Page 79 of Fate of the Sun King

He smiles and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear before he bends his head and nuzzles my neck.

“So, what does this mate thing actually mean?” I ask, and he blows out a breath.

“Honestly, I’m not entirely sure. I know it means we’re connected, of course, but I’m not sure what else it means. Like for the long term.”

“It means it’s you and me,” I say, touching his chest, and he clasps my hand against it.

“Yeah. It does. You aren’t going to freak out about that, are you?” He smirks as he tips his head.

I slap him playfully on the arm. “Okay, I deserved that.”

He laughs warmly, and I just stare at him, wondering how we got here.

“Why are you looking at me like that now?” he asks. “What did I do?”

“Nothing. I’ve just never seen you like this.”

“Like what?”

I shrug and then consider my response for a second. “Happy?”

But that has the opposite effect I intend, because the smile drops off his face, replaced by that fierce expression that gives rise to some violent part of my soul. I love that look and the way it feels like I am the sum of his every desire.

I don’t know how, but somehow, he draws me in even tighter.

“Lor. I’ve spent my life on the edge of happiness. I’ve had happy moments, and I have happy memories, but everything was tainted by my father and the pain he caused my mother. By everything that happened in the war and everything that’s happened since. But I can say with the most undeniable certainty that the moment when you said you loved me was the first time I’ve ever known what it’s like to be free.”

He stops talking, his intense gaze burning through the layers of my very soul.

“Oh,” I whisper, because that’s a lot, and I feel the same way, but it sounds trite to echo his words. I need words of my own, but everything feels inadequate, and they won’t come over the knot swelling in my throat.

“Fuck,” I blurt out, like the articulate troll I am. “You are really, really good at this.”

His grin returns, and then he rolls back on top of me. “I’m glad you think so, because I plan to tell you the same thing every day of our lives, Lor.”

I hold his face between my hands. “This is it then. You and me?”

“If you’ll have me.”

“Rhiannon said that we have to bond, or eventually we’ll waste away and die.”

“I’m ready whenever you are,” he says.

“She said there was something special we’d need to do because we’re both Primaries.”

“Then we’ll do whatever we need.” He brushes my cheek with his thumb. “Don’t worry, Lor. Nothing is going to come between us anymore.”

“We probably need my magic back first.”

He dips his chin. “I saw it. Just now. It was coming to the surface. Did that change anything?”

I shake my head. “I felt it, but it’s still locked in there.”

His eyes darken with a wicked spark. “Then maybe lots and lots of sex is the answer.”

I laugh. “Do you suppose that, too, is what fate has in store for us?”

But he’s not really listening anymore, because his mouth is against my throat, sucking the skin.