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More giggling. “I don’t prattle. Though,” she pauses as if to think it over. “It’s true that I’ll probably be mentioning, days from now, again and again, how no one has ever brought me the stars like that.”
I snort. “Is that supposed to be poetry?”
“Oh, yes,” she says, adding to her sweet grin by lifting her wrist to her brow in dramatic fashion. “As soon as the opportunity presents itself, I’ll commission a bard to commemorate your aptitude for gifting the stars.”
At that, I laugh. “Gifting the stars, huh?”
She nods. “It’s a perfect fit . . . almost as perfect as hearing you laugh.”
I sigh, then unexpectedly come out with, “There’s not a lot about being deve that lends itself to laughter.”
She hums with reluctant agreement. “I suppose.” Her nails start stroking through my beard and my lids sink closed. “Bron told me that Cayson was your childhood friend. Today must have been difficult for you.”
I grunt, not liking the turn of the conversation.
“I understand,” she says gently, “why you wouldn’t want to talk about it, but if you ever do, I’m here to listen.”
Dipping my chin, I search her gaze. “There’s nothing to talk about, little raven. It needed doing, and now it is done.”
With a level of awareness that makes me uneasy, she concurs. “Okay.”
Okay? Since when does this woman ever let anything go so easily?
“Can I ask you something?”
I laugh for the second time in as many minutes. “You can’t stay quiet, can you?”
“It’s about something else,” she claims.
Leaning down, I kiss her mouth. “Fine. Ask your question.”
“I want to know why you call me that . . . little raven. Is it because my voice is grating to the nerves? I’m never sure if I should be offended or not.”
My whole body shakes with silent laughter. “No. It’s not because you get on my nerves. Though that does –”
She whacks my chest, which makes me laugh all the more. Grabbing her hand, I pull it to my mouth and kiss her knuckles. “Do you really not know,little raven?”
Shaking her head, she attempts a pout, but her wide, expectant eyes betray her innocence. She really doesn’t know.
“I call you that because your hair is the exact shade of a raven’s wing. In the sun, it gleams, and in the moonlight, it shines.”
She blinks and sudden tears appear on her lashes. “Now who’s the one with the poetry?”
“It wasn’t meant to make you cry.”
“I’m sorry. I’m being silly. I’ve been doing that a lot today.” She pushes forward against my hold and I let her lips meet mine.
The kiss starts innocently enough, but soon heat re-ignites between us and my mind starts serving up progressively more and more explicit ideas about sinking back into her still seed-filled body. Rolling more of my weight onto her breaks our lips apart, and I let my mouth roams down her neck and across her chest to latch on to an erect nipple.
“Luka,” she breathes. “Even if it’s not forever, thank you for giving me these moments. They mean so much to me.Youmean so much to me.”
Distracted, I hear the murmured words but don’t actually process them. All I can think about is how I’m going to make this incredible woman mine all over again.
♦♦♦
The banging of the alarm bell wrenches me from a dead sleep. For an instant, I can’t identify what’s sprawled across my chest and I’m at the point of heaving it away when Rina’s sharp inhale penetrates my muddled thoughts.
She lurches up. “Is that . . . what is that?”
