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His room was a mess because he hadn’t made time to tidy after tearing it apart, looking for the letters she’d stolen. The letters she’d snuck in to translate because she couldn’t bear to be away from him, no matter what she’d said the last time she’d come there with him. The letters she’d forged to keep him safe.
All this time he’d wasted.
He laid her gently on the bed. Even the way she wriggled to get comfortable stirred something both protective and primal within him.
But that wasn’t what she wanted, he realized, as he watched her head loll sideways on the pillow, her glazed eyes following his every move. Nor was it what he wanted.
He climbed in beside her and brushed his lips along the hollow of her throat, enjoying the rumble underneath her flesh. He groped for the stays on the front of her dress, trying to become the calm gentleman the moment demanded. Her hands moved faster than his though, and he let her take over, the lump in his throat growing thicker as more of her soft, pale flesh was exposed.
Ana had hardly reached the last lace before he tugged the heavy, untenable fabric down, shimmying it over the flare of her hips, and down, where it caught on her feet. She kicked several times and sent it fluttering off the bed in a heap.
She went for his tunic next, yanking it up and over his head. He rolled sideways to free himself of his pants and was barely out of them before she had his face in her hands, demanding another kiss.
She moaned softly as her tongue slid from his mouth. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“And what life is worth living if you have to give up what you love most?” Tyr dragged the inside of his bottom lip along her jaw, stopping at her ear. “You may as well kill me yourself. It would be quicker than the slow death I’ve been dying since you walked away. The thousand tiny little deaths I’ve died every day since.”
“Tyreste.” She moaned. The name trilled on her tongue, and no one had ever said it in such a way that left him so bare and exposed and needing. “We’re doomed, the two of us. But I do love you, Tyreste Penhallow. I was afraid to say it, and I am still, because such a thing can never be unsaid, can it?”
She licked her lips and sucked them in, but he pushed against her mouth with his thumb and released them, kissing away a small piece of her fear. He was still reeling from her confession, still plumbing the depths of the past months for a proper response. She’d said it at last, not in an indirect, searching way but leaving no room for guessing or interpretation.I do love you, Tyreste Penhallow.“Tomorrow we might—”
“There’s only tonight, Ana.” He rumbled the words along her lips, parted to receive more of his words, his kisses. “The future belongs to no one.”
Tyr no more believed the words than any other lie he’d told, but to waste a single precious moment dwelling on Magda or whatever else Ana wasn’t telling him was to rob themselves of what they both needed so much. What they’d both earned, in their suffering.
“Volemthe,” she said. “You know the word?”
Tyr nodded. “It means... I love you, right?”
“It means so much more in Vjestikaan. The word is never wasted. Never frivolous. And I could say it to you, over and over—volemthe, volemthe, volemthe—and it would still never come close to how I feel.” She closed her eyes and exhaled. “Are we fools, Tyreste?”
“Anastazja,” he said between kisses. He arched his back and lifted to meet her eyes. “I won’t ever pretend again I don’t love you. To those who wish to do us harm, fine, but to you? Never again. If this is all we get...” He bowed his head, and it was her turn to breakhisreticence, sliding her finger under his chin to lock their gazes again. “Then you’ll know it was real. That I loved you in a way I never imagined I could love anyone. The last thing I’ll ever know, before the Guardians declare my promise spent, is my love for you, and if they so allow it, volemthe from beyond and forever.”
Ana lunged upward and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face against his pulse. “It’s always been so... hungered with us.” She articulated her words slowly, putting voice to what they’d both already decided. “But that’s not how I want it tonight.”
“Nor I.” He swept the words through her mussed hair. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded against his neck. Her short, quick breaths were evidence of her vulnerability, and he would give her no reason to regret it.
“Open your eyes, my love.” He gently laid her back onto the pillow and gazed at her. “Look at me.”
Her soft, wide-eyed blinks pushed his heart into his throat.
“Don’t let them close, not even for a second,” he whispered and reached down, circling his cock to guide himself. He pushed against her core, his eyes fluttering back when he felt how ready she already was to receive him.
Her throat jumped when she nodded. A throaty gasp rippled off her tongue when he entered her, her hips lifting in encouragement.
Tyr planted his elbows on the pillow and rested his forehead against hers as he moved in her, measuring each plunge to draw it out and quieting his urge to go faster, to consume her. Her eyes stayed fixed toward his, just like he’d asked, but they rolled back every time he filled her full, and it made him want to do it over and over and over again, until there was nothing left to do but lose himself in her dreamy gaze. “Like that?” he asked.
Ana moaned, raking her teeth along her bottom lip. “Like that.”
Tyr slowed his pace more, enjoying every soft and pliant and soaking inch of her as he dragged his cock in... out. With each stroke, he gave her what she needed, sinking as deep as he could and then pausing for the reward of her delicious response. Her hips trembled and bucked for more, but he didn’t move until she clenched so hard, he nearly exploded.
“You’re not playing fair,” he teased, sliding all the way out. He slammed back in, jolting a gasp from her.
“Just following your lead,” she said and hooked both legs around his back. She inched her heels higher and higher, until they were near his biceps. “Seems like you wanted to go deeper.”
“Never deep enough.” Tyr grunted and draped her legs over his shoulders, pounding and thrusting. His mouth watered with longing, and he flexed his hands on her calves to keep from losing control and injuring her.
