“Terrified,” he admitted.
She exhaled the smoke from the pipe and laid her head on his shoulder. “Do you fear death?” she asked.
“That depends,” he told her.
She frowned. “How does fearing death depend on something?”
“It depends on if it is by my choosing,” he explained. “I have always sworn my death would be of my own design, not at the request or notion of any other. But… if I died tomorrow, by my choosing or by another’s, I would die happily knowing I spent my last days with you.”
Her head lifted, and she shook her head amusedly at him. “Such aromantic, Venari,” she mocked him.
He chuckled under his breath and his nose nudged hers. “Breathe a word of it and I’ll have you in ropes,” he warned.
Her brow raised. “Promises, promises.”
“You still didn’t answer my question,” he said.
She sighed heavily as he passed her the pipe again. The flames danced in her eyes as the memory of the Berdijay filled her mind, and she exhaled the smoke into the air.
“Nothing,” she said simply. “I saw… me. Doing nothing. Forced into silence, into submission. Unable to speak. Forced into marriage to quiet my words. Told to take my place as the crown’s accessory… A sedentary life in invisible chains.”
She felt Draven huff behind her, and she frowned as she turned to see his face.
“Do my fears amuse you?” she asked.
“No. It’s just… most people when they meet the Berdijay, they’re shown death, darkened creatures, abuses… but you. You fear none of those things.”
“Death is but another chapter in this abyss of life, and the darkened creatures these people fear are usually misunderstood, not dangerous.”
He toyed with her fingers in his hands. “Is there any creature you will not stand up for?”
Her chin laid on his chest, and she gave him a small smile. “Shadow thieves,” she bantered.
The amusement radiated over his features as he exhaled the herb and raised a brow down at her. She sighed into the moment and laid her ear against his chest, feeling his heart beat against her cheek. Staring at their entwined fingers again, she caressed the inside of his palm, and then said, “So… about these ropes…”
Draven’s chest moved, and she knew he was chuckling under his breath. She looked up just in time to see him exhale again, and she watched as his gaze turned from playful to sultry, pupils dilating despite the fire raging before them. His tongue darted out over his lips as his head leaned down, and she thought he would kiss her, but he paused, open mouthed an inch from her lips.
“What about belts?” he uttered.
Her chest caved in on itself at the growl of his words, and she felt the drip of her own wetness between her legs. His touch was delicate on her exposed thigh, and the tickle of his fingertips running up her leg made her breath arrest. She moved her own hand to the front of his pants, and she could already feel his thick length awakening through the fabric. His jaw tightened as she began to stroke him.
“I like leather,” she managed.
His other hand threaded itself around her throat, thumb delicately stroking her skin beneath her jaw, and she felt her eyes flutter as she inhaled the sweet smell of the smoke around them.
He was shadow and angst.
Carnal and capricious.
Her own brand of poison.
And she wanted to unleash him upon her flesh.
Their eyes met, and at the same time they released each other to stand. Her heart pounded in her chest upon moving across the room to her dresser, fumbling with the drawer to find her leathers at the anticipation of his promises. She’d barely gotten it open when she felt him press against her back, hands latching around her waist and gripping at her hips. She paused, letting out a deep breath, and his mouth bit onto her earlobe. Her body sighed back into his, and she forgot her reason for being at the dresser. She pushed back against him, teasing his slowly hardening cock with her bottom. His fingers moved over the fabric of her dress, grasping the flesh of her hips between them. She reached back to thread her hand in his hair, surrendering to the tease of his fingers on her breast as his mouth sucked at her jaw.
“Belts, my Queen,” he whispered in her ear.
“Stop distracting me,” she breathed.
