“Possibly,” he says. “It’s dinnertime. But don’t worry. The children won’t eat them.”
It takes me a beat before a laugh bursts out of me. “Did you just make a joke?”
He shrugs. “Not a very good one.” He continues on the next breath, his smile fading. “Nova, your family is safe for now, but the future is uncertain. You have choices ahead of you that you won’t want to make. Decisions I wish I could shield you from.”
“And only a few moments like this before I have to step back onto my path.” I raise my eyes to his before I deepen our kiss. “Moments with you that I don’t want to waste.”
I slip my arms around him, and he seems to know what I need, lifting me up so that my legs remain wrapped around his waist. It’s an effortless move, as if we’ve been doing this for a hundred years, but that’s how seamless our bodies and energy move together. Like we were made for each other. Two halves of a perfect whole.
In some ways, I should be thanking Esta for the carnage she wrought when she tried to take over the throne, since it brought the most perfect man into my life. I won’t, of course, but at least one positive came out of all it. One positive I can hold on to through the coming hours and days.
Roman’s kiss deepens as he pushes me back against the nearest wall, the firm surface keeping me stable so his hands can slide up my torso, across my shoulders, and cup my face. He holds me like I’m precious, and I want to open my eyes and see his face, but I’m too consumed by our kiss. By the fire springing up between us as I rock into his body to ease the ache developing in mine.
Roman’s chest rumbles, and he lifts his hands for a moment to cast a string of emerald runes that surround us completely, just like the rune he used on Mortem to conceal our actions.
“This will give us privacy,” he tells me as his hands drop back to my sides, supporting my torso and brushing the undersides of my breasts.
My cry is low and needy, and he responds exactly as I hoped by pressing the rune on my wrist and removing my clothing in a beat. His is gone just as fast, and he thrusts against me, the head of his cock entering me. I’m prepared from his presence and his kiss, and it’s enough to ease the first slide, until the burn of my muscles reminds me that I need a lot more preparation for my body to accommodate someone of Roman’s size.
I welcome the burn, though, the delicious mix of pleasure and pain that makes me cry out as I ease myself forward to take in as much of his length as I can manage.
“Nova,” Roman rumbles. “If you keep this up, this is going to be over much faster than either of us would like.”
My moan is louder, and I really hope the emerald shield blocks sound too. “I don’t care. Fast. Slow. It’s all so damn good.”
His rumbled response is low and he sounds genuinely happy as he lifts me a touch higher, his cock sliding from my body until it’s almost out, before he lets me slide back down on him again. He does this over and over, pulling almost all of the way out so that he can thrust roughly back in.
It’s hard and fast sex, and it’s destroying me just a thoroughly as his kiss before. I come screaming his name, unable to stop moving against the explosion of sensations inside me.
Roman’s pace picks up, and I’m holding on for life, while hoping this never ever ends.
“Nova,” he growls, and I feel him swell inside me as he gets closer.
“Rune,” I reply, my head spinning as the pleasure builds again to a level I can’t control.
I cry out at the very same moment Roman does, and as the stars dance across my vision, I’m determined that this is just the beginning of moments like this for us. Stolen quickies. Days wrapped up in each other. New experiences.
And a love that lasts all the lifetimes.
Everything I won’t let Esta take from me.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE
Roman uses his rune energy to clean us up, and when we’re dressed, he lowers the emerald shield and we step out of the cavern into the crisp, evening air.
We follow the smell of food and the sound of laughter to find that my entire family has gathered in the large tent where the eagles’ main kitchen and dining area is housed. The tent is made of a thick canvas the same reddish-brown as the rocks around us, which would help conceal it from the sky, and tonight it’s laid out with tables on one side and a space with chairs on the other.
My father sits surrounded by about thirty shifters, all of whom appear to be hanging off his every word. My sisters aren’t present, but Koda sits off to the side with my wolves gathered around him.
It hits me instantly that the Demon King is charismatic in a way that defies logic, seeming to draw everyone in as he speaks, and it’s easy to see how Mom fell for him so easily.
“Nova!” She jumps up from the seat beside Jareth and races across the tented area to collide with me, wrapping her arms around me.
“You’re awake,” she exclaims, leaning back a touch to see me before pulling me in for another hug. “I waited in the cavern with you, but Roman assured me he’d bring you straight to me as soon as you woke up.”
She’s talking fast, tripping over her speech, her grip on me never loosening. I meet Roman’s eyes over her shoulder and have to bite my tongue as a smile plays across his lips, since he hadn’tquitebrought me to her as soon as I’d awoken.
“I love you, Mom,” I tell her while she hugs me with all of her strength. She feels far less frail in my arms, and I know it’s more than her physical strength returning. It’s her mental strength as well.
