He pressed against his mattress, panting, one hand buried in his hair, the other trailing lower.
"Say my name again, Thaelyn,"he whispered."Let me hear it when you break."
“Thorne,”she cried out.
“Let go, Thaelyn,” he commanded, voice fierce and tender.
And she did; the release shattered her, not in body, but in spirit, and in mind. A surge of light, pleasure, and something ancientpassed through her like the breath of a storm goddess, shaking her to the core.
Across the compound, Thorne collapsed back against the bed, eyes glazed, and his body trembled with sweat and magic. His thoughts were feral with the echo of her. His muscles ached from restraint. And yet the bond still hummed, open, intimate, and exposed.
The air around Thaelyn buzzed, thick with magic and wanting. The thread of her connection to Thorne pulsed like a living thing. He lay back on his pillow, intending to go to sleep.
A rush came through the bond. Her skin was flushed, her breath uneven, but her voice, her voice was clear now. She reached for him.“I want to do the same for you,”she said into the bond, her voice a flame in the dark.“Let me touch you. Let me feel your desire. Hear it. Know it. Let me show you in return how much I want you.”
Thorne’s response came not in words but a groan so deep, it pulled at the hollow beneath her ribs. The icy control he always wore now shattered between them like glass underfoot. His heart stopped for a second, as if he were contemplating. His breath caught.“Thaelyn,”he breathed, almost reverently.“You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I do,”she whispered.“I want to see you undone.”
She felt him through the bond, his body laid bare before her, mind stripped of its usual armor. His need surged like flame, aching and raw. His muscles flexed with restraint, but his thoughts betrayed him: he wanted to be touched, worshipped,known.
“I’m all for having a good time, Thaelyn, if that is what you want. I will be happy to give you what you need and desire. But if I lose control and it’s me on the receiving end, that changes things for me. It’s just different with you. You have to be sure before I let my guard down around you and let myself go. I don’t think once I go there with you, I’ll ever be able to come back from it. I would never be able to let you go.If you’re not ready for that, I think we should stop here. You have to be sure.”
“It’s what I want.”
“Then touch me,”he said, hoarse.“Let me feel your hands on me, even if it’s only through this bond. Gods, I need to know what that would feel like.”
Her thoughts became hands, lips, and worship. She kissed the trail of his abdomen in her mind. Her fingers caressed the ridges of muscle and the curve of his hips. She could feel his body beneath her, feel the gasp that left him, the way his thoughts trembled with need.
“You’re perfect like this,”she whispered.“Vulnerable. Unraveled. Mine.”
“Say it again,”he moaned.“Say that again. I want to hear that I’m yours.”
Thaelyn didn’t hesitate. In her mind’s eye, she knelt before him, fingertips trailing up his thighs, taking her time. She felt the way his breath caught, how his thoughts scattered at her touch. Her hand brushed up his abdomen, over the hard planes of his stomach, and when she pressed her lips to the space just above his waistband, he shuddered.“You’re mine,”she murmured.“Every inch of you is mine and only mine!”
He groaned, a sound that cracked something open in him.
And the bond surged again, hot and urgent. Her hands gripped his shaft, and she began stroking him in rhythm.
“Touch yourself,”she said, breathless.“Let me feel what you’re feeling. Guide me with your hands.”
He growled in response, the kind of sound that could burn down cities.
And together, through nothing but magic, thought, and desperate need, they fell apart. Their minds writhed in each other’s presence. Their magic sang. The pleasure was explosive and unseen, but no less real, no less powerful. They came apart and back together in a way that was wholly them. And when the storm passed, they lay there, separated by stone and space, yet more connected than two souls had any right to be.
Across the campus, Thorne’s fists were clenched against the sheets, his chest heaving.“You’re going to be my undoing,”he whispered to the bond.“I want you so badly,”he said softly, still catching his breath.“Not just this. I want all of you.”
Thaelyn turned into her pillow and whispered back, her voice barely audible.“I know.”Thaelyn curled beneath her blanket, breath shallow, and her heart was still hammering against her ribs like aprisoner trying to break free. She stared at the ceiling, stunned, silent.
But even in the warmth of the bond, even after the aching pleasure, a part of her trembled, not from fear, but from the truth. This wasn’t just desire. This was a beginning.
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
Morning came with the sting of sunlight on sweat-damp skin and the distant clang of steel on steel from the training field. Thaelyn sat on the edge of her bunk, lacing her boots with more force than necessary, her fingers trembling slightly from lack of sleep andtoo many thoughts. She could still feel him, the ghost of his hands, the echo of his voice saying,“Say it again,”the slow, devastating way their bond had flared and crackled until she didn’t know where she ended, and he began.
Now she had to see him. In public. On the flight field. Surrounded by students and instructors who had no idea that her knees had nearly given out last night from words alone.
