“You don’t want to waste a single moment between us. I don’t either.” With that, she slid her hand down his chest to the waistband of his trousers, tucking her fingertips just beneath the fabric. He groaned, then shifted to the side to undo his trousers’ buttons, freeing himself at last. She didn’t think her heart could beat any faster, but it nearly shot from her chest as she explored him with her palms. He did the same to her, feeling the parts of her he hadn’t touched yet. They held each other’s eyes, coaxing sounds from each other, testing which touches made the other shudder, which had them arching into each other for more.
Then finally, when Cora didn’t think she could take another second of the beautiful torment they teased each other with, she shifted more firmly beneath him, and let him settle fully over her.
They paused and exchanged a tender kiss. “I love you,” Teryn said when their lips parted.
“I love you,” Cora echoed back.
Then Teryn seated himself fully inside her. Cora gasped at the fullness, the rightness, the euphoria that thrummed through her as their hips began to move. She’d never felt this before. Sure, she’d taken lovers when she’d lived with the Forest People, but it was nothing like this. Nothing like the connection between her heart and Teryn’s. Nothing like the emotion that tore through her as they quickened their pace, reading each other’s bodies, movements, signals, as if they were speaking a brand-new language.
Teryn gripped her hand, pressing into the blankets beneath them, an anchor to reality as her euphoria grew. Heat continued to build at her core, growing hotter and hotter, even as the thrust of their hips sated it. She wanted more. More. Again and again.
Finally, she crested the wave of pleasure, feeling it tear through her, coursing through every inch of her body, her soul. Her eyes watered with the force of it. The promise of it.
Teryn pressed his mouth to hers once more. “I love you,” he said, voice strangled. “I love you so much, Cora.”
The words drove her over the edge, release shuddering through her. Teryn found his next, a wave that chased her own, that danced with it. That rose and calmed with it.
They remained entangled, sweat soaked and spent for minutes on end, neither speaking as they caught their breath, communicating with wordless smiles. Teryn brushed the hair away from her brow. When they finally managed to separate, it was only to rearrange themselves. Teryn reclined on his back while Cora draped herself over him, her head cradled against his chest. She closed her eyes and gave in to a moment of rest, lulled by the sound of his heart.
10
Teryn couldn’t stop looking at her, the beautiful woman dozing on his chest, a soft smile on her swollen lips. His body was sated, but his eyes couldn’t get enough of her, nor could his hands. He caressed her dark tresses—tangled now, thanks to their activities—and wound his fingers through her hair, memorizing its sheen, its texture. His other hand brushed the dark tan skin of her forearm that was draped across his chest.
How did he get so lucky?
What did he do to deserve this fierce and gorgeous creature?
He studied the side of her face, her bare shoulder, her slender neck. As his eyes settled on her puncture scar, a protective fire burned inside him. He’d felt it when they’d assessed each other’s scars earlier. While he felt no bitterness at having worn the collar briefly himself—it had helped him take back his body, after all—seeing hers filled him with rage. In her letters, Cora had told him all that had happened in El’Ara. How she’d been forced to endure that collar for nearly an entire day, how an Elvyn named Fanon had hated her beyond reason, going so far as to pit her against a dragon.
His anger at that Elvyn male was so strong, it overshadowed any sympathy he might feel for those who lived in El’Ara. For the fact that their land was dying, smothered by the Blight that was slowly creeping from the Veil. He was almost glad Cora couldn’t fulfill her role as the mother in a prophecy that foretold the fae realm’s salvation, if only to spite that single Elvyn. Though he couldn’t fully relish it. Not when Cora’s inability to birth the prophesied savior had come at such a heartbreaking cost—being cursed by Morkai.
Cora stirred, drawing his mind from his dark thoughts. As she lifted her head from his chest, his stomach sank. He knew what she was going to say before she uttered a word.
A sad smile crept over her mouth. “I should get back to my room.”
“Can’t you stay?” he asked, running a fingertip over her cheek, her chin.
“I wish I could, but what would my ladies think if they found me missing in the morning?”
She was right. As queen, she granted honors to aristocratic families by appointing their daughters and nieces as her royal lady’s maids, or their sisters and wives as ladies-in-waiting. That didn’t mean they were women she could trust. As far as Teryn knew from the letters they’d exchanged, she hadn’t gotten close to any of them. If they discovered any unsavory gossip about Cora, they could spread it through the castle and beyond in a matter of hours.
He hated that royal women were expected to remain chaste while men were not. He hated that their pure and beautiful love could devolve into a scandal, even though their wedding was a mere few days away. Even so, this wasn’t the time to battle such lofty expectations and traditions. Cora’s reign was still new.
Yet he couldn’t bear to let her go so soon.
“Go back in the morning then, before sunrise,” he said.
Her eyes narrowed in consideration. Then suspicion. “I have a feeling we won’t get much sleep if I stay the night.”
He shifted to the side and rolled her onto her back. Her eyes widened with amused surprise. He nipped at her bottom lip. “Whatever could you mean, Your Formidable Majesty?”
“Hmm, I wonder.” She glanced down, arching a brow at the part of him that answered for both of them.
Just when he thought he was sated, his craving for her returned. He angled himself closer to her, let his hand skate up her thigh, her hip, her stomach, until he cupped one of her breasts in his hand. He ran his thumb in a slow circle over her hardened peak, delighting in the way her lashes fluttered shut, the way her lips parted. “What do you say?”
She opened her mouth, either in a gasp or to give her answer, but before he could find out which it was, a rhythmic knock invaded his awareness. It was coming from his sitting room, at his suite’s main door. His bedroom door was closed, stifling the sound. He had every intention of ignoring it, even as it sounded again, more insistent this time.
Cora released a heavy sigh. “You should answer that.”
