck. A heartbeat later she's clutching onto him with her legs and tipping her head back as she seizes a fistful of his shirt in a death grip.     

“Ah, yes” she breathes out. “Callum! Oh, yes, that's it. Oh please -"  A series of Elvish words burst from her lips, all of which Callum is convinced are swear words. 

He knows it means there's no way he's slowing down and gives a very stern talking to his groin for his cock to behave for once. 

Her ankles clasp tighter, legs twitching as she quivers under him. He feels her grip the back of his neck, encouraging him to continue. His pulse thunders through his body as he stares at her face contorting as she concentrates on chasing down her pleasure. 

She shudders violently. Her hips spasm and buck. "Hah! Mnnh...! Nng...oh, fuck. Oh, C-Callum..." Rayla moans, growing higher in pitch and volume, and her ears perk straight up from the building sensations. The short, sharp gasps of her breath join the staccato of his heartbeat as she clings to him even tighter as if she'd be flung up into the sky if she let go. 

Her mouth moves in soundless shapes, as if she wants to say more. All that comes out is a strangled sort of cry. 

The sight of her teary, heavy-lidded eyes -- seeing how exposed and overcome her gaze is -- would have been alarming if he hadn't seen it before. Under the blinding shine of passion in her eyes Callum catches a glimpse of how her soul shouts, sings, and weeps with joy all at once, but then her forehead presses against his right before euphoria rushes through her in a single low cry of raw feeling as her head flings back, baring her neck. Rayla gives up any last flimsy pretensions of composure as she begins to whine and thrash wordlessly in orgasm. 

Callum’s breath hitches as she's flung over the edge. Her face, eyes now squeezed shut, mouth hanging open, is easily the most beautiful vision he’s ever seen.  

The sight of her is devastating and very nearly does him in. 

He tenses and grunts with the effort of holding back.

The damp heat he feels seeping into the front of his pants causes a jolt of alarm. It wouldn't be much of surprise, really, since it certainly wouldn't have been the first time he's exploded in his pants just from the sound and sense of her. Half-believing he's somehow finished despite his cock remaining a throbbing steel rod in his pants, Callum's eyes widen as his mind is blown into fragments realizing the dampness is coming from Rayla. He fumbles but then clutches onto the fact that she's soaked through layers of cloth, that it's even possible that she could be so wet, and that he is the cause of it.

His cock twitches hard enough that Callum gasps. Rayla shudders and moans again quietly and a faint warmth blooming at his groin solidifies the evidence of her pleasure. 

A lightheaded feeling engulfs him entirely and he's not sure if he can take much more of it. His pants are painfully tight and his underwear is beyond sticky with precum. Taking on a life of their own his hips buck against hers - pressing hard - over and over, faster and faster, playing with fire as he fights not to be overtaken by the power of her climax but powerless against wanting to give her all of himself. 

Rayla moans with every jolt against him, back arching periodically in the drawn out throes of her victory. Her body is still lightly shuddering when he buries his face in her neck trying to grasp after the dissolving ends of his senses. Feeling like a lit keg of powder, Callum closes his eyes tight as his whole body seems to pulse, balanced right on the edge. His hips stop abruptly as he struggles to prevent the fuse from traveling too far to ignite any explosions.   

If stamina could be a primal source of magic, he finds that he's very suddenly consumed with meditating on forming a connection to its arcanum. 

Steady breaths in and out help somewhat. 

Slow. 

Calm. 

Rayla has gone limp beneath him when he finally cracks an eye open, afraid to move lest he undo all his efforts. He knows he'd made the right call, and there's more than a bit of relief and pride flooding his chest that he'd managed to prevent an explosive repeat of last time.      

"That was really....so far, far beyond amazing, Rayla, but don't move.  Don't. Move. We can't move. Just -- just don't move." One eye stays shut tight as if he’s almost in pain, one hand fisted violently in the grass while the other braces his weight.    

Slowly, ever so slowly she forces her hands to uncurl from where they'd fisted themselves in his shirt.

"Merciful moonlight, that was pure dead amazing, Callum. That was - I don't even know how to - Amazing, Callum. Everything you did felt so good. You just keep getting better. You're so good at - at all of it. How do you keep getting better? I wouldn't say no to practicing some more with you though. But later. Later. Not moving now," Rayla gasps weakly, recovering slowly. "I've got that covered. I don't --" Another huff of breath before she can muster the strength to speak. " Don't think I actually can move right now, so that's helpful." A beat of silence fills with the sounds of their heavy breathing. "Why can't we move?"

"I'm uhh -- I need a minute. Several. Several minutes would be good. If I can just not move and have you not move that would be great." Lower and mostly as an afterthought he absently voices a slight concern. "You didn't happen to hear like, a popping noise or something did you? I think I might've pulled a muscle."

From his one open eye he sees hers gradually widen as she realizes that he is still at attention, just as rigid as ever pressed against her.  

"Callum! You didn't need to - I can't believe you didn't - I thought I told you it was alright.  You didn't have to hold back." 

"You wanted to...with your hands...you asked, so I wanted to..." 

She brings her hand to his face and rubs her thumb gently along his cheek. "Dummy." It's said softly, as fondly as when she uses other endearments for him. "I said it was alright. We'd just get to it another time. I was just fine with taking you with me instead.  There was no way I was going to be able to hold back, and I didn't expect you to." She looks up at him, searching his face. "You didn't really pull a muscle, did you?"

"Nah, just kidding. Mostly. I think."

Breathing deeply into his lungs as his stomach finally unclenches and his hips relax, he opens both eyes.  After he made a noise in assent they reposition to their sides facing each other.

As he concentrates on continuing to steady his panting breaths he takes in the sight of her sated from her release, shirt and hair mussed, chest heaving, lips red and swollen from kissing, cheeks and ears flushed. She looks so much just like the tigerwolf who got the cream that he wouldn't be surprised if she started to purr in contentment. It's a look he wants to preserve forever with charcoal and paper.  

Rayla dives forward to kiss him gentle and sweet as they both continue to gradually calm down. She puts her hands over his, lacing their fingers together and squeezing affectionately. 

"We're not done here, Callum. Not even close. Just give me a minute." Her tone is so soft that he's sure it could turn even the darkest of storms into warm, harmless droplets. She cups his jaw, her lips brushing lightly over his cheek and lips. When she pulls away one of her palms rests flat on his chest, the other busy with gently tracing his face from eyebrow to cheek, over his nose and down to his lips.  

"Take your time. I think just looking at your hands would be enough," Callum sighs, eyes closing as he feels rather like a tigerwolf being stroked and admired.

She laughs lightly and pushes Callum over onto his back to cuddle close to his side, slinging a leg over his. He wraps an arm around her and reaches to find her thigh. His hand idly slides along it and holds onto her tighter once she gently nudges into his neck with the tip of her nose to kiss his racing pulse. 

Rayla shifts to rest an ear over his chest, raptly listening to the fast, wild thumping of his heart slowly grow calmer.          

Chapter Text

Callum runs his tongue over his lower lip, trying to ease some of the dryness in his mouth. Rayla is standing up next to him, not even bothering to refasten or even adjust her shirt from how disheveled he'd gotten it. Clearly she has other priorities. 

Priorities all involving him.   

Mainly how she desires to run her hands over him and cause his cheeks to flush red and his legs to shake. She intends to touch and love him in new ways that he knows will make his heart race and breath tremble with raw honesty and openly displayed need. 

He won't be able to hide it. Not a chance.  

With the reality of the situation setting in Callum nearly wishes he had let go earlier with her.

He knows he's hesitating, but the thought of delving into her pants is far less intimidating - and a bit more appealing - than her feeling around in his.  Part of him is very curious, of course, but there's also a much larger part that is concerned he simply isn't going to be able to handle having Rayla's hands on him in such a way.  

He knows his imagination is good, but he fears the real deal will far surpass anything his mind's been able to create.  

He wants to please her so badly. 

Give her a chance to learn him and enjoy the experience as much as he undoubtedly would.      

He takes a deep breath in and tells himself it's okay to have something good. He can trust a good thing happening to him. He won't mess up. Even if he does, Rayla would never hold it against him. But that still doesn't mean he wants to mess up.  

Callum rubs the back of his neck, feigning nonchalance as he looks down to meet Rayla's gaze with unspoken questions of how she wants this to play out. If she still wants this to play out. 

Rayla absently fiddles with her arm band, fixing him with a slow, evaluative stare up and down. He flushes under it, realizing too late that there's no way she could miss the line of his hard length pressing thick against the front of his pants with arousal that had barely waned as time had passed.  Her eyes fly up after more than a few seconds and her ears flicker and droop slightly at being caught looking so blatantly as their eyes meet again.

"So you're...okay with it still? With, um..." She coughs dryly. 

Ravishing him, she means.  Callum can't help but feel dizzy at the thought.   

Despite his own fluster he finds it absurdly cute that her cheeks have taken on a rosy dusting as if they hadn't just been rolling around and humping against each other to the point that the backs of their clothes and the knees of their pants were probably grass stained and dirt smeared.  

"Yeah. I'm okay with it." He glances down at himself and back at her, lopsided smile and pink cheeks showing on his face. "Obviously." 

His bashful honesty bolsters her own confidence, and she grins at him, raising an eyebrow in invitation. "C'mere then," She says as she crooks a finger at him to gesture him closer.

Callum doesn't understand why he's suddenly blushing hotly and stumbling over his own feet as he follows her.

She saunters over to sit on a fallen tree so large that her feet dangle and beckons him over to stand in front of her between her spread legs. He's spun around to face away from her. Her arms hug around his middle and her thighs rest against him with her feet hooking around his legs to keep him in place.  Her chin comes to rest over his shoulder, the pleasant warmth and softness of her front pressed right up along his back. 

The next moment has her reaching around him further, slipping her hand downward and grazing her fingers over his lower abdomen. His muscles clench at her touch. She slides her hand up underneath his shirt to feel the warm planes of skin. A soft sigh follows as she brings up her other hand to sweep through the hair at his forehead and sweep an unruly lock behind his ear.

Her gentle touch makes him shudder. Rayla leans closer to him, shifting somewhat to the side, and her appreciative gaze trails up and down before staying on his face. The look she gives him tingles down his spine and throbs in his groin.

"Rayla, what…what are you doing?" He laughs, blushing both at the attention and how his body is reacting to it.

"Just looking at you."

"Why?"

"You’re really nice to look at." She leans in nearer, voice dropping to a soft whisper. "You’re so handsome 'n cute. Making my heart beat all fast."

His heart jumps. The back of his neck heats and his ears turn red, but he refuses to let her compliment be greeted by his sudden bout of shyness and grins at her in response. "Making your heart beat - Look who's talking! I'm pretty sure I might've mentioned something a few minutes ago about how you're gorgeous and amazing, all around beautiful and breathtaking really."

"Oh, you did. I can definitely recall that. Along with being sweet and hot and a bunch of other...very nice things. Guess it takes one to know one." Rayla breathes by his ear and ruffles his hair, small bits of grass fluttering down. "I love just how messy we can make your hair, too. I'd say this is a new record." He shivers when her fingers sink deep into the brown locks. "You look ridiculously good in these pants, you know, for future reference." She plants a kiss to his cheek. "Very distracting."

His training pants don't seem all that special to him. There's really not much to look at. Worn and a bit faded, the black material is on the thin side but the leather reinforcing on the outsides of the legs is soft yet still sturdy.  Although now he just might have to live in this pair since she's so taken with them.

He gulps as her fingers begin walking down the middle of his chest to his waist, grabbing the hem of his shirt and swiftly drawing it up and off him to fling away in a blur of white material.  He has no clue where it landed and doesn't much care. Rayla takes his hands and kisses them both before bringing them to rest on her thighs. 

"Hold on tight. Don't let go, okay. Keep your hands here and let me take care of the rest." It's halfway a whispered request and a command.  

Somehow Callum cobbles together enough coordination to adjust his hands on her legs, his large palms smoothing downwards, thumbs tracing her inner thighs, before coming to perch on her knees. He takes in a deep breath then exhales, giving her legs a slow, deliberate, sensual squeeze.

Rayla stifles a gasp against his shoulder.

He leans further back into her."Uh huh, I'll stay right here," he squeezes again, quick and affectionate. The need to gain her approval and follow her wishes easily overpowers his need to touch and explore. He wants to please her. Needs to please her. She deserves so much, and if all she asks for is so little then he'll do it gladly.   

The red flush that starts high on his cheeks spreads to his neck and chest as Rayla's hands run over the expanse of his newly bared skin. "You will, will you? Let's find out then." She toys with the chain around his neck, the heavy pendant sliding along with her fingertip as it moves back and forth.     

She smooths her palms over him before veering over to a nipple.  He feels her pause, contemplating, then lightly circle around it to tease for a bit before giving a few flicks and rubs that cause his hips to jerk.  Fingers take their time continuing down along his sides and over the faint indentations of his abs and back up and down again, easing ever closer to his waist and the awaiting belt buckle. 

Rayla pauses in her caresses, arms settling around him in a hug, and kisses where his shoulder meets his neck. She brushes her lips against his skin, licking and hot one moment then back to being feathery light, throwing in a soft nip or two until it becomes a pattern that drives him to repeatedly suck in air and blow it out in a slow whoosh to prevent himself from hyperventilating. 

The quickening breaths and chills tingling all over his body are the least of his problems though. At the wet warmth of her mouth and the hint of teeth his toes curl in his boots again. His pants, while constricting before, now feel uncomfortably tight. The riveted eyes burning a path from the dark smattering of hair trailing into his pants to the stark outline of his cock doesn’t help matters any.

Rayla pulls away and leans a little more to the side and over his shoulder to get a better look down his body. Panting breaths escape his mouth once her hands start moving again. She hooks her fingers under his belt to give it a playful little tug.  

"We're gonna loose the belt now. That okay?" Rayla’s voice is a sultry purr next to his ear, and Callum shudders hearing such raw desire from her.

He manages a quiet, breathy affirmation. "Uh huh."

There's a clink of metal, the sound of leather whispering as it's pulled loose, and the thud from the belt dropping into the grass to form a prelude that has him running his hands up and down along her thighs and squeezing for a second. His stance widens slightly as he shifts his weight from foot to foot in anticipation.

"Um…Callum? I don't - I - I'm not sure exactly..." Rayla's voice is on the small side, uncertain and vexed because of it. He hears her gulp and take a breath. She leans in closer, lips brushing his skin as she whispers, "Tell me how you like it, Callum. Teach me how to make you feel good. How do you like to do this? What kinds of touches do you usually enjoy?"

He stares stupidly down at her hands hovering by his waist as if he has never once stroked himself before to know what he likes and her inquiry is an entirely foreign concept. His eyes are wide and his mind is silent except for echoes of her question. It takes him a few seconds to snap out of it and gather his courage. 

An awkward laugh escapes him before he pushes his anxiety to the side to offer her reassurance. With her mostly behind him she can’t see his face unless he deliberately shifts to turn towards her, and somehow that makes his words easier. Maybe it's why she chose this position in the first place. "Well, I never really have the time to give myself the four star treatment.  I just - it's never anything special. Just usually whatever gets the job done quick."

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Her brow quirks, genuinely seeming a bit puzzled.

"I never really have much privacy, you know? Between Ez always being around or having a guard come get me for one thing or another, I've just never had much of a chance to really get to know the particulars of...things?"

"Surely you like some things though?" 

"Ooooh, well, t-typical stuff, like just, um...stroking." His face burns. Waves of heat engulf his face and singe his neck.  For a second he suspects Rayla's being difficult on purpose just to see him squirm, but she does seem a little unsure and apprehensive based off the furrow between her eyebrows as she concentrates on his explanation. He quickly shows her what he means by using his hands in a mock demonstration.

"Ah! Right. Okay." She seems to expect more. He doesn't exactly have a list, but compared to the gamut she'd put his hands through when teaching him how to use them on her perhaps she's right to expect more.  She doesn't really have another frame of reference other than herself he realizes. That and hearsay or whatever she might have read or seen in books.         

"I just, you know, um, mostly feel over my clothes that way if someone walks in it won't be too bad, or sometimes I like to -" his face is flaming hot, stumped over why telling her is so embarrassing.  They'd done some things. She'd seen him going at it that very morning. It shouldn't be so difficult to talk about. He mentally kicks himself and forges ahead knowing it'd be better if he could elaborate a little more and give her something, anything, to work with. "I like to rub on my bed. Just um, move around against it. You know, give my staff and spellbooks a workout." 

He doesn't know what unholy impulse possesses him to twist slightly to see her face and actually wink at her, but the moment he does he wants to poke himself in the eye. Rayla doesn't make a noise but her face takes on a dark blush at the reminder of his morning activities. Quickly looking away he rushes on and tries to move past the awkward lull. "I never really know how much time I might have to myself, so I tend to be pretty quick about it. Mostly I just take care of it and that's all, but when I do have some time though..." He blushes hotter, recalling a few memorable moments and that morning in particular. "It's always... intense."

Shit, he thought. She's staring at him, a deep blush on her face still and eyes wide, looking a bit incredulous. 

He's not sure if she was picturing him desperately palming himself at his desk while fully clothed with a weary eye on the door or if she was imagining him struggling to stay quiet in the stillness of night while mouthing her name into his pillow as he ground his hips into his bed. No, she was probably thinking that he made for a bit of a sad male specimen who isn't even all that sure of a repertoire, never mind the specifics, of self pleasing he enjoys.

Looking again without projecting his own feelings on the matter he only finds love and no small amount of want and curiosity in Rayla's bright lilac eyes. A warm hand cupped his cheek, caressing it softly. "Callum, it's alright. That...was a wee bit different from where I thought you were going with things, but I think I have more than enough. I don't want it to be quick though. I want to make this good for you. So good."  Her eyelashes flutter. "Can I touch you now?"

He can only nod weakly and focus on breathing properly.

"Okay, here we go. I'm just going to put my hand over you. Get used to you and let you get used to me."     

She settles her hands high up on his thighs, Callum going still beneath her touch, riveted at feeling the warmth of her traveling palms and fingers through the thin cloth of his pants. Her hands relax on his legs and she strokes down as far as she can reach from her position behind him and back up again along the sides of his hips, fingers skimming close but not yet touching the source of her curiosity and desire.

He watches as her fingertips glide up his stomach and chest only to dance back down slowly with clear intent.  He gulps loudly.   

Her fingers skirt the edge of his pants, playing with the light covering of hair there. One finger trails ever so gently over the head of his cock, not quite touching but skimming close enough that he feels heat through the fabric. While he definitely feels himself twitch, her touch is so light he's not entirely sure if he's imagined it or not.

Her hand moves, and he's fully aware of how closely she's watching his face.

Hearts pound away with rapid breaths as they match each other in captivation and anticipation. 

Tension crackles in the air and bursts.

"Nngh," Callum groans at her hand laying flat directly over the large bulge in his pants. 

His hips jerk forward reflexively.  

Every speck of sensation and awareness converges on the place where Rayla's slender hand presses against him so tenderly yet with a surging wellspring of passion just under the surface. 

"Ah - mmh - Rayla! Oh, oh - oh, wow, you're - ah!" His voice is so quiet and gasping that he barely even hears himself. Her hand is on him. Not accidental or a diligently ignored brushing up against, but deliberate and purposeful. And it's only the start of what she plans on doing.  When he's been particularly riled up and hot and bothered it's something he's fantasized about more than a few times. Now it's actually happening.

The best part of all is that Rayla wants it, too. 

He has to calm himself down for a good couple of moments thinking of spiders and rotten meat crawling with maggots. How many stones would be needed to build a bridge so high and that much across? How many planks of lumber? 

The distraction helps just enough.  

"Is this...okay?" Her eyes catch his and he manages a nod accompanied with grunt that sounds a bit like a yes. 

They can't look away from the sight of her hand slowly familiarizing herself with the general feel of him.  Callum guesses his eyes must have doubled in size, but he is certain that the aching pressure he feels has most definitely doubled judging from the way his length had just lurched under the material of his pants as her palm ran up and down.

Their breathing grows more labored. 

Rayla's quick to flutter her fingers over the laced fly of his trousers, enjoying teasing him far more than he's prepared for

Callum knows he's babbling a gasping flow of nonsensical words that just won't stop until she nuzzles her cheek against his, "Take a breath for me, love." A pat to his bulge and then her hands back off, waiting while he regains himself. 

Deep breaths help and Callum catches her eye to nod his readiness. She nods back with a lopsided smile that's on the verge of bursting into a blinding grin. 

With both hands she gets to work unlacing his pants, pulling at the strings slowly, taking her time to look over at him and smirk or raise an eyebrow when their eyes met.  Or give him a happy, sloppy kiss.  Her hands are a bit unruly, but they very deliberately stay on task and avoid groping or brushing against him.  

When the laces of his fly are pulled loose and slack she smooths the fabric apart, and instantly Callum breathes a little easier now that he has more well, breathing room. He also breathes a little more nervously knowing he's that much more uncovered.   

He's still wearing underwear, of course, but now with his pants spread open and lowered slightly he feels absurdly exposed and almost places his hands over his erection.  He fully understands Rayla's own shyness when she had asked him to use his hands to pleasure her. 

It was a little silly on both their parts since they were very clear on how much they want to share and partake in one another, but the knee jerk reaction of vulnerability just couldn't be helped.  She'd been magnificent though, guiding him with finesse and imparting personal details that made for a sublime time for them both, and Callum resolves that he will try his utmost to do no less for her now that it's her turn.  

Looking back down together, both he and Rayla clearly see his cock straining the fabric taut. The large damp patch with a freshly darkened spot around the tip spreads slowly as they watch.  Being unwrapped like a winter solstice package has gotten him far more excited than expected.

"This is alright? It's not too much, is it?" There's concern there, but he can hear the too innocent tone coloring her words. She wants this. She wants him. And she knows full well that he feels the same. It's enough to make his eyes slam shut for a moment as he fights for composure.   

Blushing anew and taking a calming breath, he prays to every deity that this wouldn’t turn into an embarrassing tale to hopefully laugh about later together.  He turns a little to meet Rayla's eyes. "It's super okay. Keep going. Do whatever you want with me. Just -  just gently. Gently. Everything's pretty sensitive down there."

A tiny grin works across her face but her words are devoid of teasing. "I'll go slow. Talk to me though. Let me know if you like something. Or if it doesn't feel right. I'll stop and try something else."

He hears the slightest gasp as her fingers slid under his waistband, his skin hot to the touch compared to her. They seem to steel their nerves, taking in a deep breath as one.  He stays partially turned toward her to watch her face. She drops her gaze down his body, eyes half-lidded and dark. 

She drags his remaining clothing down. He hisses when the tip gets caught in the fabric and feels every inch of his cock sliding against the cloth as it's slowly pulled down, the hard length forced against his thigh before it clears his undershorts. His cock springs eagerly up, smacking against his lower belly and bouncing slightly before settling to point stiffly upright, twitching and flushed. 

It's throbbing slightly in time with the beat of his heart.   

His pulse is absolutely pounding, breath erratic, but he's still able to hear a soft whimper released next to his ear. Rayla’s eyes visibly widen, pupils blown. Her jaw drops and her ears perk up,  burning as bright red as her face. The steady heaving of her chest that Callum had been feeling against his side begins to increase as her breathing quickens. 

Her eyebrows shoot up.

"O-oh!" Is all she manages, completely entranced. 

She doesn't seem intimidated or put off, and he's fairly sure she's isn't disappointed.

He watches her expression closely but isn't prepared when her eyes flit back up to meet his, her mouth still open in surprise. He knows it's probably the worst moment to start blushing, but a scarlet flush spreads across his cheeks like wildfire. Callum hopes the heat he feels in his face isn’t as obvious as it feels.

At least a dozen different thoughts pull him from one direction to another. 'Oh' could mean a lot of things after all.  "'Oh?'  Is that...a good 'oh' or a bad 'oh' or just a I-don't-know 'oh'? Or is it just an oh neat 'oh'? It - it's not an 'uh oh', is it?" 

Her tongue flicks out over her lips, and her eyes look glazed, almost hungry. Realizing her lapse into silence she finally finds her voice. "It's very much a good 'oh', more like an oh wow, lucky me 'oh'. " Her voice just keeps growing more breathless. He could barely hear her mumble under her breath. "Got such a big heart, 'course you'd...have a... a big..." She trails off and audibly swallows.

Something tight in his chest releases at her words. 

He smiles, tucking his head down, bashful and proud.  Size isn’t everything, but he's incredibly relieved Rayla  seems satisfied.  Times in the past when he or others had put himself down for his soft, gentle big heart flash through his memory and make him want to somehow send a message to let his past self know it was better being that way than any other. 

Rayla likes his big heart. 

And the equipment that matches how big and loving his heart is.  

If he could read her mind he imagines she's busy making nice with getting better acquainted with the source of what jabbed at her sometimes in the mornings they cuddled together or what she loves to tease and grind against in their more heated moments just like the one before.  

Slowly, tentatively, Rayla brushes the swollen, flared head of his cock with shy fingers, gasping softly when his shaft jumps slightly beneath her touch. She pulls her hand back in surprise before stroking a finger along the most prominent vein of his cock, tracing the line as delicately as she could, watching his face all the while. The skin is even smoother there than on the rest of his body, warm and thin and ever so soft, and she takes her time. She goes slow just as she'd promised. Her finger traces along the same vein again, then again, watching with interest as the head of his cock begins to well up with clear fluid.

Somewhere from far away Callum's aware he's clenching his jaw and grinding his teeth so hard that it wouldn't be a shock to discover a cracked tooth. His hips are squirming slightly from holding back the urge to thrust. 

Her fingers continue trailing down all the way to the groomed dark hair at the base. His length  twitches violently at her touch, almost like it has a mind of its own. Rayla gasps again right by his ear. Gaining more confidence with every touch and response, she grips him and cautiously slides her hand down his shaft, working his foreskin back to reveal the entire head only to gently work it back in place as her hand slowly rises up. 

His eyes roll back and his jaw hangs open. It takes all of the restraint that Callum has to not come in her calloused, delicate hand right then and there. His brow furrows as he takes a sharp breath. 

"Something like this, right?"

He hadn't known what to expect - clumsy touches, unpracticed movements, sure - but the bold, exploratory way she wields him has him in awe of her fearless, adventurous nature once more. 

It only adds to the challenge of trying to form words.

Staring down, her hand seems tiny in comparison to his size. He's never once thought of himself as particularly large, but with her hand looking so small around him he feels a surge of confidence and a strange, wild sense of accomplishment and pride.      

"Yes, just like that. You're doing -" he has to stop to groan as her hand tightens a bit in a tender squeeze. "Oh yeah, you're doing so good. That feels amazing. You're amazing." The blush on his face makes him feel as if he's been dipped in lava.

She regards him with a pleased look he doesn't have the brainpower to interpret. "Guide me?"

His eyes widen. She doesn't need any help at all. He's already falling apart from her touch, but he knows this is a request for more intimacy. She's inviting more closeness and a chance to connect even further. He leaps at the chance. 

He releases his hold on one of her legs and wraps his large hand around hers, engulfing it. Moving together, he teaches her a pleasing rhythm and a satisfyingly firm grip.

Rayla's mouth drops open and a fresh wave of heat warms her cheeks even pinker. Callum is certain her expression will be the first erotic drawing of many from today that will be filling the sketchbook that's totally not his that's currently hidden under his bed.  

After he is dripping and had coated both their hands and his shaft with precome she seems satisfied. Rayla takes his hand away and plants a kiss to the back of it before placing it on her thigh where he had it before. All on her own now, she drags her hand up and down his length. Base to tip. Slick and slow but more sure. Up and down, up and down, up, down, up and then doooown as Callum's eyes close in pleasure, pulse racing through him.

His breath hisses through clenched teeth when her other hand comes to inquisitively fondle at his sack beneath, lightly feeling her way around his balls. By the time it takes him to become aware that he might've begun to drool at her ministrations her hand is sliding away to lazily trace her fingers over his hipbone and glide up along his side to splay over his chest.

Her voice sounds a bit dreamy as if she's musing out loud rather than meaning to speak her thoughts to him."I didn't know you'd be so smooth. You're so warm and soft — not soft soft. I mean, you're very much hard. You're so hard and just...stiff and solid. Super stiff.  Like metal. It's amazing." 

She laughs and drops her forehead onto his shoulder, groaning at herself, "Look what you've done to me.  Just do me a favor and ignore the words coming out of my mouth right now."

Callum stifles back a snicker. "You know what's amazing? You."

"Well ,you are soft and hard and really smooth. And hot. All at the same time. It's a lot to take in."

He tries very hard not to comment, instead nodding sagely at her and struggling to keep a straight face.

"Oh, shut up." She smacks his arm lightly.

"But I didn't say anything!"

He gives a deep, guttural moan as she suddenly takes him in her hand firmly.

"Ah-ha! There we go. That shuts you up." Rayla smiles smugly, deeply amused.

He knows she hadn't missed the way he'd sucked in a deep breath when she stroked up and down again,  grip less hesitant but still slow and applying a nice pressure.  Confidence rising even more, she sets a measured rhythm, their little interlude over and forgotten in the moment. 

He grows harder than he could ever remember being, the tip of her longest finger and thumb just shy of meeting around him as he starts pulsing in her palm at the sensual, teasing motions. Any attempt to block out the slick noises of her hand moving along him or the intense warmth between their bodies at every place where they touch simply does not work. Sweat covers his torso and Callum's jaw begins to quiver. 

The more he tries to ignore the building pressure the more persistent it becomes until the temptation to push his hips into her grip starts to rob him of every other thought and threatens to unravel his remaining sanity.  

Needy whimpers and desperate moans drop from his lips as Rayla’s touch drives him wild. His head falls back on her shoulder, mouth gaping open to pant, hands gripping onto her thighs for dear life as he sits his weight back slightly while still standing, knees long grown weak. 

When she circles her thumb on his cockhead the tip gives a weak spurt that makes them both gasp. A telltale tightening of his muscles follows as Rayla takes him from crown to hilt with a tighter grip.

"Don’t forget," she murmurs near his ear, her voice ragged. "You’re supposed to tell me when you like something."

Callum moans lowly as her fingers begin to lazily trace over him, finding it difficult to form words. "I - that. All of it. Everything." 

His eyes suddenly widen at the sensation of her fingertips lightly dragging along the hard shaft, her nails running up and down his length. Once she starts rubbing just below the head on the underside he knows he's in trouble.

One hand releases his white knuckle grip on her pants, flying over to clamp around the base of his cock to stave off the orgasm boiling in his blood.  

"Shit, Rayla, wait! Just wait a second." His cheeks flush with a mix of embarrassment and extreme arousal. "I really like that, but if you keep doing it I - um - I won't last very long."

Understanding floods her face. She nods and counters this new information.

"It's okay. I'll be more careful, and we can take breaks. Little rests for when it's too much so we can make this last longer. Sound good?" 

"Yeah," he says. Then again in confirmation. "Yeah, that's a good plan. I'll try to warn you when I'm uh...gonna not last very long." He blushes again.

Rayla covers his hand with her own and pries his fingers away, understanding and all too pleased to have her hand there to take up a vigil instead of his. She resumes her stroking, building up speed then backing off and ramping up. Over. And. Over again. Like a test to see if he's going to crack and plead for her to let him rest a moment to gather his stamina.   

His hips shallowly buck despite wanting to hold still and let her go at her own pace.

He wants to be patient. He really does. But he realizes he can't hold out against the teasing treatment Rayla is gifting him with.  It's a losing battle, for he is outmatched on every front and, he can admit it to himself, severely out of his depth. 

When his body can't take any more he cries out as he winds his hips back before pumping them forward in one smooth motion, effectively thrusting into the handhold her fist made around him.

"Holyfuck, Callum," Rayla's voice trembles, a perfect reflection of how he's feeling.

Her grip tightens around him instinctively.

"Rayla, you're incredible. Your hands...oh shit, incredible." Callum grunts as he moves incrementally faster, setting a rhythm to assist her even though he's already aware she made for a quick study.  She took his pace and ran with it, all the way until he was getting dangerously close to finishing before either is ready. 

The muscles of his abdomen start shifting and quivering as he gets closer and closer to release.  His breath comes in fast little huffs and groans while his hands have somehow found some fabric from Rayla's skin tight pants to clench onto. 

Her legs tighten around him, drawing his back flush against her front. Fully thrusting his hips into her grip, the world narrows down to how desperate he is for her; he wants her so badly. Wants whatever she has to give.  

A thought flicks past his mind briefly and all he can focus on from that point on is if she's thinking about having him on his back while she was moving over him, or, his blush burns all the more brightly, if she is thinking of him moving over her.

Maybe she's thinking not just of him moving over her but of him moving while he was inside her, filling her.

His cock jerks and her name slips past his lips. 

Heat floods his crotch and runs up his spine. A charge is building all through him, all over him, and she must know it, feel it as she feeds it with her touches.

"Rayla!" He shouts throwing his head back and squeezing his eyes shut. Her hands continue to move over him though until his hips jog hard and his hold on her thighs begin to rip the fabric of her pants. "Rayla!" He warns again, frantic and hoarse when she keeps going.  

Cock visibly throbbing in rhythm to his furiously beating heart and growing even harder with each passing second, Callum feels himself hovering dangerously close to losing all control. Just as his length tenses in preparation and twitches demandingly her hands pull away and all the exquisite sensations stop. 

Thwap!

His shaft kicks up hard against his stomach before jerking into the air at the loss of contact. 

His eyes shot open.  Body teetering on the cusp of a precipice and jaw clenching, straining to hold back, Callum feels his release pounding threateningly before it ebbs and recedes after a long moment, leaving behind a heavy aching.

"Wha? Rayla, what - what're you -?"   

"It's alright. Just not yet, Callum. Not yet. I'm not done. I wanna make it last for you. Will you help me make it last?"

All of a sudden her mouth is against his, warm and soft. An apology and a search for understanding. At first the kiss is gentle, but when Callum's brain starts to function again and he begins to respond, it becomes consuming. Rayla’s tongue flicks out against his lips, teasing them apart to delve into his mouth before pulling at his bottom lip. When they part at last, his head is in a pleasant fog and it takes him a moment to respond.

"Yeah, yes, of course, Rayla. Make it last. I want it to last. You're just too wonderful. You're driving me crazy." He pants, sorry that she has to stop at all in the fist place. "I think I'm okay now. Go ahead." 

"Driving you crazy, huh? I'd say I'm...drivin' yer nuts." She laughs lightly, giving him a hug and a quick squeeze around his middle, feminine pride in her tone and a healthy amount of humor. 

"Oh, very funny. Accurate. But can we not, though?" It's not like he had planned on being so sensitive and receptive to everything she's doing.  

"I like it. Driving you crazy." Her look is sinful. "Consider it vengeance."

He groans as she eases his shaft down so that it's more perpendicular to his body. After taking a long look at the new perspective the different angle offers she lets go, a giggle bubbling up as his cock instantly bounds upright and bobbles up and down before settling.  

Callum closes his eyes to send up a silent prayer to whatever might be listening to give him strength when he sees Rayla wrap her hand once again around the thick length jutting up proudly between his legs.

Her grip is firmer than before, adding in a faint twisting motion, which immediately has him making a desperate whining noise in his throat as he grips at her thighs.  It takes him by surprise when her other hand joins in, massaging his balls despite having just alluded to them in their words beforehand.  Whimpering softly at the the dual sensations, he trembles before her hand suddenly moves up and down more vigorously. Curses leave his lips in a yelp, overwhelmed at the sudden and powerful stimulation after so much of her teasing previously, but it feels so fantastically good he wouldn't change a thing.

His hold on Rayla's thighs tightens again and his hips begin canting into her grip, low moans escaping each time her hand slides up. "Fuck. Gonna - gonna come soon - getting close," he mutters, his words coming in fragments. "You're so amazing. Can't - can't believe how it feels...oh, Rayla." His cock grows more rigid as the shaft pulses slightly. He whimpers a little louder, knowing what's soon to happen, and even though he dreads bringing an end to being with her this way, his muscles clench in delighted anticipation.

"It's alright," Rayla gasps, her hot breath grazing his pulse point. "I’ll make you feel good, but not quite yet. You gotta tell me what you want." Blunt teeth nibble Callum's neck, drawing the flesh tight and sucking until he is sure that she had left a stark purple bruise. His hips thrust erratically, bucking sharply then moving haltingly as he pants and groans with restraint. The unrelenting pressure inside of him is bad enough on its own, but the way she's wrapped herself around him, an arm around his chest holding him close, fingers playing at one of his nipples, legs tightening their hold, is even worse. 

He's shaking. There's no way he's going to survive this for much longer.

"Almost. ALmost. Amostalmostalmost. I'm - I'm so close. I can't- Slow. Slow, slowslowslow. Rayla, I'm gonna-" 

Rayla must have felt his cock growing even harder within her grip and some part of him is pleased that she knows it means he was just about to finish. 

When she lets him go this time his shaft jumps repeatedly into the air, seeking her out. His excited hips can't help jerking forward and back a few times before coming to a halt. She grins wide against his shoulder to stifle her soft, giddy laughter and hugs her arms around him, soothing him with fingers carding through his hair.  

Rayla laughs, low and breathy against his neck as she peppers him with light kisses. She withdraws just enough to whisper, "That's it. I knew you could do it. Hold on just a little longer for me, love. You're doing so good."

He pants heavily as he pulls himself away from the pitfall he'd been wavering over. The rush of his pulse becomes a bit less needy.  Callum releases a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding in once the mounting pressure subsides.   

"Tell me what you want." 

Callum can barely think.

"You know what I want."

"Tell me, Callum. Please, I want to -" Rayla says, a note of pleading mixing in with her assertive tone.

"Anything," Callum breathes, interrupting her. 

He's red in the face, sweaty and equally frustrated as he is loving the drawn out tension, the journey and the anticipation of when she'd take him to the awaiting destination. "Everything. I just want you, Rayla." He's panting, and it doesn't even matter to him how desperate and hoarse he sounds. How needy and pleading. "I just want you. Love me. Show me how you love me." He trusts her. He trusts that she will take care of him exactly as she always has, in a multitude of ways, but newly in this way as well.

"Good." Rayla whispers, "I'll show you.  I'll take care of you.  I'll take such good care you, my heart."

The palms of her hands work down over his abs just past his bellybutton, playing right on either side of where his cock hovers next to. Her fingers continue to lightly rake up and down in winding patterns causing him to tense and flex. With Rayla’s hands on him like that he's throbbing and aching. He can't stay still. After she kisses him Callum notices he's dripping precome everywhere.  

A single fingertip drifts up and down grazing along the underside of his cock as she licks the rim of his ear, sucking on the lobe before scraping it with her teeth and mouthing at his neck.

His cock jumps up towards her finger, mouth hanging open and an almost pained moan sounding from deep in his throat.  

Her breathing is almost as ragged as his when she speaks quietly right next to his ear, "Is this what you want? Tell me how it feels."

The bold actions and confident words aren't even diminished by her face and ears flaming red. He finds it extremely endearing that while Rayla seems to have all the bravado in the world saying something like that, coupled with how she was touching him, it's still able to leave her so flustered. 

Nodding his head rapidly is all he can manage at first. He can't remember how talking works. Words. He has to use his words.  It's useless though since she's pressing an open-mouthed kiss to his neck and it dislodges a soft groan from Callum’s throat instead of the reply he was working towards.

"Rayla," he finally manages, hands gripping tighter on her thighs as he struggles to string together something coherent for her.  "It's amazing - you're making me feel so good, so fucking good. Everything - you're so good!" He bites his lip and fights to keep still. 

Rayla makes a gratified little noise and wraps both hands around him to stroke in tandem.

He throws his head back and groans out.

It feels so genuinely incredible that a few stray tears fall from his eyes.

This time the pace is long and tortuous as if she's taking her time. Even though Rayla pumps him softly and tenderly he notices that the force behind her strokes is growing more and more powerful. He's having a difficult time keeping his mouth from hanging open and suppressing the noises building up in his throat. After only a handful of seconds he gives up. 

"Oh, Rayla, please," Callum's guttural moan of her name changes to harsh, rapid panting. "Rayla…" But his words quickly leave him, and all he can do is hope that Rayla knows he means please more, please faster, please slower, please tighter. 

He doesn't realize he's been brokenly gasping his thoughts aloud, and she fixes him with a downright filthy look through her lashes and slows her pace even more, gripping him tighter on the upstroke and adding in maddening thumb swirls over the tip before swiftly plunging her hands all the way down to sloooowly stroke up again.  

He exhales through a mostly closed mouth, biting his bottom lip harder as the muscles in his abdomen flex sporadically.

For one desperate moment Callum hovers on the edge of giving in, but the thought of prolonging the moment urged him to hold on, fight for even just a few more seconds. He's going to come though. It's inevitable. His entire body is strung tight, vibrating with tension, and his balls inching up higher around the base of his shaft feel full to bursting.

All of her efforts encourage a moan that sounds more like a shout, his panting breaths turning rapid and sharp while every part of him starts trembling in anticipation.

He isn’t going to last much longer, he can feel it, and Rayla isn’t helping as she keeps squeezing her hands around him every time she strokes up in a tugging motion.  

He is trying to last, draw it out as far as he's able, control his breathing, anything.  It's as if Rayla senses what he's doing, and she leans in close to breathe by his ear, "It's alright, Callum. Don't hold back anymore. Finish for me." Just her voice alone could have been enough to make Callum surrender the fight, nevermind everything else she's doing.

She keeps her hands still around him as he pumps into her grip.

Hard. Fast. Faster.

Then slower. Forceful. 

"Mm, that’s it. Let go, Callum," Rayla says thickly, taking him right over the edge. "It's okay, love, I've got you. Show me how I make you feel."

He recognizes his own words from when he'd used his hands to pleasure her. 

It makes him freeze, his muscles going completely stiff. He knows he should not watch. He has the harebrained idea that maybe he can hold back just a bit more if he doesn't have the visual stimulation, yet he can't seem to help staring down feeling how his cock hardens to steel, swelling even larger, seeming to grow a little bit longer and the girth just that much more thicker. 

He sees her small hand tighten around him as he pulls back for another thrust.

Her other hand shifts from his base to cup his balls as they flex.

As he bucks up into her warm grip pulsations race along his length.

When her fist slides down to the base at the apex of his thrust his tip twitches, entire cock tensing once, twice, and then -

Rayla's the thunderstorm he's caught in, lightning blazing down in a searing blue bolt to shatter him like a struck tree, sending bark splintering and flying through the air all in a single second as the world flashes white. 

A low, guttural groan accompanies the heat that barrels up his cock, shooting out in a hot, thick load.  After the first powerful jet launches up and splatters down onto his chest and stomach his hips helplessly give a series of small, sharp thrusts, shouting as he feels the bursts of cum that follow in rapid succession. His cock gives a firm jerk within Rayla's grip every time it did so. 

He gasps her name in short, erratic bursts of sound, breathing long grown ragged and voice breaking. "R - Rayla! Rayla, Rayla, a - hahh - Ray - Rayla...!" Callum couldn't stop moaning, holding on tight to both of her thighs, fingers digging in. "Ah, don't stop, no, don't stop. K-keep going. Oh, fuck, Rayla. You're amazing. So fucking good." Her name is the last coherent sound he makes before he chokes out a moan, jaw hanging loose. His hips shallowly thrust into her fist as Rayla finishes pumping out his release, the warm mess running down his abs and dripping over Rayla's hand. 

"Love you," he gasps, Rayla's hand moving up and down slower now, bringing forth another soft pulse from the still throbbing shaft. His hips buck and then he is bathing her hand and his cock as one final load spills over the head running in rivulets down his shaft. Soon, hot, glistening trails are sliding down to gather in his pants or drip off into the grass, some even managing to hit his legs further down as well as the top of his boots. 

Distantly he hears her voice, soft and soothing as she whispers praises to him. Rayla wipes her hand on his pants and strokes the damp hair from his forehead. Gradually he blinks the world back into focus.

Callum takes stock of the situation and finds that he's nothing but trembling limbs, a head heavy on her shoulder, and all but slumped against her. His hands probably had left marks from how tightly he had been clutching onto her. 

"Love you, too." Rayla says, voice breathless. "That has got to be the hottest thing we've ever done." She gestures at the ribbons and dots of glistening fluid that covered his abdominal muscles and the shaft of his cock. "But the bad news is our clothes are a mess..."

His mind is so clear now. He remembers her tossing his shirt behind her somewhere. She can clean herself up with it when they find it, and he has an idea of what to do about the rest of their clothes if they make a little detour down to the creek.

"...And the good news, "Rayla continues, "is that I'm pretty sure there's no way my hand isn't pregnant. Congrats, we're going to have a 5th finger!"

At that announcement she promptly dissolves into laughter. Callum stares at her bright, joyous face, feeling so blessed, and laughs along with her.

Much later and covered with strategically placed smears of mud, Callum and Rayla arrive back at the castle with Opeli hot on their heels.

"Why are you covered in mud? And where have you two been? It's nearly time for dinner. I've just come from talking your brother out of sending a search party for you," Opeli crosses her arms. 

Rayla opens her mouth to explain but Callum is quicker, "We were out training in swordfighting, my request, and I might have slipped and fallen in some mud."

"Can't take him anywhere. Gotta work on your footwork some more next time, Callum." Rayla shrugs and offers up a helpless expression.  

"And I might have pulled Rayla in when she went to help me up. And we tired to get cleaned up down at the creek and now here we are!" Callum's eyes are twinkling with palpable mischief.

Opeli looks from one to the other before deciding it's a lost cause. She flings up her hands, "Just go get yourselves washed up and presentable."

Just as they are almost out of earshot Callum sees Corvus step alongside the cleric and his amused voice carries over. "Falling in the mud? Is that what the kids call it these days? Back in my time it was called getting caught in a net."

Callum's never seen Opeli look not put together, but now she's positively flabbergasted, mouth and eyes wide. Corvus is smirking down at her, and Callum hears her neck crack with how fast she'd turned to look back at him and Rayla. Before he can see her expression though, Rayla grabs his sleeve and tugs him, along with the four-fingered muddy hand print on his butt, out of sight.