“Edira?” Orin prompted, allowing his glamour to fall backinto place so that his blight was once again hidden from view. “If you agree, the vow takes hold.”
“I agree, but”—I swallowed as the rush of magic settled around us, solidifying the vow—“why me? You could’ve found another threadmender without having to make all these extraneous promises.”
“The promises are worth it,” he said.
A strange yet delicious prickling raced over my skin as I looked at Orin again. It took me two swallows to find my voice. “To you? Or the family?”
I wanted him to say it. To say something honest and true, something that couldn’t be misconstrued. Something he could bind with magic. Instead, he did so much more. He pulled my face toward his until our lips were only a breath apart. He hesitated for a beat, giving me a chance to pull back, but when I didn’t retreat, he slanted his mouth across mine. Warmth purled through my limbs as my lips parted for him. I’d almost forgotten what it was like to be touched. To be wanted.
And gods, was it delicious. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—examine why. Not when Evers were immortal and humans lived for no more than a handful of decades. My existence would be just a passing breath, a faint memory, and yet he pressed against me like he wanted something more. Something bigger.
When he finally broke away, we were both breathless. I rested my forehead against his, drinking in the sensation of his skin against mine.
“My glamour acts like a bandage for the blight.” He swallowed thickly, and the rough timbre of his voice lit a fire in my veins. “You’re safe, if you were worried about that.”
“I remember,” I said softly. He knew just as well as I did that I couldn’t be infected, and yet he was still concerned for my well-being. I gripped his shirt hard and pulled him against me again.I caught his moan with my mouth and breathed it in deep. I was straddling his lap before I knew it, and my grasp on his clothes tightened. His hands found my waist, and the pressure of his fingers was downright sinful.
Something unfamiliar and heated had taken control of my limbs, my thoughts. I’d never been one to shy away from a dalliance, but this sudden, near-insatiable desire was unlike anything I could have prepared for. It wouldn’t sway me. It wouldn’t change my opinion or make me forgo my brothers’ safety. But I didn’t want to deny it, either. We could both enjoy each other’s company. Assuming he felt the same pull as me.
“Is this some strange magic of yours causing me to throw caution to the wind?”
Orin raised a brow. “Is that what you need to tell yourself to explain your attraction to an Ever?”
A sliver of shame burned through me, after everything he’d just bared, after the promise he’d made. “Some things are difficult to unlearn.”
He gripped either side of my face and spoke against my lips. “There is no magic forcing you to act.”
The burn of his words sent a delicious hum racing through my body, and I shuddered in his grasp.
“But”—he let his hands fall away—“we should stop.”
“Oh? What happened to finishing what I started? Or was that the wine?”
He laughed. “Hardly.”
I slid my hands down his chest, savoring the feel of his sturdy frame while I still could. “I just thought that we could enjoy each other without the pretense or pressure of something more. Because you’ve watched hundreds of lives pass, because you have no expectation for me to be anything lasting.”
He was so still that if it weren’t for my hands upon his chest,detecting the subtle rise and fall of his breath, I would’ve assumed he’d turned to stone.
I skewered my lower lip with my teeth as the ratcheting tension between us blossomed into something so agonizing that I couldn’t take it anymore. I made a move to shift off his lap, and the action spurred him into motion. With tender gentleness, he settled me against him and parted my lips with his tongue. He was all I could taste, all I could feel, and even as his grip tightened with desire, there was a softness to his embrace, a care to every touch. When he eased me to my back and braced himself above me, he kept his full weight from pressing against my body.
“I didn’t stop because I cared about pretense.” He placed a kiss on my neck, and heat began to gather between my legs. “I stopped”—he shifted and brought his lips to one of the bandages on my arms—“because even though you said you were fine, I was inclined to let you heal fully before I take you as mine.”
My nipples pearled against the fabric of my shirt, and his hungry gaze slanted to the slopes of my breasts. He bit out another curse. Then he ran one hand beneath my blouse. His fingers toyed with the edge of my undergarment.
“Orin...” I tried to slide farther down, to guide his hand along the curve of my breast. But he abandoned his teasing with a growl and pinned me in place with his arm.
“Not yet.” He placed a light kiss on the base of my throat that defied every ounce of pure desire in his eyes. “I’m not sure you understand. When I want something, I get it, and I don’t let it go.”
Something solid formed in my throat. “Even if it’s fleeting?”
“All the more reason to hold on tighter.”
This time, his kiss was full of promise. And as our tongues intertwined and heat bloomed between us, I felt confident I could convince him to throw away this ridiculous notion of “later.” His hands roved along my sides, seeking purchase in the soft flesh ofmy hips, and I wrenched my fingers in his hair and yanked his head back. With his neck exposed, I peppered the length of his throat with kisses and nipped at his skin.
A guttural hiss slipped through his teeth, and I swore he was about to give in when a firm knock came from the door.
“Not now,” he ground out in answer as he fisted the fabric of my linen pants. Again he kissed me senseless, and again the knock sounded. More insistent this time and followed by a stern voice I recognized as Vora’s.
