Turning his back on us, he clicked his fingers at Whisper. “Stay with me, pest. Help me keep them safe.”
Lucien scowled as the panther actually listened, plopping himself beside Dillon and taking his bodyguard job seriously.
I tugged Lucien into the room, and the moment the reinforced door sealed with a quiet hiss, Lucien grabbed my wrist, guided me toward the bed, then pushed me down and collapsed over me.
His mouth captured mine in the sweetest, softest kiss.
And we fell from this world into another.
Chapter Thirty
GOLDEN EMBERS DRIFTED LAZILY THROUGH the air like living stars, catching on the pale petals raining from the blossom tree. Mist swept over the ground where we lay, and the auroras danced in the hazy sky with purples, pinks, and blues.
Time had no meaning here as every touch eradicated our overwhelming pain. We lost track of what was real and what was not, growing stronger with every kiss and caress.
I didn’t think about how we might look to anyone watching. I didn’t think about Dillon or Frank or my parents...
All I thought about was Lucien as his lips claimed mine, our tongues touched, and he rolled on top of me.
Whatever clothes we’d been wearing vanished as his lips trailed fire down my throat.
The fire in him reignited, turning his palms into a delicious scorching heat as he traced my skin, frost blooming with fractal patterns only to be melted instantly.
Every place he touched healed the dying inside me. The grinding ache in my bones eased. The metallic taste of death faded from my tongue.
He nipped my throat; I arched into him with a broken moan.
Golden embers swirled faster as he settled between my spread legs. He kissed his way down my throat, slow and reverent, teeth grazing my fluttering pulse before soothing it with his tongue. Each lick sent flames racing through my blood, chasing away the black rot that slowly ate me alive.
“You’re going to live,” he whispered against my collarbone. “We both are...because I refuse to accept a world where one of us exists and the other doesn’t.”
He moved lower.
His mouth closed over my breast as I buried my fingers in his black hair. He sucked my nipple as if intent on pulling the tendrils of death right out of me. I felt each lick directly between my legs as more ice flared, racing from me to him, frosting his skin with the same white snowflakes. Steam rose between us like incense as he moved lower.
His lips found my stomach, kissing me as he spread my thighs and fell on me.
His mouth burned my clit, his tongue licking me deep. The auroras twisted into spirals—mimicking the way he made my core clench, pushing me closer to an edge I couldn’t fight.
He didn’t stop.
He devoured me like this might be the last time he ever tasted me—all tongue and lips and the intoxicating scrape of teeth. My hips rocked against his mouth, ice and fire combining until we were surrounded by a shimmering ball of power.
“Lucien—” I gasped, my thighs trembling around his head.
He growled, the vibration shooting straight to my centre. Two fingers slid deep inside me, curling just right. Pressure built like a storm about to shatter.
“Lucien...I—”
“Come,” he snarled. “I want you to come. Right now.”
His two fingers dove into me. His tongue licked me hard. And...I didn’t have a choice.
An orgasm crashed through me with a blinding, blistering wave. My spine arched off the misty ground as a silver blizzard exploded from my heart.
For a wondrous second, the black rot inside my veins burned away completely. My cells sang. My bones stopped aching. Stalking death paused and retreated, driven back by the sheer strength of our connection.
Lucien drank every clench of my release, wringing me out until I twitched and gasped and turned greedy to return the favour. I’d always wanted to. I’d offered, and he’d never accepted. And if this was one of the last times we could be together...
