I sighed, dragging a hand through my hair,tryingto collect myself. Varyth was staring after Cindrissian, his jaw clenched, his fingers flexing at his sides.
Instead, he turned to me. “Are you alright?” His hands wrapped around my hips, tugging me closer.
I blinked up at him, suppressing a laugh. “I’m never leaving my chambers again.”
“That seems excessive.”
“I’m going to live in the walls. Become a cryptid. Haunt the castle.”
His laugh was quiet but real. “It wasn’t that bad.”
I pulled back to stare at him in disbelief. “Are you insane? Cindrissian saw your fingers inside me. Fenric is probably throwing himself off the nearest tower as we speak. And Darian.” I shuddered. “Darian is going to tell everyone. Everyone, Varyth. By tomorrow morning, the entire castle will know we were?—”
I cut off as Varyth’s lips brushed against mine, a soft, fleeting caress.
“Let them know,” he murmured against my mouth. “Let the whole fucking realm know.”
I searched his face for any hint that he didn’t mean it. But his eyes were steady, certain, burning with something that made my chest tight.
“Varyth.”
“I’m tired of pretending,” he said quietly. “Tired of watching you from across rooms and acting like I don’t want to drag you into the nearest closet. Tired of other males looking at you like they have a chance when you’re mine.”
The possessiveness in his voice sent heat spiralling through me all over again. “Yours?”
His thumb traced my bottom lip. “If you’ll have me.”
The words hung between us, weighted with everything we’d been dancing around for weeks. Everything I’d been too afraid to admit. Too guilty to reach for.
“I’ll have you,” I breathed, the words barely a whisper but somehow the loudest thing I’d ever said. “All of you. Every infuriating, possessive, cryptic piece of you.”
His smile was devastating. Slow and wicked and completely unguarded for the first time since I’d known him. “Good,” he murmured, pressing another kiss to my lips. “Because I wasn’t planning on giving you a choice.”
Alaugh bubbled out of me, shaky and surprised. He grinned against my lips,unrepentant, beforekissing me again, deeper this time, both of us reluctant to pull away.
“Now,” he said, pressing another kiss to my lips. “I should go before Fenric comes back and I have to throw him off the balcony for looking at you.”
I laughed again, shaking my head. “You’re not throwing Fenric off anything. You can’t murder everyone who looks at me.”
“Debatable.” Varyth’s eyes glittered with dark amusement. “The male has seen far too much of my personal business for one lifetime.”
“Personal business. Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Among other things.” His hands tightened on my waist, pulling me flush against him again. “Though I can think of better names for it.”
“Such as?”
His mouth found my ear, breath hot against my skin. “Mine.”
The single word sent a shiver racing down my spine. Before I could respond, he was pulling back, putting distance between us with visible effort.
“I really do need to go.” He pressed his forehead against mine. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Tomorrow. Right.
The meeting with Nyxaria.
His thumbdragged along my hip, his voice dropping into a silken promise. “And after that… we cantalk.”
