The world lowered around me as he lifted me up and carried us towards the bath’s landing. He sat me down, then knelt on a lower step before me. We kissed greedily for a while longer, my fingers threaded through his thick, dark curls, his own gripping my back. I held on as he moved his hands towards my front, rubbing both of my hardened breasts with teasing thumbs. My serrated breaths turned hitched as he glided his tongue over one of them, then the other.
I remained seated upright, my head tilted backwards. I rested my arms at my sides, my hands pressing firmly on the slate as he leisurely tasted my breasts. The heat I felt gave me the need to press my legs together, just to sense that bit of pressure, but my legs were spread and sprawled right in front of him,aching for him. My knees found his sides instead. He licked and pecked his way down along my torso, leaving behind a trail of feverish skin. Then he lifted his hungry gaze and murmured to me, “Remember what I promised you, Cordelia.”
My reply came out hushed. “I never forgot.”
My breath caught in my chest. They were nothing, I thought. My dreams, my thoughts, my fantasies. Reality was better, much better. I lay myself on my back, my arms carelessly thrown above my head, and I shamelessly indulged each and every one of his attentive strokes. My hands moved to clench his hair. My taut legs quivered. “Aegir,” I moaned, “I’m, I—” Blatant sounds escaped my mouth as I savoured one release after another, each one dismantling me, skin to bones.
I heard them at first. And then I felt them.
Soft waves splashed against my feet, and water reached my back, soaking my hair. But I couldn’t care any less. I remained unmoved, other than the heavy rising and falling of my chest. Aegir also seemed to choose oblivion as he climbed on top of me, eager to fulfil the second part of his promise. His body rested on one elbow, his other hand caressing my face. I dissolved at his touch, at his sight. And then I dissolved into him. Our shared breaths turned heated, as did our joined movements. He moved his mouth from mine only to press soft kisses and bite gently along my jaw. I moved my arms and pressed my hands against his back, my fingernails dragging along the length of it until reaching and clutching his round rear. He went for my neck, his tongue grazing the mark—the mark I had protected with my palm when he asked to remove it.
“Never,” I breathed. It slipped out of my mouth without a warning, something in between a whisper and a moan.
Aegir moved his lips close to my ear and rasped, “Forever.”
My grip tightened and I pushed against him. An invitation that was quickly answered. A sharp gasp left me. The whole ofmy skin prickled—it hummed. He remained there, then cupped my chin, eyes fixed on mine, and he murmured to me, “I, Prince Aegir Hailin, Lord of the Vanguard of Ice, pledge my soul to you, Cordelia Wildheart. My soul is yours, if you wish to have it.”
My own tossed, beckoning me, begging me to accept it, wishing itself to be forever mended with its other half. It surprised me, the unfamiliar longing.
“Aegir.” His name came out as a plea. I managed to choke out my next words. “There are things, things you must know, about me, about who I am.”
His words also came out serrated. “And I want to hear them all. But know that whatever you tell me will not matter. All I want to hear you say is that I’m yours. Because I am yours, right? You said it before—I want to hear you say it again.”
“But your immortality. What if I—”
“Shh,” he hushed against my lips, grazing my lower lip with his front teeth. “I don’t care about that. Please.”
I had not realised how unsettled my soul was until the next words came out of my mouth.
CHAPTER 71
“Iwish to have your soul…and I…Elara Cordelia Briartide, Princess of Ilma, pledge my soul to you, Aegir Hailin. My soul is yours.” He did not need to utter a single word for me to know that our souls had indeed converged. The tumultuous wave of ethereal appeasement, followed by a dreamlike sensation of grounding calmness was answer enough.
If his eyes widened at the mutual sensation or at the mention of the name I now remembered was mine, I did not know. What I knew was that his gaze turned starving, and he seemed to have lost himself in me. Deep and hard.
Aegir moved his hand along my side, clutching my hip, my thigh, then hooked the back of my knee with his arm. I drew in a sharp breath as my palms and knees hit the floor.
He came near, grabbing me from the length of my hair while crossing his other arm over my chest, my necklace trapped in between his palm and my breastbone. He pulled me close, my back now flush against his chest, and he rasped next to my ear, “This is exactly how I wanted to take you when I watched you from behind the curtain. You drove me out of my mind.”
My words came in between ragged breaths. “I would have let you.”
My reply must have done something to him as his throat rumbled. He moved his mouth to my neck, his tender lips exploring its unmarred side. My spine shivered at the tips of his canines grazing my sensitive skin.
I lifted an arm, grabbed him from the back of his head—my fingers tangled in his hair—and I nudged him just that little bit closer. Another silent invitation. My skin prickled as he pierced my neck. He let out a rumbling groan from his throat and a long exhale from his nose that fanned against my shoulder. I pursed my lips together, biting their insides so hard, warm blood coated my tongue. I whimpered softly, my moans muffled. He unlatched my neck and I looked back. We watched, then tasted our red-painted lips. A kiss that healed, blood without pain.
“Let me see you,” he whispered, turning me around so that I straddled him. And when I looked into his forest eyes, I knew that he saw all of me now. He felt all of me, too. As I did him.
When we were both undone, breaths heavy and heated, he wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. He pressed small kisses on my crown while I nuzzled my face into his chest. I sank into him, letting out a soft sigh before completely letting go, a freeing sensation liberating every cell of my body. My skin hummed with what felt like a thousand little spikes, which I then sensed crawling along my limbs, coalescing, until they settled deep within my core.
And then it rained.
Tiny beads of water gracefully plummeted onto our skin, around us, like a rushing cascade that reverberated in a delicate symphony throughout the room. Then silence. I wondered if I had mistaken a roofless ceiling for glass, and so I looked up.
No, I hadn’t imagined it. The glass ceiling was very much there.
It was poetic, really—as soon as it stopped raining indoors, the ashen clouds smothering the sky above us finally surrendered, unleashing a downpour that drummed rhythmically against the glass skylight. And then I lowered my head to meet Aegir’s gaze, and he smiled at me, a genuine smilethat met his eyes. He let out a soft chuckle and caressed my cheek before leaning in for a long and languid kiss.
He held me close. “I missed you,” he whispered against my ear. Then he took the deepest breath, as if he was smelling a bouquet of fresh hyacinth. “Boreas, your smell…mmm.”
