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My body trembled when the coil of tension gathered low in my gut. I lost control and bucked wildly. Livia met the new frenzy, grinding against me, until she whispered my name over and over, her body shuddering as a new release built.
“I love you.” My voice was soft. Even still, it cracked.
Her brow furrowed, and she kissed me harder. The slap of our skin, the heat of our breath, the rock of the bed against the wall. It was a moment so perfect, I wanted to battle for it to never end.
Livia’s neck strained when her core pulsed. In the next breath, tension snapped, and my cock twitched. I froze for a few breaths when my release spilled into her in long, heated rushes. I bit down on her shoulder, rotating my hips to draw out the pleasure.
One arm around her waist, I held her against me, breathing heavily. I kissed her pulse point, then slowly pulled out.
We collapsed on the bed, eyes on the rafters. After a moment, Livia rolled into me, one leg draped over mine. She kissed me, slow and sweet, eyes wet with tears.
“I love you, too, Erik Bloodsinger. I’ll never be able to express how wondrous it is to be in your arms again.”
I traced the curve of her bottom lip with my thumb, kissed her brow, then curled my body behind hers. My arm draped possessively over her waist until we drifted to sleep—safe, at long last.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
THE SONGBIRD
I woke alone.
Panic, so sharp it was almost painful, carved through my chest. My palm swatted over Erik’s side of the bed. Still warm, but quickly cooling.
“Erik?” I snapped upright, blood rushing to my head until it pounded between my ears. Dark, satin shades were drawn over the windows, dimming the room, but through the cracks, a glare of sunlight sliced through, deeper than the dawn.
The washroom door connected the sitting chamber to our bedroom, but it was empty save for our discarded clothes that still littered the floor. I pressed the heel of my hand over my heart, the skin still sore from the lost heartbond.
“Erik.”
Gods, I felt much like a fool, crumbling in such a way. I was neither warrior nor queenlike. Cruel, unrelenting thoughts that tricked my mind slithered between my rationale, desperate to convince me it had all been a beautiful illusion, some game, and in truth my serpent was still lost to me.
The tips of my fingers traced the marks on my throat, marks left behind by Erik Bloodsinger’s wicked mouth.
Breathe. Focus. I blinked; tears fell off my lashes. I swiped them away, on the brink of spilling over the ledge of sobs, of panic.
The door leading to the sitting chamber opened. Erik, naked from the waist up, carried a tray of steaming herb drinks and a few spongy cakes with pink sugared glaze. He kept his eyes homed on the delicate balance of the tray, unaware I’d become as a weeping stone in the center of our bed.
Gods, he was beautiful—strong and built to glide through the sea. His dark hair still tousled from my fingers.
His crimson gaze lifted, followed by a natural smile. “I’d planned to wake you my way, but . . .” Erik’s voice fell to the wayside. A furrow dug over his brow as he briskly set the tray on a chest of drawers against the wall. “Songbird? What is it?”
Mortification heated my cheeks, unrelenting. I forced a smile, shaking my head. “Nothing.”
Erik crept over the bed, a gentle hand pressed over my heart, nudging me backward onto the mattress. With his body, he made a cage over me. “Is this the moment we begin lying to each other? I thought we determined long ago there was little point in such things.”
“It’s foolish,” I whispered.
“Then I’m even more intrigued, for I’ve yet to hear a foolish thing from your mouth.”
I rubbed one side of his arm, tracing a cluster of scars near his wrist. “Just rogue thoughts trying to run away again.”
Erik settled behind me, his arm possessive around my waist, lips brushing my ear. “You are Livia Ferus.”
I hugged his arm tightly, like he’d become part of the messy quilts around my body, reveling in the low grit of his voice.
“Daughter of warriors,” he went on, pressing kisses behind my ear. “Defeater of traitors, biter of the Ever King—”
“I did not bite you.”
