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“Almost.”
“Show me yours,” she said.
He lifted the curtain of hair falling over his forehead and pointed to his temple. “It’s faded quite a bit, but I got a small ax wedged right into my skull when training.”
Mierna winced as she let her finger trace over the barely visible white line on the spot he’d shown, rubbing over it with her thumb tenderly. She had risen onto her knees with the other hand on his shoulder for stability, and she was close enough for her breath to brush his face.
His mouth went dry at her proximity, and he wondered how someone as beautiful and sharp-witted as her did not resist, or even explode at, the ridiculous shenanigans of someone like him.
“I bet that ax rattled all sense and sensibility out of you,” she said, to which he scoffed humorously and grabbed her wrist to pull it away.
“Did you have to run your mouth and ruin the moment we were having?”
“Were you enjoying it?” she continued to tease with a small scrunch of her nose. “I thought you liked my sarcasm.”
“Since it’s from you…” he said, suddenly breathless as she held him captive with her ice blue eyes, “I suppose I don’t really have a choice, do I?”
The air stilled between them with only her shuddering breath on his face and her flowery scent surrounding him. A soft shade of red blossomed over her cheeks as her eyelashes fluttered at what he’d said. Her small and nimble fingers drummed on his shoulder uncertainly, and he couldn’t deny how much he was drawn to her in that moment. The innocence in her eyes, and the inability to comprehend a small compliment, a slight flirtation, was endearing.
He didn’t expect her to kiss him, but she did. The last of his breath left him, and he was fully convinced that she could send his soul flying out of his body if she wasn’t careful. So used to the predictability of life, Mierna’s kiss softened him even more, which was something he did not even fathom a possibility.
It seemed even rarer than the chance of reversing his immortality.
He succumbed to her, leaning in as her fingers crept into his hair to guide him forward. Allowing her to lead, he found himself crawling over her small frame, caging her protectively within his shadow from the moonlight outside. It was instinctive and natural the way his hand reached for her calf, giving it a gentle squeeze before relishing her soft skin with the slow swirl of his thumb. She looked beautiful to him, but tofeelher beauty through the curves of her body was…different.
She kissed him not ferociously, but with curiosity, her hands cupping his jaw as her thumbs caressed his cheekbones. Tilting her head, she deepened the kiss with a shy push against his lips. He groaned at the way she tasted, sweet and only a little bit sour.
She must’ve had some lemon tarts, he thought dreamily as her arm wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer into her embrace.
He felt something he hadn’t in a very long time: wanted.
To hold back was now a senseless notion to him that he no longer wanted to entertain. Circling an arm around her waist, he effortlessly pulled her up against him as he turned to sit on the windowsill, perching her onto his lap. She settled onto him comfortably without breaking away from him, mewling softly as he bit her bottom lip.
Her hands began to travel, tentatively with a slow trail down the neckline of his night robe where they snuck past the fabric to touch his bare chest. He was sensitive to her inquisitive fingertips, pulling her closer as the air began to heat up between them. He pulled away to give her a reassuring look.
“Nothing needs to happen if you don’t want it to,” he said, but she only kissed him in reply as her hand pushed the robe off his shoulder to admire his muscled bicep. Travus felt strangely appreciated given that he worked hard for his physical strength, but there was also a sense of responsibility that came with her trust in him to not abuse that strength.
To his surprise, she guided his hand to the front of her robes, allowing him to undress her. It was then that he knew with absolute certainty that there was no resistance at all.
“Just to be clear,” he said as kindly as his demeanor allowed, “I’m not taking this as you surrendering to me.”
“Good,” she chuckled softly, “because I’m not.”
He smiled at her, undoing the drawstrings that held her neckline together, realizing that for the first time in a century, he found himself enjoying what was to come, rather than trying to find relief within it.
Chapter 18
It was not her bed that Aria woke up in, but rather an elegant space with a wall that opened up to a balcony. She gathered that she was in Travus’s bedchambers, and it was very similar to the throne room in material and color.
How the room wasn’t cold because of the balcony made no sense until Travus walked inside from it and passed through a barrier that rippled blue.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked as he stood before her in full armor of black iron, and she nodded awkwardly. She was bare under the covers, remembering faintly how he carried her into the very darkened room before she woke up. She’d never experienced intimacy as intensely with anyone as she had with him.
For some reason, it was difficult for her to meet his gaze, and it was obvious he felt the same as well. “My guards spotted Sir Guisgard’s carriage on his way up. He should be here soon with the healer.”
She nodded again, but looked up at him when he grabbed her shoulder. He seemed worried.
“Is everything alright?” he asked. “Is there anything I need to be worried about?”
