“This is not a small thing you ask of me,” Rune grated against her temple, his voice roughened by restraint. “I may harm you.”
Alora turned her head to meet his gaze, eyes bright, defiant, unafraid. “You won’t,” she said, her fingers brushing the imprint she had marked him with. “And you know it.”
The certainty in her voice made him smile.
“Stubborn,” he muttered, licking the racing heartbeat at the base of her throat. “Brave.”
She always had been.
He again summoned the diamond vial, glittering with liquid gold.
Rune’s thumb brushed Alora’s jaw. “We can stop at any moment,” he said softly, “Simply say the word.”
She nodded.
Rune searched her eyes again, making certain she wanted this.
“I do.” Alora held his gaze, opening herself fully to the bond so he could feel how much she meant it.
She wasn’t only surrendering her body, but she was offering her soul, her light, the very thing he had coveted since the first moment he had glimpsed it in the river of starlight.
For a breath, he could not move. Untamed desire tore at him, demanding he seize her, devour her, bury himself so deep she could never be parted from him again. Yet restraint clawed as fiercely, because if he broke her now, if he ruined the trust she had given him with those four words, he would never forgive himself.
“Very well.” He forced himself to pull out of her. “Stand for me.”
Because he needed her toactivelychoose this, to taste the agony of his own patience.
Alora rose on the stone seat beneath the water and stood bare before him, water lapping around her knees. Breasts full, curves perfectly formed. Her bright eyes were warm and heady, the scent of her arousal carrying in the steam.
Rune’s throat worked, his claws digging into the stone.
She was light incarnate, and she had laid herself at the mercy of his darkness.
Rune rumbled, “We will need to prepare you again, songbird.”
The pupils in her eyes dilated and a blush colored her cheeks. Alora approached him and watched as he summoned the golden potion again and poured it into his palm. He took her mouth in his as he applied it to her wet slit.
Her breath trembled against his touch. Fingers working her, watching as markings flickered white and red. Then he gently prodded her rear entrance and she tensed.
“It’s all right,” Rune murmured.
Alora inhaled a shaky breath. The shadows took the shape of his smallest finger and gently slid in. At first, she flinched, the bond flooded with the overwhelming strangeness of it.
“We will go slow,” he promised her. “Trust your body.”
At his reassurance, Alora’s tension bled away and she relaxed with another breath.
“There you go.”
After another breath, Rune slid his hands up her waist. His shadows stayed behind, keeping that tight little hole open.
They were gentle, coaxing her open, slowly easing her body into the shape of taking more. Alora trembled, but she arched into it instead of away. She trusted him. She trusted him withthis.
“Rune,” Alora moaned.
The plea made his chest constrict. He drew her mouth to his, devouring her mouth in a kiss. He retracted his claws and slid his fingers through her trembling folds, gathering her arousal to spread over her delicate bud.
Her hands clutched his shoulders as he rolled his thumb over the little bundle, a whimper slipping from her lips. The potion must have worked fast because her core was already throbbing.
