“He was telling me when Davina was planning to attack.”
“And?”
She turned in his arm and wrapped hers around his neck. “Tomorrow, before sundown. I think she’s going to try and channel what’s left of the new moon.”
“Which means she probably doesn’t think she can defeat you without it.”
Auraelia cast a look over her shoulder, searching the crowd for any sign of Garnet’s emissary before turning back toward Daemon. “What that means is that my time to take her down was just lessened significantly. If she channels the moon—”
Daemon pulled her closer. “She won’t have the opportunity to, my star. Not if we are together. We will do thistogether.”
Though anxiety churned in her belly, a soft smile pulled at Auraelia’s lips as she slowly slid her hands down his chest to encircle his waist. “Together.”
Without the moon, there was little to no way to determine how late the night had gotten. By the time Daemon and Auraelia retired to her suite, her body was exhausted, but her thoughts wouldn’t slow down. Events from the evening turned over in her mind in an endless rotation. From Daemon returning to her and asking her to be his wife to the confrontation with Lord Harland and the information Caius supplied.
Auraelia collapsed face down onto her bed and groaned.
“What can I do for you, my star? What do you need?” Daemon asked as he crawled onto the bed beside her and rubbed her shoulders.
Rolling onto her back, Auraelia reached up and ran her fingers across his jaw, relishing in the soft, yet scratchy, feeling of his beard against her skin. Tonight was possibly their last night together. Potentially, the last night, she would see his face, see the love that shone in his eyes. She took a moment to let herself soak in the moment, memorizing each and every inch of his face so that it was emblazoned on her mind, from the bright gold centers of his eyes and the mossy swirls that surrounded them to his plump bottom lip that her thumb was sliding across.
Daemon pressed a kiss to the pad of her thumb, and her chest ached with how much she loved him. How much time she’d wasted trying to push him away when she could have—should have—just been with him.
Her throat tightened as tears pricked at the back of her eyes. “You, Daemon. I just need you.”
“Auraelia, you’re exhausted. You need slee—”
“What Ineedis you. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, and if,” Daemon opened his mouth to protest, but she covered it with her palm, and his shoulders sagged with resignation. It was the reality of what they were to face, and though he seemed reluctant to let his mind go in that direction, it was firmly planted in her own. “Ifsomething happens to us, I want to know that I spent my last night completely consumed by you.Lovedby you. Sleep can wait. Right now, I need all of you.”
“Auraelia.” Her name was a plea on his lips, matching the worry in his gaze.
“Please, my love.”
He loosed a heavy sigh, his eyes raking over every inch of her body before coming back to her face. Heat simmered in his gaze as it latched onto hers, the burning embers of love and lustcolliding as his tell-tale smirk graced his lips. “I do love it when you beg.”
Daemon’s lips were hard and demanding as they came down against her own, his hands sliding along her curves until he reached her hips. Auraelia arched into his touch as his fingers skimmed the top of her waistband, dipping in slightly as he reached the ties at the center. Searing kisses marked her skin as he slowly trailed them along her jawline, down the column of her neck, all while his fingers made quick work of the thin leather strips that held her pants together.
Anticipation clawed at her insides, a pulse settling between her thighs as she waited anxiously for his hand to slip beneath the leather. But as his mouth continued its downward descent, his hands moved upward. His fingers drifted in featherlight caresses along her torso, tracing each and every lace of her corset before reaching the ties that held it together. A low whine rumbled in her throat as he slowly pulled the strings to untie the knot at the top of her breasts before meticulously unlacing each segment down to her navel.
“Daemon.” His name was a plea that quickly turned into a moan as his mouth latched onto her nipple through her tunic, his tongue rolling around the sensitive bud before pulling on it with his teeth.
“Fuck,” she groaned, her hands flying to his head. Fingers tangled in his hair as he worked each breast in equal measure.
His hands were bruising as he gripped her hips, grinding her against the leg he’d pressed between her thighs, guiding her movements in long, languid rolls, giving her enough friction to drive her to the edge but not nearly enough to send her careening over.
“Daemon, please,” she begged as he slowly kissed his way back up her body.
“Not a chance, my star. If this is my last night with you, I’m going to take my time. I’m going to worship every inch of your body. Have you in as many ways as you or I can think of.” Each promise was punctuated with a pop of a button on his vest until they were all undone, and he’d tossed the garment to the floor. “I’m going to make you come so many times that you won’t think you can anymore—” he pulled his tunic over his head and added it to the slowly growing pile of garments on the floor, “and then you’ll give me another one.”
Daemon climbed off the bed, and Auraelia watched with rapt attention as his hands slid to the clasp on his trousers…then stopped. The look in his eyes was intense—want mixing with that predatory gaze that lit her body on fire—as he hooked his thumbs into his waistband and stared down at her.
“What do you want, Auraelia? Use your words, or I will put that mouth of yours to better use.” A sly smirk lifted one corner of his mouth.
A challenge.
One he knew she would rise to but also struggled with.
She was in control of most things in her life, and letting go—giving Daemon the reins in the bedroom—had always been a comfort she clung to.
