Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

he pressed forward again, trying to ease the pressure, trying to increase it,trying to draw out the exquisite sensation of David sliding deep, then pistoning against her, into her, so slow at first then a quicker, more desperate pace. Then slowing again, his head hanging, the mattress bunched in a fierce grip.
    Trying to not spend. An effort for him, torture for her when he stopped. She urged him on, and his head lifted, his gaze burning into hers. Determination set his jaw. His hand found her knee, pushed it higher. Pushed his thick length deeper.
    Oh, but she couldn’t take more. A keening cry erupted from her with each hard thrust. Then shallow strokes, as he exhaled in bursts through gritted teeth. Hard again, her breasts swaying with the force of it and warm steel pressing her knee higher and rough fabric a soft burn against her thighs. Then only David, so deep, her body tightening around him then shuddering as she cried out, clenching around the heavy shaft still driving back and forth inside her. David groaned and shook. With a final, deep stroke, he suddenly left her empty, his hot seed spilling onto her belly.
    His chest heaving, he settled between her legs again, his weight braced on his forearms. Annika wrapped him tight. Sweat glistened over his skin. He stroked hair back from her forehead, kissed her mouth, then rolled over so that she lay atop him.
    Utterly replete, she kissed him languidly, then said, “I want you back inside me.”
    He smiled against her lips. “Give me twenty minutes to recover. And you can be like this, on top.”
    She wanted to be in every position. “And then we’ll figure out a way to bend over like wolves—like we almost did this morning.”
    “Ten minutes to recover,” he said, and then grinned up at her when she laughed. “And I’ve already figured it out. You will kneel on the edge of the bed, and I will stand on the floor behind you.”
    She couldn’t wait. “Kiss me until then.”
    “As long as you like.”
    “Forever,” she said, and he got off to a perfect start.

    Annika woke to a soft whump! A familiar sound, but not here.
    Beside her, David lifted his head. “What was that?”
    “The snow tunnel collapsing, I think.”
    “Was there a quake?”
    “I didn’t feel one.”
    She sat up with him. There were different sounds now. Distant shouts, loud cracks.
    Not the crack of ice. Gunshots.
    He threw back the blanket. “Hurry, into your clothes—”
    A loud crash came from nearby, followed by a rumble that shook through the ice walls.
    “Hurry,” he finished. “That didn’t come from beneath us.”
    She yanked on her trousers, a pair of stockings. Her tunic and coat. She spun in a circle, searching for her boots, then remembered—“I left my boots in the steam room.”
    “I’ll get them. Don’t move. Scream if you need help.”
    She nodded, then pulled on her hat, wrapped a scarf around her face. Blowing out the lamp, she waited in the dark.
    David returned too soon. “The tunnel did collapse—it’s blocking the way. I’ll carry you up and around.”
    Hating that she would be a burden, even for a short time, she sighed as he swung her up. “You’re carrying me everywhere.”
    “I’ll carry you anywhere.”
    He always knew just what to say. Annika smiled, linked her arms around his shoulders. David left the bedchamber slowly. The tunnel had fallen in on itself halfway through to the next chamber, the sides still standing waist-high, braced by the surrounding ice. Cold air bit her cheeks. The heavy huff of a troll’s engine joined the shouts, the shots—and above that, the sound of a larger engine and the hum of propellers.
    “The airship,” Annika whispered.
    They reached the end of the tunnel. Broken blocks of snow mounded at his feet. David peered toward the clearing. Annika arched her neck to look, but her view was blocked by the still-standing tunnel wall.
    “What do you see?”
    “They’re killing the guards.”
    Who? “The laborers?”
    He nodded, eased back. Annika stared up at him, trying to grasp what it might mean. The laborers were rebelling against di Fiore. Källa had been right. But if they planned to destroy everything, kill anyone who’d been in authority or part of the capsule project…that included her and David, too. Paolo, Källa, and Olaf.
    She hoped they would be more determined to escape than bent on revenge.
    “We can’t wait here,” she whispered. “If they come, there’s nowhere to hide.”
    “I