“Ailikaya—”
“As my wife, I believe that Princess Ailikaya has just as much right to hear what you are going to say as anyone else in this room.” Her breath caught, brow furrowing as she looked at Ilias again. His hand curled around hers, tugging her closer so that their shoulders brushed.
Alderdrew in a deep breath, massaging the vein that was ready to burst at his temple. “Fine.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, face flushing ever so slightly as he looked up. “The Credulans have already heard of your union. And they would still like to observe Ailikaya. Whether or not that means they will take her is completely based upon how they feel about her—about thetwo of you. They’re willing to allow you to travel with her if they deem that this marriage is completely legitimate and not merely an attempt at besting them. So,” he sighed, “I would expect for the two of you,ifthis marriage isreal, to make it look real.”
Kaya’s hand was sweating, her mouth going dry as Ilias’s grip on her hand loosened and tightened again. “Real?”Kaya repeated. “Have our names not appeared on the temple wall?”
“They have.” Alder affirmed. “But things are done differently in Credula. Their standards are not like our own. They believe that a marriage must be consummated in order for it to be legitimate.”
“And how would they determine that?” Kaya hissed, her voice raising. “Do they want to be in the room with us while wefuck—”
“Ailikaya!”
Ilias squeezed her hand, giving it a gentle tug. “Yourscent, Kaya. That’s how they will be able to tell.”
Her stomach sank, eyes darting around the room as she let out an incredulous laugh. Her laughter fell flat and as her shoulders slumped, so did her stomach. Not because she was innocent when it came to her sexuality, but because the thought of being intimate withhim… it would mean something. Maybe not to Ilias, but it would to her. And she wasn’t quite sure if her heart could handle it. Her heart could barely handle that look of shame he wore on his face when he apologized for marrying her. It was enough to make her want to allow the Credulans to take take her anyway—to escape the embarrassing fact that she liked Ilias a lot more than she ever expected to.
She wanted to hide.Run. But even the idea of running and hiding made her want him to chase her.
When the garbled discussions ceased and her father dismissed them, Kaya nearly darted out of the great hall—weaving through a group of guards thatwere waiting to be called upon. She took to the lesser-known pathways that led to her room, clinging to the shadows in the halls until she reached her door. But before she could reach for the handle, a large hand curled around the silver and turned it for her.
She could feel his breath upon her neck, the warmth of his chest pressing against her back. She shoved the door open, moving quickly in hopes to shut him out, but his palm was pressed flat against it. Ilias’s eyes bore into her own, his jaw tight as he watched her back away, moving closer to the window.
She could jump out of it if she had to—anythingto escape this torturous feeling that had taken root in her chest. It was blooming quickly, like a weed that just kept coming back no matter how many times she ripped at its stems. And despite the fact that it’s consumption of her heart seemed endless and helpless, she reveled in the feeling of it.Delightedin the warmth it brought, the tingle of desire that blossomed at it’s ends.
There was no denying it.
All those days that she’d spent ignoring him in G’Illach was not merely for her the fact that she sought his apology, but because she couldn’t stoplookingfor him. She couldn’t stop the urge to follow his scent, to touch him, to justknowthat he was watching her too.
And he did.
He watched her every single day. When she wasn’t looking and when she was, he was always there.
“If you touch me, I won’t be able to control myself.” She breathed. Her heart hammered in her chest, her lungs compressed to their limit as he closed the door. She swallowed. “I mean it.”
Ilias walked towards the small sofa at the end of her bed, eyes never leaving hers. “I’m not going to touch you, Kaya.” His breaths came quickly, much like her own and she winced at the look of pain on his face as he spoke. Because, of course, the mere idea of him having to touch her probably made his skin crawl. Her stomach sank, swallowing as she moved to turn her back to him. Her face was warm—her whole body was warm to the point that she felt as if she were going to suffocate under the intensity of his gaze. “The last thing I want to do is cross that line with you, but we have to do something to makethis believable for them.”
She nodded, eyes fixed upon the view of the city down below. She knew that he was right, but there was just too much happening all at once. Kaya had barely a moment to sit and think about everything that transpired in the Borderlands, about what she’d done, what that burned female told her, or what they decided to do to save her from the Credulans.
Married.
And the Credulans expected proof.
She swallowed around the lump in her throat, the heat in her face having spread through her body, coiling like a devious serpent in between her legs. “Do you know whatmachna ii’loammeans?” She asked.
Ilias shook his head, finally taking his seat on the sofa. “What does that have to do with anything?”
With a final quivering breath, she turned to him. Shesaw him. Saw every moment of his existence, of his nature—hisessence, his Core. As if it had been presented to her on a shimmering, golden platter. He was there. And the tension was so strong that one move from either of them would have them launching themselves at the other. A sudden desire so strong that Ilias gripped the arm of the sofa, knuckles white. They peered at one another, both wholly unmoving. Not even breathing, it seemed.
Ilias saw her, too. He saw her and he couldn’t stop looking, couldn’t draw himself out of the stupor that made him feel just as carnal and crazed as he did the night before. He understood, then, that it wasn’t just the drink from the mating ceremony and her heightened pheromones that had him wanting to rip the world to shreds to be able to touch her. It was justher.
Kaya moved first.
In a flurry of black hair and gray dressing gowns, she was on him. She slid into his lap with such ease that it made it seem as if she belonged there all along. And when she kissed him,gods, when she kissed him, it felt just as mesmerizing and just as breathtaking as it had when she tried tricking the Credulan foot soldier on the top of the mountain.
It was a dance of tongues and scraping teeth, lips moving against each other with such desperation and fear that there was barely room to breathe. Hishands gripped at the air around them, hesitant to touch her. In feeling his hesitation, Kaya pulled back just slightly, resting her forehead against his.
“I trust you, Ilias.”
