I was on my hands and knees, the soft petals of the Bloodstone lilies tickling my breasts and belly as Riyan took me from behind. He held my hair in his fist and exhilaration from the pain flicked down my spine.
My arms shook from holding myself up. My legs shook from the building pleasure.
Right as I was at the edge, he slowed down. The glorious pinnacle of ecstasy slipped away and my insides wound into a frustrated knot.
“I was close, you fucking bastard!” I cried.
“And here I was thinking you’d be grateful that I was going easy on you.” He chuckled and tugged on my hair. “But this could be fun—I’ll gonice and slowto stretch you to the edge of your good-girl vocabulary. Let’s see just how many bad words you know.”
I dug my nails into the grass and closed my eyes as that knot in my hips pulled even tighter. “Come on, Riyan.”
“Where are your manners?” He gave me a light smack on the ass before returning his hand to the curve of my hip. “Say please.”
“Please,” I whimpered.
Riyan picked up his pace and snapped that frustrated knot out of existence. Pleasure brighter than the sunlight flared behind my eyes as I cried out into the crisp morning air. As soon as my legs started quaking, he gripped my hips and finished with me.
Little by little, he slowed. My entire body trembled from both the ricochets of my climax and from fatigue, but I slowly tried to catch up with my racing heart.
With a satisfied sigh, he released my hair and tumbled onto his back in the lilies.
I let out a shaking breath and shot Riyan a look. “Whatever happened to—” I dropped my voice to imitate his, “‘Get on your hands and knees, Sera, I don’t want to crush the flowers?’”
Riyan gave me a dazed grin. “Eh, they’ll grow back.” He raised his hands to form a frame with his fingers. “I could commission a portrait of this—the flush on your cheeks, the ‘freshly-fucked’ glaze over your eyes, and on all fours in the middle ofBloodstone lilies. Gorgeous. I would hang it above the mantle in the dining hall.”
I tucked some strands of hair behind my ear. Maybe he should commission a painting of me, it would be the onlymehe would get to have.
He wrapped his arm around my waist and gently pulled me onto his chest. I snuggled into his shoulder as our heartbeats calmed down.
I let out a soft sigh. “You might be smaller now, but you still make a great mattress.”
He gently swept my hair off my back. “I’m glad you brought me down from the mountain just to be your furniture.” He kissed the top of my head. “Although just imagine all the fun places you can sit.”
Riyan’s arms wrapped around me as I took a deep breath and his scent filled my lungs. Birds sang their morning melodies in the trees. The fresh sunlight smiled down on us.
Finally, a moment of paradise.
“So, when are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” he asked.
Shit.
I pushed up on my elbows and looked down at him. His face was still calm, but his voice was serious. “What I just said about you in the lilies…I thought you would laugh, but I heard the crackling of a fire burning instead.”
Fuck, our bond worked both ways. He might not have the gift of sorcery, but he could still hear my inner self calling for help.
Not that he could do anything to sever my bargain.
“I know your immortality came with conditions,” Riyan said, “and you don’t want to talk about them because they’re bad. I might be stupid, but I’m not that stupid.”
“You arenotstupid.”
“My point is that I saw the panic in your eyes when I heard that burning.” Riyan’s arms wrapped more securely around me.
I bit my tongue. Had I really been that transparent?
“Justtell me,Serafina,” he begged. “I want to make you feel better and I don’t know how.”
What could I even tell him?
