Chapter 105: Married

The reception ended slowly. People were mostly too drunk to leave that night and ended up staying in the various guest rooms around the castle. Laura and Adolf retired as soon as Raven said that they had the rest of the cleanup in hand. Laurel was a bit nervous as she realized that she wouldn't be returning to the room she had been staying in that night. Raven had already told her that they had already moved all of her things to the luna’s quarters and Adolph was clear that he intended to spend the night with her.
What would that mean she wasn't exactly sure. She didn’t have much of a concept of what he intended to do to consummate their marriage. Was sleeping in the same bed enough or would he want sex?
“Are you okay?”
Laura wasn't entirely sure she could answer that question. She supposed she had been preparing for it in some way. In her past life, she had tried to prepare herself. She shuddered at the thought. She didn't think Adolf would leave her the way Basil had left her, but the sting of rejection was still at the back of her mind.
Alice scoffed, *Don’t be ridiculous*. *Adolph is nothing like his son.*
They reached the second to the top floor and turned down a long corridor. It struck her that she had never been on this floor either. Basil and her old suites were several floors down.
“This floor is ours,” he said, leading her down the hall. “On the left is the king’s wing and on the right is the queen’s.”
She wondered for a moment if Olivia had ever lived in the Queen’s wing and if she would find some remnant of Olivia’s life in her new chambers.
She hoped not.
Adolph led her through several doors. Each room they entered seemed more lavish than the one before it, decorated gold and fine fabrics. Each table, chair, and dresser gleamed with fresh polish and a light scent hung in the air, but there was something odd about it.
The air seemed a bit stale as if no one had been in the rooms for ages.
“I don't tend to sleep here,” Adolph said after a moment. “I prefer sleeping closer to the barracks honestly, but that's hardly an appropriate place for our wedding night.”
She looked at him surprised, “You don't sleep in your own quarters?”
Adolf chuckled, “I'm the king. The entire castle is my quarters.”
She scoffed. It was such a high-handed thing to say, but she couldn't argue with him. He gestured her toward the couch in front of the fireplace and kneeled beside it to start the fire.
“I have no interest in forcing you, Laurel. If you decide that it's too much, I'd be happy to simply sleep beside you.”
Laurel stared at him at a loss for words. He couldn’t be serious when he said that.
“You… don’t want to?”
Adolph let out a breath as the wood began to crackle and pop in the heart. He stood and returned to sit beside her.
“Do you remember what I told you? About wanting nothing more than to take you to bed?” Her face burned. She nodded timidly. “I still mean that, but I am a man of my word. I will not force you to do anything you do not want.”
Laurel was shocked into silence. It was incredible to hear him say it. She drew closer, tentative and a bit nervous. Her heart was racing as if she had run several miles to get to this room.
In some ways, she had. She reached up to cup his jaw in her hand and got up on her knees.
“I… want to,” she said, meeting his gaze. “I just… don’t know what to expect.”
Adolph swallowed the pang of anger and the grunt of desire that went through him. After Basil’s confession and all of Adolph’s suspicions, he’d wondered if Laurel would compare him to his son. It had been a bit uncomfortable to think about Laurel as having once been with his son, but her words shook him.
He swallowed and caressed her cheek, “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” she said, grazing her lips across his.
Adolph leaned forward to bring their lips together in a brief kiss before licking into her mouth. She gasped and slid her hands around his shoulders. He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her against him gently as they kissed and he ran his hands over her hips, getting her used to the feel of his hands on her body.
She shuddered a bit in his arms and gasped as he sucked her tongue into his mouth and groped her.
“Okay?” Adolph asked.
She nodded timidly, not meeting his gaze. She couldn’t. The weight and heat of his hand on her hip were doing strange and wonderful things to her inside. As he slid his hand around to take a firm grip on her ass, her stomach jolted and her hips twitched. He let out a soft, pleased sound.
He grunted as his blood started to heat and desire burned in him.
His wolf growled, pushing and urging for more, but he held back. They had all night. No one would take her from him now. He pulled her into his lap, settling her hips against his and guiding her to roll her hips against his. Pleasure shot through him, drawing a groan from his chest as she moaned, soft a pleading.
Laurel trembled at the zip of pleasure that went through her and shifted her hips against his trying to feel it again. She rolled her hips and gasped as their gazes met. His eyes were hungry, staring at her. A flush graced his cheeks and his gaze was so intense she thought she might burst into flames.
She yelped and scrambled to wrap her arms around him and her legs around his waist as Adolph surged up from the couch. He held her against him with one hand and twined the fingers of his other hand through her hair, pulling her into another kiss. Rather than tender, he seemed to want to devour her. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, pressing their hips together as he walked through the chamber.
Her stomach flipped with excitement and anxiety.
He lowered her onto the softness of the bed. The blankets smelled freshly laundered and the canopy caught the moonlight streaming in through the window, imitating the night sky. He leaned up and pulled his robe over his head, tossing it behind him. She watched him, raptly. Her mouth went draw at the sight of his well-toned body, scarred from war and beautiful.
His lips twitched, “See something you like?”
Laurel scowled and looked away from him. He chuckled, leaning over her and nipping at her neck as he tugged the silver cord around her waist from the knot. She gasped as he pulled up and began to unwrap her robe, baring her body in the moonlight.
“Goddess…” he gasped, soft and reverent. He cupped her face gently. The warmth of his hand made her eyes flutter closed for a moment as a deep warm comfort filled her.
“You are so beautiful,” he gasped, breathless at the sight of her. He pulled the robe down her shoulders, kissing and nipping her neck and lower as she trembled. She let out a trembling gasp as he flicked his thumb over one of her nipples and turned her head.
“Good?”
She bit her lip and nodded. He leaned down and sucked her lip from between her lips.
“I want to hear you, darling.”
Laurel gasped at the desperate moan that escaped her as he rolled one of her nipples between his fingers and slid his hand down her body. She clenched her thighs together, panting with anticipation as he slipped his fingers between her thighs and stroked.
Adolph groaned at the startled cry that came from her as she arched from the bed. She was hot and wet in his hand. He bit his lip, trying to keep calm as he continued to stroke her. She thrashed, turning her head and trying to dislodge his hand even as her hips rolled into his grip. He grinned, turned on, and enjoyed the sight of her losing herself to pleasure.
“A-Adolph,” she gasped.
“Yes, darling,” he whispered, slipping a finger inside her. She tensed and fluttered around his finger so tightly it made his head spin.
She would be the death of him. Laurel gasped, clawing at him as he prepared her. He doubted she knew what she was saying to him as she came with a cry, wet and heady. He licked his fingers with a grin and shifted her further up the bed.
Laurel groaned as the stars began to clear from her vision as he slid between her thighs and she felt the hard heat of him pressing against her. She wrapped her arms around him and he pressed her head against his chest so all she could hear was his racing heart as he pushed into her with a long solid thrust. She heard him curse and still as she fought to breathe through the little twinge of discomfort. He pulled back to kiss her, barely moving and dragging pleasure through her. She scrambled, trying to keep focused to say something, but each stroke stole her breath until she gave in and let him control how fast and deep he thrust.
She heard cries of pleasure from far away, heard him telling her that he loved her, promising not to stop, but she wasn’t sure what she could say when she felt this good.
“Mate,” she whispered.
“Mine,” he said.