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Kase laughed when he caught me in a yawn. “Come. I've had enough of looking at so many faces, and all I want is to see yours.”
Half the nest was waking for a new day, the other was slumping into beds, onto rugs, against walls, desperate for a moment of peace to sleep. Kase held tightly to my hand as we wove our way through the corridors to our chamber.
It wasn’t a grand room. A simple bed, shelves for weapons and clothes, and a small washroom. There weren’t windows, so it required one of Niklas’s clever elixir candles that shone like sunlight in the dreary nest.
Kase closed the door at our backs. The moment the lock clicked, I let out a long breath and slumped against the wall. A few breaths of silence were all it took before my gaze lifted to Kase, before I realized he was looking at me with a dark heat.
“Nightrender,” I said, voice rough. “What sort of thoughts do you have on your mind?”
Kase’s jaw pulsed. He took three fierce steps before his body pressed mine back into the wall. Chest to chest, hip to hip, his body overpowered mine, his rough palm drew out a shudder when he dragged his hand up the surface of my arm.
“I’m thinking my wife looked like a bleeding queen out there tonight. I’m thinking I’ve kept my hands off her long enough.”
Kase crashed his mouth against mine. We were all teeth and tongues. He kissed me like it was our first and like it might be our last.
“Those are my favorite kinds of thoughts. The problem is—” I paused to nip at his bottom lip. “I’m rather filthy.”
“True.” I kicked his shin until he laughed. Kase scooped his palms under my thighs, lifting me, and carried me toward the washroom. “But you see, washing requires less clothing. You’ve fallen into my scheme perfectly.”
I laughed against his mouth until Kase set my feet back on the ground, working the laces around my trousers. My body arched into his touch as his wicked fingers slipped between my legs and teased my core with delightful promises of what was to come.
Breaths grew heavy. Deeper. Greedier. As if I’d begun to steal his air to fill my own lungs.
My skin prickled with want when Kase pulled his fingers away. He glided his palm up the surface of my stomach, under the hem of my tunic. With slow hands, he lifted my top over my head, then cursed under his breath once my naked skin was revealed. Tender kisses dragged across my shoulder, down my breastbone while his hands followed. Kase reached my waist and unlaced my trousers, shoving them down my legs.
I held onto his shoulders, kicked off my bottoms the rest of the way, then choked on a gasp when he gave my neck a small bite.
The sting of his teeth sent my head spinning.
I tossed his tunic over his head. Dirt and sweat coated our skin; a few gashes could lead to trouble if left uncleaned for too long. Kase let out a growl and relented to pulling away long enough to snatch a few towels and soap pearls.
“A skyd hurt you?” He rasped against my ear as his thumb brushed over a long scrape across my ribs. “I’ll cut off his damn head.”
My hand curled around his wrist, and I pulled him closer, teasing the buckle of his belt. “As much as I love your rage when it comes to my safety, you’ll need to point your disdain at my feet. I slipped on the king’s ridge and fell on a jagged stone.”
Kase’s lips pinched together.
“You better not be laughing at me, Nightrender.” I pulled my hand away from his belt, delivering a challenge. “Laugh, and I stop.”
Kase grabbed my wrist and returned my hand to the front of his trousers, guiding me through a few strokes until I forgot why I’d stopped touching him in the first place.
“I’d never laugh at you.” He kissed me. His tongue was warm against mine as he adjusted to start washing my skin, hovering his mouth over mine long enough to tack on, “At least not to your face.”
I sighed, but his kiss was too intoxicating to stop. Not even to be witty or argue. I didn’t want to break from the way his mouth commanded a touch of submission. Hells, I did not take orders well, but for Kase Eriksson? He could command me to burn the world and I would ask him to light the torch.
I lifted my eyes when I reached his belt again.
The simmer of dark desire greeted me. He widened his stance, giving me room to remove the thick, boiled leather from around his waist. I leveraged his trousers off, swallowing a knot of desire as he kicked them away.
Desire pooled in my belly and left little patience to fill the basin to the brim. Instead, Kase dipped one of the many linen cloths on a shelf into a bucket of icy water. I cried out at the chill, but he smothered the sound in a kiss as he scrubbed the dirt and grime from my skin with soap pearls and the towel.
I did the same. When the bitter cold of the cloth touched the scars on his back, Kase pulled away, breathing heavily. He rested his forehead to the wall as I scrubbed the planes of his shoulders, his chest, following each place with a kiss.
When he’d had enough, Kase spun around and smashed my body to his. He parted his lips over mine, the short, rough gasps heated my mouth as I dragged the towel over the muscles of his middle, the sharp curve of his hips, to the heat of his length.
I gripped him, stroking until Kase closed his eyes, a furrow building between his brows with every hard moan.
A devious sort of grin carved over my mouth. This man held every piece of my heart, the bruised and blackened pieces to the fierce and gentle. He was brutal, loving, and loyal. And I took a great deal of pride knowingIdid this to him.
