“Yours,” she whispered back.
He paused, and she wished she could have seen his face. She pressed her hands against his cheeks, and he pulled her flush against him as she started moving her hips, slowly up and down, savoring the feeling of him inside her as no other had ever filled her before. She didn’t understand what sorcery or bewitchment it was radiating between them, but she knew wanted to savor it, to feel it linger and radiate through her bones and muscles. She knew she would never feel it with another. And when she felt herself coming to her end just moments later, her hips digging deeper and faster with his, his mouth open on her neck, the stars danced above her with her final gasp, and she came apart with him beneath the forest canopy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THE FLARE OF the sun washed over her face. She felt herself moving, as though she were lying atop something breathing. A warmth she was unfamiliar with surrounded her. She nuzzled herself into its depths, not sure she cared who it was she was so comfortable against, but when she heard the grunt of him beneath her, she remembered the night before, and a small smile grew on her lips as she opened her eyes.
Draven’s thick hair was splayed out over his shoulders and the ground. She couldn’t help herself from reaching up to his neck, entangling her fingers in his hair.
The sudden seizure of her hand in his made her eyes widen.
“No one touches my hair,” he growled, one eye opening. “Not even the Sun Queen.”
She smirked at him. “You Hunters and your precious hair,” she muttered.
He raised a brow. “How many Hunters’ hair have you tried touching?”
Her lips pursed, and she shoved him as she sat up. The swim of the night before radiated through her, and she felt a twinge of pink rise on her cheeks.
The great black horse met her there upon her sitting up, and she grasped its reins in her hand, hoisting herself up to standing. The strength had nearly returned to her ankles, and the pain of it was a mere twinge on that morning.
“Look at that,” Draven mused as he dusted off his pants. “She stands on her own.”
“Almost,” she agreed. “Maybe I’ll be ready to go home before you think.”
A flash of something settled in his gaze… sadness? No. Something that made his weight shift, and his hand rub the back of his neck.
“What’s wrong? No telling me I’m not ready—”
The feeling of his hands grasping her face made her words cease in her throat, and when she felt his lips press to hers, she had to grab onto his shirt to keep herself from falling to the ground.
Her muscles turned to water, and her chest swelled with the same warmth from the night before. A chill down her spine, a honey-like glow trickled down her arms. She let go the reins and grasped his the back of his head and his waist in her hands, allowing him to deepen their embrace.
A great sigh left him as he rested his forehead against hers. She steadied herself in his arms, allowing him to hold her against him.
“What are you doing to me, Venari?” she heard herself whisper.
He swallowed hard and pulled back to look at her, his palm resting on her cheek. “Last night… I wanted to tell you. I’ve wanted to do that since you sang their song,” he managed. “I wanted to know what that was like before you left, before things went back to the way they were.”
“I don’t know that things will ever be as they were.”
His weight shifted, and he kissed her once more. She relished his hands wrapped around her, squeezing her body against his. She could feel the need growing between them, his hands raking her sides and then squeezing her backside in his palms. Her thighs tensed at the desperation of his body, her hair raising on her skin. But after a few moments, she pushed slightly on his chest, knowing that if she let it continue that she would find herself against the trunk of a tree within seconds.
“I believe we have an eight hour journey back today,” she managed in a breath. “We should get going.”
He growled into her ear and her eyes rolled as he nipped on her throat. “Leave it to the queen to spoil the fun.”
She shook her head at him as the horse knelt down beside her and he let her go. “The faster we make it back, the more time we have for fun later,” she said as she climbed onto the back of the steed.
His brows raised. “Then by all means.”
Draven kept sneaking sideways smiles at her the entire journey, so many that halfway through their journey, she shook her head at him and said, “Keep smiling at me like that and your people will wonder what kind of bewitchment I worked on you these last two nights.”
Draven chuckled and packed his pipe. “And what a bewitchment it was,” he muttered as his eyes flickered to hers.
It was an hour out from his kingdom that a slew of birds suddenly flew over their heads and burst into the sky from the canopy.
Aydra’s heart skipped, and she pulled back on the horse’s reins.
