Page 64

He was already gone. Horrid panic cracked my throat. Ridiculous, but his swift abandonment ached like a jagged piece of glass ripped through my chest. He . . . he took all of me and simply left?

I leveraged into sitting and hugged my knees to my chest. I couldn’t even think vicious thoughts about him, the ache was too cruel.

When the first tear fell, a sort of growl came behind me.

Silas stood in the doorway with a clay bowl and white linen. “I knew I hurt you.”

I wiped the tear away, letting out a delirious kind of laugh. “No, I-I-I thought you just left me.”

“Leave you?” Silas pinched his lips and knelt beside me, setting the bowl filled with water on the rug. “No, I . . . I figured—assumed—it’s my duty to care for you since I hurt you.”

Gods. This wasit. This was the sort of devotion, attention, and compassion that had all my damn queens falling head over feet for their kings.

Naturally, Silas wouldn’t be accustomed to explaining his actions to anyone. He’d been alone, a trapped observer of the world outside.

Time, that was all we needed. We were together now, both of us content to stay holed away in our own spaces. Perhaps, together we could learn each other until we knew every flinch. We’d come to know every grin. Until I never questioned his quick departure after his length was pulled out of my body.

Soon enough, I’d come to know it meant he’d return with something to worship me even more.

He dipped the linen in the water, then scooted between my legs. “May I?”

My teeth dug into my bottom lip. I nodded. Silas lowered to one elbow, sprawled out onto his side, and cared for me gently. I could not recall a time I’d been so exposed, yet been so safe, so valued.

When he’d cleaned my skin, he pressed a kiss to the inside of my thigh, close to my center. I drew in a sharp gasp and a groan at once. He chuckled and rolled onto his stomach. “Do you like that?”

Like that? His lips . . . so close to the most sensitive places on my body was a new, delirious need I didn’t anticipate. All I could manage was a crooked nod as I slid my palms down my body, over my breasts, my belly. Silas watched, a heated shadow in his eyes, until my palms reached my own thighs.

I held my breath and pushed my legs open, wide enough his broad shoulders fit between me, wide enough the cool air brushed against my slickened center.

“Bleeding hells,” he cursed under his breath. Silas dragged his lips over one thigh again, his rough palms sliding up my bare skin. “Are you hurting at all?”

I shook my head briskly. Not entirely true. There was a delicious rawness to the flesh between my legs, but I loved it. Embraced it. The sting was a mark he’d been there and fitted my body to his. The way it was always meant to be.

“Are you certain?” he whispered, his breath caressed the folds of my slit.

I whimpered and dug my fingers through his hair. All I could choke out was, “A little.”

“Hmm.” Silas dipped his head. Gods, his nose ran along my arousal. “Then, I ought to keep my hands off.”

“I hate that decision.”

He chuckled. “But my mouth can be gentle. I’ve always been curious about this.”

I lost my breath when his lips kissed my entrance. Next, his tongue swiped out and licked me from one end to the other. Unbidden, my body arched into his lips. This sort of thing had never been a thought. I felt a bit naïve, but I didn’t think much more than bodies slapping together could be done.

Silas seemed uncertain on the first lick, too, but as if the taste of my flesh on his tongue fueled him, he gripped my thighs, pulling me closer.

“Gods,” he said on a breath. “We should begin and end this way every damn time.”

I wanted to laugh. We both were exploring together, and no mistake, we sounded like fools at each sensual discovery, but I couldn’t move. His tongue claimed me, deep and thorough. The scrape of his teeth sent shivers up my spine, but when he sucked against the tender apex of my core, I shattered like glass bursting into dust.

“Silas.” His name slid out in a long, drawn moan, a damn near sob.

I writhed and gripped his hair, seeking for something steady as I rocked against his face. How he could breathe, I didn’t know, but the way Silas kept devouring me through the wave, I didn’t think he was in terrible distress.

My body jolted as the swell of heat faded. My arms flopped to my sides, my legs went limp. Every piece of my body was spent.

Silas sat back on his heels, grinning. Slowly, he crept over me, then pressed a gentle kiss to my lips.