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I pinched her sides, drawing out a shriek and her flailing hands.

She wriggled free of my grip, laughing. “I do not kick.”

“You do. I’ve the bruises to prove it.” My longer stride and arms had her captured and pressed against me once again in the next breath. Close enough our noses brushed, I took her in. Every beautiful curve to her face, the way her cheeks still turned soft pink in the morning chill, the constellations of freckles on her nose. I drew my thumb along her bottom lip. “I will take them, for it means you’ve returned to where you belong. At my side.”

Adira lifted onto her toes and kissed me. What I thought might be sweet and tender was a beautiful frenzy. Her tongue brushed mine, her body arched into me, drawing out a gurgled sort of moan from my chest.

Adira’s hands slid to my belt; she nipped at my lip. “I think you should stay out of sight. Destin has turned the Kappi against you.”

“Do I look helpless?”

“That is not what I’m saying and you know it. Quit choosing to be argumentative.”

“I amchoosingnot to retain what you’re saying. There is a difference.” I laughed when she swatted at my chest. “Afraid there is nothing you can say to send me away and make me sit on my ass while you risk it all again.”

“Youarecompletely insufferable, do you know that?” Adira kissed the corner of my mouth, drifting lower, lower, until her soft lips, her teeth scraped along the runes on my neck.

For a few moments, I allowed her the control. I tilted my head, giving her space to leave a few more kisses before I threaded my fingers in her hair, tilting her head back.

“I don’t know what awaits us,” I whispered. “But I don’t plan on wasting a moment with you. We have right now, Wildling. That is what we always have until this is over. Only this moment.”

Heat flashed in her verdant eyes. Her palm slid down my front, palming the taut bulge in my trousers. “Then how do you plan on not wasting it?”

I hooked my fingers in each side of her trousers and slid them down her long legs. “You are the most beautiful sight.”

Adira’s fingers trembled slightly when she reached behind her neck and pulled her tunic over her head in a fluid motion. I raked my gaze over the heavy swells of her breasts, the white scar carved over her throat, the gentle curves of her hips. With haste, I kicked off my boots, followed by my trousers, and eased Adira over our clothes near the bank.

“There is no risk I would not take for you,” I said against her lips. “There is nothing I would not do to keep you.”

I kissed her again, kissed her for all the seasons stolen from us. Adira ran her hands across the firm ridges of my arms, my shoulders. Every divot, every scar from past battles, earned her attention.

I dipped my head and swirled my tongue around the peak of one breast.

“Kage.” Adira cupped the back of my head. “Don’t stop.”

The goddess herself couldn’t get me to stop.

Two fingers slid over the slope of her middle, down overthe edges of her hips, to the drenched heat of her core. I dipped the tips into her entrance. Adira whimpered against my ear and bucked her hips against my touch. I slid in deeper, curling them inside her until Adira writhed beneath me.

“Kage . . . please . . .” She clawed at my back, then went stiff, sobbing my name through her release. When her eyes fluttered open, I committed each shudder, each flash of desire in her gaze to memory.

I never wished to forget a moment. Never again.

“I need you.” Adira hooked one leg around mine.

I settled my hips between her thighs. She gripped my cock and aligned it with her center. We both watched as I entered her slowly. One hand threaded with hers, I kissed the swell of her breast again, drawing in the puckered nipple deeper. Adira gasped when I thrust my hips, reaching a new depth.

She took hold of my hair, breaths heavy. I rocked faster, losing myself in the way her body shifted with each thrust, the way her eyes rolled back, and a smile split over her swollen lips with each movement.

A soft moan slid free as the boil of pleasure gathered low in my gut. “I will take this moment, Adira,” I gritted out between thrusts. “But I will take many more—a lifetime.”

“Longer,” she said, soft and almost delirious. “Much longer, Kage Wilder.”

I lifted my head, so our brows touched. Sweat dripped off my cheek onto her chest. I breathed all of it in, the sweet hint of rain and honey on her skin, the fresh lavender braided in her hair.

Adira brought her hands around my waist, using her grip and her legs to force my angle to go deeper. The roll of our bodies grew jerky, unsteady, until the tension snapped. Against my neck, Adira let out a sob through another wave of release. One thrust, another. My cock twitched and curses slid off my tongue with every hot pulse.

For a long pause we didn’t move, simply held each other, breathing heavily. Adira dragged her fingernails down the backs of my arms.