“You’re quite curious today, starlight,” he said, brushing his nose against her skin playfully.
She laughed—flustered and breathless all at once—and buried her face into the crown of his head, clutching him closer.
And gods, he didn’t deserve that sound. Not after pushing her away. But he’d take it. He’dearnit. With every kiss. Every touch.
Her hands fluttered up, tentative, then bolder, until her fingers threaded into his hair—gently at first, then more firm when he moved to kiss along the slope of her neck. She still smelled like those Voids-damned bath oils. Florals and spice, something sweet and sharp, like citrus and feverroot. Someone had broken into the sealed inventory to offer them as a tribute.He’d scold them for it later. Or thank them. He quite liked this smell on her.
Her hair was a silken whisper across the back of his hand when he cupped her head again, and her skin—stars, her skin—was too smooth, too soft, like the promise of everything he’d spent years trying to forget he wanted.
She tried to speak but the words sputtered out, lost in the warmth of his mouth as he kissed her collarbone, then lower. Then again when he pushed the towel aside and nuzzled the delicate place beneath her breasts. She let out a sound, quiet and raw andnot at all innocent.
Then he was kissing her chest, her ribs, the dip between. He didn’t rush. Didn’t take. Heoffered—devotion pressed into every touch.
Without warning, the air shifted. Her hands gripped his shoulders tighter. Her body arched, seeking more. Her soft, helpless sounds stirred his blood like wildfire licking up dry bark. He realized—gods above and below—he was losing himself.
She was flushed now, breathing fast, her hands still tangled in his hair, and he thought maybe—just maybe—he’d finally stolen the breath from the one who’d stolen his reason. But then she made a different sound. Not a moan. Not a whimper. A frustrated growl.
She was pouting.
Pouting.
He blinked, dazed by how devastatingly adorable she looked like that—lower lip pushed out, brows knitted, her whole expression scrunched into something both fierce and helpless.
His thumb swept across the corner of her mouth. “What is it?”
She glared at his pauldron like it was a varkhound.
“Here I am,” she huffed, “finally with no clothes on to bother me, andyou’restill hidden under all this.”
Resh’s heart did a strange flip. He’d faced armies. Wars. The edge of madness. But this? This indignation on her bare, radiant face—over hisarmor—thisundid him?
He chuckled. “You’d rather I stripped in kind?”
“Yes,” she said, scandalously direct. “It’s only fair.”
Resh leaned in, brushing his lips up the column of her throat, trailing heat with every breath. She shivered when he suckled at her earlobe.
“Well,” he murmured against her skin, “you’re welcome to take it off…”
Another kiss to the hollow beneath her ear.
“…but I’m preoccupied right now.”
He kissed her again, this time just beneath her jaw. Slowly. Deliberately.
“I’ve got a beautiful and very naked little star in front of me,” he whispered, “smelling like stolen bath oils and sounding like she’s forgetting her name.”
She let out the tiniest whimper, half-indignant, half-melting.
“Don’t tease,” she whispered.
“I’m not teasing. I’m savoring.”
She reached for the bracer on his forearm first, fingers fumbling with the clasp.
It didn’t budge.
She tried again, this time with the strap on his pauldron. Auryn frowned as she struggled with it, her movements clumsy, impatient. Finally, she let out a breathless, frustrated huff and looked up at him with stormy eyes.
