He smiled against the darkness. “I knew what I was doing.”
Fury darkened her words. “Youknewthe odds. You knew, and you bound yourself to me, and it’s—it’s irresponsible!”
His grin was blinding, but his voice became gruff as he clutched her face. “You wouldn’t have survived. I know these lands, and they wouldn’t have given up their right to a mortal death for anything less than the promise of two souls for one, and not any souls, but their king and queen. It was an easy choice.”
Looking him in the eye, she spoke. “Till death?”
Soot-stained shadows drenched the room. “Thorn, I’ve told you, Iamdeath.”
Chapter 41
Elysia’s handwent to his belt, but she stopped, her fingers curled around the buckle. “Anything else I need to know?”
Aidan leaned over her, planting his hands on the desk, and invading her space until she was gripping his belt and pulling back away from him. Her abs quivered, but she stayed there, face tilted up, waiting, and drowned in his scent.
He smiled at the sight of her clinging and hovering beneath him, a breath away from falling onto the desk.
“Sure,” he said casually. “The talisman is yours.”
She blinked in surprise, losing her coy composure as she let go, catching herself sharply on her elbows.
“What do you mean, it’s mine?”
Aidan drew back, placing his hands above her knees. The firm pressure of his palms inching up her thighs was an exquisite torture. His hands stopped on her hips, her nightgown bunched up and simple black undergarments exposed. Thumb twitching over the seam of her panties, his brow creased. No longer paying attention to their conversation, he stepped back, his fiery gaze once again roving over her. One maroon strap had fallen down, exposing the soft swell of her breast, the rest of her nightgownshoved up around her hips, her body propped up on his desk on display.
“Better than I ever could have imagined,” he murmured.
“Aidan,” she chastised, “how is the talisman mine?”
He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and fixed his heated attention on her face. “I confess my love, my obsession, and you sink your teeth in for another secret?”
One corner of his mouth curved up as his movements turned predatory, his trousers brushing against her bare skin as he came close enough to press his large palm over her clavicle and throat, adding force until she narrowed her eyes and allowed him to lower her completely to the desk.
Still holding her down, he extricated the pen from her nightgown, and ripped the cap off with his teeth to reveal the curved metal nib. Focused, he held her still, and began to write on the smooth skin of her stomach.
Has he lost his mind?She attempted to sit up, but soot-stained shadows shot out, holding her for him, freeing his hand to slip under her nightgown against her ribs as he wrote.
“Aidan, what in the realms are you doing?” Heart tender from his professions and panties damp from his touch, her irritation knew no bounds.
His smirk grew wider the longer he scratched away at her skin. Intent on his work, he spat the pen cap to the side so he could talk. “I told you what I was going to do.”
His earlier words played back in her mind.Either give me my pen back and leave, or I’m going to spread you across this desk and work this out on you.
“You arenotrunning odds on my skin right now.” Her voice became dangerous, but she still couldn’t move.
“I am,” he returned, voice matter of fact.
Peering down as much as the shadows allowed, she saw her stomach was an illegible mess of scrawling black ink, and he was moving dangerously close to her panty line.
“Aidan.”
“Thorn.”
His fingers hooked under the black cotton fabric, and his brow furrowed in concentration as he slid her panties down just enough to write another line. The side of his hand smeared the wet ink across her skin, extending words and numbers past their form. A pillow of soot slid beneath her head as he continued his work. Lazily, her hooded gaze followed his every movement, her breath inhaling as he incrementally slid down her panties again.
She squirmed, the soot shadows tightening, then relaxing when she held still. Wet heat dampened the space between her legs, and the pen briefly stopped, his fingers gripping against her as his nostrils flared before he returned to his work. His blue eyes never wavered from her skin, the pen nib scratching and teasing with its cool sensation on her warm body. He paused, stretching the fabric over the flare of her hips as he lowered them just enough for another line.
Hovering the pen over her skin, he looked up at her, blue fires blazing and dark hair out of place. Desire dripped through her, her mind going blissfully empty of every single thought as his mouth and hot breath grew close to her core. Sleeves rolled and shirt half undone, his forearms flexed, showing off both his golden strands and asphodel torch as the metal nib glided over her most private skin.
