Maybe he’s glad to be free of it.
When the dishes disappear and everyone’s attentions inevitably turn to dessert, I rise from my seat, finally answering Amriel’s silent call. He pushes back his chair, gazing up with worshipful eyes as I slip between his knees. As I ease myself up onto the table, a smile teasing at my lips.
“That dress,” he says hoarsely. “You can have anything you want, if you’ll just keep wearing that dress.”
I smile. Who knew that a few scraps of silk could grant me suchpower? Or that power would turn out to be such a funny thing. I have it in spades now—singing in my veins, sizzling in my fingertips, humming in the roots of my teeth. I could touch this table and make another one. Duplicate everything in this room.
And yet I prefer this—the ability to make Amriel’s breath hitch, to make the pulse in the hollow of his throat flicker a little faster.
“Am I forgiven?” he rasps, his eyes traveling over me. “Can I finally have dessert?”
I lift my foot and press it into his chest, gratified when his hands come up to circle my calf. He hangs on like a drowned man clinging to a lifeline.
“Go ahead,” I say, my thighs already tightening with anticipation. “But don’t ever let me think you’re dead again. Or next time, I’ll kill you myself.”
He closes his eyes in relief, but he doesn’t stand, like I expect. He just scoots his chair closer, running his fingers up the outsides of my legs, sending fiery bolts up into my stomach. I lean back, my elbows digging into the table. Everyone around us has already gotten started, but my heart still thunders in my ears as Amriel peels up my skirts and drapes them around my waist, baring me to everyone here. As he curls his arms around my thighs and drags me to the edge. As he licks me with delicious slowness. Circles his tongue around the spot that makes me shiver, his moans guttural as they echo from the leafy ceiling.
A tingling wave consumes me, one with no end and no beginning. My toes curl, the makings of a spasm already spiraling at my core.
My head hits the wood as Amriel works me with his tongue. As he pours me full of pleasure. Down the table, Ravenna straddles Calen, her hips arching and flexing, while close by, another woman sits in her partner’s lap, her back against his front as his hand swirls between her legs. She catches me looking and smiles, right before her eyes roll back in her head.
It’s beautiful, I decide. That they share this with each other. That they trust each other this much.
Amriel slips a finger into me, and I clench around him. Moments later, I’m flying off the peak, my cries heating the air as my body bucks against the table. Wave after wave crashes through me, and when I openmy eyes again, the Shadow stands between my knees, undoing his trousers, easing himself into me with excruciating slowness.
He fills me, fills me, fills me. I gasp, my spine arching as he studies me with golden eyes. I reach for his face, my vision still hazy, my fingers tangling in his snowy hair.
“I missed you,” I whisper. “I missed you so much. But please don’t be gentle.”
He kisses me, fangs and all, our tongues swirling together. His hips churn—slowly at first, then faster, and I cling to him, whimpering, barely able to withstand the onslaught of love and devotion and pleasure. The bond stitches his soul to mine, and when I peer into him, he looks different, somehow. Like dawn is breaking inside him. The darkness, the fear, the pain…all gone. Only brightness remains.
Our movements turn animal. Primal. He drives into me over and over, and my hips chase every backward stroke. I turn greedy, needy, riding him from beneath. His tongue never leaves my mouth, even as a clawed hand finds my throat and squeezes. A muffled cry of ecstasy pours out of me, and I give myself up completely. For the first time in my life, I fully let go, surrender to the power coursing through me. To connection and openness, to the demands of my body. To the bond. Tocommunion.
We come together. My bliss triggers the Shadow’s, and he twitches and jerks, pouring himself into me. The storm of our pleasure crests and crests, finally leaving me breathless, my head lolling to the side.
The Shadow groans. Kisses the side of my neck, traces my earlobe with his tongue. “I know the last dose of Elixir hadn’t worn off yet, but I can’t take any risks. I’m going to fuck you in this form every day. Make sure you never age again.”
I blink lazily and turn my head, peering up into those earnest yellow eyes. “As long as I can have you in your other form, too.”
His mouth lifts on one side, exposing a single, gleaming fang. High above us, a breeze ruffles the starlit leaves.
“Of course,” he says. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Chapter 32
Amriel and I talk all night, twined together in his chair in the solarium. We wish on shooting stars, and kiss, and hold each other until the sky turns the color of newborn roses.
When the sun crests over the trees, we sleep. Then wake again in the evening, in his bed, this time. His room surrounds us, a lavish wonderland of gleaming ebony furniture and wine-red silk sheets. A bathtub twice as large as mine dominates the center, throwing rich ruby light across the ceiling.
I blink at it blearily. Wriggle my hips against Amriel, who drapes an arm over my waist in response.
“Why’s your bathtub a different color than mine?” I say.
He chuckles, a puff of air that stirs my hair from behind. “Don’t tell me you didn’t learn to use the dial?”
I miss a beat. “The dial?”
“On the side of the tub. You can turn it to any color you choose. I like red.”
