Page 13

Chapter Thirteen

Annora

Curse, Aleksander.

He’s such an obnoxious bastard.

The moon hangs high in the night sky as I step through the front door of the palace.

How can Asha betroth herself to someone like him? Especially after all the grief she gave me for falling in love with Jasce?

Now, she will marry Aleksander?

Inconceivable!

A sigh escapes me as I walk through the streets of Bakva, my veil fluttering in the wind.

Soon, I’ll see Jasce again. Then, he can help me forget the strong urge to shake Asha until she sees reason.

I sigh again and slip my hand into my cloak, brushing my fingers against the letter I wrote for Jasce. It was necessary, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

Torchlight guides me as I quicken my pace. A few vendors pack up their stalls for the night. A woman sweeps her doorstep, and a drunk sings a bawdy song in front of one of the alehouses.

They’re enough to distract me from the growing unease in my stomach. Still, at every corner, I pause, letting my eyes wander—admiring a flowering vine climbing a wall, the patterns of shadows cast by an iron gate—while I scan the darkness behind me.

Thankfully, nobody follows me.

The streets grow quieter as I move away from the bustling center, where the moonlight paints everything in silvery hues. I follow it to the stables and slip inside.

Jasce stands in a patch of moonlight streaming through the slats in the walls, one hand resting casually on a wooden beam. “Hello, beautiful.”

“Beautiful?” I lift my hand to my veil and pull it away.

“Yes.” He closes the distance between us and traces my scars with his fingertips. “You’re beautiful to me, Annora.”

“When did you know?” I ask, the question rising above the soft shuffle of horses in their stalls.

“Know what?”

“That you wanted me. The real me?”

His eyes lock with mine, holding me captive. “When I saw you playing with Will.”

My breath catches as the truth of his words settles over me. “That wasn’t very long after we first met.”

“I know.” Jasce’s tone changes, turning deeper, more tender. “You captivated me. The way you pulled your hands into your sleeves. The way you drew. The kindness you showed Will.”

Heat blooms in my chest as Jasce’s lips find mine again, and everything else fades away. The stable, the horses, the distant sounds of the city.

There is only Jasce. This man. This chieftain I love.

With him, I am not scarred or broken. I am simply a woman. His woman.

The thought fills me with a sense of rightness, of inevitability. As if every path, every choice, every twist and turn of my life had always led me here. To him.

His fingers tangle in my hair as he changes the angle of the kiss, deepening it. I moan, and his lips curve into a smile against mine. He likes that sound, likes knowing the effect he has on me.

His tongue sweeps into my mouth, and I meet him stroke for stroke as the kiss turns more urgent.

If only I could freeze this moment, capture it in amber and hold onto it forever.

Jasce’s hands slide down my back, gripping my thighs as he lifts me. My arms instinctively wrap around his neck as he carries me toward a bale of hay.

“From a palace to a stable,” I tease. “How far we’ve come.”

He laughs, the sound rumbling through his chest. “I’d fuck you anywhere, Annora. A palace, a stable, the middle of a desert.”

“Who says we’re fucking?” I ask with a grin.

He sits down on the hay with me on his lap. “We’re fucking.”

I shift until I’m straddling his lap. “Not unless you say please.”

He grips my hips and pulls me against him. “Are you trying to kill me, woman?”

“No. I just want to hear you beg,” I say, repeating the words he said to me a while ago.

“Is that what you want?” he asks, his voice low, sensual as he shifts me enough to yank up my gown.

My pulse throbs in my throat as I plant my hands against his shoulders. “Yes. Beg, Jasce.”

The heat of his breath tickles my ear as he leans close and speaks.

“I don’t have to. Not when I know you want me as desperately as I want you.

” Lightly, he trails his fingertips up my thighs, then brushes them against my undergarments, feeling the wetness—the evidence of my desire for him. “Tell me you missed me, Annora.”

“You know I did.” I rock against him, savoring his sharp intake of breath.

“Say it.”

“I missed you.” I lean forward and catch his bottom lip between my teeth, nipping at it. “Every day.”

His hands tighten on my waist. “Show me how much.”

Boldly, I grind down on him, feeling his hard cock beneath me. “Like this?”

“Fuck,” he breathes, one hand sliding up my back to tangle in my hair and tilt my head back. “You drive me crazy, you know that?”

“Good.” A smile tugs at my mouth as I roll my hips again. “That’s exactly what I want.”

With a sweep of his hand, he pushes my undergarments aside and touches me. “What else do you want?”

“You,” I say, the word breathy, desperate as he teases my clit.

“That’s it,” he says against my throat. “Let me hear you.”

I dig my fingers into his shoulders as he works me higher. “Please...”

“Please what?”

“I need...” The words dissolve into a moan as he increases his pace.

“Tell me what you need, Annora,” he commands. “Tell me, and it’s yours.”

I arch into his touch, craving more. “I need you inside me.”

He makes a rough sound in the back of his throat as he yanks at my clothes, pulling them off.

I’m just as frantic, tugging his surcoat over his head and running my hands over the hard planes of his chest.

This is what I’ve been missing. This connection. This intimacy. And now he’s here—solid and real beneath my hands.

I press a kiss to his chest, right over his heart. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” He kisses me again, claiming me with every slide of his lips, every stroke of his tongue.

The stables fade away until there’s nothing but the way we move together, the sounds of our ragged breathing, the scorching heat building between us.

His hands skim over my body—down my sides, over my breasts, across my stomach. I rock against him, seeking more friction, more pleasure, more of this delicious ache building in my core.

He groans and digs into my hips as he pulls me harder against him, but it’s not enough. I want him inside me, want to feel him stretching and filling me.

As if understanding what I need, he shifts and sheathes himself inside me. I cry out as my body stretches to accommodate him.

The gods help me!

I’ve missed this.

Missed him.

My fingers tangle in his hair as I pull his mouth to mine. I want to drown in him, in the feel of his lips against mine, his hands sliding down my body.

His hands move exactly where I need them, stoking the fire inside me until my blood pounds and my heart races.

I tilt my hips, seeking a different angle, something to push me closer to the edge. Jasce groans as he changes position, thrusting even deeper.

“Yes,” I gasp. “There...”

“You feel so good, Annora.” His lips find my neck, kissing and biting his way up to my ear. “Tight and wet and perfect.”

A moan rips from my throat as I dig my fingers into his back. “I need...”

“What do you need?” He pulls back enough to stare at me. “What do you want, love?”

“You,” I say, my voice shaking with need. “All of you.”

He lowers me onto my back and pulls my legs over his shoulders, giving him even deeper access. I move with him as my breath comes in short, staccato gasps.

“You’re so beautiful like this,” he says, reaching down to tangle his fingers with mine. “So fucking beautiful.”

I bite my lip against a cry as he pushes me higher, teetering on the edge of pleasure so intense it’s painful. Then, he strokes a thumb over my clit, and I shatter. My body convulses as wave after wave of pleasure rip through me.

He follows me, spilling into me with a hoarse cry. And for a moment, we stay like that—joined, breathless, our hearts racing.

This was everything I have longed for. Everything I needed. Everything I never thought I would find.

But I did, with this man who is supposed to be my enemy.

The entire world could try to drive us apart, and we would still find our way back into each other’s arms.

Moonlight filters through the wooden slats in the stables, painting silver stripes across Jasce’s sleeping face. His arms cradle me against his chest, and our legs tangle beneath his cloak.

For one perfect moment, I let myself pretend that this is our normal. That I’ll wake up in his arms every morning for the rest of our lives.

Then, reality returns. Our reality.

I have no choice but to walk away and return to the fortress.

Sadness wrenches at my chest as I trace his jaw, memorizing the stubble beneath my fingertips, the curve of his lips, the fan of his dark lashes against his cheeks.

I love you.

I love you so much.

The sadness deepens as I slip away and pull on my clothes. It’s better this way, walking away, leaving him when he’s sleeping. I’d never be able to leave if he were awake.

With shaky hands, I pull the letter out of my cloak and tuck it against his side. He doesn’t stir, doesn’t try to stop me as I back away.

Tears blur my vision as I reach the stable door. My hand trembles against the rough wood as every part of me yearns to run back to him and curl into his warmth.

But I can’t.

A sob catches in my throat, and I hold my hand to my mouth, muffling the sound.

I’m so sorry, my love.

But I have to do this.

For Emerin.

For our people.

For you.