Page 25

I’dnevertalked to him with my back towards him before. It had simply not been possible. The newness of it was enough to send my heart rattling against my ribs, the sensation of his presence behind me with nothing but his voice to cling to. My hips, my shoulders, the back of my neck … they seemed to burn under the potential of his gaze, the knowledge that he wasthere, possibly about to touch me, possibly a full five strides away.

Was that the sound of a quiet inhalation to my left?

It took every ounce of self-control I possessed not to spin around and find him, sitting on the desk or sneaking up on me or anything in between. Instead, I stepped out of my boots and stripped my socks off my feet, suppressing the urge to hurry. Sooner or later, hewouldhave to say something, wouldn’t he?

Would he?

My eager ears couldn’t catch the faintest clue – nothing but a slamming door in the far distance, a shred of shouting beyond the walls of this buried home. Wrestling to keep my breathing even and controlled, I freed myself from my fiery red dress with slow, deliberate motions, dropping it on top of my boots in a rustle of fabric. In nothing but my underwear, the temptation to stand still and let him ogle me was almost too strong to bear – but I wasn’twaitingfor him, damn it, and I hooked my fingers around the soft linen of my drawers almost without pausing.

‘So tell me,’ he murmured – suddenly so close behind me I almost shrieked and jumped, ‘what victory are you looking for, exactly?’

Was that his hot breath against the back of my neck? My heart was racing so vehemently I feared it might burst through my ribs at any moment, heat creeping up my skin wherever his eyes might be wandering. My voice had gone hoarse, but at least it didn’t tremble as I said, ‘Your surrender, mostly.’

I felt his laughter more than heard it – both the gossamer brush of air over my bare shoulders and the sparks stirring in my lower belly in reply. ‘Ah. Planning to make me beg for you?’

That purred suggestion licked down my spine in flames of ice-cold fire, leaving goosebumps in its wake. I squeezed shut my eyes, grateful he would at least not be able to see that little sign of weakness, and managed an almost natural chuckle. ‘Would you?’

‘Do you think there’s anything Iwouldn’tdo for you?’ Another faint rustle behind me, like velvet sliding over velvet; when I hurriedly opened my eyes, the dark shapes of his wings were slowly folding into my sight on both sides, like a snare closing in on me. Yet he didn’t touch me, not even as his voice slid into a flowery, almost theatrical declaration. ‘My loveliest, most terrifying cactus …’

‘You’re mocking me!’ My voice wobbled all the same.

‘I wouldn’t dare,’ he muttered, and suddenly there was a new edge of hoarseness to his words, a raw quality that had nothing to do with sore, unused vocal cords and everything to do with the reverent way his wings curled slowly around my naked body. ‘I’m fully fucking honest when I say no one has ever frightened me as much as you do. I’ve never had this much to lose before.’

My breath hitched. ‘Creon …’

His wings wrapped around me, velvety edges brushing down my collarbones, my breasts, my nipples. I gasped, and his handsfollowed around my waist at the same moment, sliding over my skin, creeping ever so slowly down my belly, His solid chest was there behind my back as I arched into his touch. I sagged against him, resting my head against his shoulder with a sound that was a plea as much as a moan.

‘Then again …’ His whispered words were hot against my neck, barely audible over the roar of blood in my ears. The strokes of his wings against my nipples sent my body throbbing with desire. ‘I’ve never had this much to win, either.’

‘Please,’ I managed, squirming against him, trying to get some friction,anyfriction, over that burning spot that so desperately needed his touch. Gods, the rough sound of his laughter stroking over my skin …

‘Very well,’ he murmured, and finally,finallyhis hands slid down those last inches, beneath my underwear, through the dark curls at the apex of my thighs. ‘Take your victory, Thenessa.’

I exploded at the first touch.

Like a coil wound tight enough to snap, my body unravelled under his fingers, coming sweetly, beautifully, powerlessly undone – weeks of secrets, weeks of fears and frustrations all shattering to pieces the moment he brushed over that hankering core of my pleasure. I cried out, convulsing through my blistering release as he held me to his chest and drained me with slow, gentle strokes.

Gods help me, Ihadwon.

A surge of triumph had me moving before I became aware of my own limbs again, wriggling around in his arms to free myself. This time, he let me. I dragged him to the bed by the sleeve of his half-buttoned shirt, and we toppled into the blankets in a tangle of limbs and wings, my fingers fighting with his buttons as he claimed my mouth with his. Rough groans answered my moans. A muffled cry escaped him when I dug my nails into his hips. Itore off his shirt with frantic eagerness, stripped off his trousers as if my very life depended on the sight of his bronze skin and straining muscles; his cock jutted free like a voracious beast, ready to devour me.

‘Keep talking,’ I breathed, pressing him onto his back as I struggled out of my underwear. ‘Please …anything.’

He came up on his elbows, wings spread wide over the blankets. ‘Is this the moment to tell you how utterly bewitching you look in the blood of my enemies?’

I crawled over him, laughter bubbling out of me. His answering grin was positively wolfish – not the look of a predator finding his prey, but rather …

Rather, a predator finding his match.

I knew every inch of that warrior’s body below me. The lines and bulges of his muscles. The scrape of his nails and the silken softness of his skin. The musky fragrance of his arousal and the slick hardness of his erection as I wrapped my hand around it. And yet all of it felt thrillingly, gloriously new as I positioned myself over him and guided our bodies together, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he watched me with dark, ravenous eyes.

Mine.

War would come. Blood would spill. Empires might fall before the year was over, and we could only hope they wouldn’t be ours. But the archipelago itself could sink into the sea tomorrow and it wouldn’t change a thing aboutthis– our perfect little world, two minds, one heart, and enough power to challenge the gods themselves if need be.

‘Ourvictory,’ I whispered.

He let out a guttural breath. ‘Our victory.’