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He pulled off my boots and pants as I attacked his, resenting each moment of delay. Finally naked, I took in the muscles hardened by training, tensing as if for my perusal. My hands traveled the defined grooves and ridges as the fire in me burned hotter and hotter.
I licked the smooth skin at the base of his collarbone, needing to taste the sun and him. Through my lips, I felt the vibrations of his swallowed curses before moving down his wide chest with kisses and nibbles. I needed to taste everything, feel everything. His fists clenched and eyes burned as he let me explore.
When kissing and caressing in the palace, it had been dark and rushed. Stolen moments and desperation. This time, no one was coming to interrupt. Nothing wouldstop us.
Pulled like his compass needle, my eyes traveled further down, and I remembered how he once told me about his passions, stumbling over the words when faced with my pretend innocence. Seemed he would finally show me what I had asked for at breakfast that first morning.
“Beautiful,” he breathed while hands traveled over my curves, snagging on old scars along the way. Goose bumps rose where his fingers stroked, each nerve awakening.
Then, like a string pulled too far, our patience for exploration snapped and the air between us disappeared.
With kisses and bites, we fell on our discarded clothes. I straddled his hard thighs, the muscles tense beneath me as he left the final decision to me. My hands pressed into his chest as I hovered above him and what we both needed.
Each point of contact burned, sunlight danced across his skin, throwing blue highlights into his wild, silky hair.
I pressed down, searching for friction as he filled me. His mouth closed around my nipple. Our moans mixed.
He set the pace, guided me up and down, and I knew I would never forget the sound of his swallowed groans. We became movement without thought, desire heightened through the magic I could not stop, linked in pleasure until I shattered with his name on my lips. He rolled us over, pressing his mouth to my neck, whispering unintelligible words as he came.
I tugged him close with a sloppy kiss, his still heaving chest sticky and heavy on top of me, anchoring me to reality.
“I’m. Keeping. You,” he said between kisses. “Safe. Here. Never letting you go.”
A shadow of his fear danced over my cooling skin.
“I’m not going anywhere.” I sought his eyes, needing him to know I meant my words.
He rolled to the side, pulling me with him so that we lay side by side, both unable to let go, foreheads pressed together, fingers entwined.
“You’re everything I shouldn’t want, Tempest. You’re freedom and temptation, charity and compassion. You’re a riddle and answer.”
I snorted. “You’re not so bad yourself. Besides being the heir to all of Tal, of course.”
He grinned, the princely mask nowhere to be seen. It revealed a perfect dimple in his left cheek. I’d thought him harshly beautiful before, but like this, he was stunning.
“Come flying with me after I’ve finished my duties at the palace today—assuming we get out of here. We deserve to make this moment last. To escape death…”
I wanted to go. The griffons still terrified me, but Cherny’s feathers had been soft under my hands, her feelings deep and calm. But today… In the relief of still being alive, I had forgotten Lumi and the rebels.
“Do you trust me?” I asked.
I had not told him everything, not yet. The guilt returned. He might claim responsibility for Yahontov and Koshka, but that did not dissolve mine. I could only pray to the Wishmaker they’d made it and were celebrating being alive half as well as us.
He brought my fingers to his lips as he nodded. “I know there are things you cannot tell me, that perhaps I shouldn’t, but I trust you. You have shown me who you are every day.”
“Thencome to the Dragon Bridge at midnight. There are people who want to meet you, who can explain much more. Together, we can stop—”
I swallowed my words before they triggered the curse.
His eyes darkened. “Talian rebels?”
I wished I had not blurted that out. Lumi had forbidden me from giving details and I had never broken a promise given to my twin, but I had rehearsed better words. Worry gnawed at me as Dimitri moved to pull on his pants.
“They are part of this?” He waved his hand toward the tunnel entrance.
“They can help, please—”
A key turned in the door leading to the manor above. I only had time to clutch my coat to my chest before it swung open.
