His hand grips my thigh and squeezes as he leans over me, blocking out the light. “And yet how did I find you? Throwing yourself on the flames. Look at this!” Braced on his forearm, he fishes my ponytail from behind my head to show me the singed ends. “I would call you stupid, but I am the stupid one for leaving you to your own devices. Stupid to trust you to care for what’s mine. Stupid to let you out of my sight when youinsiston giving everything you have to those who don’t deserve it.”
Those who don’t deserve it? He meanshim, I realize.
“I love you,” I tell him, holding his face so he has to look at me.
He closes his eyes. “You’re a worse liar than I am.”
“I’ll never lie to you. But you can lie to me all you want.” His lies are like a secret code that only I can decipher. A private language between the two of us.
He scoffs. “No one loves a liar.”
“I always know what you really mean. Have you noticed that you only lie when you’re trying to protect someone you care about? That’s love,” I point out.
“Then I’m very loving,” he says darkly, petting my hair.
“I agree. Also, you should kiss me now.”
He leans forward and captures my mouth with his. His kiss is raw and open, a gift. I try and give him the same thing back, showing him with my lips and tongue that he has me, that I love him, that we’ll never be apart again.
“Alioth save me,” he groans when he pulls back. “Take your victory in blood; I am defeated.”
He bends his neck and leans forward so I can bite him. I rub my face over his suedelike skin the same way he always does to me. He smells even more like smoke than usual because of the fire, and the dark warmth of it goes straight to my core. It’s the scent of him saving me.
I don’t really want to hurt him, not after all he’s been through. But it’ll hurt him more if I don’t bite him, I think. So I wrap my legs around Lyro’s hips and let my teeth settle into his skin, pressing harder and harder until I taste copper.
I lick over the small wound, unexpected satisfaction settling over me when I see the impressions in his neck. He’s mine now. “I don’t have sharp teeth like you, but I bet it’ll leave a mark.”
“A blunt blade scars more than a well-honed one.” He sounds happy. Content and purring, like a cat.
“I’m a blunt blade?” I tease.
“Yes,” he hums, letting his weight press me into the furs. It feels good, being trapped under him, my legs pinned apart by his hip bones. He nips my earlobe sharply enough to sting. “Soft little, silly little thing. So blunt, you hurt the worst.”
“I love you, too.”
“Stop saying that.”
Defiance sparks in me. He can boss me around, but he can’t tell me how to feel. I poke him in the side. “I’m going to say it until you believe it.”
I move to poke him again, but he grabs my hand to stop me, enclosing my fingers in his. He looks way too serious for the bedroom. “Don’t say it until I deserve it.”
“I love you,” I say immediately.
“Alara,” he growls. “I just came from committing a murder. I put a knife in someone.” As if defending an entire solar system from a power-crazed priest wasn’t the greatest act of love.
“I love you.”
He covers my mouth with his hand, and when that doesn’t work, with his mouth again.Thatworks. He slides his hands up my arms to pin my wrists above my head and kisses me until I can’t breathe.
Then, satisfied I’m not going to fight him on it anymore, he releases my wrists and moves down, kissing the sensitive spot under my jaw and across my collarbones. So careful with me.
When he reaches the deep-V of my sveli, he pauses, tracing the edge where the fabric meets my skin. “I almost lost you today.”
“But you didn’t.” There’s no point in dwelling on what didn’t happen. I distract him by untying my sash so my top falls open. He sucks in a breath when my breasts come into view, and my skin immediately goes goosebumpy, the tips turning into pebbled points.
He strums his thumb over one and makes a low, appreciative noise when I whimper. It feels like there’s a string stretched between my nipples and my pussy, and he’s playing me like an instrument, my hips dancing involuntarily to his music. “I haven’t given these nearly enough attention, have I, pet?”
“Haven’t had time.” I arch greedily into his touch as he pinches and kneads my soft flesh, lavishing them with his lips and tongue and the points of his teeth. He bites and sucks until they feel swollen and throbbing, more sensitive than my clit.
