“What if my intentions were any less than honourable?”
“One can only hope.”
He turned to her then, amusement lighting his eyes. He took a step, and anticipation zinged through her blood like a current as he pressed her back against the door. But Kai kissed her as gently as he had the first time, one kiss pressed to each cheek, another at each corner of her mouth.
She sighed, closing her eyes at the flutter of his lips. “You’re not coming in, are you?”
He rested his forehead on hers.
“I want to.” He pressed another lingering kiss to her mouth. “I’m not sure I could express how fucking badly I want to.”
There it was again. That strange thrill coursing through her.Ridiculous. It was just a word - a word she personally used with abandon. But Kai Cumhaill debasing himself with foul language while he lost himself in her was, somehow, completely obscene. In the best way.
“Then do,” she breathed between his kisses. “Come in.”
He sucked her lower lip between his teeth and released it, so slowly.
“If I come in, there’ll be no sleep.”
“Is that a promise?”
She felt his grin against her mouth, but then Kai pulled back and nodded at the small window at the far end of the hall. The sky beyond was pink and purple, blushing and bruised. It was almost dawn.
“We have a meeting of the Cold Council in a few hours.”
Oh Goddess,why. Adeline groaned aloud. A cold, dull end to the longest night of her life,anda Council meeting in the morning?
Kai nudged her chin up.
“There’ll be other nights.”
She restrained herself from pouting like a child, and wrapped her arms around his neck instead. “Isthata promise?”
Kai’s eyes flashed, caught between hunger and amusement. He swallowed up the space between them once more, his lips coming down hard on hers.
“It’s a promise,” he said, a little force behind the quiet words. “Other nights. Much longer nights.”
Adeline crushed herself almost painfully to him as he kissed her for the final time that night, slowly still, savouring, but not gentle. His tongue swept her mouth and his hands tangled in her hair, and as they lost themselves in that parting kiss, the sun inched over the windowsill another little bit.
“Ok,” he said, punctuating his words with a few more parting kisses. “I have to go.”
She unclasped her hands from behind his neck and pressed them against his chest. “Go on,” she said, pushing him away gently.
He took a few steps back, looking as dazed as she felt, but his lips tilted as though he might start laughing at any moment. He didn’t turn his back to her until he was halfway down the hall, and even then he turned again at the corner to grin at her.
“Good night.”
“Good morning.”
He chuckled low in his throat, and that last ember of heat in the pit of her stomach glowed.
“Good morning, then.”
He turned to go, but something made him stagger mid-step, pausing for a split second at the corner of the corridor. His hand flew to his collar, pinching it together, and he nodded a greeting at someone Adeline couldn’t see.
She straightened, suddenly rooted to the spot. Should she dash into her rooms? Was there any point? It would be obvious where he was coming from, to whoever had spotted him. Her stomach lurched. Actually no, it wouldn’t – it would look as though he were sneaking out of her quarters in the early hours of the morning. She took an uncertain step toward the door, her fingers fumbling for the handle, pushing it halfway open.
Kai threw her one last glance as he disappeared, and Mareda stepped out behind him, rounding the corner.
