“Lyra.” His tone could not have been more different than before. No longer commanding, but just the opposite. His jaw was set, the muscles in his jaw flexing nearly as hard as the one in his arm that supported him.
“Say it.”
This time, it was me who commanded.
I knew what he would say. But this time was different. Not a phrase tossed out in the heat of passion or a way to reward me for obeying him.
His struggle to get the words out, after what we’d just shared, told me it was much, much more.
Terran looked into my eyes.
“Voren vel’kora.”His voice was as gentle as it had ever been toward me.
I lifted my head and kissed him. It was a kiss unlike the others, underscoring his words.
Pulling back, I laid my head back on the bed.
“Vel’kora dra’ven.”
26
TERRAN
I couldn’t trust her.
And yet, I wanted her to stay.
It was madness. Insanity, as the humans might say. But something had shifted between us this night. Those words which began as a game, a tool of dominance, were no longer either.
They were real.
“You are more perfectly formed than any in Elydor,” I said, watching her dress. When Lyra had risen, I considered asking her back to bed. There was nothing I wanted more than to continue to caress her soft skin. Learn every curve.
Butwantinghad led me to bed a woman who should be my enemy. One who deceives… withholds… even if she had let me see a secret part of her.
“Training,” she said, adjusting her gown. I’d attempted to assist her until Lyra shot me a look that had me chuckling and lying back down to watch instead. “Though I’m certain it pales in comparison to yours.”
Fully dressed, she turned to me, unabashedly scanning me from head to toe. I hadn’t bothered to cover myself in any way. Gyorians were not known for modesty.
“Keep looking at me like that if you care to find yourself disrobed and pinned beneath me once again.” This after I told myself not to ask her to remain…
“Don’t tempt me.”
I was up from the bed and before her before Lyra could utter another word.
“Me”—I reached for her neck, pulling it toward me—“temptyou?”
I kissed her. Claimed her with my mouth, wanting more even knowing I should not.
When she reached down between us and grasped me, I was lost. Her fingers slight, her movement as easy and graceful as the wind, she stroked me.
And then knelt down at my feet.
The sight of her… “Lyra, no.”
It was more insane to attempt to stop her than it was to want Lyra to stay the night. But as she wrapped her hands around me, guiding me into her mouth, I had no more thoughts of distancing myself from her in any way.
In fact, as I reached for the back of her head and pulled her toward me, I did the very opposite. Clutching two fistfuls of hair in my hands, I matched her pace as Lyra took me in… and out. If Lyra’s goal was to ensure I’d have no coherent thoughts left in my head before she left, she’d accomplished it already.
