“Hi.” I brace for the moment she turns around.
When she does, she blinks and grabs the front of her robe to close it over her breasts, startled by the strange man standing in her room. It takes a few seconds, but she smiles, and everything about her softens. Her pretty blue eyes. Her gorgeous face. Her lovely hands.
She unfolds from the chair and comes to me on those long, bare legs, moving with all the grace of a sylph. Her robe is open, the exquisite, naked column from her throat to her ankles on full display.
Seeing the soft tuft of brown curls between her legs makes my blood rush, thinking of her silken pink center. The curves of her breasts are another temptation, heavy and sweeping. Beckoning. I want to touch every inch of her smooth, tawny flesh, trace every line of her witch’s marks.
I swallow hard as she nears and drags her finger along my jaw, marking the lines where Emory shaved my beard down to a shadow. Raina’s eyes widen and sparkle with what I think might be delight.
“Do you like it?” I sign, turning my head just enough to kiss her wrist.
“I love it,” she replies. “You are so stunning.”
She grazes her fingertips over my lips, fluttering them for a moment before she rises on her tiptoes and presses that lush mouth to mine. I open for her, relishing her taste, the sweetness and the warmth, like sugar and cinnamon. Her skin and hair smell like jasmine and lavender, two scents that are permanently sealed inside my senses and will forever remind me of her pleasure.
As I slip my hands beneath her robe to hold her bare waist, I can’t help but think about how good she feels when she’s riding me, when I’m holding her just like this, watching her take what she wants from me, watching her take everything I need to give.
The thought is too much, sending an ache straight to my balls, stiffening my cock. I make myself pull away, because as much as I want to lay her down and devour her, there are other concerns at hand.
With a tender touch, I tip her chin up and look into her eyes. “I heard about what happened today. I saw Yaz.”
I wanted to reprimand my old friend for taking Raina to see the Memory Catcher. But in truth, my discomfort at Ingrid’s mention only exists because I have long wished to ask her to read my blood. I want to retrieve memories but having someone look into my past never felt safe with as much as I had to hide.
A cloud of unease passes over Raina’s eyes. “More secrets thanks to my parents,” she signs. “More lies.”
I draw her close, my hands at the small of her back. “I’ll help you figure this out. If you were born in Malgros, we’ll know before we leave. Zahira plans to visit the archives first thing in the morning to see what information she can find. As for your father and his absences, I can’t comment on what he might’ve been doing during those times away. But I can promise you that I’ll be here when and if those memories resurface. If there’s anything else I can do, you only need ask. I understand what it feels like to not be able to remember.”
“I would rather not talk about it,” she signs, and my rune warms with her desire. “Zahira postponed dinner. We have the evening to ourselves. My only request is that you make me forget for a little while.” She slips one hand over my shoulder and threads her fingers into my hair. Her other hand settles between my legs, rubbing at the growing erection I can’t seem to tame, until it strains against my trousers.
A part of me thinks to deny her, to encourage her to talk instead. But she isn’t ready, that much is clear. And besides. Raina Bloodgood is as persistent as a river rolling over rocks. She would wear me down easily.
I lean in and press my mouth to her ear, already struggling to maintain a steady breath. “I swear to the gods, you are my greatest weakness.”
Truth, but not something I ever thought I would admit to another person.
She opens her robe and presses her naked breasts against me, still rubbing her perfect fingers up and down the length of my cock, as though memorizing the feel and the shape.
“I think a little magick practice is in order,” I whisper. “Time for my lascivious plans.”
She looks up at me with curiosity in her eyes and a question on her face.
I reach for the sash hanging untied at her waist, ripping it free. With a wink I say, “I suppose I’ll have to show you.”
27
RAINA
Prisoner and Jailer. I understand now.
“Are you certain you’re all right with this?” Alexus asks.
The silken sashes he took from our robes are held firm in his fists. One red. One black. I stand before him beside the bed in the loft, naked, witch’s mark exposed, body willing. The trust I have for this man astonishes me sometimes, but the thought of him binding my hands holds not a single spark of hesitation.
Only longing.
There’s hesitation in him, though. He doesn’t want to be like Finn. He hasn’t said as much, but I remember the rage that burst from him at the sight of my hands being pinned in someone’s grasp, my voice silenced. To prove I have no qualms about what he’s proposed, I hold my hands between us, palms up and wrist to wrist.
His eyes go dark as sin as he jerks his chin over my shoulder and says, “On your knees on the bed. Facing away from the head frame.”
