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Gods, I wanted him to kiss me again.
I wrapped my arms around myself, warding off the chill this far away from my crackling hearth as my gaze wandered to my bed. My cold, lonely, empty bed. There was no Sebian to pull me onto his chest, stroke my hair, or caress me to sleep with gentle touches.
No Sebian to kiss me.
Never that.
An itch flared beneath my raven as if promising snow like Father had said his scars often did, making me think back on my childhood. A childhood that had cushioned me in layers of gentleness and caution as a substitute for love.
I longed for the latter with such soul-bending intensity, my gaze drifted over to the doors at the far end of my personal rooms, a nervous tingle rising in my belly. If gentle touches weren’t a surety for love, then what were the chances that pain and love weren’t as mutually exclusive as my sheltered mind had thought them to be?
Could there be love in pain?
The creepy-crawly pinpricks on my scar intensified. How far would I go to find out? To feel loved?
Would I bruise for it? Hurt for it? Bleed for it?
Yes.
And who did it better than Malyr?
Heart pounding, I let my naked soles slap over the cool stone as I quietly slipped into the dark hallway. A single oil lamp flickered on a nearby wall, casting eerie shadows over the raven emblem that loomed on the doors across. Specks of orange gleamed in the empty sockets of the skull, causing my stomach to twinge.
I padded over and gave a knock, the sound all but drowning against the violent rush of blood in my ears. Excruciating seconds passed, but neither did the door open nor a voice command me to enter. Perhaps he was asleep.
My hand shook when I lifted it to the door a second time, only for me to drop it by my side and turn away. Gods, why was I such coward? So far, he hadn’t killed me y—
Hinges groaned, making me look up to find Malyr leaning in the gap, shrouded by darkness, one arm lifted and braced against the wood while his thumb tapped lazily at his forehead. He had tied up his hair in a tousled topknot that only accentuated the sharpness of his cheekbones, wearing nothing but cotton trousers that sat low on his trim hips. His dark eyes took me in, each second he said nothing marked by nervous tingles beneath my skin.
With a gesture of his hand that carried all the noble graces of a prince, he beckoned me inside before he shut the door, sealing me in with my trepidation. That, and the herb-scented steam coming from a tub beside the hearth.
Back pressed against the door, I looked up at him, barely able to hold his intense stare as I scrambled for an explanation as to why I’d interrupted his bath. “I—”
“Took you long enough,” he growled.
His mouth claimed mine, making my pulse stall somewhere between fear and euphoria. Malyr suckled my lips between his, lapping at them, parting them with his tongue, stoking longing deep in my belly until my legs quivered. His hand settled on my hip, letting fingers curl possessively into the flesh while the other slammed against the door right beside my head, making me jump, caging me in.
He pulled his head back on a trembling exhale, his face veiled in shadows with how the dim light of his hearth hit his back, as dark as the whisper that followed. “I am not Sebian.”
I couldn’t say if he’d meant it as a warning or an apology, but it had my body vibrate with dread and anticipation alike. “I know.”
His hand slipped from the door to my shoulder and to the ties on my shift from there, giving a harsh yank, opening the fabric some before he let a finger trace his mark on my chest. “I am not gentle. I was once, I think, but not anymore.”
I knew that, too.
It was the reason why I’d come.
I stared into his eyes. “I do not want gentle.”
His gaze smoldered as he took me in for another moment. At the next, his mouth violently slammed onto mine again. Malyr kissed me, suckling my bottom lip between his teeth. Then he bit down.
When I gave a shocked little gasp at the sharp sting and the taste of metal, Malyr groaned into my mouth. His breaths came faster, fanning up the scent of blood that spread between our lips as his hands dropped to my thighs. He clawed at the train of my shift, gathering it up.
His mouth remained on mine as he lifted me up by my thighs and carried me across the room without a single stagger in his steps. Gravity shifted, and my back sank into the cushioned comfort of his nest of black pillows and quilts. His hips wedged between my thighs, allowing Malyr a single roll of his hard shaft against my cunt before he drew back, letting our kiss melt away as he sat on his haunches.
Hands to my hips, he flipped me onto my stomach, only for his hand to collar my throat and pull me back and onto my knees by it until my back slammed into the frame of his chest. “Take this off,” he rasped by my ear as his other hand lifted my shift. “Don’t make me wait because my patience for the moment you finally come to me started wearing thin long ago.”
You came to me.
