I nuzzle into his neck, and he hums happily, his fingers grazing a touch up and down my side. “I promise I can do this, Rath. I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t. You are…tenacious.”
I can’t help but grin. “I am.”
His hold on me softens, and he falls to my side, pulling me with him. “Please promise me you will only behave this way when in public.”
“Yeah, alright.”
“Promise,” he insists.
I hold up my fingers like a scout. “I promise. Sub in the courtroom, brat in the bedroom.”
He tugs on my hair and forces me to look at him, those eyes shining. “I love that part of you.”
I sigh and lean up slightly, brushing my lips against his. “I love all parts of you, even the annoying ones.”
His lips twitch, and then he pulls me onto him, my body wrapping around his. I feel that soft, scaly skin brush against mine, and I sink into it. I used to think it was odd, but now I can’t get enough.
I can’t get enough of him.
And I’ll do anything to keep this.
I have no idea what time it is when I wake up. The curtains are drawn tight, so I have no idea if it’s still dark out. It doesn’t really matter. Rathyn is with me, curled around me—arms lashed tightly around my waist, his tail curled around my thigh, clawed feet pinning mine to the mattress.
I feel sated. I feel wanted and safe and warm.
He seems to sense that I’m awake now, his tail pulsing a little, though it doesn’t let me go. I shift a little, turning toward him, and I can see his rainbow eyes glinting in the pale glow of the hallway light that sneaks under the door.
“Hi.” My voice is thick and raspy.
“My Everest.”He says that in my head.
It brings me back to the thing that the Tarek called me. The things Rathyn knows that I don’t.
“Explain to me about the VySytheh,” I murmur.
His eyes close for a long blink, and his sigh makes his broad chest rise and fall. It takes all of my self-control not to fall on him and ignore all these things that I need to know.
But I’m too stubborn to give up for long.
“It is a word that we have…an ancient word. One that I never heard spoken on any Vyastil tongue. It exists in old texts—songs, poetry, things that we no longer use.”
I frown and lift my fingers, grazing a touch over his jaw before twisting one of his long strands of hair around my fingers. “So, it’s taboo?”
His lips twitch, and his ears flick. “Mm, yes. Taboo. That is a good word for it.” He falls silent for a second. “I knew the word, but it was meaningless to me. It was a mark of what Vyastil hadbeen in the past—the pieces of our culture that the rulers of Erethar decided were keeping us from evolving.”
“That sounds…kind of fucked.”
He frowns. “Sex?”
“No. Like,” I hesitate, “wrong. But in a big way.”
He nods and pulls his hair out of my hand, then brings my palm to his lips and kisses me there. “When I first tasted you, do you remember?”
“Yeah. You called my dick small. Said my balls were like walnuts.”
He huffs, trying to hide his smile. “Do you recall what else?”
