“You would’ve killed me by now.”
Her eyes widened and she grinned ruefully before turning away.
The silence stretched as he watched her, the war going on inside her head evident in the myriad expressions chasing each other across her face.
“Did you do it?”
Daris stiffened. He knew what she meant, but he waited for her to look at him. When she did, he took a step closer.
“I did not.”
Her face twitched and her beautiful hazel eyes swam with tears. Blinking them away, she inhaled raggedly.
“You swear?”
He did not respond straight away. Taking several steps closer, Daris’s breath became shallow when she did not stop him.
“On my life,” he whispered.
The sword clanged onto the flagstone at their feet and they came together desperately. Her hands in his hair drew a groan from him and he kissed her hungrily.
His pulse pounded in his ears as his lips drank her in. Daris slanted his mouth over hers, savoring her panting breaths. He moved closer, crushing her body against his, and it was as if a dam burst.
Her hands were everywhere. She tugged at his tunic. Daris pulled back to yank it over his head before lunging back in as if she was air, his salvation. His lips crashed against hers as his hands ripped at the leather corset she wore. Fabric tore, and he pulled her against him.
“Daris,” she moaned when he finally got her tunic off. Her breasts were bound and he snarled, tugging at the ends to loosen the fabric. When it was off, a violence he only felt in the heat of battle threaded through him and down into his belly as he drank her in.
He pushed her onto the bed. Daris was on her before she could do more than lean forward. Terena’s arms wound around his back as he found her lips once more. When his mouth trailed down her neck, her frantic fingers tugged at the laces of his breeches, her hand sliding inside. He closed his eyes and groaned.
Daris wanted her so badly, she’d become an obsession. Even his alliance with Hermes was only to gain a closer foothold to this incredible woman panting and writhing beneath him.
Daris ripped the top few buttons from her breeches, her hot breath against his neck making him feral. She lifted her hips so he could pull her pants down, dragging them off her legs and chucking them across the room. He turned back, shoving his breeches down. Grabbing her hips, Daris pulled her toward him and thrust deep inside her.
Terena cried out, arching her head against the bed, her hips lifting to meet his. Her legs wrapped around his waist and Daris gripped her hip with one hand as he cupped the fullness of her breast with the other, bringing the hardened nipple to his mouth. Her sharp intake of breath and muttering his name was his reward. She moved her hands to his head, her fingers tightening in his scalp almost to the point of pain, but he was mindless to it. Pleasure and the knowledge Terena was in his arms at last made him senseless.
Her cries sharpened, her breathing quickened, and she met his thrusts with equally furious ones of her own. As the stirrings of his completion focused down his spine, Terena moved.
Flipping them until she was astride him, she planted her hands on his chest and rolled her hips, the dragging motion making him see stars. She threw her head back and moaned as he lifted his shaking hands to her thighs.
Daris breathed through his nose to control the orgasm so close to ripping through him. When he looked up at her, she was staring down at him, that hooded gaze he loved so much sending him over the edge. His hold on her hips tightened, and he knew she’d have bruises there come morning. That only made him come harder. She followed him over the edge a moment later, her head thrown back as she screamed his name to the heavens.
Daris gasped for breath as they rode out their pleasure together. Pulling her down onto his chest, his lips found hers in a slow, luxurious kiss that made heat slide to his groin and his cock twitch.
She must have felt it, if the throaty chuckle was anything to go by. She sighed and lifted off him, moving to fit her body against his side. Terena kissed him once more before moving her head to the crook of his neck, shifting her body to nuzzle closer. He tightened his arms around her, running one hand up and down her silky back in lazy strokes while he recovered.
Daris sighed against her head, turning slightly to kiss her hair. She grumbled against the movements as he tugged one edge of the bedding to cover them. Sighing contentedly, Terena mumbled something before settling once more.
As he succumbed to the heady aftermath of their lovemaking, Daris smiled for the first time in months.
Seconds turned into minutes, the sounds of their breaths calming. Daris tightened his hold and closed his eye.
“I love you,” he whispered.
But she was already asleep.
Chapter 19
PERA, PYRGOS
