“Yes, gods forbid I accidentally be poisoned by your family.” I exhaled sharply at the same time his teeth sank into the soft flesh of my side. “Good to know the thought turned you on.”
“It was the fact that you even considered it was a possibility. That you were smart enough to realize what a shitty position you were in.” He bit down harder, and a cry flew from my lips.
“And now?” I said breathlessly.
He looked up at me, brows raised and dermal piercings catching in the candlelight. “This better be the furthest thing from a shitty position.”
“Considering you still haven’t given me what I want,” I said as I arched my back, “it could be.”
“Patience, Edira.”
He kissed the length of my thigh, down my calf, and back up again. My entire existence narrowed to his mouth when he dragged his lips up the inside of my leg.
“Tell me a lie,” he murmured as he slid one finger inside my slick wetness. “A good one.”
“I don’t want to be here right now.” Tilting my chin down, I watched him closely as he slowly, torturously, continued to drive deeper into my core.
He raised a single brow. Then extracted his finger and examined the wetness coating his skin. “That is the worst lie I’ve ever heard.” And then he dipped it into his mouth and sucked it clean. His eyes fluttered closed for a breath.
My throat dried at the sight. “There is nothing I want more in this world than you.”
“Truth or lie?” He pushed two fingers inside me, and I let out a gasp.
“Truth.”
“Good.” With that, he brought his lips to my clit and finally, finally, rewarded me with the stroke of his tongue. Gasping, I yanked on the vines holding my wrists in place. I wanted—needed—to wrench my hands in his hair, to hold him in place while I wrapped my thighs around his head and made him taste every ounce of my arousal.
“Tell me what you want. What you need.” He sat back on his heels, giving me a full view of his cock, and beaded drops of his own desire glistened against his tip. Then he drove back into my core once more with three of his fingers and coated himself with my slickness. And he stroked himself. Slowly.
“Fuck,” I moaned. “I want to touch you. Ineedto touch you.” Tapping into our heartbond, I picked out the cord of Fernglove magic controlling the vines and tried to wrest it from his control. They loosened a fraction of an inch. Just enough to give me hope, but nothing more. I barked out a curse.
“I love that mouth of yours.”
“Then let me do something with it,” I hissed.
He let go of his impressive length. “Fine, you’ve earned that at least.” As he kissed me, he reached one hand down and positioned his cock at my entrance. I lost all control over my body. It bucked and moved of its own accord, trying in vain to shift from the vines’ grips so he could sheath himself in me.
“Fuck me, Rorik,” I said, heat and lust coloring my words. “For the love of the gods,please.”
Clenching his jaw, he pushed inside of me. Just enough for his broad tip to breach my wetness. The back of my head hit the pillow.
“More,” I begged.
There was so much feral desire coursing through his molten-gold irises that I knew his control was slipping. The hand he’d been using to guide his cock was now on my hip, and the pressure from his grip was divine.
“You feel incredible,” I moaned. “Every fucking inch of you is glorious.”
A low snarl barreled from his chest, and I was rewarded with a deep thrust. A whimper escaped the back of my throat. He waited to move until my body shifted to accommodate his thickness, and then he pulled out. Slowly.
He left me breathless. “Gods, Rorik, you have no idea what you do to me.”
“Tell me.” He breached me again but didn’t go any further. He simply waited and held my gaze with a deep intensity that was colored with so much more than lust. Even though he’d already told me why he’d pushed me away, I could finally,finally,see how much he cared about me. It wasn’t an act, like it had been with Orin. I saw the truth etched into Rorik’s gaze. He desired me with every fiber of his being, but he also believed I deserved more than whatever a life with him could offer. I needed to convince him thathewas the life I wanted. The life I chose, no matter how short it would be.
This time when I reached for his magic down our bond, he didn’t fight me. I took control of the vines and banished them from existence. Gently, I trailed the length of his cheekbone with my fingers.
“I crave you in a way I’ve never craved anything before.” I placed a chaste kiss on his lips. “Not just because I think you’re the most stunning person I’ve ever seen, but because you see all of me. You want all of me. The pretty parts, the dark parts—all of it. You don’t care about my power. You don’t care about what I can do for you. You care about me.
“You’re everything I didn’t know that I wanted.” I wrapped my hands around his neck and pulled his body closer to mine. “Now that I have you, I know that you’re everything I can’t live without.”
