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“Agreed, Serpent.”
One palm slid down his chest, the flat planes of his stomach, to the laces of his trousers. Erik moaned and tightened his mouth, almost as if his body burned in pain, not pleasure.
I unthreaded the top lace and kissed the beat of his pulse. “You think you added more danger to my life. You’re wrong. The moment I laid eyes on you—the real you—every dark, beautiful piece brought more light to my heart than I’d ever known. In that moment, all the fear, the panic, the risks, faded.”
Erik cracked his eyes and studied me through his lashes as I hooked my thumbs in the waist of his trousers. He lifted his hips enough for me to slide them down his legs. He covered my hand when I gripped the smooth skin of his cock and stroked himself with me.
The Ever King watched in silence, almost awe, as I guided the tip of his shaft to my soaked entrance. His grip on my body froze, tight and possessive, when I sank onto him, tip to root. For a moment, we didn’t move, we simply looked at each other, sharing breath.
Erik gently tugged on my bottom lip with his thumb. “You are my light in the sky, love.”
He soothed my heart when fears kept me in a rotten grip, but in this moment, the unbending Ever King offered his confession like aman surrendering to a lifelong battle. Taught to be as stone, cold and unfeeling, Erik Bloodsinger drew me close and told me with his words and hands, that he wanted to bend, wanted to fall, so long as it was me who caught him again.
Erik kissed me again. He bucked his hips, teasing me, testing me.
I nipped at his ear and whispered, “If you think I am looking for gentle, Serpent, you’re mistaken.”
“Woman,” he hissed and speared deeper into me with a rough thrust. “Be ready to stand by your words.”
I clung to his neck, gasping over his shoulder. Our bodies, feverish, rocked on the king’s throne, taking and giving. Frantic and controlled.
Erik gripped my jaw, drawing my face in his line of sight, to watch my features. He grinned like a challenge was won the moment my brow gathered as pleasure built. My fingers coiled in his hair, tugging at the roots, desperate for purchase when he lifted my hips, only to slam my body back over his length, again and again.
He answered my demands for fervor, not gentility, and ground our bodies together until there was no space between us.
My neck bared, I lost control, moaning and sighing the king’s name, unbothered that guards were paces away, standing watch. Erik bucked his hips hard enough the throne scraped over the stones. Pleasure numbed my mind. All I could do was sink into a fluster of instinct to draw out more raw grunts from his chest, more rasps when his own arousal pinched over his face.
“Livia,” Erik gasped my name like a final plea when I angled my body differently, drawing him in deeper.
I closed my eyes when the heat between my legs boiled over. My fingers dug in his shoulders, my body went taut, twitching as I called Erik’s name over and over. A haze clouded my mind as Erik thrust harder until the rush of his own release spilled into me.
We sagged against each other, trading weak kisses, chuckling when we took note of how out of line Erik’s throne had drifted compared to mine. With care, Erik helped me back into my chemise,then readjusted his own trousers before curling me onto his lap and burying his face into my neck.
Perhaps the Ever King was not a man who knew how to speak his heart, but he was mesmerizing how he conveyed it with his touch. In these moments, when Erik Bloodsinger held me, still and calm, I could understand every damn word.
For my heart screamed the same—this world, this kingdom, all of it mattered only if he was part of it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
THE SERPENT
The House of Tideshad a deeper chill to the sea breeze than other houses in the Ever. Moonlight painted the inky waves in silver as the Ever Ship bow carved through the surface. The air was heavy with brine and woodsmoke. Flames shattered the night. Joron’s shores were surrounded in sturdy stone towers with great basins of blue and gold flames lighting ships into his ports.
The shoreline was empty of imposing peaks like the House of Blades or the royal city, but stone cottages covered the rockier beaches in clusters all surrounding the village square.
Like a phantom on the water, the ship silently wove through the narrow islets leading to the main shores. A tang coated the salt in the air from rows of fire plum orchards, a pome with spiked, orange skin that could be used by boneweavers for pain relief, while the meat was traded as a delicacy amongst noble houses.
Once we carved through a weathered sea gate, cheerful bells rang out over the shores, announcing our arrival.
Flames burning in great iron basins at the top of the walls shifted to a poisonous green shade, and the thick, wooden gates cracked open. Small vessels awaited in the tides, there to ferry folkto the shores without crowding the ports and docks with large ships. Joron was a man of order and reveled in having a bit of control over those who stepped onto his shores, be it king or commoner.
I offered no greeting to those sent to collect us, merely held out a hand for Livia.
Gods, the woman was a sight. I’d nearly dragged her back into our bedchamber when she’d emerged with her hair tight in traditional plaits with bone beads of her folk, but over her head was one my black scarves, keeping hair free of her eyes. A tight corset accented her curves, and a thick skirt covered her legs, sturdy enough to withstand the sea winds.
A perfect collision of two worlds.
After we took our places in the sloop, the earth fae, Celine, and Tait followed. Stieg and Sewell remained at the shore, and Gavyn and Tavish would keep watch on the vessels in the tides.
