“Any time.”
Bastien unbuckled himself and headed for the back with Ember one step behind.
As they walked in silence, she couldn’t help noticing just how gorgeous he was. But as Drake had noticed, he was tired. She could tell by his slow, methodical movements.
“You okay, Bas?”
“Been a heck of a day.”
It had indeed.
When they reached the first room, Bastien turned around and gave her a kiss so hot that it left her breathless.
“Been dying to do that. And I would kill to make love to you, but I have got to have a nap.”
She laughed. “You have been running on empty.”
“You have no idea.” He gave her one more searing kiss before he pulled himself away and went to literally flop on the bunk.
Ember laughed at his actions.
He didn’t even bother to remove his boots. Feeling sorry for him, she moved to disrobe him while he lay there like a corpse. At first it reminded her of undressing Rian when he was too tired to bother, but as she uncovered more of his delectable body, all thoughts of their son fled her mind.
Bastien had always possessed one of the best physiques she’d ever seen on any male. He still did. Every sleek, hard muscle of his body was clearly defined and honed like steel. It beckoned her with a hunger that was undeniable.
Unable to resist it, she quickly stripped and slid herself into bed beside him and snuggled up against his warm, bare flesh.
He let out a contented sigh, but he was already asleep.
Smiling, she took her time playing with his hair and listening to him breathe. Took her time running her hand down his muscled arm and ribs and buttocks. When she reached the short hairs at the center of his body, she started to leave him alone, but that had also been one of her favorite things to caress. And it’d been too long since she last had him like this.
At least any place other than in her dreams.
Before she could stop herself, she sank her fingers into the crisp mat and ran her fingernails through it. He grew hard instantly. And yet he didn’t wake. Which told her exactly how exhausted he was. In the past, he’d have awakened instantly and been inside her within a few minutes. Foreplay be damned.
One of his more irritating habits. But it’d been one that she’d decided she could live with as it’d always proven to her how much he desired her. How much he loved her.
Her humor over that died as her gaze dipped to the Ravin mark that marred his abdomen. The injustice of it all enraged her to a level that made her want to kill everyone involved with what had been done to his parents and hers.
Wrongfully convicted. She’d spent hours over the years trying to imagine the horror he’d lived through having seen his family slaughtered, and then having been arrested and sentenced for it.
How could Alura do that to him?
Ember had never understood, and still didn’t. There was nothing in the universe that could compel her to harm someone that way.
Sure there is.
You’d do it to save your son.
But only for that reason. Alura had had none whatsoever. None. It’d been heartless and cruel. Especially after Bastien had given up his happiness with Ember to marry Alura over a lie that she knew would destroy them both internally.
How selfish could one human being be? But then her sister had always been that way. She’d always held her needs out as greater than those of the rest of them. A congenital birth defect.
I swear, Alura, if I ever get my hands on you, I will strangle you for this.
Her days of protecting her sister were over.
***
