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“Thank you,” she whispered and lifted her face to look up. Light from the hallway crept in through the gaps around the door, illuminating her features just enough so I knew she could just barely see me, but I could see the look in her eyes perfectly well.

I held my breath.

The desire to kiss her burned through my veins despite the cold, but we were in a strange place, stuck with only one bed. She had nowhere else to go. She deserved to have one choice that was entirely her own, I reminded myself, over and over and?—

And then her lips met mine.

I broke.

We fell into a tangle of exploring hands and tongues. I was desperate to be close to her in every way. Days spent watching her, scenting her, needing her had rendered me powerless to resist once she crossed that line.

I trailed my fingers over her delicate night robe, skimming across her beaded nipple. She gasped between strokes of her tongue against mine, dragging her fingers down the planes of my chest. Her leg hitched over mine, and I grasped her thigh, sliding my hand higher until it rounded the curve of her incredible are.

I choked back my surprise to find smooth, bare skin, and nothing else beneath her robe.

“Everything else was damp,” she breathed in answer to my unasked question.

I caressed her arse as she ground into me, pushing her own hands past the back of my undergarments, and kneading the firm curves there. I groaned, losing all hope of making this an innocent kiss and cuddle.

I slid my fingers around to her heat and hesitated.

She deserved to have one choice that was entirely her own…

She rolled her hips. “Please,” she whispered against my lips.

I couldn’t deny myself anymore.

My fingers dipped into her wetness, but I wouldn’t linger there. I wanted her to know pleasure before she tasted the moment of pain that would make her irrevocably mine…and that would not be today in this tiny cold room.

I circled the sensitive place at her apex, and she moaned, her hips moving to match the slide of my slick fingers. She was so responsive, and her pleasure so close to the surface, I drew it out with only the lightest of touches. She built quickly, the sounds she made something I’d never forget if I lived a thousand years.

I was rock hard, and every churn of her hips skimmed the fabric of my undergarments. Just that light brush was about to be my undoing. Power tingled at my fingertips, and as I succumbed to the sensation, coming undone, I sent the softest of pulses to the bundle of nerves at the center of her pleasure, sending her into waves of convulsing ecstasy.

FORTY-FIVE

NYX

Iremembered the location of the village. The day I rescued Zaria was seared into my brain, but even though I knew what had taken place, I was still expecting a village, not a scorched patch of earth. I didn’t want to go in, but I knew there’d be no convincing Zaria not to take the risk.

Reluctantly, and against my better judgment, I flew back to where I’d left Zaria with the horses and landed. She was jogging to me as I shifted back.

“Well?”

I shook my head, taking the clothes she handed me. “It’s destroyed, Sol. No sign of life.”

“So, we can go?” she said pointedly.

That had been the deal. I would fly over, and if there was any hint of life, we would regroup and make a plan. But if there was no life, we’d go in, and she would do what she could for her family’s remains.

Now, I regretted that deal. I would do anything not to let her go in there. But I’d promised, and I wouldn’t break her trust in me now, so I nodded.

We mounted the horses and made our way along a dried-up stream bed in silence. Soon, the remains of the village came into sight, and she gasped, breaking down even further as we neared.

I rode beside her and reached for her hand. Offering the only comfort I could give.

When we reached the gates, we dismounted and tied the horses, and I held her for a moment until she coughed.

My eyes watered, and I coughed, too. The essence of the burned Dragon’s Bane must have been infused into every surface.