These touches were not satiating its desire.
Or mine.
Fury and self-loathing slithered in my veins from how much I was enjoying this.
“Tell me something good you did.”
The request caught me off guard, and I stared at Sylaira.
Good and me in the same sentence?
The earnestness in her gaze made me want to confess everyact of kindness, no matter how small, if only to offset the list of grievances she carried against me.
“Other than saving Ilae and Ysolthe’s clutch? I don’t force my svaethi to tithe.”
There wasn’t much good I was allowed to do, given my position. My duty was to enforce the rules my sister and the Koron laid out. But this one, in my svaethi, I’d abolished once my father died.
Her mouth dropped open fully then. “You’re lying.”
“Never to you,” I murmured. “There would be no point when our every thought and feeling are shared.”
“Unless I’m blocking you out,” she countered.
A smirk tugged up the corner of my lips. “Which you do exceptionally well. But no, I have no need of their crops or coin. I haven’t been there in…a long time. They are better off keeping it or selling it. All my needs are taken care of by the crown.”
Her tongue flicked out and wetted her lips. The movement captivated me. I found my hands inching higher, continuing to massage her thigh. The heat from her core was like a beacon. My cock hardened, pressing painfully against the ties of my pants.
“I didn’t expect you to say that.” Sylaira’s words brushed across my cheeks, our faces so, so close.
Of course she didn’t. Because to her, I was a villain, intent on breaking all those in my path. I got drunk on the suffering of those beneath me.
How little she knew.
“Does that change your opinion of me?” I rasped, wanting it to be true.
My mate’s breasts rose and fell, shallow and fast. “Maybe.”
That single word undid me like nothing else ever had. It was possibility—something I’d secretly hoped for but continually corrected in my mind.
Pupils dilating, she held my gaze. I surrendered my grip on her thigh and reached up to tuck her long hair behind her pointed ear, revealing the array of gems embedded along the upper edge.
A shiver wracked her frame as my knuckles trailed across her flesh, down the side of her jaw to the base of her neck. My large hand wrapped around half of it, fingers threading into her hair. She didn’t protest. Made no move to shake me off.
The bond roared its approval.
Maybe she was finally letting me in. Maybe she was letting go of her loathing. Maybe, just fucking maybe, she felt this undeniable pull too.
And then, my mouth was on my mate’s.
Her lips were as soft as I had imagined, like the clouds she’d originally escaped into. And her taste—rain-soaked earth and decadent peaches. Sweet. Nectarine. Divine.
One kiss, and I knew I was doomed and destroyed.
A low groan rumbled in my throat as I closed the remaining distance between us. Her arms splayed across my chest, fingers digging into my tunic. She opened for me, and I swiped my tongue against hers, the ghostflower scent filling my nostrils and driving me headfirst into oblivion.
Something shifted, but my focus was on the taste, the feel of my mate. I was lost in the storm and I didn’t want to search for my center again.
Light exploded behind my eyes. A force slammed into my torso, flinging me backward.
