I’m back.Did you miss me?
I push the words into his mind. When his voice fails to ring between my temples, a slight lump obstructs my throat, and I finally molt into skin.
I moisten my lips, then my throat, and croak, “I’m back.”
“I see that.” Tension bleeds into his vocal folds.
I don’t ask whether he missed me, since a mate would. That, and I don’t want the entire world to be privy to his answer. I’m not even certainIwant to be privy to it, because, what if he didn’t?
The circles beneath his eyes are as marked as my stripes, and the hollows in his cheeks seem to have been punched in deeper. Has he been sleeping? Eating? Did something happen in Glace in my absence? Did Mestyla come out of the icework?
His gaze lowers to my hip. No, not my hip…to the hand curled against it. When he spots the glimmer of his ring, the line of his shoulders tempers. Had he been worried I’d lost it or that I’d taken it off?
Izolda brushes past my motionless form to plant a kiss on her brother’s cheek. “You look horrid, Kostya.”
His dark eyebrows jostle. “Glad to see you, too, sister.”
“First separations always suck,” she says.
Aodhan strides up to her, head slightly tipped, short brown hair matted to his temples from the sweat of the voyage. “And subsequent ones get easier, now, do they, Izzy?”
Izolda laughs, throwing him a wink before striding past her brother and into the castle. “If you don’t mind, brother, I’ll ask that dinner be served in our respective chambers, because I plan on flopping into bed and remaining there for the foreseeable future.”
“Because of all that flying you did,kohanosh?” Aodhan taunts her.
Her laughter rolls through the twilit air—bright, happy, warm. As he goes after his mate, Aodhan gives Konstantin’s shoulder a squeeze and murmurs a few words I don’t catch.
“You brought back a friend.” The king eyes Elio, who’s parked himself beside me.
Said-friend crosses his arms and eyes Konstantin from head to toe with impressive brazenness.
“Would you and Lachlano prefer separate accommodations this time?” he asks. “Or would you prefer to share?”
“I’m happy to crash with Isl—” Elio wheezes as Lachlano smacks him in the pecs.
“We’ll take two rooms, if that’s not a bother? This one snores louder than your chuffing trains.”
“I do not snore,” Elio mutters.
“Do, too.”
Their bickering sloughs the sharp angles of Konstantin’s visage as though he realizes neither is his rival. He holds out his hand; I step forward and clasp it. The instant our fingers plait, I release an exhale that’s so deep, my lungs must’ve trapped it back in Luce.
“Borat, see our guests to bedchambers in the west wing.” And then Konstantin spins on his heel, towing me along.
So much blood is swirling through my veins that I feel as though I float into the castle. Twice, I check to see if perhaps the king’s gliding us forward, only to hear my boots squeak against stone and brush against carpet.
The instant we’re through his bedchamber door, he slaps the tall panel shut with a burst from his palm, and then his mouth is on mine.
He gathers me close, closer, slanting his face and flexing his arms until not even a whisper of space remains between ourbodies. I tunnel my cold fingers through his hair, then curl them around his strained, hot nape, holding on for dear life as he devours.
The metal buttons of his jacket scrape against my heaving chest, stamping the Glacin crest into the supple leather I want out of immediately. As I carry my hands to my collar and begin to tug on the zipper, Konstantin softens his knees and scoops me up.
I wrap my legs around his waist, somehow managing to maneuver my arms out of my sleeves. I discard my jacket on the floor of his bedroom. My top comes off next. Like twin beams, his gunmetal eyes latch onto my brassiere and my straining nipples.
When his pupils flood his irises, every inch of my flesh tightens. I don’t allow myself to wonder if my body’s reaction could be for any other reason than the depth of his desire for me and my desire for him.
His lips, which had slipped off mine when he swept me off my feet, brush along my jawline before pressing against the side of my neck and suckling. A soft moan drifts from my parted lips as he starts walking again.
