ততততত

𝐈 𝐌 𝐎 𝐆 𝐄 𝐍

Tobin will enter this bedroom at any moment, shattering my intuition and mind with just a single thrum of his heartbeat.

The mere thought of him traipsing his calloused palms against my bare skin already has my cheeks flushing, because tonight, I don't intend to keep those fantasies of him a dream. I want those scars against my lips and fingertips, every detail of him mapped and charted until I have every immaculate flaw memorized. For him, I will submit. I will fall to my knees and bow before him, if he commands.

Not that Tobin would let me.

I dress in one of those nightdresses he secretly adores, the thin white silk one where the straps tend to slip down my arms. My moonlight blonde hair pools over my shoulders in velvet waves, yearning to be combed away by eager thieving hands. Pillows lay around the hearth, as I dream of him making love to me in the flickering orange light of the fire.

This will be our marriage, our bridge to euphoria where two become one. Every law will tell us it's wrong, yet we've clung to this for so long that neither of us can let go.

My balcony door squeaks open, followed by the tepid patter of boots on my bedroom floor. Over my shoulder, I meet the gaze of a thief with kind irises. His attention shifts from my eyes down lower, an attempt to be discreet but fails so miserably.

It's an almost inaudible whisper from him, a silent reverent curse: "Fuck." He quickly regains himself, letting the mutters of his coarse cautious voice fill the space. "I thought you might put an arrow through my head for what I said last night."

"I thought about it," I answer coyly.

There's no alcohol to blame for the way my mind races in his presence, how I strategically plan how I'm going to strip every piece of fabric off his body until it reveals that soft heart.

He tilts his head, handsomely. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Because maybe you weren't so far off," I take a step towards him, closing the gap between our bodies. "Because you were right."

He drops his voice an octave. "Don't be inflating my ego, princess."

"I'm running out of time until the wedding to Leighton, which means we're running out of time," I take another step towards him so I stand within arm's reach. Those large calloused hands sift through my white silk nightdress. Towering over me, he leans towards the grey mist of my eyes, his kind gaze never wavering. "I don't want my virginity to be taken out of fear. I want it to be done in love."

"Oh," he lips purse in unease, but he lets the feeling waft away until all that remains is a tender skeleton of a man. He lifts his hand, knuckles dancing over the rosy blush on my cheeks until he twirls a lock of moonlit hair behind my ear. "This better not be because it's what the drunken asshole in me wants."

"I love the drunken asshole in you."

"You can say no."

I narrow my gaze, a silent challenge to my thief. "I want you to make love to me, Tobin Parias."

A delicious smirk laces those lips. "Are you begging me?"

"It's an order," I stand on tiptoes just to get a brush of my lips against his in our phantom of a kiss. "All I ask is that you obey your princess's command."

A deep chuckle rumbles from his chest before he acts like a whirlwind. He flushes my back up against the wall, then pulls his sword from his scabbard to drag it against the length of my throat. The iron glides against me, never to slice, but to let the cool metal satiate against my warm skin. I'm caged against him, secured by the strength of his biceps and sword.

Tobin's lips graze the curve of my ear. "This won't be just a meaningless fuck, princess. What you want me to do will stab me in the heart again and again, because I will love you knowing that you're being sent to be with another man."

"He's not my husband," I squeak as the dull edge of the blade descends down over the swells of my breasts. Cold. The metal is tantalizingly cold. "You are."

Something feral snaps inside of him, and his sword clammers to the ground.

"Say that again."

"Tonight, you are my husband," I whisper. He threads his fingers into my hair. "You're the only one worthy of such a gift, even if you are petty and predictable. So for now, and every nightfall after, this will be the realm where our love can exist. This will—"

He silences me with a possessive symphonic kiss. Each movement of his mouth remains hard, a wrenching hot kiss that will surely swell my lips. With a satisfied sigh, I let his tongue entangle with mine, tasting of oaths that cross that oh so soft heart. He came back for me, to navigate this hell-ridden life with a princess whose hope dims day by day.

Tobin bites my bottom lip as the kiss ends, a heavy breath waning against my flushed cheeks. He takes only a small step backward, just enough space to let his shirt fly from his skin. His honey sunkissed flesh glows in the hearthlight, and my palms swoop over those now barren shoulders to the muscles on his back. I dig my nails into those deformed whipping scars, sighing at the comfort of each ridge.

They feel familiar, beautifully familiar.

A thieving hand takes the strap of my dress in his hand, lowering it off my shoulder. The softest of kisses replace the fallen fabric, igniting my bloodstream with an incomparable warmth. My body combusts like fire at the slightest brush of him.

His lips caress the shell of my ear, each hot breath pounding against my skin. "Moonlight... you'll feel like moonlight."

Moonlight.

And he will be the sky and stars.

A stolen kiss to my lips, then jaw, then throat and collar. Hands lace into the silk nightdress and tug downward. He kisses my heartbeat, my exposed chest, the valley between my breasts. I weave my hands into his hair, and zealously, my thief kneels before his princess.

He views me as royalty, as a woman in this world he will forever worship. My thief has fallen to his knees, never to rise for anyone again.

He kisses my stomach, then nips at the outer of my thighs, delivering special care to the cut gifted by Leighton—a silent promise that this will not end with Leighton.

He drops my nightdress so it pools at my feet, and I step out of the fabric. He's expecting undergarments to pry away, but no. I stand before him in skin. Naked. Bare. Only dressed in the palms of a thief.

"Fuck," he sucks in a heavy breath, before those kind eyes fall from my gaze to the space between my legs.

I tilt his chin back upwards to me. Now, I'm ready to command him. "Take your boots off."

It's clumsy the way he shucks away his boots, all while trying to maintain a kneeling position. I giggle as he tosses the last one to the side, only to have him meet my eyes with a beaming smile.

"Rise."

He rises until he towers over where I stand. On tiptoes, I press my lips to his. One kiss. One taste of him.

"You told me to never submit, to never bow to no one," I breathe against his cheek. "But tonight, I want you to close your eyes for just a minute and think about if I did."

I begin to kneel before him, only to have him hoist me back up. "Don't you fucking dare bow before me. I'm not worthy of that."

"Close your eyes. Don't move. That's an order."

There's a challenging glare in his brown irises, but he seals them shut and obeys. I step up against him, my bare chest grazing the muscular hard planes of his body. He can feel everything about me, every unveiled curve and soft surface. A moan escapes him as his palms scoop around my hips, pulling me tight against his own. His cock twitches within his trousers.

"I told you not to move," I say, all while adding a brief tsk. I pry his hands away. "You're so predictable."

"Let me open my fucking eyes," he grits. A tendon in his neck strains. Power ignites in my veins at the sound of him nearly begging. "Please."

Instead, I hook my fingers into the hem of his trousers, lowering them down his sculpted chiseled physique. His abdomen frames him and the structured v-muscle so well. These parts of Tobin are unknown to me, one of the most magnificent secrets kept by him. Already, I feel so bare, so vulnerable to him, and it's time for my thief to be the same. For only then, we will unify.

It's almost glorious the way I strip him down with patience. Blue veins throb as I lower the trousers, all of them guiding me to his burning desire.

His strained voice murmurs a helpless "Imogen..." before his erection springs out of his trousers, fully hardened and aimed towards me. Angry. Desperate. Heavy. Ready for release.

His pants fall to the floor as I take a wary gulp, my gaze tracked on his erected length. I wasn't sure what to expect, but gods, he's large. Beautifully so.

When I meet his eyes, I find that he's disobeyed me once more and they're wide open. A noise rumbles from his chest, a hunger roaring deep under his skin as he licks his lips. He's shrouded in lustful darkness. The beast inside of him has been caged for so long, and tonight, it will feast.

His large palm reaches down to his erection, his fist eliciting a long pleasurable stroke—just enough to make his eyes roll back.

"I told you to..." My words fail. I breathlessly watch him touch himself once more, losing all ability to speak. His muscles respond in harmony, and the soft almost inaudible groan he makes becomes the song I want to hear again and again.

"Nervous, princess?"

My heartbeat echoes in my ears, and I can't remove my eyesight from his hand stroking his cock, but the gesture gets cut short as he kneels before me on his knees once more.

"This is the only way I want to bow before the queen."

"Queen?"

A slight smirk touches his lips. "You will be queen. Don't kid yourself."

"Okay, my king."

"That's where you're wrong," that smirk transforms into a euphoric grin. "Because a worthy king would never do this—" he pries my thighs wide open and dips between my legs. I feel a hot breath against my heated core. "—or this—" His tongue snakes against my folds, a growlish satisfaction echoing from him. In an almost instinctive pleasurable response, my body turns wobbly like pond water.

He collects me in his arms, placing me against the pillows at the edge of the hearth. He guides my legs over his shoulders, my glistening arousal exposed to him, especially in the hearthlight. "—or this." When he latches his lips upon me, I bite my lip to contain the bliss drugging my bloodstream.

With clenched fingers into the cushions beneath me, I buck my hips on instinct to meet every eager lap of his tongue. Those thieving hands carry me as he builds an orgasm from scratch, murmuring the sweetest of curses after every hitched breath.

I bury my hands in his dark hair. "Tobin..."

"Moonbeam?" he stops, lifting his head. His mouth drips of my glistening arousal, illuminated in firelight. "You can always tell me to stop."

"Keep going," I breathe before I let my head fall back against the pillow.

My thief feasts as each taste brings me closer to the stars. A calloused padded finger presses against my clit, tenderly rubbing circles as his tongue destroys the stone walls of my heart. Moment by moment passes by, and we're falling deeper and deeper into the arms of another.

Just when I'm about to unfold, just when heaven and earth will collide...

He pulls away.

"Tobin," I hiss in annoyance, pulling at his hair to get his goddamn mouth back where I want it, but instead he shelters me with his godly anatomy.

He positions himself above me, those lust-drunken eyes meeting mine. There's a whole life inside of him, a kind of unfathomable eternity I wish to exist in forever. But I can't.

For only after nightfall will in our love, our marriage, our union will we come alive.

I hook my legs around his back, tethering him closer as he twines our bodies in tandem. Every part of him beats for me, as if I were his heart and everything else were the vessels. Our bond is the blood that keeps us alive, that keeps us going day and night. Together, we will work as one.

My breath hitches, a slight hesitation when I realize what is to come between us.

His expression softens. "You know we can stop if this terrifies you."

I gnaw on my bottom lip. "I'll shoot you with an arrow if we stop now."

"You saying that makes me so fucking hard."

"Tobin!"

"Call me petty and predictable."

I blush, my cheeks raving red. At the same moment, I feel the shaft of his length drag through silken folds.

"You're petty," I gulp. His lips descend to my throat, biting and sucking kisses along the column. An enticing distraction. "And predictable."

"Gods, I love that." He hisses, easing a bite with a drawl of his tongue.

The nerves seem to catch up with me the moment Tobin's fun fades. He uses a hand and strokes the stray strands of hair from my cheek, then leans down to kiss my forehead. He's so close to me, yet not close enough to steal what I told him to take. I am his. I will forever be his, no matter the storm that rages or the tidals that collapse upon us.

"I'll be gentle with you," he vows. "For the first time."

I nod my head, a loss for words.

"Are you ready?" he whispers. "You have the elixir, right?"

Again, I nod my head.

"Say yes, princess."

The moment the consent leaves my lips, I let my eyes fall shut. Tobin peppers a few stray kisses, light butterfly brushes against barren skin to erase any remaining fear. Yet, how can I be afraid when the thief who holds me now has become my knight?

When his lips kiss my own, he lets his tongue twist inside, plundering every ounce of oxygen. I sigh at his control, only to realize the kiss is meant to distract and silence.

We're positioned so intimately as I feel his tip ease in, a muffled groan breaking from him if it weren't for the deepened intense kiss. It feels like an intrusion, a sharp pain stretching my insides into two. I clamp my teeth down on Tobin's lip, only to have him hiss in pain.

Our kiss breaks, and I claw my nails into his scars to brace myself. Panic ensues before I can stop it. "Gods, does it always hurt?."

"Just give it time. You're not used to it yet."

"If this is what sex feels like, we're never doing this again."

He chuckles at this. "Imogen, it's fine. I'm not even halfway in yet."

"What?" I lift my head, gazing at where our two bodies meet. "Oh gods..."

"I'm gonna keep going now."

"Tobin—"

With one thrust, he completely sheaths his length inside of me. A sharpness rings through my entire body at the intrusion. I feel him inside of me. Tobin. My thief with a soft heart and kind eyes. As the world drowns away, his erratic warm breath fans against my skin. His face twists in pleasured agony.

"For fuck's sake," he hisses, his breath shaking. "I'm not gonna last long and we haven't fucking started."

In his curse and confession, the pain that radiates from my core dims, until the feeling of him inside of me transforms into pleasure. I roll my hips, exploring what I can do to bring us both to heaven. We belong in the stars, creating names for ourselves in the constellations. All he has to do is take my hand and steal me, pillage me, because I am ready to be his wife.

Soon, the entirety of my body responds to his own. He is the moon and I am his moonlight, and as long as we stay in each other's orbit nothing can tear us apart. Not death. Not war. Not a king that's descended into darkness.

With every rampant thrust, we somehow grow closer. Sweat slickened skin chafes against mine, and we ride rhythmic waves until we reach a new world. I move with him, causing a moan to escape him, followed by the grip of his nails into the cushions. This is Tobin in every form imaginable.

And if this is Tobin, then this is love.

My orgasm hits me like lightning, and I fall within Tobin's arms.

Magnificent.

He feels magnificent.

Tobin reaches euphoria after, releasing deep inside of me—the warmth of a lover. In that moment, I see peace. For so long he's fought wars in his heart, and tonight, he found his ceasefire, his surrender. I am his safe haven, his life in a desolate wasteland.

Love.

This is all in love.

He hooks a leg around me and rolls our sweat-drenched bodies over so I lay on top. I breathe in his evergreen musk, lifting my head up to meet those kind eyes as he strokes my blonde hair from my face.

"Wife," he murmurs, then kisses my temple. "Spare me for another night."

I'll always spare him. Always choose him. I hope when war rages, I'll always find him.

But for now, we have hours until dawn arrives, and there's so much a husband and wife can do. Instead of worrying about our demise, I focus on the hope laying before me.

I whisper one word in his ear, and it sends him overboard: "Again?"

── •✧• ──

There you have it, folks. Tobigen has done the deed. This was always the time when it would happen between them. I wanted it to be intimate, to be personal to the point it almost felt intrusive. Still, this is a first draft of this chapter and even I can't see it as perfect.

Anyways, remember to vote, comment, and share the OAN story if you are enjoying it. Also, thank you for helping me reach 5k this week! It's a huge milestone for me!