Page 36 of Golden Queen (Idrigard #1)

He seemed to finally see whatever it was he was looking for as he released a breath.

His shoulders relaxed as he leaned his forehead against mine. "I thought I burned you," he admitted. He closed his eyes and released another long breath.

"You didn't," I assured him, laying my hand against his cheek and raising my lips to his.

He kissed me lightly, letting his lips glide over mine, and then he wrapped his arms around me and rolled, bringing me up onto his chest, our bodies still joined.

He put his arms around me as I lay against his solid, warmth. I heard his heartbeat, racing as much as mine, I realized with a small bit of satisfaction.

My eyes started to drift closed, but then I noticed a slight burning smell, and my gaze shot to the bed beside him. A charred, fisted handprint lay against the pristine white sheet. A tendril of barely visible smoke wafted up from the fabric.

I pushed myself up to see the corresponding handprint on the other side. The light I saw had been fire—not just his magic, I realized with amazement. His words began to make sense.

I looked up at him, and he smiled, almost apologetically. "You burned the bed," I said with an incredulous smile.

"I thought I burned you," he said, shaking his head. "I don't normally lose control of myself like that. At least not since I was a teenager," he added, with a wry grin.

I couldn't help the look of satisfaction that crossed my features.

He arched a brow. "You like that, do you?" he asked.

"Maybe," I told him coyly.

His face grew more serious. "I don't care to admit it scared the hell out of me. I didn't think I'd gotten my hand away in time, especially once I smelled the burning sheets."

I looked at him curiously. "You didn't get your hand away. I felt it. It was..." I closed my eyes, remembering the warmth and wishing I could recapture how it had felt. I opened my eyes again to see his face had gone to puzzlement. "It was wonderful," I told him, simply.

"That's not possible," he said, sitting up and pulling my legs around him so that I was straddling him. "What exactly did you feel?"

I laid my hands on his chest, my body responding to the feeling of him still inside me, even as the rigidness had begun to bleed away.

"It felt warm," I said. "And peaceful—like laying in the sunshine on a sunny day.

Like the sun seeped into my mind and pushed away every shadow that ever existed in there.

I think...I think it's still there, because I don't think I have ever felt so at ease in my entire life.

" I felt almost immediate embarrassment at the admission, especially as I saw him staring at me as though I had grown horns and a tail while he watched.

"That's simply not...possible," he said again.

He held his hand between us, palm up, and I saw a tiny golden flame flicker to life. It was different than the other flames he had shown me—much more beautiful.

I reached out to touch it. I knew it wouldn’t hurt me, but he grabbed my wrist and stopped me.

"Slowly," he chided.

I moved carefully, at first, but then, when he didn't expect it, I laid my hand fully in his, watching the little golden fire curl up around my fingers. I had already felt it. I knew it wouldn't hurt me.

He made a surprised huff, and then warmth, sweet and delicious, seeped into my skin as he allowed the flames to flare from his palm, entwining around our hands. He curled his fingers around mine, and I could have sworn he breathed a sigh of pure relief.

I leaned forward to kiss him, but he quickly pushed my hair back before it came close to the flames.

I looked at our hands curiously, and then grasped a small lock of my hair and tentatively held it to the fire. His hands had been in my hair after all, so I was certain it wouldn’t burn it.

Just as expected, nothing happened. The golden fire did not so much as part around my hair as I let it fall forward over the fire.

He laughed again, and it was one of both surprise and delight.

When he kissed me again, it felt somehow different, not a kiss born of desire, but something much more intimate. Something that even my reckless heart warned me to be careful of.

He pulled back and turned to lay me on the bed before reluctantly pulling out of me.

The emptiness, as I had grown so quickly accustomed to the feeling of him inside me, left me feeling somehow hollow, even as I felt the slight soreness left from his presence there.

But then he laid his body down next to me and pulled me against him, sliding one arm beneath my head and the other around my waist. The feeling of his skin against mine went a long way towards filling that emptiness inside me.

He pulled the covers over us, resting his chin on the top of my head, and in what felt like only moments, I heard his deep, even breaths as he slept.

I did not want to leave. I might never be able to leave the warmth of his bed and the feel of his skin against mine. I didn't give a damn if the whole of Albiyn came into the room and found me, I would not have given up the feeling of that big arm around my waist for anything.

I fell asleep with our arms and legs intertwined, and I did not wake up until I heard a throat clear somewhere beside me.