“Arienna.”
“Turn around and drop your trousers.” Her eyes are screwed up, telling me she’s serious.
The tightness in my chest eases. If she cares this much over a flesh wound, perhaps she isn’t wanting to run from me.Yet.
Pushing that nagging, horrible voice aside, I hold her gaze as I undo the buckle on my belt.
Her cheeks heat, nearly matching the colour of her hair and eyes. But she doesn’t put the wand down. She needs to care for me right now, perhaps just as much as I need her. Pulling out my belt, I then toss it at her feet.
Her lips part as her breathing gets heavier.
I slowly lower my trousers.
Stepping out of them, I turn to the side so she can see the cut clearly. It’s a clean slice, not very deep. I got hit by a sharp projectile rather than stabbed. With a flick of the wand and a murmured, “Iactus,” she heals me quickly.
As soon as my skin weaves back together, I’m on her. My left hand grabs her throat as my right arm bands around her lower back. She gasps as she falls against me, her hands splaying across my chest. A heavy exhale leaves her lips and flows into me as I drink it down. Make it mine. Bind our souls together.
She pushes against me, trying to pull away. Kissing her deeply, I tighten my hand around her throat. I don’t want to hear her questions right now. About Saragese or the other people at the market. I don’t want her asking me how I deal with all the screaming. If I’m okay.
We can talk after, but not now. Not when I can still see her dead at the market or in the crowd, looking at me with so much hatred. Not when Aurelia’s death rings so freshly, her suicide sitting heavily on my shoulders, forewarning of a repeat of the past. Of a ruined future. A failed promise.
“You remember our safe word?” I ask roughly, my lips rubbing against hers.
“I think we shou–”
“Not now.” I crush my mouth over hers, swallowing her every word, every protest, every thought totalkbefore I fuck her back into loving me. Into staying here in Raza as my queen, no matter how bad it gets.
I push my tongue into her mouth. She stays still for only a second before joining in on a moan. As our tongues dance together, I trail my hand down her throat to her breast and squeeze. She arches into my palm as her arms link around my neck.
By the time I pull back, she’s as breathless as I.
“What’s the safe word?” I ask again.
“Peace treaty.” She leans in for another kiss, but I lean back.
“And what are the three colours?”
“Green, yellow, and red.”
I dodge her lips, and the cutest little pout graces her.
“What do they mean?”
“I know what they mean.” Frustration laces her words, causing me to smile.
Another chunk of the tension eases from my shoulders. “Humour me,” I say softly.
She exhales loudly, and I dig my fingers into her hips just to stop myself from pulling her close and kissing her like she wants. Looking into her eyes, I don’t see a trace of fear. It almost makes me willing to entertain the idea of talking with her before I fuck her. But then she’s dropping her hand to my rock-hard cock, and she squeezes all such thoughts out of my head.
“Green means I’m totally good.” She rubs her palm down my length, her heated eyes on mine. She wraps her fingers around my tip. “Yellow means it’s gettinghard.”
I hiss in a breath as she slips her hand down to my balls.
“And red means stop immediately and reassess.”
Grabbing her wrist, I spin her around as I pivot the both of us. Her back now flush against my chest, we face Jace, who’s standing against the pile of toys on the table. His eyes run slowly down her body.
She tenses against me, but when I dip my lips to her neck, her head falls to the side on a moan.
