“How long do we have?” she whispered.
“I don’t know. How long will it take for Declan to take this to Batlok? How long before Batlok demands an audience? I also sent a runner to the queen, warning her.” The muscles in his jaw ticked. “Guards could arrive any time now.”
Not long then. Izzy ran her hands up to his shoulders as her beast thrashed, pushing closer. She wanted his skin, wanted to wrap herself around him and never let him go.
This might be the last chance she ever had to touch him. Even if the queen took her side, there would be questions. If her shop was searched, they would find Firebreather there, in a small lockbox at the back of her drawer. It looked bad for her… and for Luka too.
“How do they think she got back?” she asked, dreading the answer.
“They think a dragon flew her back,” Luka admitted roughly.
Gods, she’d thought they were being clever by being each other’s alibi. Now they could be each other’s downfall.
There was nothing they could do in the time left. Nothing to change. So she did the one thing she really wanted to do. She went up on her toes and kissed Luka. He’d kissed her twice. Now, she kissed him. She poured everything she had into this moment. All her lost dreams. All her lonely nights. All the times she’d wished he wanted her, even a little.
His skin was hot. There were scales over his throat and a rough evening beard over his jaw. His mouth was firm, and he didn’t hesitate for even a second. He groaned as he kissed her back.
Luka lifted his hand to thread his fingers through her hair, turning her head so he could align her mouth perfectly to his. Their bodies pressed so close together she could feel every heartbeat, his ragged breaths, and the desperation in his kiss.
He growled, low in his throat. The vibration shuddered through her entire body, driving heat to pool in her belly. Shepushed closer, wishing there were no clothes between them, only skin and sweat, as their kiss grew from hot to blazing.
There was none of the caution from before. Neither of them held back. They came together with teeth and tongues. Furnace-level heat and raw passion.
Luka slipped one hand down to cup her ass and hauled her up, helping her climb him, and she wrapped her legs around his hips, grinding against him.
They kissed like that, her core nestled over the hard bulge in his breeches, as the fire in her veins grew hotter, more demanding. She was so close, but just not close enough. Luka growled again, and her scalp tingled where he tugged her hair.
He set her down, and she whimpered at the loss of his body, but he was already moving, walking her back until she reached the wall, then quickly unbuttoning her breeches.
“Is this okay?” he rumbled, his gray eyes ringed with a thick gleaming band of iridescent green-black, as he dropped to his knees.
“Yes.” More than okay. If this was all they ever got, she wanted everything.
The word was barely out of her mouth when he lifted her feet one at a time to pull off her boots and drag her breeches down. Before she could even gasp out his name, her leg was over his shoulder and his mouth was hovering right where she needed him, hot breath on hot flesh.
“Yes,” she whispered again.
And then he licked her. A long, slow taste that left her shuddering. He licked her again and again, driving her insane. Sweat broke out on her skin. Her hips rocked, chasing him, chasing the pleasure he was building.
Her beast purred and writhed. Luka’s beard teased the inside of her thighs, and his mouth was scorching. But she needed?—
He latched onto her throbbing clit and sucked just as his thick fingers found her entrance and circled. He gathered her wetness, spread it, circling. So close, but not close enough. She shivered, moaning, weaving her hands through his hair as she held on. “Please, Luka. I want?—”
He thrust two fingers inside her. Her back arched as everything inside her clamped down, gripping him. He pumped into her with firm strokes, his lips never leaving the pulsing bud as he sucked, hard. Her entire body clenched, and then, with one last perfect twist of his fingers inside her, she flew over the edge, shuddering and whimpering and fighting to hold in the screams she wanted to release.
Her beast roared its triumph as she spasmed. Luka kept sucking, kept thrusting, kept drawing out her orgasm until she collapsed, spent, against the wall.
He slowly withdrew his fingers and kissed her mound, the inside of her thigh, the softness of her belly. Izzy drew in a shaking breath and lowered her foot to the ground. Then she captured Luka’s face in her hands, stroking the damp hair from his forehead as she looked down at him, kneeling at her feet.
She hauled him up, needing him closer, and kissed him again. He tasted of her and of himself, of them together, and she lost herself in him. In his strength and his offer to take her away.
Boots rang on stone in the distance. Soldiers were coming, but she ignored them. They only had a few moments left, and she needed them to kiss Luka.
Chapter
Twenty
Everything slowedas Luka drowned in sensation. Every tiny movement, every sound, was Izzy. Her low moan as she wrapped herself tighter around him. The silk of her hair sliding through his fingers. The flex of her muscles. Her soft lips. The heat of her body. The way she shuddered, coming apart against his mouth. It was more than he’d ever dreamed of. He could taste her forever.
