“Don’t treat me like a child.”
“Don’t force me to.”
Neyu almost pulled away, but Saer tightened his grip around her middle.“Tell me how you’ll avoid another failure from his hand, Neyu.”
“You are insufferable.”
“I know.Tell me how.”
A mirthless scoff left her, but then she whispered, “Hellsfire, I missed you.”
That pang hit Saer’s chest again, and even though warning bells sang in his brain, he squeezed his match closer to him.Brushing his lips against Neyu’s forehead, he murmured against her soft skin, “I missed you too, Dearest.”
His demoness relaxed in his arms, and she did her best to answer Saer’s prior query as concisely as possible.“Ahraan’s weakness is in those he serves.He will do anything to please them while preaching the goodness of the Grandfather.”
“You don’t know what he is, then?”
“I don’t.But he’s no more powerful than one of us, and certainly no more than you and I, together.We’ll find a way to turn the tides.”
Saer trailed kisses along her temple, her cheekbone, her jawline, gratified with her shiver.He ignored all common sense when he whispered against her lips, “We can strategize after.”
“After?”
Saer covered her mouth with his, and Neyu didn’t ask any more questions.
“Saer.”Neyu’s low voice hummed through him.
He hadn’t slept so well in years.With her back pressed to his front, he spooned her with the crook of one arm cradling her head, the other around her waist.After they’d succumbed to one another, losing themselves to pleasure and release, he’d fallen asleep to the lilting rhythm of her deep breaths.
Bliss.
He didn’t want to wake up, and he also didn’t want to miss a moment awake with her.
Saer answered her with his eyes shut.“Hrm?”
Her quiet laugh lightened his heart, and he couldn’t help the curve of his lips.“What could I have possibly done to amuse you so?”he asked.
“It’s a rarity to witness you so relaxed.I consider myself lucky.”
He parted his lips to refute her with another tease, but stopped and huffed instead.“Only you.”
“Only me?”Neyu’s fingertip ran soft trails along his forearm at her waist.
“Yes.”Saer tilted his neck forward to kiss the crown of her head.“You, calming me.You, reversing my mindset.You, convincing me I can’t be without you, after all.You…” He squeezed his arm around her middle, nuzzling her hair, and she all but purred against him.“I fought so hard to not need you, and only you could have broken through every defense I’d fortified like they were built of straw.Within minutes.”
“Perhaps you should just listen to me next time.”
He chuckled despite himself, and Neyu wiggled to flip around until they faced one another.
This close, the contented glint shimmered in her beautiful eyes.Words came to his mind, but he stopped them just before they left his throat.
She was too perceptive for her own good.Something in his body language or expression must have given him away, because she said, “I wish you’d speak your mind.”
The sin he’d been molded from didn’t want him to say it, yet he desired more than what made him.With Neyu.Saer lifted his hand and cupped the side of her face.“Thank you,” he whispered.
The corners of her eyes tightened, like she knew what it took for Pride himself to utter the words.Neyu leaned forward to brush her lips against his, a feather-light kiss.“Don’t thank me yet, we still have to get you out of your mess with Ahraan.”
He frowned and gave a bare shake of his head—not a subject he wished to discuss, but if they had to, better to do so while he held her this close.“I’d collected half the villagers’ vows when Ahraan showed up.”
