He snorted. “Always something in this stars-forsaken temple,” he grumbled. “I don’t want to.” He threw his weight on top of me, dragging me closer, tucking me into his chest. “Just a little longer.”
I nuzzled into him, having no will to argue. I brushed my fingers over his biceps, studying the inscriptions. They were in an ancient, beautiful script. I looked at the swirls, the swoops, the flourished ends. What could they mean?
“Safah.”
“Mm?”
“Can I kiss you?”
My hearts fluttered.
“Not with your breath smelling so rank.”
Quazar guffawed, laughing so hard into my pillows the bedcloud shook beneath our bodies.
“Safah Eloise, there’s no one in this empyrean with a sharper tongue, I swear. Ivyana and Ellabeth are distant seconds.”
“Ellie is actually worse than me.”
“I can assure you she’s not.”
He kept laughing while his fingers scratched my head through my head scarf.
“Can I take this off?”
“No.”
“What about this piece of string you call a twigown?”
I smacked his shoulder.
“No.”
“Your pretty underthings?”
“No.”
Quazar scoffed.
“It’s so rotting strict around here.”
I laughed out loud, wiggling out from beneath him.
“Come on, we need to wash up. We should be dressed and ready for whatever this bloody temple wants to throw at us this dawn.”
“Fine.”
He yawned, stretching his limbs, before rolling to sit up. The sheer muscles in his body, in his wings, was dizzying. I found myself staring. Damned near drooling.
“So you’ll ogle me but you won’t let me devour you?” He raised a brow at me. “Selfish.”
“Oh, shut up.”
I pushed off from the bed, letting my wings hang limp as I floated to my washroom.
“I’ll be back, my greedy Highness.”
“Please take a long time so I have a reason to break down the door and join you.”
