“Draven,” I gasp out.
Pleasure pulses across his handsome face, and his thick cock throbs inside me as he comes as well. Shuddering groans rip from deep within his chest.
I pull his face back to mine and steal those incredible moans from his lips. He kisses me back softly but insistently. Then he just rests his forehead against mine while the thrumming pleasure slowly fades from our joined bodies.
My heart thuds in my chest. I don’t want this moment to end. I want to stay here with him forever. In this perfect little bubble. A hidden moment in time where it’s just me and him. Where it’s just us and nothing else matters.
This is how it should be. This is what I want my future to be.
Steel seeps through my body as I hold my mate closer.
I want everything.
I want fuckingeverything.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
When morning comes, my broken heart has pieced itself back together enough that I feel able to tackle another day. Or rather, Draven has pieced it back together. He held me close the entire night, and just feeling his warmth and his comforting strength made me believe once more that everything will be okay. That we will be able to get through this. That wecando this.
I glance over at him where he is getting dressed. He is only wearing his pants and that tight black shirt that he wears underneath his armor, so every time he moves, I can see the muscles flex in his perfectly sculpted chest and back and arms.
Thanks to Orion’s very talented staff, my fighting leathers have just been delivered to our room, looking as good as new. I bite my lip, still watching Draven, as I reach for the hem of my short dark blue nightgown.
“Keep looking at me like that, and you’ll undo all of my efforts,” Draven says, sliding me a look from the corner of his eye.
I almost jump in surprise, not having realized that he couldsee me watching him. Quickly pulling myself together, I raise my eyebrows. “What efforts?”
“If you keep looking at me like that, all of these clothes I’ve just gone through the trouble of putting on are coming right back off again.”
A pleased laugh escapes my lips, and I wiggle my eyebrows at him.
He strides over to me and slides both hands into my hair. Tilting my head back with commanding moves, he kisses me so deeply that my heart flutters.
“Oh, you really are a menace, aren’t you?” he murmurs.
I smile against his mouth.
However, before I can reply, there is a knock on the door.
“Commander Ryat,” a male voice calls.
After one more kiss, this one much softer, both of us pull back.
Draven lets out a soft huff of amusement while turning towards the door, and he comments in a low voice to me, “Commander. I’m not a commander anymore.”
“You will always be a commander.” I wink and flash him a grin. “Just ask your bossy and domineering personality.”
He gives me a smile that promises delicious revenge before raising his voice to answer the messenger outside the door. “Yes?”
“I was sent to tell you that your friends Galen and Lyra have returned,” he replies. “And so has Diana Artemesia. Everyone is gathering in the war council room.”
“War council room?” I say softly to Draven, my eyebrows raised in surprise. “Orion has a war council room?”
“I’m honestly not surprised at all,” Draven says to me before calling to the messenger, “Where is that?”
“I can take you there right now, if you’re ready?” he replies.
Draven glances down at my body in the short silk nightgown before giving me a pointed look. “We’ll be right out.”
