She made it in return. “It’s okay, Talon.”
I didn’t know what had transpired between them, but it must have been a conversation about me. “Then it sounds like we’re all in agreement. Let’s make our preparations.”
22
LILY
We left the castle and stepped into the courtyard.
I headed toward my villa and noticed that Callum had stopped in his tracks. I turned back to look at him.
He looked toward the open gate, which led to the pathway down to the village, the route he would take to return to his vineyard. His stare lingered for a while before he turned to look at me.
“Come home.”
He did his best to maintain a stoic stare, but the emotion slowly crept into his eyes, along with the intensity that made my flesh burn. “The dragons?—”
“I don’t care.”
His eyes flicked back and forth between mine. “Have you forgiven me?—”
“Yes.” I hadn’t come this far with Callum just to get lost at sea.
“Xivin, I’m a grown man, but my heart is more delicate than a thin piece of glass when it comes to you.” He gave a slight shake of his head. “I don’t want to walk down a path that will lead us where we’ve been before?—”
“Marry me.”
He inhaled a sharp breath, his eyes immediately coating with moisture.
“I don’t care if Khazmuda disagrees. I don’t care if the world disagrees. We’ll figure it out together. From this moment onward, it’s you and me, and if that means we’re against the whole fucking world, then so be it.”
The intensity in his gaze was different when his eyelids were lined with unshed tears. He wanted me with a desperation I could feel feet away, but the emotional rawness he possessed made my heart choke.
“The world can kiss my ass.”
A subtle smile moved into the corner of his mouth, a boyish innocence taking over his hard face that lasted for a few seconds before it started to fade.
I stepped over to him, rising on my tiptoes and gripping the piece of armor on his shoulder before I kissed him, my hard armor clanking against his when we came together. My lips caught his, and I felt fire at the first touch, a heat that made my flesh burn underneath the protection of the dragon scales. My heart released a song only I could hear once it was reunited with the man I’d given it to.
His passion was dimmed at first, seeming to be overcome with the reunion he’d believed would never happen. But thenhis fingers slid into my hair, and he pulled me close, our bodies unable to sink into each other because of the plates of dragon scales that separated us. He cradled the back of my head as he kissed me so many times, but this embrace was different…because it was the first of forever.
If we survived what was to come.
It was a lot harder to drop armor from the body than it was with clothes, so we both had to separate and remove each piece and then set it on the dining table along with our blades. Callum yanked the top of his uniform over his head and finally revealed the sight of gorgeous flesh over hard muscles. He stepped out of his boots and dropped his trousers along with his boxers in the same swoop, getting down to his naked skin.
It took me a minute to catch up, and I sped forward when I saw his beautiful body that I craved like water in an oasis.
He stared at me hungrily as I tried to get my bottoms off, stuck in an entanglement of my pants, underwear, and boots.
Too impatient to wait, he scooped me into his arms, hooking one arm behind my knees and the other behind my shoulders as he carried me to the bedroom.
I was able to finally kick off my boots and let my pants and underwear fall along the way before his knees hit the bed and he rested me on the surface. I hadn’t shaved anywhere because the last week had been spent drinking rather thancaring about my appearance, but it was no surprise at all that Callum didn’t care.
Probably didn’t even notice.
He shifted me to the pillow and separated my thighs with his before he bent me into place, his length finding my entrance like a key to a lock. He pushed inside with a single thrust and then sank quickly, as if the sooner he was inside me, the quicker the pain in his chest would stop.
Whenever he was inside me, I felt healed, felt closer to him than I ever had, felt a peace and a high at the same time. Sex had been about passion and climaxes in the past, but with Callum, it was about a slow burn and the closeness of our souls. It was beautiful and pure, like there had never been anyone else but him.
