Page 28

AREK

T his kind of happiness was never supposed to be for me.

Kyrie smiling, in my lap, listening and laughing to my stories seems like both the most impossible of situations and the best I could imagine.

Everything about her entrances me, from her smooth freckled skin and the luscious curves of her body to the way she tilts her head and laughs and the light dancing in her green eyes.

She lets me feed her, too.

I won’t ever tire of watching every change in her incredibly expressive face as she samples everything my people have prepared for our mating feast.

By the time the hour I asked of her is up, I’m dizzy with the headiness of her skin against mine, the smell of her hair, the soft flesh of her ass against my leg.

I want this night to never end.

And I want to take her back our rooms, tear that dress from her body, and worship her the way she deserves.

Silence falls between us, neither one of us paying any attention to the musicians just below us or everyone celebrating.

“The hour has passed,” she finally says, gaze tracking the slow movement of the moon in the sky, the same as I have.

“Do you grow tired?” I ask, watching her carefully.

I know she’s attracted to me. The scent of her arousal’s perfumed the air since the moment I pulled her onto my lap.

If she says no, I know I have more work to do when it comes to her.

“Tired?” she repeats, scanning the crowd.

Caedia’s on the edge of the crowd with Dario, and it looks as though the two are having some kind of quarrel.

A loud laugh on the dance floor catches our attention, where Morrow’s leading Lara through the current reel.

“I’m not ready to sleep…” she answers slowly, her head turning to look up at me. A wicked grin pulls her mouth up. “But I could be ready for bed.”

“Fuck,” I say roughly.

She makes an adorable squeak as I pull us both to our feet, my cock like steel in my pants. I start to lift her up, and she swats at my arm.

“Don’t you dare try to carry me like you did earlier?—”

A laugh screams out of her as I toss her over one shoulder, raising a fist in victory. The revelers look up, bursting into a cheer.

Kyrie laughs louder, thumping my back and kicking her feet.

“Sword, I swear, you big idiot, put me down. I can walk.”

“I don’t think so,” I tell her, rubbing her delicious ass and giving it a light spank. “I’d rather you saved your energy for other activities tonight.”

With that, I take off at a run for the castle, letting my people think whatever they will about the two of us.

I know how I feel for my Kyrie, and no one’s opinion about us matters to me but hers.

And the sound of her laughter as I sprint back to our rooms means more to me than anything else has in a long time.

Emotions clog my throat as I lay her carefully down on my bed—our bed—her eyes sparking with that barely banked fire.

That’s the look, the look that drew me to her from the first moment she broke into my prison cell, all sass and cockiness.

“Arek,” she says, my name a plea from her lips.

The mate bond stretches taut between us, our mutual need pulling us together.

“I love you, Kyrie,” I tell her, desperate that she know it, that she feel that same bone-deep aching need I feel for her. “I wish I could change our past.”

I shake my head, words failing, running my calloused fingertips down the smooth flesh of her perfect face.

She licks her lips, drawing my attention to her mouth.

“All I can do is promise you a better future, my heart.”

“Kiss me,” she says, the demand breathless and raw.

It’s not what I wanted her to say.

But I would be a fool to deny her.

The bed creaks as I press a knee to it, straddling her legs and leaning down to capture her mouth with mine.

She tastes of autumn, an inexplicable crispness that speaks of bonfire nights and the rich colors of harvest.

I can’t get enough.

I will never have enough of her to slake my need.

Still, I don’t want to rush. Not this time. Not when what we’ve had the last weeks has been anything but gentle, a forceful meeting of both of our needs.

Her mouth parts, allowing my tongue entry, and I groan, hitching her leg higher, my control already razor-thin.

When the heat of her sweet cunt meets my hardness, it takes everything in me not to rip her dress from her body.

I want to show her how I feel.

My control is more important than ever.

So I ignore the persistent tug of the mate bond, leaning into her neck, inhaling the scent of her skin and desire.

“Kyrie,” I whisper. “You’ve unraveled me. You hold my whole soul in your hands.”

“Arek.” Her voice breaks on my name.

I nip at her ear, her neck, and she shivers as I run my hands down her body.

“I need you,” she says, rocking against me, her eyes wide, skin beautifully flushed.

“I’m going to take my time with you tonight, my love, my heart.” I don’t know how to tell her how important it is to me that she sees how I can care for her, that she sees how she gentles me, how she is the balance I’ve searched for for so fucking long.

The words won’t come, and a soft sigh flutters from her as I kiss my way down her neck, sucking gently on her collarbone as she arches against me.

Her nipples are hard enough that I feel the tips of them through both our clothes, and it makes me wild with lust.

I clamp down on it. I refuse to take—I refuse to be driven by the mate bond alone.

What Kyrie and I have is more than just lust.

What we have is everything .

I slip my hand behind her shoulders, slowly working the buttons of her dress free, watching expressions flicker across her face.

Desire, pleasure, and a softness I don’t have a name for as her eyes open, holding my gaze.

“Arek,” she says, and it’s heartbreakingly tentative. “I’m afraid.”

“I have you,” I tell her. “I promise, Kyrie, no more secrets. Nothing but you and me, two mates.”

“I know,” she says, her hand cupping my face. A tear leaks from her eye, and I growl at it, half-feral at the idea of my mate crying in my arms.

Half-mad with the knowledge it’s me that’s driven her to it.

I lean forward, kissing the tear, tasting salt on my tongue as I kiss her other cheek, the tip of her adorable nose, those rosebud lips.

“I’m sorry,” she says, sniffling.

“Don’t apologize,” I tell her. “I will take your tears, your smiles, your truths and your lies, because they are all you, Kyrie. I will take everything you have, everything you are, because I love every last part of you. And it will haunt me for the rest of my life to know that I’m the one that put this tear on your skin, on this, the night of our mating celebration.”

My gaze darts between her eyes, waiting for her command.

She may not know it, but she’s wound me around those strong, slim fingers tighter than I ever thought possible.

“I forgive you,” she says, so quiet it’s barely audible.

My eyes close, a shudder working up through the base of my spine.

“I forgive you, Arek, but I can’t just forget.”

I force my eyes open, and hers are brimming with tears.

“Don’t cry, my love.”

She sniffles, then laughs at herself as she brushes one tear away with the back of her hand.

“Let me,” I say, capturing her wrist, licking the tear from her skin. “I want all of you.”

She moans at the contact.

At the sound, I’m immediately hard, my cock straining at my pants.

“I love you too, Arek,” she tells me, those deep green eyes holding me in place, leaving me breathless. “I want you.”

That’s what I needed. I needed those words from her.

She forgives me.

She loves me.

And I’ll spend the rest of our fucking lives giving her everything.

Starting right now, in this moment.

Kyrie sits up, and I tug the dress from her shoulders. Her breath comes faster and faster, and I stare down at her as she lifts her hips, letting me pull the garment the rest of the way off.

“You are so fucking beautiful,” I rasp.

Her nipples harden further as I watch, goosebumps marring the silk of her skin. I love that too, the physical proof of her reaction to my hot gaze.

Those hands I’ve been thoroughly wrapped around reach for me, and I would be a fucking fool not to let her pull me back down.

I kiss her slowly, languidly, like we have all the time in the world. Like there is nothing outside these walls that might threaten our happiness.

I shove the thought from my mind, soaking in the feel of her skin, her lithe curves and hot tongue.

“You are everything I’ve ever wanted,” I tell her, and her clever hands tug at the hem of my shirt, her breath rapid.

I drag my gaze to her breasts as her chest rises and falls, then dip my mouth to her nipple.

She cries out as I suck at it, nibbling at one as I roll the other between my thumb and forefinger.

“I want this off,” she manages as I pull away, and I grin, helping her pull my shirt off the rest of the way.

Pouting, she yanks on my trousers, and I chuckle and raise a brow. “Greedy for me.”

My hands go to her waist, and I gently slide her up the bed, kicking off my pants as I crawl over her body.

I stiffen as her hand wraps around my cock, my molars grinding together as she strokes my length.

“As if you’re not as greedy,” she says with a feral grin.

“Woman, I will never not be greedy for you.”

Before I can return my attention to her breasts, she slips beneath me while I’m distracted by her hands.

When the wet warmth of her mouth closes over the tip of my cock, I let out a roar, my neck cording with tension as I try to hold back from spilling too soon.

I sink back onto my heels, pressure building in my balls as she takes me deep in her throat.

Her fingers go to my balls, and I nearly lose it as she strokes them.

“Fuck,” I snarl.

She doesn’t stop, though, shuttling my cock in and out of her mouth. Her bare body stretches before me, and I gather her fire-red hair in one hand as she works my hard length.

“So fucking good, such a good mate.” The words don’t even sound human. “I need you, Kyrie.”

Her green eyes watch me, crinkling at the corners as she smiles.

“Fuck,” I say again, my hips jerking, the need to move nearly eclipsing everything else, all my good intentions erased in the heat of her mouth.

She laughs, the sound tickling against my too-sensitive cock, and then her mouth pops off my cock, squealing as I grab her and flip her on top of me. I roll us both so that she’s positioned just where I want her.

Exactly where she belongs.

Her pussy glistens with the proof of her arousal above me, and I grip her hips, dragging her down over my mouth.

My name is a scream on her lips, and she grinds against me, riding my face as I lavish attention where she needs me most.

The taste of her pleasure is an addiction I never want to be free of, and I push two fingers into her as I lap at her, loving the way her walls squeeze around them with need.

My hips buck as her hand finds my cock again, and she gives the base an expert squeeze, her breasts pressing against my stomach.

I snarl into her cunt as she manages to lick the tip of it, the wicked sensation chased by the soft huff of her laughter.

It’s that sound, the sound of her amusement at my reaction to her, that makes me lose control.

“Need you,” I grind out, and then I’m moving us again, until she’s on all fours in front of me.

I line up the tip of my cock with her dripping entrance, and we both groan as I slide into her tight channel.

Her legs shake as I slowly, carefully rock deeper into her.

This position is primal, and I wrap an arm around her waist, wanting her closer still, needing her body against mine.

“Arek,” she moans, babbling a stream of nonsense encouragement as I dip my hand between her legs, rubbing a slow circle around her clit as I grip her tight.

I tease her like that for as long as I can stand it, my arm an iron clamp around her waist, holding her up as I thrust in and out of her in a steady rhythm—until she shatters with a scream.

“Such a good mate,” I growl. “Coming so good around my cock.”

She’s shaking all over, limp and well-pleased, and my control slips, then fades entirely as my hips lose all rhythm, turning erratic as pleasure swells at the base of my cock.

When Kyrie reaches up, looping an arm around my neck, using the other to press against her clit again, murmuring my name, I come hard, filling my mate with a long, last thrust.

Kyrie’s panting, and I pull her tight against my chest, refusing to let her go, refusing to let her pull away from me.

I hold her like that until her body softens, this time with sleep.

I want to hold her like this for the rest of our lives.