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“Just like that,” he growled.

The collar of my tunic fell open, my shoulders and collarbones exposed and glowing orange in the light of the candles. He stared so intently that I knew I was the only thing in his world right now.Me. I pulled the fabric over my head and watched as he took me in.

His words were a whisper now. “Just like that.” His trousers began to strain as I slowly ran my fingers down my bare chest, teasing him, before I found my waistband. I could see the want on his face, feel it pulse through the air like it was alive as I rolled my trousers down my legs. Completely exposed to him, I stood and let him stare.

“There’s another problem,” he murmured. I blanched, once again wondering what could be wrong. “You’re not writhing under my tongue.”Fuck. Heat began to pulse wickedly between my legs. “My next dying wish,” he breathed, standing and pushing me to the pallet, “is to taste you again.”

Pulling me to where he kneeled on the floor, he pried my legs open. I gasped at the suddenness of it, but shyness got the better of me, and I tried to slam my knees together on instinct.

“Hide if you want to,” he whispered, trailing his mouth up the outside of my thigh. “I won’t push you. But you spread before me? I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in my fucking life.”

Shit. I let my knees drop open at his words, all apprehension melting from my body as his tongue made contact. He wanted me to writhe, and I had no choice but to obey. A moan escaped my mouth and the noise made him burrow deeper, move his tongue against me faster as his arms hooked around my thighs.

Every part of me was on fire, every nerve burning as his fingers began to tease me. He pulled away, staring me down while he closed his mouth around his finger and thumb, then ran them up my belly. They pinched around my nipple, and I couldn’t take it, couldn’t take the agonizing pleasure. I was coming apart beneath him, and still he worked me with his fingers and tongue, still he pushed me closer and closer.

“Cal, I–”

“Not yet,” he murmured, pulling away completely. “I want to savor this.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he shot up, working his clothes off slowly enough that it drove me mad. The contours of his body in the flickering candlelight were…

He leaned over me, but I put a hand up and threw his words back at him. “I want to savor this.” The air changed completely, from want to need. I stood, letting my hands run across his chest, his belly, his hips, letting his smoke and cedar scent cloud my senses. The tips of my fingers trailed up his tattooed arms, relishing the feeling. My eyes caught his, and the look on his face was nothing I’d ever seen before. It was denial and acceptance. It was grief and joy. It was love and longing and regret, and everything in between. It washope.

“I’m sorry, Petra,” he whispered, running the back of his fingers against my cheek.

The weight of the world upon my shoulders had grown far too great for me to carry. But there was one thing I could rid myself of, one thing I was ready to let go. One thing that I didn’t want to carry into battle tomorrow. For him. For me.

“I forgive you.”

He was completely still at first, eyes searching mine as if he were waiting for me to take it back. I didn’t. He realized that my words were real, that I’d actually spoken them, and his head tipped back, his throat working as I stood before him. When he looked down at me again, I couldn’t tell if it was the candlelight reflecting in his eyes, or if there were tears.

With his hands at my hips, he pulled me down over him. Outside the tent, the world prepared to fall apart around us. But in here, there was nothing but Cal and me, spending our last night on this earthliving.

The feeling of fullness was mind-numbing as he sheathed himself in me, gemstone eyes piercing straight through to my soul, looking at me like the sun rose and set with me. But he was holding something back. I could tell that there was something he was trying to control. But I clawed at him, pulled him closer, willing him to release what I knew he was holding onto.

I willed him to forgive himself.

The groan he let out ricocheted through my body as he moved within me. I watched his eyes change as he broke through that fragile control he’d cast over himself. I don’t know if he saw something in my stare as I ground against him, but he turned absolutely feral, nails digging into my hips. Marking me.Claiming me.

All at once he sprung forward, holding me to him as he flipped me to my back, his face wound up in a savage snarl. I was his and he was mine, and he made sure I felt that in every corner of my body. His hand wrapped around my wrists, pinning them over my head. He must have seen the shock in my face at the aggression behind the move, because his mouth turned up in a wicked smile.

I wrenched my wrists back, but he held steady. “Do I need to restrain you, my Queen?”

My eyes flew wide at his words. I could play this game. “I don’t know, do you?”

His eyes narrowed for a moment before he pulled back, reaching for the belt he’d strewn on the floor of the tent. His eyes didn’t leave mine as he bound my wrists above my head.

I was completely at his mercy, and my body knew it. I began to unravel as he hooked one of my legs over his shoulder and entered me again. Whatever look crossed my face made him move faster, harder, deeper. I felt his eyes watching me as I moved closer to climax, our heaving breaths falling in sync with each other. I had no control as my legs began to quiver, and a sinful smile returned to his face. “My last dying wish, Petra,” he breathed, fighting against his own rising pleasure to keep his voice even, “is to make you come.”

And once again, I obeyed.Saints, I obeyed him. The breath caught in my throat as release thundered through my body. He roared as he came with me, sounds ripping from his throat like a wild animal. He may have called my name so loud the whole encampment heard it, but I was so wrapped up in what he was doing to me that I wouldn’t have known or cared.

Stars swirled through my vision as though I was falling through the night sky as he collapsed beside me, pulling me to his chest, pressing his lips to my hair. For a moment we just breathed together, reveling in the afterglow.

I raised my wrists, still bound by his leather belt. “Care to release me?” I laughed.

“I’d rather not,” he teased, “but if you insist.” He loosened the belt and slid it from my wrists, his hands immediately moving over the red marks it left behind, his thumbs rubbing slowly back and forth. “We’ve lived and we’ve prayed,” he breathed. “Now what?”

“We could always live again,” I answered, looking up to see the smile I’d heard in his voice.