Straightening his neck, he slowly opened his eyes. “Which one?”
“Your favorite one.”
Lazy fingers explored the length of my spine, and he placed a searing yet gentle kiss at the hollow of my throat. “Nae m’olluminé miele.Or, for short,nae miele.”
A soft tingling spread over my skin. “What does it mean?”
He leveled me with one look. “One who fills my soul.”
For a moment I let that phrase sit. Breathe. It settled deep in my heart and took hold, whispered of love. Of feelings I thought I’d never experience again. When my eyes burned with unshed tears, I brought my trembling lips to his. Inhaled as our breaths mixed and became one. I never wanted to exhale. I wanted to fill my lungs with him, with his scent, and keep a part of him permanently alive inside me.
“You do, you know.” His gravelly voice shook my world. “It’s because of you that I’m free.” My hands trailed over the bare skin of his chest and felt his heart jump against my fingers. I needed this. Needed him. Needed to fall into the love I’d denied myself since leaving Hireath and Wynn behind.
“You freed me, too.” My words came out rough with desire and emotion. I slanted my mouth over his. Ran my hands across the expanse of his back. His hard length pressed against me, and I let out a shaky breath. “I didn’t even know how bad it was.”
He kissed my shoulder. The space beneath my ear. My cheek. “How bad what was?”
“My people exiled me, but I was the one who exiled myself from everyone else. You, Calem, Oz—even Kost—showed me that I didn’t have to go through this alone. You saved me.”
One hand palmed my breast while the other cupped my face. “Yousavedme.”
His ink-black stare held nothing but longing. And then he kissed me with devastating tenderness. His tongue mingled with mine, and he shifted in the water, bringing me close and angling my hips against him. Achingly slowly, he pressed inside. Every sensation seared itself in me: the splash of water against my back as we moved. The trills of nightingales in the swaying lumina trees around the lake. The whisper of a breeze licking our exposed skin. The Julips taking flight around our bodies. Magic. Everything about him was magic.
We pressed our foreheads together but didn’t speak. We didn’t have to. His gaze said everything, put every heated emotion on display. Longing. Passion. Devotion. Not a hint of despair or uncertainty. Soft groans spilled from him, and I shuddered as ribbons of pleasure coiled tight in my belly.
We came undone together, and the ruins seemed to throb with the connection between us that I never wanted to lose. I could’ve stayed with him in that lake all night. He dragged a gentle thumb across my lips before dropping his hand to the water. “You’re something else, you know that?”
“I know.” I grinned.
“Should we head back?” He spoke against the shell of my ear, nibbling the lobe. Painting light kisses down my neck, he wrapped his fingers in my hair. My body arced into him.
I bit back a groan. “If we have to.”
“If we take too long, they’ll come looking for us.” His devilish grin did delicious things to my nerves. “And I’m not sure you really want to be undressed when that happens.”
Grumbling, I relented and let him carry us out of the lake. I used my jacket to loosely towel off my body before dressing. Clothes clung to damp skin, and I studied Noc with interest as he dressed. Itched to trace the cut of his figure even though I’d just done so without the barrier of fabric.
He caught me staring, and his mouth kicked up at the corners. “Enjoying yourself?”
“Quite.”
He bent down, kissed me deeply. “Nae miele.”
My heart warmed. “Why do you speak so many languages?”
Crouching before me, he intertwined his fingers with mine. Tension gathered in his shoulders, along with a familiar glimmer of uncertainty in his stare. But then he gave a faint nod as if making a decision. “My father made me. A good leader never knows who he’ll have to negotiate with. One of his many lessons.”
I tilted my head to the side. “What exactly did you do before—”
The brush beside us exploded with movement.
Appearing with the lethal precision of assassins, a group of men encircled us. The earthy browns and mossy greens of their clothing lent to their ability to blend in with the surrounding forest. Power, untapped and hazardous, poured from them, washing over us and suffocating the air in my lungs.
In a mercury robe, one man stood out from the rest. The edges of his cloak flared with the passing gust of wind, and his Charmer’s emblem bled with vibrancy in the dark of the night. Fear spiked in my veins, stabbing my heart and rendering me completely useless.
Before I could react, a Graveltot rolled out and planted itself in the ground before Noc. Just like when I’d used Grundy, the Graveltot targeted Noc with his eyes and gravity took hold, pushing him deep into the soft earth of the lakeside.
The robed man stepped forward, a wry smile peeking through a trimmed beard, and the Charmers at his back shifted as he came to stand before me. Slowly, as if the very motion caused him joy, he drew back his cloak.
