Not gone.
But quiet.
And for now,thatwas everything.
Zander’s hands trembled once when he slid the clasp from my leathers and peeled them away with reverence rather than urgency, revealing skin flushed from power and want. The storm still hummed faintly in my veins, but it softened beneath his touch. Quieted.
He undressed me first, like it was a vow. Before removing his own clothing.
His lips found mine again as we tangled in the sheets, all heat and ache and pent-up desire. I pressed closer, and his mouth trailed down my throat, over the line of my collarbone, then lower, over my ribs and hips and the hollows no one else had ever dared to kiss like that.
His hands held me open, and his mouth worshiped every inch of me like I was holy. Like he wanted to learn my body by heart.
His tongue made its way to my sensitive core and my hips bucked as he took his first foray between my slick lips.
He licked, sucked, and probed my core with his tongue. I wound tighter with every swipe. My skin prickled as my magic built around us. The air thickened and the storm of my powers crackled across my skin and his. But Zander didn’t flinch or stop.
When a wave of power rippled from me, Zander inserted two fingers and sucked my clit into his mouth. That was all it took for me to combust. Crying out his name, I climaxed and clawed at his back. I probably left furrows, but I couldn’t stop. He moaned against my skin, making me thrash beneath him in wanton ecstasy.
Any guilt I felt over my outburst was immediately assuaged. He seemed to like what I was doing. Marking him. A second later, he surged to his feet and knelt between my legs. Before I could ask what was happening, he lifted me up and buried his cock inside me.
My core convulsed around him and he stopped moving, worried that he’d hurt me. But I wriggled against him, urging him to keep going. That I needed this. Needed him. We were both panting and breathing hard as our gazes locked.
“You are the best thing to ever happen to me.” His words brought a lump to my throat and made me want to tell him that I felt the same way.
But trust wasn’t easy, and we had a spiteful princess to overcome. He thrust into me with full abandon, taking my body to the heavens before allowing me to erupt.
I gasped, then shattered.
He didn’t look away. Didn’t stop. Just held me together as the last threads of magic unspooled through my blood and left me trembling beneath him.
When he continued again, it was slow. Deep.
A claiming without force, just the press of two people who had endured too much apart and could no longer stand the distance.
We moved together in a rhythm that felt older than either of us, our breaths syncing, our magic laced. His name broke from my lips like a vow, and I felt his power bloom around us, grounding, anchoring.
This wasn’t a conquest.
This washome.
And as the world blurred again, it wasn’t because of pain.
For the first time in what felt like forever.
I was held.
I was seen.
And I wasn’t alone.
At least until someone pounded on the door.
Chapter
Seventeen
Zander slipped from the bed with the ease of a trained warrior, muscles shifting beneath skin still flushed from our shared heat. He snagged a pair of black pants from the floor and tugged them on in one fluid motion, fingers working fast at the ties before heading for the door.
