Her chest pounded back to life, her lungs filling with a gasp of air she hadn’t meant to inhale. But if they knew, then she had to fight. She couldn’t let them have Astasiya. Not yet. It wasn’t time! It wasn’t—
“Caro.” The familiar voice gave her pause.
Sethios?
Something sharp touched her collarbone.
“Angel.” The cold edge drifted along her skin. “Do you remember the last time we were in bed together? You pressed a knife to my throat that morning before kissing a path downward to my cock.”
Warm lips met her ear, his voice whisper-soft. “I promised to return the favor later that day, but things didn’t go as planned. Shall I return the favor now, sweetheart?”
Her blood heated at the prospect, her nipples pebbling on instinct. This isn’t real, she told herself. It’s another trick, one to teach me not to feel.
Oh, it’s very real, Sethios whispered back into her head. “Allow me to prove it,” he added out loud, the razor point drawing downward to her breast to circle a stiffened peak.
She flinched as he pressed the tip into her sensitive skin. The subtle scent of iron tickled her nose, confirming he’d made her bleed. Then his mouth sealed over the wound, causing her to hiss at the pleasure-pain sensation he elicited with his tongue.
Her thighs clenched, her body awakening beneath his familiar assault. She inhaled deeply, his woodsy cologne filling her nostrils and making her want to weep. You’re here, she breathed. Unless—
His teeth sank into her breast, lighting her blood on fire with his bite. She arched into him, her eyes flying open to reveal the darkness around them.
But it wasn’t the darkness of her pod.
They were in a bedroom with windows displaying a beautiful night sky.
She tried to process her surroundings, to remember how she’d arrived here, but a pull of his mouth had her eyes falling closed once more and a moan spilling from her lips. The sensation felt so fresh and new and right.
How long had she gone without this? Without him? Her memories were raw, broken pieces that drew jagged lines across her heart.
No.
She didn’t want to think about them right now.
She was here, with Sethios, in bed, and he was drinking the essence from her veins and sending fresh waves of heat through every fiber of her being. Yes, that was more important. He mattered most. This bliss. This embrace. This experience.
“Kiss me,” she begged. “I need you to—”
He silenced her with his tongue, his mouth demanding and true and exactly what she needed.
Peppermint filled her senses, followed by his woodsy scent. Pine, she thought. No, cedar. Maybe both.
It didn’t matter.
It was him. Her Sethios. Her love. Her impossible man, the one who infuriated her and enamored her in the same breath.
He grounded her, made her feel alive, created the air inside her lungs, and forced her heart to beat.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him to her as he settled firmly between her thighs. They were both naked. Both aroused. Both entirely lost to the flame reigniting itself between them.
It’d been so long. Too long. An eternity.
Her body craved his.
Her soul yearned to reconnect.
I need you, she told him. I need us.
But he didn’t give her what she desired. Instead, he broke their kiss and started a path downward, the knife still in his hand as he drew the sharp tip along her sternum, creating a path for his tongue to follow.
