Who did not know the power of such a drink.
Who did not know how it could make even a careful, controlled Crown Prince feel weak in the knees.
Or perhaps that was entirelyher,as her eyes landed back upon him.
“It’s the winterwine,” Kinlear said. “It takes the limits off. Makes the walls we usually have...come crumbling down.” He looked to Ezer, and something in his features shifted, when he realized she was not looking at him.
No, her gaze was upon Arawn now.
He could feel it like a knife, boring into him.
He welcomed the pain.
He dared her to cut through the layers of hardened ice he’d stacked carefully around his heart...every piece of it already melting, because of her.
Gods, it felt so good when she looked at him.
No one ever had...not like this.
Kinlear sighed again. “I’ve suddenly discovered I have somewhere else to be. Anywhere, really.”
And because he was Kinlear Laroux, because he knew the way Arawn worked...
He leaned in and pressed a kiss to Ezer’s cheek. She sucked in a breath, as if she were surprised at his touch.
It doesn’t matter,Arawn told himself.She isn’t yours.
But it was Absolution.
And maybe, just for tonight...
She could be.
They danced.
And he decided he’d never loved dancing more.
He held her in his arms.
And he decided he’d never held anything so sweet.
Every part of him was nearly set ablaze, a match ready to strike. The tension, the pressure that built inside of him...
Arawn was a dam, ready to burst.
The longer they danced, the further he fell. Into her gaze, into her scent, into the shape of her body against his. She fit perfectly, like she was made for him, designed not only to pleasure him but totorturehim, day after day and night after night.
The winterwine did nothing to help as he drowned in her. As they spun across the dance floor, and the world beyond the windows, the war and the shadowstorm, the Sacred and the darksouls...they all melted away.
There was nothing but her.
Nothing but him.
Nothing but this moment and this dance.
Arawn spun her, taking charge the way he’d done so many times in this very training room. But this felt different.
This felt like she was giving himpermissionto hold her. Like there was no one else that mattered to her buthim.
