“Don’t forget,” Fi said. “You owe Boden a better governing council. Materials for Yvette. Strawberries for Mal.”
“Yes, yes, of course, all debts to be paid. A daunting list.”Antal chuckled, breath warm against her jaw. “Though, this homecoming, I can get used to.”
He offered a hand. Fi took it. He danced her along the cliff, swaying to their own imagined music, feet weaving the ledge. With his arm around her, she felt no fear, only reveled in the wind through her hair.
“You did well today, daeyari,” Fi said as he spun her. “Fulfilling your promises. Yet you’ve another promise left unsatisfied.”
“Do I?” He caught her around the back, pulling her into a tighter turn.
She leaned in, grateful for his heat. “You’ve assured me your bed is as comfortable as mine. And yet I’ve seen no evidence.”
“Ah.” He finished with a dip, swinging Fi low atop the crook of his arm, mouth against her lips. “We should see to that.”
He kissed her.
He kissed her like each time was a new discovery, a secret to be untangled by the caress of his tongue. Fi languished in the slow strokes. The lack of hurry. Exhaustion weighed her bones, excitement and fear for the work still ahead: reclaiming Thomaskweld, building something better. Tomorrow held more challenges.
Tonight, they held each other. Everything else faded away.
“I’m not easy to impress, daeyari.” Fi nipped his jaw. “Take me to your bed. I’ll judge it to my strictest standards.”
Antal bit back at her chin, a growl rumbling his chest.
He pulled her across the room, slipping off her coat. At the cold, Fi burrowed against him. Before, she’d slunk these chambers as a captive, shivering in clothes that weren’t hers, ozone foreign in her nose. She craved it now, longed for the scent to cover every part of her.
In the hall, she unbuttoned his shirt, fingers curling into talons to tear it off his shoulders. Antal pulled her sweater overher head, claws feathering her ribs. Between the two of them, just enough bite.
He pushed her against the wall. Bare rock hit her back, cold and sharp against her shoulder blades. Fi hissed.
“Notjustthe height,” she complained, teeth skating his jaw. “You insist this home of yours is comfortable, even with so many hard things?”
He purred, “Don’t pretend you won’t be begging for hard things in a moment.”
“You’re mistaken, daeyari. I won’t be the one begging—”
She gasped as he hooked an arm behind her knees, lifting her to his chest. Fi dragged her fingers over the shaved sides of his hair, into the longer strands between his antlers, laying slow kisses along his neck as he carried her down the hall.
It must not be the first time, right? When he’d chased her from his shrine, when she’d woken in his room, he must have carried her here. They’d been adversaries, yet he’d made sure she was safe and warm.
His bed was as she remembered: a downy mattress set on a stone ledge. He dropped her into the nest of furs, silver fox and mink, her legs hanging over the side.
Then, he fell upon her with his teeth. Fi squirmed in delight at his fangs on her neck, scraping down the hollow of her throat. She sighed, as his mouth crossed her chest, slowing with relish around each tender curve of her breasts. He nipped her stomach. Traced every flower tattooed down her hip. At last, he sank to his knees off the edge of the bed, knelt between her parted thighs.
Merciless Void, he looked good on his knees, unlacing her pants with his teeth.
Once she lay naked before him, he spread her legs, pinned her down beneath splayed claws and hot palms. Fi didn’t beg.Her breathdidshudder, as teeth traced the inner curve of her thigh. An arch into him, as his tongue found her center, legs trembling against his grip.
Her ruin began as a slow drag of his tongue across her clit. A brush of fangs that bloomed heat through her core. This beast’s mouth would be the end of her—what a delicious demise.
“How’s the bed?” Antal asked, breathy between strokes.
Fi contorted against the furs, fingers clawed into soft fox pelt. They smelled like him.
“I can’t possibly…” she panted, “make a decision so rashly… when you’ve hardly begun to…fuck.”
A firm suck of his mouth dragged a moan from her throat. Her hips arched off the bed, desperate for more.
“Fair enough,” he murmured, a grin on his lips.
