Kyron kisses the top of my head, and his chest rumbles with a chuckle. “I should have thought of this sooner.”
“Oh yeah, so you could get a good laugh at my utter terror,” I say, my voice trembling.
“No, so I would have a reason to keep you distracted.”
He cups my cheek and tilts my head back. His mouth meets mine with a slow, soft kiss that has my toes curling in my slippers. Every tense muscle in my body relaxes at the stroke of his tongue. I pull him closer andrest my back against the lift’s cold metal wall.
“This is a very good distraction,” I say, my fingers easing under his tunic and sliding along the waist of his trousers.
“Is it now?” He grips the back of my thigh and hooks my leg over his hip. “I think I can do better.”
His hand glides up the inside of my thigh, and his thumb strokes over the center of my lace undergarments. I close my eyes as he dips his fingertips under the damp fabric and teases me. My hips roll with the rhythm of the lazy circles he draws around my clit. Every rotation is a gentle tease that never gives me exactly what I crave.
“Please,” I say in a desperate plea.
His voice is a deep rumble against my ear as he asks, “Please what, princess?”
“I need more.”
The ground shudders, and fear jolts through me. I hold my breath, waiting for us to go crashing to the ground. It never happens. Nothing happens. We’ve come to a stop.
“My mission here is done,” Kyron says, releasing my leg and kissing my forehead. He slides the gate open and stands to the side, allowing me to walk past him.
“Not even close,” I reply, stepping into his room.
His room, if it can even be called a room, is shaped in half of a circle. The one wall houses the door to the lift and two others, but the rest of the space is open to the elements. Smooth pillars hold up the roof and embedded in the floor are smooth river rocks. There are no energy-powered lights like the rest of the palace. Instead a large bronze bowl sits in the middle with a crackling fire inside. The furniture is simple: a plain chest of drawers, a high-back chair, and a breakfast table with several sketch books scattered on top. I thumb through the pages and note that each impeccable charcoal drawing is of a body part but not a complete person. Lips, eyes, hands, legs, breasts—all are pieces ofmybody. I close the book and store my questions about the sketches in the back of my mind to ask when I’m not dumbstruck by his room.
Simple white linens cover the large bed, and a mountain of pillows are stacked to look out at the stunning view of Stigian and beyond. The floor extends further than the roof, creating an open walkway with no railing to keep someone from falling over the edge. It triggers my fear of heights, andI stop next to a pillar to safely take in the city below and the endless night sky.
“I never took you as the damsel in distress,” I say, looking back at him.
Kyron removes the Posseda from his pocket and places it in a gilded box on his dresser. “What?”
“Isn’t the damsel always made to sleep in the castle’s tower in fairytales?”
He moves behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. “I suppose that’s true if I wasn’t the one who locked myself up here. I wanted a place where I could feel close to you. So, I removed the walls, thinking I could share a small part of your days and nights. I know it sounds strange, but the sky brought my broken heart some relief. I’d remind myself the sun that was warming my skin warmed yours too. The waxing and waning moon, the stars, they were all the same for you. It was like they were shining for us.” Heat spreads through my body as he presses his lips to my nape while making easy work of the delicate buttons along my spine. “I wasn’t looking to be rescued; you had already saved me, Raelle.”
He slides the sheer fabric of my dress down my shoulder. I tilt my head to the side, offering him my neck. I close my eyes and savor the feel of his lips as his words replay in my mind. While I was praying for the Statera to make me forget him, he was finding every way possible to remember me.
Tears dampen my lashes and my voice trembles as I say, “Your heart will never break because of me again. And you won’t need the sun and stars for comfort. You will have me.”
He guides me around to face him. “I love you.”
“Forever. I’ll love you forever, Kyron.”
My dress falls to the floor, leaving me in nothing but delicate, lace undergarments. His gaze skims over me from head to toe. It’s like he is drinking me in, quenching a thirst he’s lived with for way too long. He lowers to his knees. His hands run down my sides, and he kisses the center of my torso, making me tremble. My fingers comb through his soft, black hair, pressing down. He follows my silent demand, leaving a wet trail toward my navel. When his mouth moves over the black lace covering me, I grip his hair and lean into the pillar.
Every lap of his tongue and open-mouthed kiss has me aching for more. I’m desperate to remove the barrier that keeps him from my skin, buthis mouth feels so good sucking on the lace. He nips at my sensitive flesh and my knees buckle, threatening to let me melt into a puddle at his feet.
Lowering the lace from one hip, Kyron smirks up at me. “I could spend the rest of the night on my knees.”
“Statera help me, you need to stop teasing me,” I breathe.
He lowers the fabric down my thighs. “It looks like you have no issues with the commanding part of being queen.”
“Kyron.”
He laughs for the second time tonight, and I can’t recall ever seeing him this happy. His focus is on me, not the impending conflict, not his missing mother. This is our moment, one we both want to lose ourselves in.
