Ozias holds his posture, his breath, before releasing a sigh that seems to melt his form, and in a liquid motion he turns, hooking his thick, muscled arms around me, burying his face into the top of my sea-salt-washed hair. He breathes in deep and slow, and I turn into a puddle at his touch. The anxious energy buzzing under my skin, shouting at me to shift, ebbs away until all I can focus on is the scent of him, the warmth of him, the taste of salt as my lips press lightly to the center of his chest.
Ozias lowers his mouth to my ear. “Are you falling for him?”
I recoil, but he doesn’t let me go as I pin him with a fierce, hard look. “No.”
Zhoric could have killed Ninon tonight with his recklessness. He’s harmed me and countless women from the time he took the power of a god to the moment he sealed my baby niece. Despite all I know of his past, of what he’s shown me of his character, I grasp tightly to my hate. I push down the twisting desire to turn into my dragon so I can see him again.
“Does he think you are?” Ozias questions.
I draw in my lips, considering. “Possibly.”
“He showed up for you today, Kaisa. That is no small feat. But then again,” Ozias searches the planes of my face, a tenderness almost like sadness smoothing the hard angles of his brow, “you are easy to love, Kaisa. It’s no wonder he’s already fallen for you.”
My eyes are hot and my tongue thick with a tide of tears I manage to hold back. I’ve not felt easy to love in my life, but hearing Ozias say it fills me with an unimaginable hope I hadn’t realized I’d been holding onto.
“Kiss me,” I murmur.
He sweeps his eyes up and down my face, holding himself rigid, hesitating. I think he’ll rebuff me again, but then, he lowers to press his lips to mine, soft, gentle and cautious.
It’s not enough, though. I need more. “Touch me, Ozias.”
His breath hitches, like he’s surprised at my boldness. I may have kept things from him, but I’ve never been shy. My hands trail the length of his arms and slip over the backs of his shoulders. I press myself closer to him, until my chest meets his.
With our faces close, the knowing whisper of his question ghosts across my mouth. “What do you want, Kaisa?” It’s a question he knows the answer to, one he teased me with not long ago, and one I have no qualms answering.
“You once offered to show me your bed. Does that offer still stand?”
Ozias presses his face into the crook of my neck. He stays like that for a long moment. “There are reasons why we shouldn’t,” he admits.
The beat of his heart is frantic against my own. “Please,” I say, grasping the muscles along his back. “Stay with me. I don’t want to go to him tonight and I’m afraid if I’m not with you, I’ll transform. I don’t know how to stop myself from going.”
Ozias squeezes me so hard I can’t draw a single breath of air into my lungs. We stay like that for a long time until finally he agrees. “Okay…Okay.”
When it’s not a resounding, uproarious yes, I doubt his desire for me. I suddenly want to take it back. “We don’t—”
“No,” he says, stopping me. “I want to. First though, I need to show you something.”
“Are you…” my gaze flicks down between us, “well?”
Ozias growls deep in his throat, pressing his hardening length against my lower stomach. “It’s perfectly fine, I assure you. What I’m going to show you has to do with bonding.”
I open my mouth. “Oh. I see.”
“You’re close with Zhoric, which means another event like today could happen.”
My brows furrow for a brief moment while I try to figure out where he’s going when my mind alights with a thought. “An opportunity to get close to him again. Toforce the bond with him.”
“It’s less forcing and more like slicing through butter with all the feelings he must have for you by now.”
“We don’t know that for sure.”
“He has enough feelings for you that he came to your aid in a time of need. That is more than enough.”
I lick my lips and squirm against his body. I clear my throat. “All right. Show me.”
Our eyes are soft on each other, his words softer. “Come to my bed chamber.” He doesn’t need to ask me twice, and so I follow him in the dark of night through the place I’ve only seen in daylight. We go through the entrance I’ve never set foot past before, and into an untidy room with a collection of things on nearly every surface. It’s not a neat display like Ninon’s would be, but it’s about the amount of things she’d have in her own room.
Ozias settles me down next to him on the bed, angling us so that our knees touch. I get more comfortable, sliding one of my legs up onto the plush mattress. He lights a lantern on the bedside table, the soft glow stark against harsh edges of the night.
