‘Do you have to go back?’ I ask instead, as I try to undo the buttons on the back of my neck. The angle’s more than a little awkward. ‘Do you have obligations?’
Kyor shifts, pulling me closer.
‘Right now,’ he murmurs, ‘the only obligations that matter are here in this room.’ He presses a kiss to my forehead as he undoes the buttons. ‘Now sleep. Who knows, tomorrow we might get to test out that bathtub.’
Now that’s an offer I can’t refuse.
I wakeup to the awareness that my body feels far more like my own. There is a slight ache to my limbs, but nothing like it was. Even more helpfully, my mind is far clearer than it has been, meaning the paparvy must be fully out of my system. I stretch a little, flexing my arms and fingers, only to find the smooth contours of Kyor’s body behind me.
As gently as I can, I turn around to face him. Even with his eyes closed, he’s the most perfect specimen of a man I have ever seen.
‘Thorn,’ he says, eyes still closed. ‘Why are you staring at me?’
‘Just feeling lucky, I guess. You know, that we’re still here. Alive.’
As his eyes open, he traces a lazy line down my arm with his finger.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt as lucky as I do now,’ he whispers. His eyes are wide now, and his fingers move in circles across my bare back. ‘I’m so sorry for everything that led us here, but it’s hard regretting the only thing that’s ever given me happiness. Brought me you.’
‘I understand.’ And I do. I know exactly what he means. All that loss. All that pain. I hated the way Dinah would say that Etta had her reasons, but lying here like this, I can’t discount the possibility that she might actually be right.
For a moment we simply breathe one another in, and then he lifts his hand to smooth my hair behind my ears.
His gaze holds me as I lean forward, pressing my lips against his. With a gentle laziness, his tongue caresses the contours of my mouth. As we exchange slow kisses, I feel him harden, pressed against my stomach. My body pulses in response, though the kisses don’t change at first. They remain just as slow and tender, even as I feel my restraint straining within me with each breath, an underlying urgency to the situation rising.
I did as he asked on the boat and didn’t kiss him farewell, and now I want my reward. I want him all.
My hand grabs a fistful of hair at the back of his neck and I pull him towards me.
‘Thorn …’ The low moan rises from his throat and shatters the remnants of my resolve.
I roll my hips towards his, only for a tremble to quake through me as I brush against his hard cock. Yet rather than responding the way I need him to, his body tenses as he backs away, an expression of concern on his face.
‘We shouldn’t.’
‘Yes,’ I say with more certainty than I have felt about anything I can ever remember, ‘we should.’
He still doesn’t move. ‘Three days. You were unconscious for three days,’ he says instead.
‘And now I am back, given a chance to live.’ As I wonder at his reticence, my thoughts flash to Estel’s sister’s pregnancy. ‘I have a tonic,’ I tell him. ‘Something I took in the slums, if that’s what you’re worried about?’
A low, raw growl reverberates from his throat.
‘No,’ he says shortly. ‘That wasn’t my concern?—’
‘Then show me. Make me forget that anything outside of this room even exists. Make me forget it all. You can do that, right?’
The switch is immediate. His lips find mine and his hands tangle in my hair, pulling me on top of him with urgency.
I move my hand down, stroking the head of his cock teasingly. I pull away from his lips and look into his eyes, a smile tugging at my lips. ‘Unless, of course, you don’t want to fuck me, Kyor? Which would be very disappointing, because I have a very particular itch to scratch, and if you’re not willing to, then perhaps I?—’
With one smooth motion he flips me onto my back,pinning me down with some delicious forearms. ‘Don’t you dare finish that sentence,’ he growls, eyes flashing.
My smirk widens. He’s played right into my hands.
‘Then I’m yours, Kyor.’ I lean up and kiss him lightly. ‘Fucking own it.’
When his mouth lands on mine, I pour all the yearning and fervour that burns within me into the kiss. The feeling is something feral and fierce that I want to revel in. His hands move across my body, glancing over my breasts, kneading, stroking, and caressing before pointedly continuing down to the apex of my legs. His fingers graze lightly over my swollen clit – teasing it – before he strokes those clever fingers of his against my opening.
