Ione shook her head, shook the thought away.“River will understand,” she murmured.“Someday.”
He loosed a breath, evidently cured, and held out a hand.“Ione Artem,” he declared, “Menon Incarnate.Glorify my name and I will act in your stead.I will spill blood, strike down Sowelan’s armies, raze the ground they stood on.”His smile widened, took on a foxlike quality.“Glorify me,” he repeated, “And I will protect you.”
Ione almost laughed.This, after she’d so proudly declared her protection of Lina.Nonetheless she swallowed and took his hand, letting him kiss the backs of her fingers.
The gentle touch, the startling intimacy of his lips against her cold skin, hauled her back to just yesterday morning.Ione trembled, seeing so keenly Lina’s shy smiles, hearing the pealing bell of her laugh.Shrinking, Ione banished the image, the hurt, the humiliation from her mind.
Her infatuation with Lina was new, fragile.She could kill it if she tried hard enough.
“Deal,” Ione said, pushing Kai down to sit on the chaise lounge.
Kai blinked, blatantly confused when Ione leaned on one knee over him.“I, uh – ” He flushed, words caught in his throat.“I don’t expect this from you.I mean, this doesn’t have to be part of the deal.”
Her face heated.“Is that a no?”
“Gods, are you – ” He choked on a laugh.“I, ah – just don’t want you to feel you have to.”
“I don’t,” she said, and she didn’t.“I want all traces of her gone.I want her erased from me.”When he didn’t answer, she took his chin in one hand, tipping his face towards her.“I need an exorcism.”
His mouth spread again into a slow grin.Gleeful, as he pulled her to straddle his lap.“And I need a god.”
She took him in, acquainted herself for the first time with the details of his face.Faint, feathery scars on freckled, light brown skin; a slightly-crooked nose, an intelligent gleam in his eyes.Kai bore her scrutiny patiently, his hands on the small of her back.His eyelids fluttered when she tangled her fingers in his hair, pushed his head back to expose his neck.
Pliable.Willing.“Swear to me,” she commanded softly.
His thumbs brushed either side of her spine.And just as softly, “I swear.”
She gripped lightly and he let out a small noise.She liked it.She could likehim.She was made sick and this would cure her.
Only after she kissed him did his hands move, one pulling her tighter against him, the other sliding around to her front and cupping her breasts through her dress, gently, like he was holding back.Ione pushed the sleeves of her dress off her shoulders and arched, arms wrapping around his shoulders and guiding his mouth to her throat.She shivered at the sensation of teeth nipping her collarbone, the silky heat of his tongue on her breasts; he unfastened the buttons of his trousers and freed himself, already hard, and guided her hand to wrap around him.
This was what she needed.Distraction, release, someone else.Someone strong enough to hold her up.
He shifted, laying Ione onto the chaise lounge and kneeling between her legs.He shrugged off his jacket, his shirt, all falling into a heap on the floor; Ione watched him, waited.She had slept with only one person before, a few times, awkward fumbles that neither of them talked about after; she anticipated the sharp sting, the heavy weight atop her.
But Kai kissed her like he might have meant it, pressed his lips into the hollow at the base of her neck, licked the peaks of her breasts until Ione cried out and dug her fingernails into his shoulders.His hands were almost reverent as they hiked her dress out of the way, scarred fingers squeezing her thighs; he kissed her ribs, her stomach, her hipbones.
“One request.”His face hovered inches from her, unaware of how her heart pounded in its cage, of the liquid heat thrumming between her legs.He pressed his lips there, his tongue darting out, flicking; he smiled when Ione jolted.
“Call me Kai,” he murmured.“NotWarden.Notyou.”His eyes blazed.“Try to remember, Ione, that I’m not your enemy.”
Her stomach tightened.She nodded and whispered, for the first time, “Kai.”
“Good.”He smiled, lowering.“Now do me one better and say it when you come.”
Ione sucked in a breath, her fingers twining in his hair at the wet slash of his tongue on her.Every thought left her, every pain and fear and worry dissipated at the burning touch of his mouth on her body.
Ione threw her head back, arching as heat surged through her.Her pulse roared in her ears, loud enough that she could barely hear herself beg, hear his name on her lips, hear her name on his.
This was what she needed, she thought over and over.
Release crested up her spine, and she was still hissing his name when he slammed into her, his head bowed into the crook of her neck, his hands pinning her wrists to the velvet cushion.She wrestled one arm free and wrapped it around him, nails raking down his back.
She saw white, felt something leaving her, a ghost, a memory.Lina was gone and she was cured.
Lina was gone and she was empty.
Chapter Fourteen
