The Scepter of Marahuyo

Chapter 047

I knock on Aaron’s room. Senyor Pablo is not in the inn. As Ethan had said, it seems like he’s busy discussing things with the people in power. He is still expecting me to join the Scepter selection. I thought it would never be a power struggle. I thought I was prepared to face it if it really becomes a power struggle. But now that it’s staring me in the face, I lost the needed courage.

When Cara left my room, I rode hard back to Pablo’s inn. It's midnight now and Aaron might be asleep, but I need him. I am selfish; I am—I knock on his door again. I can’t speak as if there’s a lump in my throat. I can’t call his name, in fear of bursting into tears. I hate this.

I lean my forehead on his door and whisper, “Please…”

Suddenly, the door opens and I lose my balance. Aaron catches me just in time before I hit his chest.

“Holly?” he asks, as he wipes the corner of my eyes. “What’s wrong?”

I stare at him, trying to suppress my tears, but when I sense the concern in his eyes, I throw myself to him and sob on his chest. He pauses for a while, but then he carries me to his bed and makes me sit on his lap.

It lasts for a few minutes. He keeps quiet and all he’d done is to massage my back and pat my head. When I calm down, I loosen my arms around him and wipe my own tears. I notice his shirt that’s been wet with my tears. I feel embarrassed and try to wipe it. Realizing how stupid that is, I call on my anito, but because of the state of my mind, I can’t concentrate and instead of drying up his shirt, I drench it with water instead.

“I’m sorry…” I feel like crying for how useless I am. “I’m sorry…” My voice breaks and tears wells up again.

Suddenly, Aaron removes his shirt and nonchalantly throws it at the floor. “No need to cry. I can just remove it,” he says.

I bite my lips to stop from crying. But his kindness, it’s just tearing up my heart.

Then Aaron lies on the bed with me on top of him. “Let’s sleep,” he says, takes the blanket and covers the two of us with it.

I move to his side, but he fixes me in place with my ears on his beating heart.

“When you didn’t return this weekend, I thought I hurt you and you left me already.”

I dare not to respond. His arms tighten around me and before long, I can hear his light snore. I slide to his side and snuggle next to him. Being in this warmth is what I need the most right now. I close my eyes and finally, sleep finds me.

**************************************

It’s late in the morning when I finally wake up. I sit up on the bed as I hear a scraping sound on the floor. Lazily, I open my eyes to see Aaron fixing an enormous tub of water in the center of the room.

“Do you have somewhere to go today?” he asks.

I yawn and stretch my arms. “No. I finished everything yesterday.”

All I need to do is to decide if I’ll exchange this peaceful morning for a power struggle that’s about to happen. “What are you doing?” I ask instead.

“Well, we can take a bath here,” he says. He looks excited.

“There is a bathroom right there,” I say and point at the bathroom behind him.

“Nah. That’s small. We can’t fit a bathtub there.”

“A simple shower is fine.”

“Oh, you prefer to take a shower with me instead?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Take a bath together? You mean naked?”

“Do mages take a bath with clothes on?”

I roll my eyes.

Then he goes to the bathroom, takes a hose and fixes it on the tub.

“There you go,” he says, looking proud of his work.

He removes his shirt and faces me. “Come,” he ushers.

But all I do is stare at him. In the light, his body is more beautiful to look at. He notices my staring, and he says, “Just as I thought, you do have some fetish with a man’s body. I thought younger girls care more about the face?”

Well, he’s not wrong. I am older than him, that’s why I see him as a gorgeous man. Then the hose slides from the tub and it scatters water all over the floor.

I take a pillow and lean my chin on it and watch him get flustered over the water. I smile as I watch his muscles move on his every move. They look delicate, as if carefully sculpted by an artist. Is he training to develop those? Ethan has them too, but it’s only because he trains a lot because of the nature of his blessing.

When the water is about to seep through the door, I call on my anito to gather up all the water on the floor. It raises all around Aaron and his amazement is a refreshing thing to look at.

“Are you doing this?” he asks, breathless.

“Of course. Who else in this room have a water based type of blessing, anyway?”

Aaron smiles and touches one droplet that’s hovering. Then I swirl it all around him and make a huge glob of water that hovers just above the tub that he brings to the room.

In my previous timeline, I cannot do this type of show. It’s only when I practiced making the activation faster did I learn more control over wind and water.

“Wait, is that clean?” Aaron asks.

“Let’s see.”

I remove a glob of water from the huge one and hover it in front of Aaron.

“Is it clean?” I repeat the question to him.

Aaron nods. “Why did it not collect the dust from the floor?”

“I can’t control dust and I can’t move objects.”

“So a mage’s blessing is specific to their gods?”

“That’s correct.”

“You really are amazing.”

It’s said unconsciously, but exactly because of that nature that I get embarrassed. I lose control over my blessing. The small glob of water makes an unstable dance around Aaron until it falls on his head, drenching him with it. Thankfully, the huge glob of water is above the tub that it only makes a tremendous splash before it settles down.

“Holly, are you perhaps annoyed at me?” he asks.

“Sorry, it’s just that mages lose control when our emotions get out of hand.”

Understanding what I meant, Aaron smiles. He removes his pants and approaches me.

“What are you doing?” I ask in horror as he removes the last piece of cloth from his body.

He jumps into the bed and smothers me with kisses. I push at him. “Get off! You’re wet! And I just woke up!”

But when his chilly hands reach underneath my clothes, I make a sound. He freezes and looks at my face. Then he trails my back down the side of my waist. My breathing hitches and I catch his arm for support.

“Don’t tease,” I say.

He removes my clothes until nothing remains. He stares at me and his eyes go up and down my body, as if deciding where to start. I start to feel ashamed of myself. I reach for the blanket, but he stops my arm.

He descends his lips to meet mine. The kiss is light and gentle, but it doesn’t last long. His tongue starts to search and forces my lips to open. Then he surges inside. It's hot and wild that I can’t stop myself from reaching out to him and pulling him closer, responding to each of his movements. Every time I try to catch my breath, he sucks my lips. And I wonder how he became so good at it.

As our tongues intertwine, his hands explore and slowly make its way down until he touches my heaving mounds. I know what’s next to come, so I prepare myself. I just hope that it’s not as painful as the first time. But then I jump back when his kisses go all the way down instead.

I push at his head. “What are you doing?”

“They say women love this.”

“No. That’s embarrassing!”

“But…”

He’s about to do it again when I pull back from under him. “I said I don’t want to!”

“Okay, I won’t,” he says.

His kisses go up again, but this time, it did not start as soft. As if punishing me for not allowing him, his kisses become intrusive, leaving me no room to breathe. The strange sensation starts to well up again from within me. Then his kisses go to my earlobes, to the hollow of my neck and everywhere my skin is exposed. Then as he kisses my chest, I feel him enter, again and again. As his thrusts go faster and faster, I hold on to his arms as the tide of sensation continues to rise. Aaron groans, but I keep my mouth shut even when my nails dig into his back as I am driven to the edge of the cliff. I arch my back as unbearable sensation racked my body. As if taking my cue, Aaron groans in pleasure and I feel hot liquid gushes out on my lower part.

My eyes open at the warmth. Did he just? I look at Aaron, but he’s already heaving with a satisfied grin on his lips. He notices my predicament and reaches out to my face.

“Did I hurt you again?” he asks. “I wasn’t able to control myself, didn’t I?”

I do not have the courage to admit that I can’t be pregnant, not now, so instead I ask, “Where did you learn to kiss like that?”

Aaron smiles and answers, “I studied.”

I frown. “With whom?”

He chuckles, and he pulls me closer to his chest. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll be the only one I will give that pleasure to.”

I snuggle next to him, but a few moments after, I can feel his wandering hands as he starts to heat up my body once again. It didn’t take long before he’s inside me and we’re breathing hard due to the pleasure of being in each other's arms.

To be continued...