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“Tell me what I can⁠—”

Cheeks still wet, she tipped her chin up until her lips met his, wiggling her body farther into his embrace, pressing herself against him. She felt his hands lock around her waist, a low moan sounding in the back of his throat as her lips parted and he swept his tongue inside. She sighed, one hand sliding up his bare chest and then around to the back of his neck. Her fingers entwined with the hair at his nape, curling into his locks and pulling slightly as she slanted her mouth against his.

Cedric’s hands slid to her hips, his fingers digging into her as he hauled her body closer against him, one leg slipping between hers. It was like he, too, couldn’t get close enough. Like he, too, needed to feel her, needed her under his skin, safe inside his bones.

Or maybe that was just her. For Elyria, there was no such thing as too close now. No such thing as too tight or too much.

She ground herself against his thigh, inhaling sharply at the delicious friction she found there. His grip was bruisingly tight, his lips staying on hers, consuming every sound she made. Like he wanted to consume her.

It still wasn’t enough.

Elyria broke their needy kiss with a gasp. “I need you,” she said. Begged. “Please.”

Cedric’s brow creased. “We don’t have to⁠—”

“I do.” She shook her head. “I do have to. I need you to help me forget and help me remember all at once.” Her grip on his hair tightened, and Cedric let out a groan.

“I just . . . I don’t want to take advantage of you. We don’t have to do anything that⁠—”

In an instant, she rolled again, this time pinning Cedric beneath her, one leg falling to either side of his waist. “Always so considerate,” she said, wiping the remaining tears from her face with the back of her hand. “Always such a gentleman. Some might even say princely. But you don’t have to be so fucking precious with me, Your Highness. I’m not made of glass.”

Cedric gazed up at her with an expression that seemed equal parts adoring and apprehensive. He clearly wasn’t falling for her bait. “It will be a cold day in all four quarters of hell the moment I ever think of you as fragile, Trouble. I just don’t want you thinking you have to do this—to do anything—for me. I would be content to spend the rest of our days doing nothing but holding you in my arms. All I care about is having you here with me—forever.”

She rolled her hips, more friction sparking where her core rubbed against the hard proof of his lie. He could say he wanted nothing more than to cuddle for the rest of time, but his body clearly wanted more than that.

Moreover, so did Elyria.

“Are you sure about that? Forever is a long time,” she teased, rolling against him once more, unable to contain the sound of pleasure that escaped her lips as she did.

“I would take a thousand forevers with you, Elle.”

She smiled down at him, her throat suddenly tight. “How reassuring to know we are on the same page for once,” she said with a soft laugh, then leaned down to press a gentle kiss to his lips.

“Will wonders never cease,” he said wryly. “But all the more reason there’s no need to rush anything now. I waited all my life for you. I’d happily wait as long as you need before⁠—”

“And while your consideration and thoughtfulness are never lost on me, my enduring, patient knight, and I do want to be equally considerate to what you want . . .” She dropped her voice to barely more than a whisper. “What if this is what I need? What if I want you to rewrite every moment of misery from these past months? What if I want to make up for lost time? What if I need you to take me hard and fast, here and now, and force me to remember why I fought to stay alive?”

And then there were no more words to say, because Cedric had yanked her back down toward him, crushing his lips against hers. With a burst of strength that had that coiling sensation behind her navel tightening instantaneously, he flipped their positions so Elyria was on her back, his muscular forearms boxing in either side of her head as he braced against the mattress.

“Let us be straight about one thing, Trouble,” he said, lowering himself to ghost his lips against the line of her jaw, then traveling up to nip at her earlobe. “There was never any alternative to you being alive. I refuse to even think of it. I spent every day of our separation holding back from unleashing my fury on the entire stars-damned world for allowing you to be taken from me. Even now, I am fighting my baser nature, restraining myself from storming right back to Castle Lumin, from tearing down every stone that dared stand between us.”

The low murmur of Cedric’s voice set Elyria’s skin on fire. She writhed beneath him, bucking her hips against his, searching for more. But her knight merely released a breathy laugh as he lowered more of his weight upon her, the length of his body pinning hers in place.

Yes, she thought. This. This was what she wanted. What she needed. For him to cover every inch of her, for his heat to wash over her skin, for it to be him bearing down on her instead of⁠—

“I want to set that entire fucking city ablaze for merely being the site of his crimes against you,” Cedric continued darkly. “And had you been hurt worse when I found you or, stars forbid, had I not found you”—the air around him began refracting—“alive, not a single corner of Arcanis would have been safe from my wrath.”

She’d never heard him speak like this. Had never seen him like this. Heat spilled off him, ribbons of sunfyre dancing along his skin, then along hers. Not too hot, not burning. It was like the very rays of the sun were wrapping around her, embracing her, chasing away every last ounce of lingering cold.

Cedric licked a line down the column of her throat, stopping to trace the faint crescent shape of her soul-bonded mark with his tongue, and Elyria released a whimper.

“I went insane without you,” he growled, the hard length of him grinding into her thigh, just shy of where she wanted it. “I think I’m insane still. And it won’t go away until I have made Malakar suffer for every ounce of hurt he inflicted upon you. I will carve it all from his flesh before I lay him at your feet to do with what you will.” His gaze was locked on the side of her neck with a feral sort of fixation. “So please know that when I offer to be patient, when I tell you we don’t need to rush, I’m not saying it for me.”

Elyria grabbed the sides of his face, forcing him to meet her eye. His warm brown irises were nearly eclipsed with their rings of gold again, the sunfyre inside him illuminating his veins.

He looked like a stars-damned star god.

And it was the most breathtakingly beautiful sight Elyria had ever seen.