She reached into her cloak and pulled out several crumpled pieces of paper.
“What—”
“I saved all the ones you threw away.”
All my discarded words that I believed were nothing. I thought she was throwing them into the fire, but she had been saving them.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you wrote them.”
And then my mouth was on hers, breathing her in, tasting every bit of her. Lemon, salt sea, whetted stone. She tasted like the summer, like strength, like everything I could have ever wanted.
“Clara,” she rasped. My name on her lips sent me into another place, another realm entirely. I’d never had this typeof need for someone—primal, undeniable. No matter how hard I fought against it, the wildfire always blazed for her.
I had seen enough fire tonight.
It had to be quenched.
She tore my cloak off, and I hers. We were both on our knees, feeling our way up and down each other’s bodies. Goddess, how long had I needed to do this? How long had she? We touched each other like we had moments before the world itself spun into ruin. She hooked her hand behind my knee, flipping me onto my back. She towered over me now, slipping off her leathers and throwing them to the side.
“Hesper,” I said. She placed a finger over my mouth and kissed down my neck onto my tunic. She bit my nipple through the tunic, and I moaned.
“Shhh, princess.” She picked me up easily, slamming open the wagon door and carrying me inside. The doors closed behind her. “Ludwig is just outside, and I’ve got work to do. Can you keep quiet for me?”
I silently nodded.
“Good girl,” she growled.
If you call me a good girl, we are going to fuck.
—opening line attempt 95
She pinned my hands above my head and breathed me in.
“You smell like Haven,” she whispered.
Just her breath on me had me moaning, trying to wriggle closer to her.
“I thought I told you to be quiet,” she said, slipping her finger into my mouth and wetting it. “Now, I’m going to need you to stay stillandquiet. We can’t rock the wagon yet.”
Yet.I whimpered.
Goddess, please let thatyetbe a promise.I wanted to break wagons, beds, counters, a lifetime with her.
She dragged her finger down the length of my body, taking care to circle both of my nipples until they were rock hard.
“You deserve to be punished for wearing that dress around me.” She bit on my earlobe, and I gasped. This would be the death of me. A sweet, irrevocable death. “When I saw you in the market street, I wanted to rip it off with my teeth.”
I shuddered at the thought of something so public with her.Everyone watching as she ravished me. Oh, how I wished I still had that dress on instead of my traveling clothes. But thankfully, it didn’t seem that she really cared.
She gently rubbed down the length of my leg, untying my boot and throwing it behind her. It thudded against the wagon door. I almost opened my mouth to tell her to quiet down lest we be caught, but by the looks of her predator’s eyes, she was taunting me. She did the same down my other leg, that boot hitting the wagon walls with a thump.
“May I?” she asked gently, her fingers looping on the waistband of my trousers.
I nodded a yes.
She pulled them down, painfully slowly, and gazed at my bare legs.
