I felt like I couldn’t kiss him back hard enough to make up for the time we’d lost.
I was still willing to try.
His body was nearly flush against mine, but I yanked him even closer, my fingers kneading into the strong muscles of his back. His tongue plunged deeper in response, pulling a soft moan through my lips. The sound only made him more hungry, more desperate to seal his mouth completely over mine until we were a single being sharing the same magic, the same rhythms, the same air.
I was dizzy when he finally leaned away—just barely—so we could catch our breath. I lost mine again as his touch slid downward, mapping out the curves of my body before settling at my waist, slipping beneath the hem of my shirt and finding skin. His forehead came to rest against mine while he traced lazy, mesmerizing movements against me with his fingertips.
He lifted his gaze, meeting my slightly-dazed stare.
My heart thumped faster, remembering the way he’d looked at me in my room the other morning, right before…
“Say it again,” I whispered. “Now that you aren’t delirious from a narrowly-thwarted demonic possession.”
He leaned a little farther away, a hint of a smile on his lips, his eyes shining with amusement, but also with a clear understanding of exactly what I wanted—needed—to hear.
“I love you,” he whispered, gripping my chin and guiding my lips back to his for a slow, gentle kiss. “Though, for the record, I wasn’t delirious when I said it before. Were you?”
I hesitated but decided to tell him the truth. “I constantly feel like I’m walking a line between insanity and reality, here lately.”
His smile faded slightly. He brushed his hand across my cheek, taking hold of a strand of my hair and twirling it thoughtfully around his fingers for a moment before meeting my eyes again. His gaze was unflinching, full of promise and the sort of desire that made everything else glide to a stop.
“This is real,” he said. “Trust me.”
I managed an exhale.
A nod.
I took his hand again and led him onward. It was late enough that the area was entirely deserted, but we still wove our way deeper, as far as we could get from the stairs leading to the upper palace—all the way to the darkest, quietest pool we could find.
Aleks dipped his hand into the water and summoned a faint pulse of light, allowing us to gage the depth. He let the glowlinger, but even then, the space remained dark and private enough that I didn’t hesitate to strip off my clothing.
He followed my lead with perfectly casual grace, and I stumbled a bit at the sight. I’d seen him naked before, of course, but something about seeing him in this setting was different. The darkness, the steam, the stone walls glittering faintly in the light…
And we were alone.
Finally together, and finallyalone, after so many long weeks.
Desire raced from the top of my scalp down through the tips of my toes—until Eamon’s warnings whispered through my mind again.
I turned my back to Aleks, at least for the moment, focusing instead on scrubbing myself clean.
He didn’t pressure me into anything more than this. We merely existed together for a half hour, maybe longer. The peace, the warmth, the closeness…it was quiet, simple bliss. A rapture that felt unearned—or maybe just strange underneath the weight of everything happening in the world outside.
The heat eventually started to make me feel dizzy, so I hoisted myself out and sat on the edge of the pool, feet still in the water. There was a cool breeze drifting in from somewhere; refreshing, at first, but I soon grabbed Aleksander’s shirt and slid it over my chilled, pebbling skin.
He continued to swim in the basin. His magic ebbed and flowed with his movements, though overall his light remained faint. The darkness and the murky, mineral-rich water hid much of his body, but I was still entirely too aware of his nakedness.
I tried to keep myself from staring at him. To convince myself to becautious, as Eamon had insisted.
I was…not particularly successful.
After a while, Aleks waded over to where I sat, wrapping his arms around my bare legs and pulling them together sohe could rest his chin on my knees. Another wave of peaceful bliss overcame me, becauseheseemed so at peace. He studied me from underneath his lashes, occasionally planting kisses on my thighs. The movements were gentle. Sweet. Much more wholesome than what Ireallywanted him to do in that moment.
Caution,I reminded myself, cheeks burning as I glanced away.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
