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Odd. His voice didn’t echo in her head, the fragment of a memory. Inez pushed through the darkness. She clawed and ripped and tore like a wild animal, desperate for light and sound. As she neared the surface of her mind, the scent of smoke filled the air and the voice got louder.
“Nez? Fuck.”
Strong hands gripped at her waist. Carrying her? Inez swayed with the movement. This wasn’t a dream, was it? Inez had dreamed about Rylec’s skin on hers, but she knew the difference, even after all these years. Those hands were real, not imaginary. She leaned into them, craving them. It had been too long.
A calloused thumb brushed against her lip.
That was all it took to jolt Inez awake.
She launched into a bright world on fire.
“Thank the gods.” Rylec’s arms tightened around her. They were in a forest, the foliage around them a rainbow of colors under a lavender canopy of branches. The Jaciel Forest. Maybe an hour away from the capital, maybe less. And given the smoke that wafted from their burning escape pod on the other side of the meadow, it wouldn’t be long until they had company.
That calloused thumb brushed her chin, drawing her attention to his dark eyes. “Are you hurt?”
“No—” Inez’s voice came out rough and patchy. She swallowed away the dryness. “I’m okay.”
“Can you walk?” Rylec’s dark gaze scanned down her body. There were a few tears in her clothes, but otherwise, she appeared unharmed. “We need to move fast. If we can get far enough away—”
“But we won’t.” Inez didn’t need to glance over his shoulder again to see the smoke. Their escape pod had crashed in daylight and had been broadcasting their location ever since. Goddamn Sollirians. TheParadisehad a thousand people on it, including her charges. Now they were all dead because of her. Tears pricked at her eyes. “We can’t win by running away, Rylec. You know that.”
Rylec’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t counter her point. He knew she was right. If she hadn’t run all those years ago, theParadisewould still be in the sky.
“I don’t want to waste any more time running.” She reached out, a hesitant and gentle touch to his face. After how she reacted to him earlier, she wouldn’t blame him if he turned her away. She had actually thought he’d hurt Soriya, his own blood and a child nonetheless. The comment must have stung.
Inez didn’t know what would happen to them next. After the Sollirians captured them, it would be a battle to survive. But if Inez went off to war today, she wanted one last memory of her Rylec to keep her warm in the trenches. “Put me down.”
Rylec gently lowered her to her feet without protest. Inez was tall for an Earthling, but her head barely reached the top of Rylec’s shoulders when standing. She placed her hands gently on his chest. His breath stuttered out for a second before kicking into double-time. She’d always had that effect on him. Just like he had for her.
Inez had never experienced true pleasure before Rylec. At thirteen, every star-maid was paired off with another and locked in a room until they had ‘done the act’—the clinical way the priests and priestesses referred to fucking. Inez had studied the art of lovemaking since age ten but experiencing it for the first time had been clunky and awkward.
That was the first time the temple forced her into a room, but certainly not the last. Girls. Boys. Star-maids like her. Volunteering Sollirians. Young and old. Before Inez turned eighteen, she had done it all. It was important for a star-maid to please their master.
But her pleasure had never been the priority. Not until Rylec.
Inez trailed her hand from his chest to the line of his neck to the angle of his jaw. His white hair tickled across her skin. The first time she went to his bed, he had wanted to prove he wasn’t like other archlords. Those white curls had tickled across her thighs as he devoured her. For nearly a month, he refused to claim her with anything but his tongue.
“Nez,” his voice came out as a growl. “It’s not polite to tease.”
Inez reached higher, knuckles drifting across the golden, crystalized exterior of his horns. In all her dreams, this was how she imagined them reuniting. Her hands gliding across his skin in passion instead of rage. She pressed onto the tips of her toes and whispered, “I’m not teasing.”
Rylec’s eyes widened, but he wasted no time. His arms went around her and lifted, drawing her closer to him. She threaded her fingers through his pale curls. Her legs wrapped around his torso, over a thick and throbbing heat. Inez gasped at the touch. Gods, she had missed him. She didn’t want to miss him anymore, not when he was finally here. Not to take her back to the empress like she first thought, but to save their daughter. Save their family.
Their lips clashed together, like an anchorless ship against the shore. Violent. Passionate. Wild. Desperate. Inez opened herself and Rylec invaded, his tongue sweeping across her lips. She shuddered. Her body ached, a bright burning in her core. She wanted him inside her. Needed it. Now.
Inez broke the kiss. “There’s no time, Rylec. I need you. Now.”
His lips quirked. “As you command, wife.”
Rylec pulled his hands from her hips. But Inez didn’t fall, held up by his magic. Her husband shucked off his vest and shirt, stripping in seconds. Her mouth went dry. His pale white skin looked like carved marble over rippled abs and powerful legs. Inez had admired his body a thousand times and touched every inch. But every time she saw it, she couldn’t help but marvel at his beauty.
Her eyes slipped down to the thick width of his cock.
Her heartbeat stuttered.
Inez reached forward to pull him to her—
Vines dropped down from the canopy above and curled around her wrists.
