“I know I don’t tell you this often enough…or ever,” his full lips parted, like he was fighting for air as he prowled up my body, unfastening his trousers. “But you are the most exquisite creature I have ever seen, Ly. Absolutely. Fucking. Perfect.”
I could have said a thousand things just then.
Could have laid my soul as bare to him as my body.
But…people like us didn’t do that, either.
“We are running out of time, so I’d advise you to stop the sweet talk before we get caught,” I warned, secretly preening over every word, hoarding them for later. “Of course, now that I’ve gotten mine, I hardly care about your…” I swallowed when I saw the size of his engorged cock, imagining taking all that luscious length inside me. “Situation.”
“Such a romantic. That’s what I love about you, Lyrae. You always know… the right thing. To. Say.”
He cupped my cheek, dragging the crown of that enormous cock through my drenched folds. Once. Twice. God,three times. I arched into his touch, the gentle teasing that was addictive as the sex. Every time we did this, the intimacy felt a little bit better.
A little bit more real.
And a lot more dangerous.
As if he could slip through my fingers like water, and I’d be left holding nothing but memories.
I couldn’t understand why these moments had become the center of my entire world, but when Ryland thrust, when he filled me full, when he fucked me like he couldn’t get enough, when he groaned out my name like a godsdamned prayer and spilled every drop of himself inside me, they became everything.
This was all that mattered.
The only part of my pitiful life worth living.
The only time I felt alive, when my heart raced from something other than fear, when my stomach ached from something other than hunger.
Wham. Wham. Wham.
A fist pounded against the door—hard and demanding—and out of habit, we both were moving, yanking on pants, shirts, boots, weapons, with nimble, agile fingers.
Ryland went through the door first, broad shoulders blocking the view, so I couldn’t tell if this was good news or the worst kind of bad news. Varian Kronos waited in the dim hall, running a hand through his long blond hair, narrowed eyes bouncing between us, a frown on his lips when he spotted me buttoning my shirt.
“We finally cracked Maldrake’s safe open. But we’refucked, Ry.”
“What? There’s supposed to be twenty thousand gilder in there and documents we can sell. Are you telling me it’s empty?” Ryland’s expression went thunderous. “If that lying sack of shit set us up, I’ll kill him, I swear to the gods, I will.”
“Worse than empty.” With one step, Var moved between me and Ryland, his lean body thrumming with tension. “You’ll have to go see for yourself. If I tell you, you’ll probably break my nose out of spite, just like last time.”
“That only happened once,” Ryland muttered, shooting me the side eye as he stalked down the hall lined with paintings of rich Fae aristocrats. “Fine. So there’s a problem. What else is new? We always have fucking problems. Are you two coming?”
Varian’s shoulders sagged, face drawn, looking like the world had just ended. “Go on ahead, boss. We’re right behind you.”
I went to follow, but Varian caught my wrist in an iron grip with a subtle shake of his head. Ryland hardly noticed, taking the sweeping staircase two steps at a time, heading toward the sound of panicked arguing upstairs.
I rubbed my stinging nose as he disappeared, a reekingsmell hitting me full in the face. The chemical scent of spent magic cut through the musty odor of this closed-up mansion, pungent enough for me to recognize I’d never smelled anything like it before.
Sour…but rotten, too, like someone had opened up an old grave.
“What’s going on?” I peered into Varian’s face, which was getting better by the day. For tonight’s job, he’d braided his blond hair back from his face, showcasing a jaw that seemed to grow more defined every time I looked at him. And those golden eyes…could his eyes get any more damned beautiful? Definitely not something I should be noticing. Because I was already fucking Ryland Storme.
Because Varian was my best friend.
My only friend in the whole, godsforsaken world.
Because people like us…I blew out a breath.
No, wanting more than I already had was a recipe for disaster.
