Page 79

His eyes were a soft gray. She wanted to run her fingers over his skin, through his hair, under his shirt.

She held her fists against her chest, but she couldn’t help herself.

She reached up and brushed the fine hairs that had fallen over his eyes.

She ran her fingers down his cheekbone, carving the path to his jaw.

“Why did you buy me, Toven?” she whispered against him.

His eyes flickered between hers. “I can’t answer that.”

She blinked at him, and though he was erecting a boundary, she didn’t feel him pulling away. It was as if he was inching closer, his eyes softening, his mind opening.

She feathered her fingers over his lips, and she moved forward.

Toven’s head shifted back, just slightly out of reach. His eyes closed, and his brows furrowed.

Briony ran her fingers over his chin. “Ah yes,” she whispered. “Your No Kissing Rule.”

His eyes fluttered open, and one eyebrow lifted. “I don’t have a No Kissing Rule.”

The corners of her mouth curved upward. She trailed her fingers down his throat, and he swallowed.

“A No Kissing Me Rule, then,” she teased.

His lips parted, and his tongue was quick to wet them.

“Exactly,” he breathed.

Her eyes flicked back up to his, and then he was kissing her.

Briony’s breath caught. He’d stolen it, locked it away inside his chest.

Her mouth grew soft against his, and her eyelashes fluttered closed.

He moved his lips luxuriously, slowly, so gently that Briony thought he might pull away at any second, but he just kept kissing her.

She gulped in air against his lips and curled her fist around his collar. One of his hands splayed across her back, pulling her closer until her breasts pushed against his warm chest, but still his mouth was soft and unhurried.

Her heart pounded so fast, pulsing life and want into every inch of her body. She wanted his hands on her skin. She wanted his tongue. She wanted her hips against his.

But Toven Hearst took his time. She’d seen him kiss Larissa Gains plenty of times. She’d seen his hands rove over her.

She’d never seen him like this. She’d never felt anything like this.

When his lips finally parted, and she felt the smooth glide of his tongue, a moan poured from the back of her throat. She clenched her thighs, and she brought her hips closer to him.

That was when Toven finally rolled her onto her back, slotting his body between her open legs.

Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer, and her right knee moved up to his waist.

His lips were still slow and languid, like she was something to handle with care. But as his tongue brushed against hers, and as she learned to open her mouth the way he wanted her to, she didn’t want to be touched like glass.

She wanted the weight of him. She wanted his sweat. She wanted him groaning for her.

He shifted and pushed his hips against hers. She could feel everything .

Briony’s mouth fell open in a sigh, her eyes fluttering in pleasure.

“Toven, please,” she murmured into his mouth.

His lips were firm on hers as the kiss started again. She arched against him, trying to feel more of him.

As he kissed her more deeply, his tongue hotter, his lips more direct, Briony slid her fingers around his neck to the place where his fine hair ended at the base of his skull. Her fingers drifted in soft movements, finding a raised scar where she’d sewn his skin back together all those years ago.

His chest rumbled— finally —a moan pouring into her mouth. His hips snapped forward, pinning her into the mattress, and his hand grabbed for her other leg, tucking her knee up to his waist until her hips cradled his.

She gasped at the feeling of him pressing against her.

Her eyes flew open as his hips rolled over and over.

She could feel him right where she needed him.

He was unspeakably hard against her softness, and his mouth attached to her jaw, her neck, her pulse, as he groaned into her skin.

She kept running her fingers through his hair softly, and his pace became frenzied.

She memorized every gasp, every moan, every sigh. She prayed he was leaving marks on her as his mouth sucked.

It felt decadent. Indulgent. There was an ocean inside of her, the waves gathering.

And then he shifted his hips just a bit lower, and through all their fabric, Briony felt his erection press against her center—

Her breath caught, and her mind went white. She whimpered, feeling closer to something than she’d ever felt before.

He lifted his lips to the shell of her ear, and as he rocked against her again, he moaned her name. “Briony.”

Her eyes rolled back in bliss.

It sounded exactly like it had before. Inside his mind. In the fabricated fantasy where she’d put her mouth on him.

If she could hear one sound for the rest of her life, she wanted it to be Toven Hearst moaning her name.

A knock rapped on her door, shocking her system.

They froze. The pleasure drained rapidly from her body.

Toven’s gaze was black as he pulled back to look down at her. His cheeks pink, his hair falling forward in a mess, and his lips red from her kisses. He sprang back, and Briony felt the absence of his body like a fire doused.

She bit her lip, wishing the knock had come either two minutes earlier or twenty minutes later.

She sat up and watched as Toven pushed a hand through his hair, adjusted his trousers, and breathed deep.

Like a reptilian blink—he was composed again. His shields were up.

When he answered the door, Serena’s voice whispered, “How is she?”

“Better.”

Briony pulled herself off the bed and quickly tugged at the bedsheets to straighten them.

“Reighven and the nurse were sent off. Your father’s hawk has returned from Mallow. She will be here after nightfall.”

Cold ice trailed down Briony’s spine. She glanced out the window. The sun would set in a few hours. At least she had time to build her barriers again.

“And is everything going smoothly?” Toven asked.

“To the best of our knowledge,” Serena said. “We won’t know for sure until she’s here. Your father would like to see you.”

Toven nodded. He glanced at Briony once, and she found those familiar cold eyes again, as if he hadn’t just been cradled between her hips or inside her mouth.

He left, leaving the door open.

Briony took a deep breath. “Come in, Serena.”

Serena moved through the door and closed it behind her, folding her hands in front of her. Briony stepped away from the bed, taking the memories of Toven’s hands and tongue and lips and closing them away in a book as she faced his mother.

“Thank you for what you did today,” Briony said.

Serena tilted her head. “I was about to say the same.” She glanced down. “You’ve had a very hard twenty-four hours, and I know that taking a life twists your heart, but I want you to know that you have never been more brave to me than now.”

Briony nodded her head, forcing herself to believe it. “Please know that I wasn’t hiding my ability to bear children from you.”

“I understand. It wasn’t my business to know,” she said simply.

Briony steeled herself and broached the topic on her mind.

“You said Mallow searches your mind often. Why?”

Serena lifted her chin and gazed past Briony’s shoulder. She thought the woman might not answer her until Serena spoke.

“I’ve been given the gift of sight. Three large visions and a handful of small images that all came to be,” she said.

Briony blinked at her. “I used to report my dreams weekly to her, but she has become suspicious of everyone around her and even doubts that I understand my own subconscious. Now I report daily to Mallow for inspection of my mind.”

Briony’s brows drew together as she struggled to understand.

“You’re a seer,” Briony said.

“It’s a generational trait in my family. It appears every hundred years or so.”

The gift of visions was rarer and rarer these days. The only seers Briony knew of were from over half a millennium ago, the ones who had foreseen the heir twice over. Most seers wouldn’t flaunt their gift. It was too easy to become a target.

Briony shifted on her feet, thinking. “Why does Mallow even know about it?” she asked.

Serena looked at Briony. “I saw her coming,” she said simply. “I saw her on the Seat. And Orion and I acted quickly to become … favored.”

Briony remembered how the Hearsts had been the ones to introduce Mallow into society the first time Briony had met her.

“You’ll forgive me if I’ve been absent. Cold,” Serena said with a rare smile. “Until you’d begun learning mind barriers, I couldn’t risk much conversation with you. And there is already so much I cut out and set aside in my own memories.”

Briony tried to imagine Mallow in her mind every day, digging into dreams of her subconscious that she had no control over.

“There is a meditation chamber downstairs,” Briony said. “It’s yours?”

Serena nodded once. “As you progress with mind barriers, you are welcome to it.”

Briony wanted to ask Serena about her visions.

She wanted to know the future so badly. She wanted to know the things that Serena had seen that she’d given over to Mallow.

But she also knew that it wasn’t hers to know.

Most seers lived in isolation to avoid these types of conversations with friends and family.

“I won’t ask you about your dreams, but when you stopped them today …

” Briony paused and rephrased, finding the words that had echoed in her mind since she’d let the nurse go.

“I have reason to believe that Mallow thinks the Heir Twice Over could still exist. When you saved the Rosewood line today …” She sighed, diving in.

“Do you have reason to believe your son will one day father that heir?”

Serena’s brows lifted clear off her head. “Oh. Oh, I see.” Her thumb tapped against her opposite wrist. “No. My intention today was only to give you a choice in your future.”

Briony felt the weight of those words cascading down on her. “You’re a seer,” Briony said with a small smile. “You speak as if all futures are possible, when you already know certain outcomes.”

Serena nodded. “I have not yet seen the future that I most wish for, but I am hopeful. I think a world where we both have choice again is possible.”

Briony swallowed around a lump in her throat. Her heart beat fast, and with the knowledge that Serena Hearst was under this roof with her, she felt suddenly less alone.

Serena inclined her head in goodbye. “Take care, Briony. I’m sorry for giving you another conversation to tuck away as you prepare your mind.”

She excused herself, and Briony focused inward.