Page 38 of Firebird (The Fire That Binds #1)
XXXVII
JULIAN
She’d been sleeping for hours. I’d tended the cut Ciprian had made high at the base of her spine. He hadn’t cut deep. Just deep enough to hurt and torment her.
I sighed with contentment yet again that he was dead by my hand and pulled Malina tighter into my arms. It was near morning, but I refused to wake her. We were safe here, far from Rome, in one of Trajan’s many homes to the north.
We still had a long way to go across water to reach what would be our new home for a while. I’d have to send word to Trajan through his grandfather in Vulsinii to be sure all was safe for him.
If I knew anything about Trajan, he’d have slain that praetorian who fled my home last night. But I wasn’t sure if he’d been seen and then had to go into hiding himself. I knew that Trajan would find a way to get Ruskus and the others to safety, to his secret property where he knew I’d take Malina.
I’d certainly ruined our plot to kill my uncle. But by my soul, we’d find another way.
My uncle had had my mother and father killed, and the rest of the house as well so there would be no witnesses. Kara had only survived because she had been delivering the babe of another patrician. How had I never come to the conclusion that he’d killed my family?
Once, in the beginning of my uncle’s reign, I had suspected. But then my uncle showered me with what I knew now was false sympathy and another promotion in his army. He was on the rise, and I was foolish enough to be proud of my relation to him. However, that was short-lived. His laws and decrees took root, and I’d wrestled with my conflicting emotions until I decided my uncle must be killed. But I still hadn’t imagined that he’d killed his own brother.
Perhaps it was because Igniculus had never shown any animosity toward my father, only a mild disappointment at his choices in life. My uncle only seemed to strike when his temper ran hot. But he was clever around me. Whatever hatred he held for my father, he never showed it to me.
That was because he would’ve lost my favor.
“You never had it,” I whispered to the open window where the temperate night and cool, salty breeze wafted in.
“Who never had what?”
I rolled to my side so I could look at her. Her eyes were drowsy, her smile tender.
“How do you feel?” I asked .
“Wonderful.” She stretched her naked body, wrapping an arm around my waist.
“Did he hurt you… other than here”—I slid my fingertips beneath her cheek where it was swollen and red—“and the cut here?” I then grazed my hand up her bare spine just beneath the cut on her back.
“No.” She continued to smile.
“Why are you so happy? I allowed you to be taken away and harmed.”
She lay back onto the pillow and laughed. “Silly man.” She trailed a hand down my bare chest. “I am alive. I am with you. We are free.” She glanced around and frowned. “Where are we, by the way?”
“In one of Trajan’s homes. In Pisae.” I glanced around. “It is one of his smaller ones. No one lives here regularly so I knew this would be safe for a night.”
She inhaled deep. “I smell the ocean.”
“Yes. The Tyrrhenian Sea. Sapphirus dragons love the water.”
Malina practically leaped out of bed and hurried to the window. Then she looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Come look, Julian. It’s beautiful.”
“That it is,” I agreed as I went to her.
Gods, she was divine. The moon gilded her in silvery light, the ocean breeze streaming through her dark, wavy hair. I wrapped my arms around her waist and nuzzled my face into her hair.
“You smell so good.”
She laughed, then we grew quiet, staring out the window and down at the sea, waves glittering like glass. For a few moments, we said nothing at all, completely content in holding one another.
Then she pressed her head back against my sternum and I kissed her crown.
“So what happens now?” she asked, her arms crossed over mine at her waist .
“In a few hours, at dawn, we gather some provisions and leave for Britannia.”
“Britannia?!”
“Yes. That’s where Trajan has a home no one knows about.”
“What about Stefanos, Ivo, and the others?”
“Trajan will get them there, if he can. Or he’ll hide them somewhere safe.”
“So we’ll all be safe,” she said contentedly.
“We will.”
“Then what? What about everyone else?” Her concern was as much my own.
“We’ll wait until my betrayal has died down, and we form a new plan.”
“Died down?” she scoffed, trailing her hands over my chest. “You burned half of Palatine Hill.”
“Not half,” I argued. “A quarter, maybe.”
Her smile returned as she arched a brow. “You were beautiful.” She pressed a kiss to my sternum. “And fierce.” Then she kissed me again before lowering to her knees.
“Malina,” I warned. “You’re still injured.”
“I only need one thing to make me feel better.”
She gripped me around the base of my cock, already hard at the first press of her lips on my skin.
“You shouldn’t,” I whispered, as I combed her hair away from her face.
“I decide what’s best for me, and this is what I want.” Then she wrapped her sweet mouth around the tip of my cock and my knees buckled.
“Gods,” I muttered, bracing a hand on the window frame, my other scooping beneath her hair to her neck.
She sucked me deep, loosening her jaw so I could slide even farther down her throat. I groaned as I fucked her mouth slowly, gra zing my thumb to the edge of her mouth so I could feel where I slid inside her.
“Touch yourself,” I commanded.
She did, her eyes rolling as she bobbed her head, her hand still gripping the base of my cock. Her other hand was busy between her legs, making slick sounds with her arousal.
“I can’t.” I slid my cock from her mouth on a moan. “I need to be inside you.”
As I hauled her up, she turned and braced her hands on the windowsill, smiling over her shoulder. “Nice and slow.”
“As you wish, firebird.”
Gripping her hips, I sank inside her slowly. She exhaled a whimper and arched her back, thrusting her backside up.
“Yes,” I groaned as I seated myself deep and ground inside her.
But I needed to feel more of her. I bent over her, bracing my hand on the sill next to hers, and slid my other hand between her legs into the slick she’d made.
“Love how wet you get for me,” I whispered into her ear as I pumped nice and slow the way she wanted, the way she’d commanded.
“Always,” she whispered breathily, grinding back against me as I gently pumped inside her. “I need you, Julian.” Her whispered words were desperate and fearful.
“I’m here, my love.” I removed my hand from between her legs and wrapped her waist tight so that her back was pressed entirely to my front. “Don’t you feel me, firebird?”
“Yes. I want to feel all of you.” She writhed back against me. “Forever, Julian.”
“Yes.” I fucked her faster, feeling her getting closer to climax. “Forever, love.”
“Gods!” she screamed out the window toward the ocean as her sex squeezed and pulsed around my cock.
I groaned, biting her shoulder gently and thrusting twice more before I came inside her. She continued to squirm beneath me, wringing every drop from me.
When she went limp in my arms, I slid out of her, then carried her to bed, not bothering to wipe away my seed. I wanted it all over her. I wished I could remain in this bed with her forever. But there was so much left to do.
She remained quiet, breathing heavily in my arms until I thought she was asleep. I’d let her doze until it was time to go.
But then she said, so softly I almost didn’t hear her, “The goddess Minerva was there tonight.”
I stroked my palm up and down her back, soothingly. “Indeed?”
“I asked her for something. And in exchange, I’d give up my magic.”
“But you still have it.” I felt her pull on me tonight louder than a waking scream. And it was still there now.
“I do.”
“What did you ask of her?”
“To vanquish all of our enemies.” She sat up and looked at me in earnest.
I cupped her face. “Then we still have work to do before she’ll take your magic from you.”
“Yes.” She smiled and laid her cheek to my chest. “We still do.” She curled her arm tighter around my waist. “I love you, Julian.”
“As I love you, firebird.” I pressed another kiss into her hair. “Now get some sleep before our journey.”