“I can’t always let you be in charge. It’s my turn.” His fingers brush over my slit, then he pushes two inside me. I grip his shoulders tighter as the tension that was near explosion returns as if it never left.
His fingers curve inside me and sharp cries of pleasure escape my lips with each thrust.
“You are so fucking wet.” His breath is hot against my sensitive skin and I tense when I realize where his mouth is. Before I can even anticipate the new sensation, his tongue flicks across my clit.
My eyes flutter closed and I fight against the blissful agony of the building tension. I tangle my fingers into his hair while his tongue moves in practiced motions and his fingers continue in a rhythm that sends me over the edge. My fingers tighten, pulling on his hair as I come. “Gods, oh gods, Brevan!”
He rises quickly, then covers my mouth with his hand. His lips move to my ear. “While I appreciate the praise, we don’t need an audience.”
My cheeks burn and I nod. He replaces his hand with his mouth and then I feel between my thighs. It slides over my slit. I lift my hips just as the head is at the entrance. He adjusts, and most of him enters me. I suck in a breath, then whisper against his lips, “I want all of you.”
I feel his lips move to a smile right before he thrusts into me. My back arches and I force my lips together to prevent from crying out. He moves hard and fast, each thrust almost painful in the most delicious way.
My moans are little throaty sounds muted by my attempts to keep quiet. His breathing quickens as his pace intensifies. Pressure builds and I’m trying to hold back, but I’m losing the battle. He lowers his head so his face is nestled between my cheek and my shoulder. Our bodies are impossibly connected as he drives into me.
I’m so close. My breathing is coming out in little gasps and I can’t manage a full breath. Tension winds in my center like a coil wound too tight. My body trembles as I resist letting go. When I can’t hold it in anymore, I grab one of the furs and pull it over my mouth to muffle my cries. Brevan groans, his body tensing and as he spills into me, ripples of pleasure radiate through my body and my arms shake with the effort of holding back. As the sensation fades, I set aside the furs, then look to where I know Brevan is staring down at me. I can’t see him, but I reach for his face. He captures my wrist, then presses gentle kisses to my palm before leaning down and kissing me slowly, reverently, like he’s memorizing the way this feels. Or maybe that’s what I’m doing.
“Brevan, you in there?” Caiden’s voice sounds from outside the tent. I dive under the furs, hiding quickly.
Fabric rustles as he enters the tent. “Were you sleeping?”
“I knocked over the lamp,” Brevan replies. “Hold on.”
There’s a rustling that I think is the enforcer pulling on his trousers and a chill runs through me when I realize my nightgown is on the floor.
“I heard you had a brush with the elm’s breath when you found it. You alright?” Caiden asks.
“Yeah, it could’ve been a lot worse,” Brevan tells him.
“We’re lucky you didn’t touch the flowers,” he says. “It’s getting stronger. You realize that don’t you? They’re mixing it with something we don’t have here. It has to be their assassins. They’re getting bolder.”
“Maybe,” Brevan says.
I try to breathe slowly and quietly. At first it was so Caiden wouldn’t hear me, but now it’s so I don’t miss any of the conversation.
“None of those men had any recollection of how they got the poison or where it came from. I believe them,” Caiden says.
“But you killed them anyway,” Brevan says.
“Of course I did. You know how it is. Once they’re being controlled by the Nubaris it’s over. You can’t break free of that influence. Their magic is too strong.”
“Nobody has seen a Nubari in centuries,” Brevan says. “When Roselyn gave that prediction, she was so young. Hermagic was untested and your father—well, he made her change it.”
“But there’s nothing that says she can’t change it back, right? What if she was angry with my father? What if those monsters that have been breaking free aren’t from a lack of control. What if she’s changing the future on purpose?” Caiden asks.
“She wouldn’t,” Brevan argues.
“No? What reason would she have to maintain loyalty to my father? He imprisoned her. And you. Seeing the Nubari rise from the dead and rally the entire continent to take ours seems like a really good way to get revenge,” Caiden says.
I’m holding my breath now, trying to make sense of all the things I’m hearing. I have no idea who the Nubari are or why they’d attack Pendralia, but somehow this is all connected. Roselyn, Caiden’s obsession with the Shatterlands, the poison…Is this what I was supposed to uncover? Is the assassin who I’m supposed to bring down?
“I’ve been seeing the signs for years but my father said I was paranoid.” Caiden must be pacing, I can hear footsteps but I can still feel Brevan’s presence near me.
“Why would the Nubari come back now and try to kill Taylan?”
The movement stops. “Because they know something. She must be a threat to them. They don’t kill their seers in the Shatterlands, Brevan.”
“No, but they’re even more a prisoner there than they are here,” he says.
