I lifted her up and carried her the way a prince carries his bride after a wedding, toward the canopy bed in my bedchamber. I walked slowly, drawing out the anticipation. Her lips explored my neck, pebbling my skin, and if she kept on like this, the storm would surely rise again.
“Kael?” she whispered, voice strained.
“Yes, my love?” I looked at her. Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight.
“I’m going back to the mountain tomorrow.”
My heart stumbled. I frowned. Was she truly thinking of that now? I needed to fuck the idea out of her before it rooted itself into a plan.
“I can’t let it lie,” she insisted. “I can keep silent, but we ought to do something. And you know it.”
I knew it all too well, but I didn’t want to think of it now. I wanted her for myself. I wanted the world to stop existing so there would be only us.
I set her down, her feet finding the floor. We stood there, naked in the moonlight, facing each other.
“How do you expect to lift the curse?” I asked, knowing she had no real notion of what to do and that we were improvising more than anything else.
She crossed her arms, hiding her chest. “I don’t know… yet. But I think I’ll know once we’re there.”
I scoffed. All I wanted was to pry her arms open so I could see those beautiful breasts. “So you’ll go to the most dangerous place in the kingdom without a plan?”
I expected her to snap at me, but she only looked up at me, lips parted, trembling slightly. “The most dangerous place in the kingdom is you, Kael.”
Touché.
She lifted her chin. “I’m a wizard, archmage, and magister. I’m pretty confident I can make sense of this.”
Confident Evie was the most beautiful thing to behold.
I closed the distance and seized her, forcing her to face me fully, my grip tight as if she might vanish. My mind was made in that moment. I would let her go, but I wouldn’t let her go alone. I would come with her.
“You are not to step where I cannot hear your heartbeat.” The words rumbled from my chest like thunder. Not a plea. A command. I pressed my forehead to hers. “If you leave, I will follow. If you fall, I will fall with you. Do you understand me?”
Evie nodded.
“We leave at dawn tomorrow,” I said. “Now let me make love to you on that bed.”
“Love?” The word slipped from her, shy and soft, and she seemed to regret it the moment it fell.
Yes, she’d heard it right. And I admitted it to myself now, fully and without escape. Because I loved Evangelina Corvo, and I had loved her for years.
I didn’t respond. The words would be frail and unready. She deserved better. More.
I would show her instead.
Our lips met again, and I carried her to the bed.
She parted her legs for me, a silent offering I answered with a low rumble in my throat. I entered her deeply. My grip seized the headboard, a lever to plunge deeper with every thrust. One hand on her neck, I squeezed and squeezed until her eyes turned white. I sent her everything, all of me, knowing she would catch my echoes and praying she would see all that I was. I wanted her to see me as I was, as I had been, for her acceptance was the very breath that sent life through my soul.
Her eyes rolled up and closed, and for a fleeting moment, her heartbeat faltered. When she returned to me, I took her lips, a silent thanks for her surrender.
I made love to her until we both shattered, then I crumbled beside her and held her in my arms until sleep claimed her, her body so weary from what I had wrought.
I did not wish to sleep. I wished to savor this moment beside her and bask in the warm light of being truly seen.
Footsteps approached my quarters,dragging me back to reality after hours spent contemplating my beautiful doe.
I slipped away from the bed as silently as I could so I wouldn’t wake little snoring Evie. I also wanted to reach the door before a knock could come.
