Page 66 of Heart of the Desert

There was nothing more beautiful than our love.

Holding his gaze, I slid even further down his body, reaching behind me as I did to slide his pants down his hips. Erix pulled his shirt over his head, but otherwise didn’t look away, watching me with rapt attention.

Finally, his length brushed against my slick entrance. His breath hitched and the tendons in his neck stood out starkly, but he did not thrust up into me.

“Use me,” Erix urged, his voice rough. “Take everything I have. It is already yours.”

Achingly slowly, I lowered myself onto him, my eyelids fluttering and my mouth falling open with the exquisite stretch. Like this, I could feel every inch of him. I could enjoy the perfect intimacy of the way he fit inside me and our magic knit together, the weave tighter than even Neven’s finest linen.

I began to roll my hips. I braced my hands on Erix’s chest, my nails digging into the swell of his muscles as I chased the delicious heat once again building low in my stomach. Erix’s hands landed on my hips, but he did not try to urge me on, letting me take from him at whatever pace I chose. Instead, his fingers flexed as if he was trying to ground himself in the moment.

My breath came in sharp pants as my pleasure built, but I did not increase my pace. Instead, I reveled in the slow build of fire between us. Every muscle in Erix’s body shivered with tension, but he simply watched me with rapt attention, as if I were miraculous.

“Promise me,” I breathed as I rode him. I didn’t even have to tell him what I wanted.

“I will never abandon you. We will face these trials at our strongest. Together.”

My next breath left me in a shuddering gasp as I felt his promise wind itself between us, a single glowing golden string in our magic. But he continued.

“You are worthy of all the love I can give you and even more beyond that. You deserve to be loved and cherished every day. You deserve to feel pleasure until you are a boneless heap in my arms.”

His words sank into my skin, warming me like sunshine, reaching deep into my heart and burning clean the wounds that had still festered there beneath the surface of my consciousness. Gasping, I started to swivel my hips with more intention, and Erix twitched. His next attempt to speak cut off in a ragged groan, but we had no more need for words.

I rode him in time to the waves crashing on the beach. I fought to keep my eyes open as my pleasure crested again, to memorize the way Erix looked bathed in the ethereal light of the glowing ocean. Then it crashed over me, and I was lost.

I vaguely registered Erix pounding up into me once, twice, before he joined me in shuddering through our shared release. As the shaking in my limbs finally dissipated, I collapsed forward to rest my cheek on Erix’s chest. He wrapped his arm around me, so I was surrounded by his scent.

We lay there like that for long minutes, lulled by the sound of gentle waves as the breeze rolling off the ocean cooled our heated skin.

Chapter twenty-three

Erix

Keera watched the waves wash over her bare feet as we walked back toward the clans, carrying the meager supplies that had been left at our small band’s tiny camp. We had left the horses with Aderyn, Dhara, and Elion, who had stayed in the encampment, helping make repairs after today’s disaster.

“So much water, and none of it drinkable,” Keera said with equal parts wonder and disgust.

A smile tugged at my lips as I walked beside her. She sighed.

“Is it odd that after all the chaos and destruction today, this somehow feels… peaceful?” Keera asked.

I shook my head. “Violence makes the moments of peace even more tranquil. Just like the desert’s brutality makes her beautiful.” My breath caught as the thought brought back another memory from today. I had been so consumed with pouring myself into the new bond with Keera, that I had driven what had occurred in its absence from my mind. “Balance. Just like Kelvar said.”

“Kelvar?”

“I spoke to him,” I admitted.

“Your hallucinations?” Keera’s dark brows knit together, some of the calm that enveloped us instantly disappearing.

“He told me that I’m not mad,” I murmured. “When… when the bond between us was gone, I could hear him more clearly than I ever had before and he said that he had been trying to speak to me, so he could tell me about the Heart.”

Keera hesitated. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eyes as she chewed on her lips.

“Do you believe him?” she asked. I could not tell from her tone what she thought about it.

“You mean, do I believe my ancestor is really trying to communicate with me, or has my mind conjured up an explanation for its own madness?” I huffed. But the truth was, I ached to believe it as much as I feared it. Kelvar offered me an explanation and answers I desperately needed. But I could also be trusting the fate of the desert to a mirage and driving us further down the road of destruction.

“What did he say?” Keera prodded.