Smoke licked from his fingers, sliding under my clothes, peeling each layer away until it was only me he touched. His own came undone in turn, until finally there was nothing left between us.
A groan caught like a prayer in his throat when I sank down, taking every inch of him. “Fuck, Verena…” The sound was a rasp, almost ruined.
I threw my head back, curls tumbling down my spine as he caught my nipple in his mouth, drawing it between his teeth until my hips bucked of their own accord.
My fingers clawed down his chest, hips grinding in merciless rhythm as he secured one hand around the base of my throat.
Even when blood bloomed and beaded where my nails raked his shoulders, he didn’t flinch, only gripped my waist harder, thrusting into me with every roll of his hips.
A sound broke from me, raw and heavy with ache, nothing like the gasps I’d given before.
“That’s it, love.” His lips grazed the curve of my breast, higher, where he still rested on my throat. “Let them hear you,” he praised, tongue dragging against the hammer of my pulse. “But let mefeelhow much you need me.”
My answer was a broken cry as I arched above him. “I need—” I shifted, rolling deeper, earning a sound from him that made me drip through the heat we shared. “I need more.”
The grin he gave was wicked before he moved his hips again, slow at first, deep enough I swore he reached into the center of me.
“Say it,” he murmured against my ear, dropping his hand so both secured me against him. “Say you’re mine while I’m inside you. Say it while you fall apart for me, while you come where I can feel it, so I know.”
The rocking shifted, sharper, faster, his fingers leaving bruises into my hips as he brought us crashing down together. The control he’d held unraveled with every thrust, darkness curling from his wrists, his breath ragged at my throat.
I tried to slow the rush climbing up my spine, but the pleasure was undeniable as I trembled on top of him.
“Good girl,” he whispered again, rougher now. “Come for me.”
My body obeyed, clenching, shuddering, breaking open. Only then did his name tear raw from me.
He didn’t stop, just drove me through it, through the tremble and his name spilling off my lips again as his pace stuttered, then returned harder.
Feral and panting, he said, “You look so godsdamned good taking me. You should see yourself, the way you glow for me.”
He slammed my hips again, restraint splintering, and with a final thrust he buried himself deep, a guttural sound ripping from his chest. I collapsed against him, skin slick with sweat and fever, my forehead resting against his jaw. He pressed a kiss above my heart, a confession against my skin.
“I could die right here,” he promised, his head falling back against the chair, eyes falling into rapture. “Inside you. With your breath still in my mouth and your nails still stained with my blood.”
A laugh escaped me, half tremor, half praise, as I threaded my fingers into his hair, tugging at the curls until his eyes fluttered open. Lips brushing his temple, I whispered, “Not tonight.”
“I almost don’t want to go back.” The confession slipped from me beneath the candlelight, flames dancing across the stone walls like restless spirits.
Aero had summoned Ronan hours ago with his sigil. No doubt he’d caught our scent through the door and wisely chosen not to intrude. He’d wanted to gather us all for one final dinner before we set out again. Ronan had denied him, muttering something about food tasting better when I was naked in his sheets.
Now the air carried it all. The roasted spices and sweet pastries brought on silver trays. Along with something darker. Truth, maybe. Or the kind of hunger that tasted like it.
The sun had long since surrendered, moonlight sliding in through the curtains, broken by the passing clouds.
“If the fate of our lives didn’t rest on finding this heir,” I traced the edge of the sheet tangled around my thigh, “I’d stay here with you until death.”
Ronan curled himself against my side, arms binding me in heat. He lifted a fruit pastry to my lips; I nearly begged on my knees for it. His gaze didn’t move from me, watching me likeIwas the indulgence here.
“They might not even notice our absence anymore.” He licked honey from his fingers. “We can stay.”
But his words couldn’t touch the fear cinched tight in my chest. The bond hummed with it, leveling between us.
“I’m scared, Ronan.”
He dropped the pastry offering. “Of what?”
The exhale was sharp against my lips. “Of going back. Of waking up. Here I can almost pretend I’m not the Viper. Not cursed. We’re hidden fromeverythingbeyond these walls. But once we leave…it all becomes real again. My fate. My name. Too many things have started to matter. Things I never used to care about.”
