Page 171 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

I swallowed hard imagining his definition of fucking if this was sweet love. “Nothing.” My fingers brushed a slash on his ribs. “How did you get this one?”

Again, another morning I woke up with another thing to hate. There was so much of it lately, but the blissfulness of waking pressed to his warm body was one I shouldn't need to try so hard to hate. Because I should already hate it.

I wished the dull throb between my legs, the violet marks all over me and the soreness of my thighs were the only remnants of last night, but I felt him everywhere. Mostly where I didn’t need him to be—in my head.

Pushing my upper body up, I leaned on my forearms and stared at his sleeping face. That permanent starkness etched even in this form. Finding the beautiful in things was something I always struggled with, yet I found him the most beautiful.

He cracked his eyes open and shifted slightly under me. “Morning, love.”

“I didn’t hurt you last night.” I’d laid on him all night long, slept without any nightmares, not waking once and without hurting him.

He ran a lazy hand over my naked spine. “You didn’t. Did I?”

“It’s a pain that I like.”

He stilled with panic. “Love.”

“Not like that, Kilian. It feels like you're still inside of me.” Resting my chin on his chest, I looked up at him. Just looked. And he too looked back at me. While I studied him in this new form of bliss and calm, he only looked at me still in what I could gather to be disbelief.

Slowly, a little smile tugged on his lips. Lips that had kissed every inch of me. “If you keep staring at me like that I will have to damn your mission and take you back with me,” he said, voice gravelly with sleep. It’s vibrations sending a shiver trickling on my skin.

I huffed. “You think too highly of yourself, Adriatian.”

A yelp left my mouth when he flipped me under him. Lowering to kiss my neck, he whispered over my skin, “Tired of me yet?” He ran his knuckles over the side of my body, leaving a trail of gentle fire that scorched my skin deliciously. My breath caught when his fingers circled over my hip and then between my legs. His lips pulled in a smile over my ear, while he traced a single finger over my sex and found me as he had expected—wet and wanting to be touched again. “I guess not.”

I jumped a little when he slapped between my legs, and then drowned a whine when he pushed away from me. Panting half from frustration and half from annoyance, I wrapped the bedsheet around me and stood after him. “Where are you going?”

He glanced back at me as he began dressing. “It’s dawn, they must be at the stables by now. Unless you’ve changed your mind and are coming with me.”

I imagined all the manners of how I could suffocate him. Hands around his neck would be too arousing for me so I decided that I’d have to hide his pretty face behind a pillow.

Suddenly, he laughed, and when he turned to fully face me, a massive grin stretched over his deadly handsome face. Cupping my face, he placed a kiss on my forehead. “Plenty of time when we are not running out of it.”

“You did this on purpose.”

He frowned all so innocently. “What exactly?”

“Fucked me so I would want to come with you.”

He kissed the tip of my nose. “Made love to you. And, did it work?”

With disrelish, I started dressing. “A fair try.” Unfair really.

“Fair try, huh?” With that, he walked to the bathroom and left me to simmer on my own nerves.

We were silently washing our faces side by side when he turned to me and said, “Ah, let that general touch you again and I will cut his wrists to damn your whole damned plan.”

“You’re in no place to make such demands, Kilian.”

He gripped my chin, bringing his face close to mine. “Are you sure about that?”

I gulped. “Yes.”

He nodded. “Glad to see you’re feeling well enough to lie again.”

Heavy footsteps and chatter trickled from outside signalling my squadron was ready to leave. Kilian helped me put my jacket on, buttoning it, tidying my sleeves, smoothing the sides. And lastly, adjusting my remaining circlet to stand straight. “Why are you all red for?” he asked, kneeling to help my legs through my britches and then push my feet through socks and then boots.

“Why are you dressing me?”