A small smile twitched up the corners of her mouth. Whatever she saw, she liked it.
He turned her onto her back, laying her down on her narrow bed so he could rise over her, already naked, wanting to feel nothing but her. He wanted to taste and touch and never let her go. Gods, he wanted those clothes off her.
Izzy grinned up at him and raised an eyebrow. “Do it. Cut them off.”
He hesitated. “How is your side?”
“It feels better when you kiss me,” she murmured.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She stroked her hands down his sides, leaving trails of fire on his skin. “I want to feel you. I want nothing between us.”
Let me,his beast growled.
Luka grinned down at the woman he loved, acknowledged his beast with a rough chuckle, and extended one lethal claw. He caught it in the neckline of her ruined bodice and sliced.
Izzy shivered as goose bumps broke out over her skin, tracking the slow progress of his claw as he dragged it down, smoothly slicing the soft fabric… and scraping teasingly over her collarbone, along her breastbone, between her breasts, across the softness of her belly, and gently around her belly button. Hereached her breeches and waited until she was staring at him, breathing hard, and then shredded those too.
Izzy panted, back arching, the sapphire rims around her irises gleaming.
Luka followed the same path back up with his tongue, kissing and licking and nibbling as she shuddered. He pressed grateful kisses over the scarred gray scales that had saved her life. He kissed across the tender ridge of her ribs. He found her breasts and tasted their sweet flesh. Then he caught her nipple in his teeth as his claws scraped and tugged at the other side.
Her hands clenched on his shoulders, her claws pricking into his skin with every gasp. Until finally, he left her nipples, glistening wet and dark, to continue biting and sucking until he was back at her mouth. Her hands stroked over his ribs and came to rest on his shoulders, holding him close as she opened her mouth to kiss him back, tasting him as he tasted her, touching him as he touched her.
He nestled against her, hard and aching where she was blissful, molten joy. The connection between them burned hotter, even more magical than the call of the mountain. Nothing existed outside of the space where they fell into each other, where they breathed each other.
His beast rumbled a loud purr, and then hers did too. A rising hum of joy vibrated through them both like a choir singing, louder and more passionately with every second. Each slide of her lips on his was a swelling melody, intertwining with the drumbeat of his heart and the building intensity between them as they flew toward an inescapable crescendo.
“I love you,” he whispered between kisses against her smooth cheek and on the gleaming scales of her neck. He sheathed his claws and stroked his hand down her body to circle slowly over her swollen clit. His fingers slipped deeper, becoming wetter and hotter, always circling and coming back to tease and pinch as heused everything he’d learned about her pleasure to ratchet her higher.
“I love you,” she whispered back as she dragged his hand away, lifted her hips, and notched him at her entrance. “I want you,” she murmured as she wrapped her legs around his hips and dragged him slowly closer, ever deeper, until he was fully inside her. “Take me.”
Luka surged forward, hard and fast and desperate. Izzy met him thrust for thrust, lifting her hips and grinding into him. His beast roared wildly inside him. The world was made of exploding stars and Izzy. He had everything, and he wanted more.
He went up onto his knees, hauling her up with him so that she kneeled with her legs on either side of his. He was even deeper inside her now, and his hands were free to caress her, to hold her close. She tilted her hips, driving their pace. Her cheek rested against his, smooth skin on rough. Their breaths were ragged and desperate as they panted together, climbing together.
Izzy stroked down his arm to his hand and interlaced her fingers with his. Her claws were pinpricks on the back of his hand, as his were on hers. He slid his free hand to the place where they joined, where he could feel himself driving into her body, found her clit, and pinched.
She screamed, inner muscles spasming, head thrown back, glittering sapphire scales flooding over her skin. He roared with her. White-hot pleasure burned up his spine and through his veins—better than flying. Better thananything—as they soared into ecstasy together.
They collapsed into each other, tremors shivering over their bodies as they held each other, slowly returning to reality. Luka gently pulled out of her and turned onto his side, his hand cradling her face. Then his tears came—scalding, painful sobs of joy, fear, loss, relief, and everything he’d felt but never said. Allthe desperate, lonely hours. All his terror when she was missing and horror when he thought he’d lost her forever. Tears he’d held inside himself for so long that they’d almost become part of him, and new tears that had only just begun to crystalize.
Izzy wrapped her arms around him and intertwined her legs with his, her own tears gleaming on her cheeks. Luka nuzzled into her neck and dropped his hand to hold her side, over her scar. They lay in each other’s arms, no longer alone, as their sorrow eased. Until they were both drained and exhausted, but also alive and peaceful.
Finally, they were home. Together.
“I love you, Izabel,” Luka murmured.
She smiled. “I love you too.”
Chapter
Forty-Two
Izzy’s beasthummed happily as she and Luka walked into the castle hand in hand. He hadn’t stopped touching her. Not when they lay together, peaceful in the quiet after their stormy emotions. Not when they cleaned up, wincing at the cold water and laughing at each other in the mirror. Not when they walked up to the castle, Izzy calling greetings to the people she’d come to know throughout the city. And not now, in front of everyone he knew and worked with.
A pair of lieutenants bowed politely and opened the doors into the queen’s receiving room, ushering them inside. It was so different to last time. Now they were together in every sense.
