“Beg prettier and maybe I’ll give you what you need.”
His mouth closed over my nipple and stars shattered in my head. Even his mist played with me, tightening around my nipples, sliding up and down my body like extra hands.
I made a tortured sound, like a sob, and he thrust faster, the wetness so loud, obscene.
My thighs tensed.
His fingers drove into me, curling to hit a devastating spot.
“Come for me,” he growled. “Soak my hand.”
“Yes, Kairos, please.”
“That’s it. Give it to me.”
The orgasm ripped through me like a snapped rune. My cry caught in my throat, my body locking as ecstasy crashedover me, my thighs clamped over his hand. Then I was gasping and shuddering.
He pulled his fingers free, slick with my arousal, and brought them to his mouth. His eyes locked on mine as he sucked them clean. “Now every time I look at you, I’ll remember how sweet you taste.”
I lay there, trembling, still raw and wet, aching for something bigger than fingers. I couldn’t catch my breath. The hunger hadn’t left. If anything, it had sharpened, and I didn’t understand what thatmeant.
The mist loosened its grip, and I grabbed his face. I slid down his chest, but he snatched my wrists, stopping me.
“Not yet.” He leaned down, his mouth brushing my ear. “I want you more desperate than this.”
My limbs were loose, unsteady, and sensitive. He kissed me, achingly gentle compared to earlier.
I’d never felt so completely undone, so dangerously out of control. This was nothing like fumbling with Vaeris in dark rooms. I didn’t have words for what just happened.
Slowly, my surroundings came into focus. Ocean waves crashing, the cold air seeping into the cave. We were in Skaldir territory, being hunted, and Vaeris’s armies were searching for me, and I was…ripping off my clothes?
What’s wrong with me?
“We need to go,” he said gently.
I sat up, sliding the shift into place. It was wrinkled, my hair a disaster. I smoothed it with trembling hands. After I’d pulled on my dress, he ushered me outside.
The chill bit my cheeks, shocking against my overheated skin. In the distance, faint lights from a village twinkled, and a horn keened on the wind.
40
CONSEQUENCES
We moved through the darkness like ghosts, the moon high overhead. Waves crashed to our right, loud enough to cover our footsteps. Twice we froze when torches flickered on the beach. Once, we pressed ourselves behind a boulder while Skaldir soldiers passed close.
“How much farther?” I whispered.
“Border’s past the tree line.” He gestured at the forest. “An hour.”
“The patrols seem light.”
“They are.” He frowned, facing the plains. “Something must’ve happened.”
We kept walking. Kairos paused at the edge of the forest, scanning the trees, then we trekked through the woods. It thickened as we followed a creek upstream, the canopy blocking the moonlight. Kairos gripped my hand so I wouldn’t trip, guiding me slowly.
He squeezed my palm. “You holding up?”
I nodded, though my legs ached.
