His breath brushed her cheek, and a shiver of excitement coursed through her, setting every nerve ending alight.
“What are you doing?” Her words got lost in his moan as she lifted her hand, trying to figure out how close he reallywas, even when her body told her it wasn’t close enough. Her fingers scraped along the rough stubble on his jaw, tracing the soft curve of his full mouth so close to her own.
“What I should have done the moment we were alone.” Hands caressing the sides of her face, he tipped back her head just enough to align her mouth with his, and—oh my Guardians—did Lory’s entire body sing at the light touch of his lips. Heat flared in her belly as if he had summoned it by his own, miraculous will, or like he’d transferred her right into one of his dreams, where neither hierarchy nor protocol existed and Lory wasn’t ashamed to take what she wanted.
A nudge of his tongue against her bottom lip had her mouth falling open, taking his tongue in as he devoured her with a deep, blood-heating kiss. She didn’t care what he’d think as her fingers delved into his hair, combing through the silken strands, her body aching for more contact. A low moan rumbled through Khayrivven’s chest as she pressed herself against his front, his broad hand sliding down her spine all the way to the small of her back, pulling her closer still, until his building arousal was trapped between their hips, and Lory ached for the fabric between them to be gone.
So good—he felt so fucking good. Every muscle she traced with her fingers as she explored his neck and shoulders was proof of his years of training, every movement deliberate despite the shudder of pleasure running through him as Lory rolled her hips, arching into his touch as he glided up the side of her ribs. Just a little higher.
A gasp escaped her throat as his hand slid over her breast, rubbing the peaked, sensitive flesh while, with his other hand, he braced her back as she leaned into him to give him better access.
“Better than any dream,” he murmured into the crook of her neck, running his tongue all the way from her collarbone to her jaw as if tasting her would bring him redemption for whatever crimes he’d committed in his young life.
With the blindfold still on, every touch was an explosion of sensations, Lory’s world narrowing to every place he was touching her, and when he reached under her ass, lifting her so she could wrap her legs around his waist, Lory nearly cried out at the friction against her center when he pushed up with his hardened length.
Had this been a dream, she’d have long torn his clothes off, but this was a hallway somewhere in the most brutal academy in all of Brestolya, and if anyone caught them?—
She didn’t want to think about what would happen to Khayrivven if the Triad figured out he might not have saved her for motives other than utilizing her fire to kill off Ulder’s enemies.
“We need to stop,” he gasped, but his mouth was back on hers, tongue exploring her mouth like that would unearth secrets she’d refused to speak about.
And Lory shamelessly took. Whatever touch he gave her, she soaked up with stifled moans, every kiss she drank up like he was the rain dripping upon a starving plant.
“Stop, Lory.” His words were clear, but his tone was a plea for her to do the opposite, to explore him the sameway his hands roamed her chest, and his hands dug into her thighs. “Stop, or this will very quickly become the one place at Ashthorn where I lose my self-restraint.”
“Would that be such a bad thing, Captain?” The teasing note in her tone made Khayrivven pause a heartbeat before sucking in her bottom lip, nipping gently.
“Depends on whether you want to remember this place as the one where you set your captain on fire.” His chuckle skittered along her skin, and something hard hit her back, almost knocking the breath out of her, but she didn’t reach for the blindfold, unwilling to let go of this moment, where Khayrivven seemed to let slip a different sort of control. Whatever mask he usually wore whenever she laid eyes on him seemed to crumble when he knew she couldn’t see his tells.
“What a bold accusation, Captain,” she gasped as he ground into her, the heat pooling between her legs no longer the only one. “I wouldn’t dare torch you the way you supposedly did me.”
Lory’s skin burned where Khayrivven’s tongue glided along her neck, not the scalding, painful sensation she remembered from when the flames had eaten her up the first time her magic showed, but a searing sort of excitement that made her want to scream his name and push her hand between their hips to free his arousal and wrap her fingers around him.
“That was an obnoxious lie to save you, Gutter Gem.”
Guardians, that tongue, that mouth, as he kissed his way down her chest, sucking in the tip of her breast through the fabric of her shirt.
“And I’d lie again.” His breath was a cool breeze against her heated skin. His hand was beneath her shirt now, fingers circling her nipple, while his hips pushed her harder into the wall. That sweet friction…
“I’ll lie and deceive and watch the world go up in flames if it means you’ll live.”
Wait—what?
Khayrivven’s body went rigid against hers, his mouth hovering over the sensitive spot beneath her ear as Lory reached for the blindfold, pulling it down.
The narrow corridor had near-black walls, Khayrivven’s clothes and hair blending into the darkness, but his face… His eyes held the calm before a storm, his cheeks flushed and mouth shimmering where his tongue flicked over his bottom lip. He wasn’t fast enough to pull up the mask, but she could already sense the man who’d just confessed his ruthlessness fading away.
“Why did you save me, Khayrivven?” The question hung in the air between them like a sword ready to take a head.
Khayrivven didn’t set her down, nor did he remove his hand from where it still rested against the bottom of her breast. Instead, he measured her face as he caught his breath.
It was that silence between them when Lory realized how deep in trouble she truly was, and her criminal past and her magic were only the bottom of it. Somewhere between hating Ashthorn and everyone who’d had a hand in bringing her here, and fighting for her life, she’d missed that a fraction of her heart had opened to the captain who’d damned her—then saved her.
She was falling in love with the captain, and for the first time in her life, Lory was afraid of what he’d say.
I want to know what else you can do, Gutter Gem, he’d said when she asked him before, but the look on his face told her he might be just as afraid of his own answer as she was.
He blinked a few times, the fire in his eyes guttering like he’d stuck a torch in a bucket of water. “We should go. Our mission is awaiting us.”
