Finally, she slid her knives into her shadow’s vault and peeled off her clothes.
After a long soak and a good scrub with the salt and oils left on the ledge by the tub, she wrapped herself in a plush robe that had been folded neatly on the dressing stool.
The Shine was full on her now, and the mirrors weren’t the only things that were misted. She chewed her cheek, fighting the temptation to call Meer and tell her to remove the spell from the doors. To hell with promises. The thought that Kaelan was somewhere in the house, tied up, curled her toes and set her heart purring.
But, as she combed back her wet hair, she managed to push aside the urge, though she ached from head-to-toe to be touched, to be kissed, to be taken.
Locked in her room though, she still had enough sense to remember why she had done so. Just so long as she remained alone...
Sinking down onto the bed, she planned to satisfy herself as much as she could and then sleep for as long as possible. Had she not been so weary, the Shine might’ve prevented her from sleeping, but the two pulled on each other. Without a Prince immediately present, sleep was winning out.
She drank some water, chewed a couple of sweet chamomile and peppermint drops, and allowed the burn of desire to slip over into the warm lull of sleepiness.
She drew back the covers, drowsy and prepared to have some very, very good dreams, when the scorching tension that had been sloughing away suddenly reasserted itself. Her fingers balled in the blankets as her breath caught.
In the corner of her eye, she saw the shadows shift.
Not now, please.
Endreas’s lips parted as though he’d been about to speak, but had forgotten what he was going to say. But it didn’t matter, because she wasn’t interested in conversation.
CROSSING THE ROOMin a few swift steps, she hooked her arm around his neck and kissed him. Where their delicate skin met, heat welled and coursed through her, down her throat, across her chest, into her depths. His mouth pressed hard against hers, opening, their tongues meeting.
Tugging off her robe took less than a second and then his hands were on her skin, her back and thighs, cupping one of her breasts and working the tender flesh, rolling her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. She broke from his kiss to gasp.
His mouth moved to her breast, tongue flicking, and then drawing the peak between his lips until she panted, fingers twisted in his hair.
The throbbing heat in her core tangled and clenched.
She pushed him back, stripping off his shirt and yanking down his trousers to expose his glorious shaft, already hard and darkened. Her mouth watered and she bent to taste it, just to lick the drop of salt from the tip, but instead found herself taking him in.
He groaned and seized the back of her head as her mouth plunged down the length, laving and consuming all at once. As much as she enjoyed the growls and needy thrust of his hips, she retrieved her knives to slice through the wrappings and the laces of his boots. She put her knives away, ran her tongue once more over him, and then freed his legs from the last of his clothes. Pushing him back against the wall, she mounted him, hitching her leg up onto his thigh, sinking her weight down onto his pulsing erection, every inch unfurling another wave of pleasure so intense she nearly lost all strength before he had fully entered her.
He hoisted both of her legs up, slamming into her, spurring an eruption.
Her vision flickered in and out as the coiling tension in her briefly released before drawing back tighter than ever when he withdrew to carry her over to the bed.
Pinning her down, his chest against hers, he slid into her again, slowly. His lips branded her throat, breath strafing across her skin, growling and moaning and murmuring.
She couldn’t tell if his words were real or a new language altogether, created in the moment. Either way, she understood the meaning. She may not have been claiming him, but he was claiming her.
Each stroke of his heavy stave pushed her closer. Little tremors rippled off the surface of her skin as he slid out to his swollen tip and then built up again as he plunged once more, as if he was trying to drive deeper somehow, even though he already filled and stretched her to the limits.
Dizzy with need, she pushed him over onto his back and straddled him, sliding down the steel of his flesh.
His hands molded to her breasts, squeezing and twisting as she rode him. He caught her nipple in his mouth. Each pull of his lips and flick of his tongue tightened her around him, her passage milking him.
He threw back his head, gritting his teeth through a moan, hands gripping her hips, digging himself into her deeper, quickening her pace.
Her straining knot rubbed up and down against him, inside and out, slick and hot and winding with a rising, shuddering energy, abrading against his rigid iron shaft, at once fraying and tightening... until, at last, it broke.
She arched back as the gasps of ecstasy released through her, quaking and trembling.
He roared as she clenched around him. His fingers burrowed deep into the soft flesh of her thighs. His hips thrust upwards as his heat unleashed inside of her, pumping and swelling.
She collapsed against the slick planes of his chest, his heart pounding hard against her breasts.
His muscles twitched. They both moaned together as the last of him was spent. He fell slack under her.
