“I’ve never been more sure of anything.” She traced my lower lip with her thumb. “I want this. I want us.”
Without another word, I lifted her into my arms. She wrapped her legs around my waist, her arms going around my neck as I carried her down the spiral staircase. Our chambers lay below her workshop, a sitting room at the base of the tower stairs and our bedroom adjacent.
I shouldered open the bedroom door, reluctant to set her down even for a second. The deep blue light of dusk bathed the room, and the bed waited.
When I lowered her onto the mattress, she kept her arms around me, pulling me down with her. We kissed again, slower this time but no less intense, as if we were memorizing each other’s taste.
I pulled back, needing to see her. “I’ve wanted this forever.”
“Even when I was glaring at you?” she asked, her smile growing.
“Especially then.” I kissed the corner of her mouth. “You were glorious in your defiance.”
Her smile widened. “Even then, you smiled with welcome.”
“While you snarled.”
She hid her face in my neck. “Sorry about that.”
“I understand why, and you’re not snarling now.”
“No, I’m not.” She looked up at me. “Show me what it’s like to belong to the vampire king.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
CYRENE
Kieran’s eyes darkened at my words, the midnight blue eclipsing to near black as he gazed down at me. The weight of his body pressed me into the mattress in a delicious way that made every part of me feel amazing.
“You want to belong to me?” he whispered, his voice rough with emotion. “Cyrene,Ibelong to you.”
He brushed a strand of hair from my face with so much tenderness it made my throat tighten. “From the moment I saw you at that festival, laughing in the moonlight, you’ve owned pieces of me I didn’t know existed. Six years I searched for you. Six years I wondered if I’d imagined the witch who brought joy to my life.”
This powerful king, who commanded armies and negotiated treaties, who faced blood magic without flinching, had spent years looking for me.
“And now you’re here, in our kingdom and in our bed.” His voice dropped lower. “And you’re asking to be mine?”
I lifted my hand to his face, tracing the sharp line of his jaw. “I am. And you mine.”
His kiss was so tender it made my magic stir beneath my skin, golden warmth spreading through my veins. When he pulled back, his eyes held something fierce and possessive that made me shiver in anticipation.
“Let me show you,” he said, easing away from me.
He stood beside the bed, the fading daylight casting his features in shadows. With deliberate slowness, he began to undress. First his shirt, revealing bit by tantalizing bit of his chest and abdomen. The fabric whispered as it drifted to the floor, and my breath caught at the sight of him.
Pale skin stretched over lean muscle, his body that of a warrior rather than a man who sat on a throne all day. A thin scar ran along his right side, and I wanted to trace it with my fingertips, to learn every mark and line of him.
His hands moved to the fastenings of his pants while I stared. A flush heated my cheeks, but I couldn’t look away.
“Like what you see?” A hint of teasing laced his voice.
“Very much.” I drank in the sight of him. “Don’t stop.”
His smile came slow and predatory as he unlaced his pants and pushed them down over his hips. They pooled at his feet, leaving him dressed in only an undergarment that did little to hide his stiff cock.
He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his undergarment and slowly, torturously, slid it down his legs until he stood completely bare in front of me.
My mouth went dry at the sight. He was magnificent, all lean strength and hard angles, with none of the softness that marked my own body. The evidence of his desire for me was unmistakable, and a thrill of both nervousness and anticipation raced through me. Soon, I’d feel that thick, long cock moving inside me.
