“Nothing between us has ever been easy,” he said, stepping closer. His mana rippled across the room then, a slow, controlled surge that washed over my skin like a tidal wave of desire. “And I don’t expect that will change. But when I told you I would set my entire frost-forsaken Court on fire for you, I assumed you understood that meant I had every intention of seeing this through, no matter the cost.”
“Well, you know what they say about assuming…” I muttered, rather than take the compliment like a remotely normal person.
“Indeed,” he agreed sardonically, setting his plate on the table behind him. “And now?”
“I’m starting to see it.” I moved closer to him, and he trailed a hand along my side, pursing his lips when he came up against the absurdly thick fabric.
“What?” I teased. “You don’t like me in several yards of shapeless flannel?”
“I’d like you better out of it,” he said, voice low, his mana brushing against my legs again in a slow, hungry sweep.
Another wave of power slid through the room to the fireplace, igniting the flames until they roared in the hearth. So I wouldn’t need the flannel.
The heat in his words mixed with the higher-than-usual amount of wine in my bloodstream gave me the confidence I usually lacked. In a single, mostly-fluid movement, I rid myself of the nightdress, standing before him in just my thin silk underclothes.
Draven’s lips parted, his eyes blazing with every shade of light in the winter sky.
Lumen excused himself into the sitting rooms, something I couldn’t even find the grace to be embarrassed about.
“You’ve been drinking,” Draven reminded me, though his voice was deeper, roughened by something he couldn’t hide.
I stalked toward him, eyebrows raised. “Wynnie had most of it.”
That was true. I had been more tired than anything, but I sure as hells didn’t feel tired now.
“I’m not drunk,” I told him, stopping just short of his chest. “And I know what I want.”
The moment the words left my mouth, the room shifted.
He went very still, the subtle tension in his shoulders drawing tight as a bowstring. I could feel the unspoken things between us pressing in from every direction: the fights, the distance, the mistrust, the truth I had only just learned about him wanting me near. Wanting me here. In his space. In his life.
Something daring rose inside me, sharp as starlight.
I closed the remaining distance between us, letting my fingertips skim his sternum. He inhaled through his nose, a slow, deliberate breath that betrayed nothing and too much all at once. His hand lifted, hesitating for a fraction of a heartbeatbefore resting at my waist. The warmth of his touch through the silk sent a shiver up my spine.
I stretched up on my toes to brush my lips against his neck.
His brows drew together in that way of his, like conflict lived behind his eyes and he didn’t know whether to stop me or surrender to me. I didn’t give him the choice. I reached up and cupped his jaw, tilting his face toward mine. The breath he released was ragged.
“Everly.”
My name in his voice felt like a door unlocking.
I kissed him before he could speak again. Tentative at first, testing, then deeper when he answered with a low sound I felt rather than heard. His hand slid fully around my waist, drawing me closer until the silk of my underthings brushed the cold fabric of his own layers.
The contact lit something wild inside me.
I trailed my fingers up the back of his neck, into his hair, tugging just enough to break whatever restraint he was holding on to. He caught my hips, holding me to him with a force that had my breath stuttering. His mouth descended to the edge of my jaw, the warmth of it sending sparks racing down my spine.
My mana surged in response, and his reacted in kind, drawing my power into himself, steadying me the way he always did, even when he threw me off kilter. I deepened the kiss.
My wings broke free, stretching behind me like dying flowers reaching toward the sun.
Whatever restraint he had been holding shattered. His palm cupped the curve of my waist, careful of my wings, but the rest of him was anything but cautious. His lips claimed mine again, deeper, urgent, a collision of want and fear and relief.
He broke from the kiss just long enough to rest his forehead against mine, breaths uneven.
“You have no idea what you do to me,” he growled.
