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“What a tragedy it would have been,” he said, fisting the fabric of my shirt and gently pulling it downward, partially exposing my chest, “to never witness this perfection again.” He pressed his face into the valley between my breasts, dragging a trail of kisses through it, then upward over my throat. My head tipped back, granting him better access, my elbows balancing on the wide arm of the chair.

“And we are not a tragedy,” I whispered, recalling his words from the balcony a few nights ago.

“Exactly,” he replied, shifting a hand under my back, holding me steady so he could kiss me more passionately, more fully.

His mouth eventually settled against the hollow of my throat, tongue flicking against that sensitive spot. I moaned softly, and a shiver went through his entire body in response.

“Gods, that sound,” he breathed, the words hot against my skin.

“Something else you thought of to save you from the dark?”

“Yes,” he said, with a rough little laugh. “Though, it’s dragging me back toward madness at the moment.”

I lifted my head, fluttering my lashes at him. “Both your salvation and damnation, rolled into one?”

He smiled, trailing his fingers over the warm spot his mouth had left on my throat. “We’ve been a contradiction from the start, haven’t we?”

Light followed his touch, coaxing my own magic to the surface. I didn’t resist its rise, relaxing against him and letting my shadows out to play, watching as the light and dark wove around one another.

Slowly, we began to mirror their intimate waltz: bodies pressing closer; limbs tangling tighter; hands clasping together and fingers intertwining until there was no beginning or end—only the single, magical force ofus.

He brushed the back of his hand across my cheek, then into my hair, gently weaving his fingers in among the waves. As they tangled deeper, he tilted his face closer, letting his lips hover just above mine. The brush of them brought a shock of warm power with it, as if he were somehow directing all of his magic to this single point where we collided.

Again and again, we collided, each kiss growing firmer, hungrier. His teeth nipped at my bottom lip, adding to the bite of electricity already tingling through me. Another soft moan escaped me, a breathless whisper of need spilling directly into his mouth. His fist tightened in my hair, and his entire being coiled with the same motion—an attempt at restraint. At focus.

“Tell me to stop if you want me to stop,” he said, drawing back far enough to meet my gaze. “We can keep discussing our battle plans, if you’d rather.”

It did seem foolish, with the world falling down around us, to be thinking of anything other than those plans.

Or, maybe it wasn’t.

Maybe it wasexactlywhat we needed to do. To rebel. To refuse to let Lorien dominate our every thought and feeling. He had taken so much from me already. He was threatening to take so much more.

But he wouldn’t take this.

He wouldn’t takeus.

“Don’t stop,” I said. “I don’t want to think about all the possible ruin awaiting us. I don’t want to think about anything else at all.”

Aleks shifted me from his lap to the chair and stood, watching me for a moment with a mischievous little smile on his lips. In the glow of our still drifting, dancing magic, he looked…otherworldly. Like something from a dream I never wanted to wake up from.

He shrugged out of his shirt and tossed it aside. Then he reached for my hand, pulling me to my feet as well, drawing me in so close our noses touched. His fingers traced my mouth, parting it. His tongue swept over his lips, and I trembled, desperate for it to caress mylips next.

“Please…” I whispered. “Pleasedon’t stop.”

“Oh, Chaos.” He spun me around, pulling me flush against his bare chest. His fingers snaked along my throat and then higher, gripping my jaw, tilting my face so his mouth brushed my ear as he said, “The pleading is unnecessary. Because it will be a privilege to fuck you into a state of oblivion.”

Chapter Forty-Five

Nova

My entire bodycaught fire at his words.

I was burning and breathless beneath his touch as he lifted my shirt over my head and threw it to the floor, as he undid the supportive bindings underneath and his lips moved across my shoulders, along the back of my neck, across the shell of my ear.

Once my breasts were bared, he cupped them, his possessive grip drawing me even more tightly against his chest. I felt his arousal, hard and throbbing, against my lower back. Without thinking, I lifted up and down on my toes, shamelessly trying to ride his length.

His hands roamed over my naked stomach, eventually settling on my hips, helping me rise and fall against him. It felt sinfully good, even with too many clothes still separating us.