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Her lips parted but Rion pressed his forehead to hers. “Before you make any decisions, I need you to know that I’d give you anything, Arianna. No questions asked. If you want to go home, I’ll take you. If you want me to leave, I’ll go.” He took a shuddering breath. “If you want my life, it’s yours.”

“I want you to stay.”

His body trembled, but Rion’s hand laced through her hair, and he kissed her, breathless and unsure. His heart beat so wildly she thought it might stop.

“I just want to keep pretending this is real,” he whispered.

Arianna pulled back to meet his gaze. She wasn’t sure what she could do, where his limits were. When she raised her hand, his nostrils flared, and his heart rate accelerated. She bit back the tears threatening to choke her and used one finger to tenderly brush a strand of damp hair from his face.

He stilled. Frozen in time as she trailed that same finger down his cheek. Rion leaned into her palm, and she moved her thumb back and forth, trying to work the tension from his jaw.

“I will never hurt you,” she said.

Rion took her fingers lightly, pulled them away from his face, and placed a needful kiss to the inside of her wrist. “Just make it quick if you do.”

His eyes never left hers as he put her hand back against his cheek. His breath quickened again, that heart beating, beating, beating. Rion trailed her hand down his throat, over his chest, and stopped directly above his racing heart.

This was it, she realized. This was him risking everything. Because with her magic, she could end him right here. A simple shift and she could pull the liquid from that wildly beating heart and then the monster, The Demon of Alastríona, would be gone.

Arianna pulled at her magic and let it flow down her arm, into her fingertips, and over his skin. Rion sucked in a breath as if bracing himself, but he didn’t move, like a moth caught in a beautiful flame.

His chest heated beneath her palm and Arianna’s voice cracked. “More than anything, I wish I could heal the scars you carry in here.” He stared at her, his lips parting and eyes misting over, but before he could speak Arianna lifted her other hand and ran it through his thick auburn hair.

Rion’s body melted against hers. As if it was meant to. He trailed kisses along her jaw and back to her neck where his teeth lightly grazed her skin, right over the spot where another male had torn through flesh.

But Rion was gentle, the creature everyone feared treated her as though she were a delicate flower in early spring.

Rion’s hands moved down her back and beneath her shirt. He ran strong, calloused fingers up her spine, tracing each vertebra with a soft touch. Then he reached her scars and his entire body went rigid. His fingertips wandered down the first that stretched the length of her shoulder blade. A reminder not to drop her master’s cargo. He moved toward the second just below it. A small lashing when she’d tried to drink water without permission. Then over the third, which was the worst of them that ran vertical down her left side. She’d gotten that one by defending a young female. Along with the two on her lower back. The pain she’d suffered after that beating was torture she wouldn’t soon forget.

She could hear Rion’s ragged breath. Feel the tension in his body. Arianna wasn’t sure what was going through his mind, but she didn’t want this to stop.

Arianna pulled back and his gaze searched hers, but for what she didn’t know. Did he feel guilty? Angry? She glanced at his abdomen, at the long jagged scar. Arianna ran her fingers down it and his stomach flexed in response.

But it was the other scars she was interested in now. The four above it. There was a story there. Pain. She touched one, but Rion remained still.

“Scars remind us of the battles we’ve survived,” she said without looking at him.

He loosed a breath showering her in his scent. “Some battles are better forgotten.”

Her hand moved around his back, right over the two scars on the lower half. Who’d done such a thing? And were one of his scars the reason he’d sought solitude?

She kissed him, slow and deep and he returned her fervor, stepping toward the bed, guiding her, his tongue dancing with her own, devouring her as if he’d never get to do so again.

Her mind whirled. She’d never get enough of this. Never get enough of him.

Her knees bumped into the wooden frame, and he wrapped one arm around her body, lowering her into the furs. She ran her fingers through his damp hair, tugging lightly as his mouth continued to explore her own.

Hers. He was hers and only hers. Forever.

Rion laid his body on top of her own and she relished in the warmth. His hands dug into her hair, caressed her face. Rion ran his fingertips around the hem of her shirt and paused. He pulled away and met her gaze, seeking permission. Arianna nodded but blushed furiously when his eyes roamed over her half-naked form.

Arianna tried to cover herself, but Rion stopped her with a light touch and pressed a kiss to the corner of her jaw. “You’re beautiful.” His kisses trailed lower. “Absolutely beautiful.”

He explored her with his lips, tongue, and teeth and Arianna became lost in the sensations. More. She needed more.

“Arianna.” His voice was husky, deep, but she caught him in another kiss before he could speak. Rion whispered kisses down her neck, pausing at her ear. “What do you want?”

She caught herself then, reality dragging her away from the dream-like state she’d allowed herself to drown in.