“Holy dragonfire,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
“Yeah,” he managed on his own sawed breathing.
Several seconds later, he gently wrapped his arms around her, falling to his side with her in his embrace. He looked beautiful, his face flushed and dewy, his eyes bright.
She ran her fingers along his arm. “You had electricity—magick running all over you,” she said, watching the last of the glimmers fade from his skin.
He lifted his arm, flexing his hand. “I’ve never had that happen before. That was wild.” He brushed his fingers down her face. “Everything about it was wild.”
She nodded, moving her mouth to kiss the tip of those fingers. “Thanks for…well, the hot comfort.”
“It was a lot more than that.” He pinned her with his gaze. “Wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.” What were they going to do about it? She couldn’t quite nudge that question past her lips. Too many things were already zinging around in her mind, her body. Like how right it felt to be in his arms, how everything about him felt so right, which didn’t make any sense at all.
He glanced toward the window, where dawn was beginning to lighten the sky. “It’s almost morning.”
“Does that mean you have to go?” She was kidding, yet the thought tightened her chest.
“I’m not going anywhere, babe.”
The words washed over her, spoken in his low, intimate voice. Especially babe. No one had ever called her that other than Kade’s pretend usage. Maybe a whispered “oh, baby,” but nothing meaningful. “Good.” She snuggled closer, her face next to his. She wouldn’t ask him about the future, wouldn’t extract any promises. She wasn’t ready to make any herself.
She would always be a Dragon, a Fringer. And Kade was a Deuce, a Vega to the core. But in the quiet afterglow of the most incredible sex of her entire life—hell, she’d never even imagined that it could be that good—Violet didn’t care about their differences or the inevitable end to their arrangement. She wanted to sink into this moment. She stroked his dagger tattoo. “Does your tattoo have a consciousness? Does it make demands?”
“No. The tattoo is probably like your Dragon in the way it changes my cellular structure, but mine is just a weapon. The Guard commissions a magick inker to make them.”
Her finger traced the V on the dagger’s hilt. “Tell me what it’s like to be you. To be respected, perhaps feared.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “The people whom I want to fear me—my opponents—aren’t usually afraid of me. They think they’re better, faster. They’re usually wrong.”
“Oh, and tell me what it’s like to be so humble, too, while you’re at it.”
Another laugh, as rich as chocolate. “Who needs to be humble when you’re great?”
She nudged him.
His smile faded. “People respect me because I’m a Vega, not because I’m Kade Kavanaugh. Probably like they disrespect you for being a Castanega. It’s not personal.”
“I wish I could see it that way.”
He kept staring at the ceiling, absently stroking her arm with his finger. “I know how it feels to have people look at you like you’re dirt.”
She propped herself up on her elbow. “I would have guessed you had a charmed life.”
“I did until twenty years ago, when my father tried to release a prisoner.”
He told her the sketchy details, pain and humiliation etching into his voice. “It drives me crazy not knowing exactly what happened. Did he fall madly in love with this delusional woman? Seems unlikely. Everything for him was about his reputation. And upholding his honor.”
“But why did people look at you like you were dirt? Your father was the one who supposedly went against the law. Ah yes, people judging you for your family’s sins.”
“Yes, but that was only part of it. There were some who were jealous of my fast rise to Vega, especially since I flouted the rules. When they called my ascent into question, the Guard backed down and demoted me.” He met her gaze. “The way you probably felt walking in there was how I felt every day. For five years, sacrificing who I was, toeing the line and ignoring my instincts just to prove myself. And now…” His expression tightened. He obviously wasn’t used to sharing, which made this even more special. “My sister is an Argus. If I screw up, she’s going to pay for it.”
Violet remembered the woman with the green eyes like Kade’s. “You mean screw up as in investigating this on your own?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad you did.”
