Only this time, I step inside and my eyebrows raise. Something is different about Celestina’s cage. It’s about three times the size as it was last time I was here. The soldiers must have built her a new one.
I walk across the room to admire the new cage, and I’m slightly disappointed to discover that there’s not much for me to do. Celestina is asleep, but she already has food, the cage is clean, and she’s obviously being well cared for. Of course, I want that for her, but I’d been looking for something to do. I sit and watch Celestina sleep for a couple of minutes, then leave, keeping my head down as I walk back down the empty hall.
I’m almost at the door outside when it opens and I’m suddenly face to face with Fox.
He’s obviously coming from training, because he’s wearing his full armor and his hair is tied up and out of his eyes. He’s also carrying what looks like an armful of heavy iron breastplates, which he nearly drops when he sees me. He stops halfway through the door and just stares at me, as if he can’t quite believe I’m real.
Of course, Fox and I have seen each other regularly over the last several months. We sit across from each other at nearly every meal, and we always act normally when anyone else is around, but it’s been months since we were alone. Months since he looked at me like…that.
For a long moment, neither of us moves or says anything. My face heats. I wish I could be anywhere but here.
Finally, Fox breaks the tension. “Were you here looking for me?”
“Uh, no.” I suddenly find my voice again. “I was checking on Celestina.”
Fox says nothing, just nods, and steps the rest of the way into the barracks so the door slams shut behind him. I expect that he’ll keep walking and take that armor wherever he’d planned to, but he doesn’t move, just stands there, blocking my way out.
“Excuse me,” I mutter, trying to step around him.
He still doesn’t move out of my way. His shoulders are tense and a muscle in his jaw twitches, as he stares at me with an expression I can’t read. Then, suddenly his fingers loosen and he drops the armor he’s holding. The sound of the metal hitting the floor is deafening, and my body jerks backward involuntarily.
Before I can do anything else, Fox steps forward, closing the space between us in one stride. He reaches for me, his calloused palms finding my face, and his lips crash down on mine.
For a second, I freeze.
I have no idea what to do with my body. We’ve never kissed—ever—but he’s kissing me now and my heart is beating so fast it’s like it’s trying to escape my chest.
Then, as if a dam breaks, everything gives way at once. My fingertips find the warm skin at the nape of his neck, my body arching into his, my lips parting beneath the pressure of his mouth. The world narrows to his breath mingling with mine, the scratch of stubble against my chin.
A low, guttural sound rumbles from his throat and he pulls me closer until my toes barely touch the ground and my chest is crushed against the cold plates of his armor. I gasp, and he takes the opportunity to deepen the kiss. He traces the seam of my lips, hot and hungry, and without even thinking, I open for him. His tongue invades my mouth and I whimper, a desperate keening sound.
Fox picks me up, bringing our faces closer together, and starts walking down the hall toward his room. My hands tangle in his hair, pulling it free from its knot, and my legs instinctively wrap around his waist. My hammering pulse keeps moving lower, through my belly until my core is throbbing.
He kicks his door open and carries me into his room, the door banging shut behind us. When we’re inside, he breaks the kiss long enough to lower me to the floor. “Take your fucking clothes off.”
I whimper in response, and reach for the hem of my short dress, yanking it unceremoniously over my head.
I don’t care that it’s the middle of the afternoon, or that we’ve hardly looked at each other in months. I don’t care about any of the reasons I stayed away for so long. He’s staring at me like I’m the most important thing in the world to him, and I can’t get my clothes off fast enough.
Fox unbuckles his breastplate, the metal scraping against itself as it falls away. His strong fingers work at the leather straps of his gauntlets, muscles flexing in his forearms with each tug.
My clothing is less cumbersome, so I’m finished undressing first. I stand naked in the middle of the room, my clothes in a pile at my feet, and watch him wrestle with his armor. Sunlight streams through the window, glinting off his golden hair and illuminating every line of his perfect body, every muscle shifting beneath his skin, and it ignites something primal in me.
He’s watching me too, with a hungry heat in his gaze that isn’t helping to cool the fire building within me. I dig my nails into my palms, counting each thud of armor against the floor.
When he’s stripped down to just his trousers, my patience snaps and I go to him. His fingers fumble with his belt buckle, but I brush them aside. “Let me,” I whisper.
His mouth finds mine again, hot and urgent. My knees go weak as his tongue slides against mine, and I slide the leather strap of his belt through the loops then letting it slip through my fingers, landing with a soft thud against the wooden floor.
He moves his mouth from my lips down the column of my neck, teeth scraping against my sensitive skin. My neck arches backward as his lips trace fire down my throat, my fingers still wrestling with the stubborn button of his trousers.
At last, the button gives way and his trousers fall open. I let my fingers trail along the V of his muscled abdomen, and he exhales sharply then leans backward, falling onto the bed. His hands clutch my waist, dragging me along for the ride. The mattress creaks under our combined weight as I land astride him, my knees sinking into the bed, bracketing his powerful thighs.
My fingers tangle in his hair, drawing a deep moan from his throat. The hard ridge of his arousal strains against his half-open trousers, pressing right against my core. I make another keening sound and rock against him, desperate for the sweet burn of contact.
“Fuck,” Fox swears, gripping my hips hard enough to bruise. He seems unsure if he wants to grind my body down harder against his length, or move me off his lap entirely.
Trying to push him in the direction I’d prefer, I reach between us and push at the fabric of his waistband. He catches my fingers, stopping me from freeing his cock, and I hear myself make a sound almost like a growl.
