Nevermore (The Never Sky #2)

Chapter 56

56

A faint strain of music drifted through the Parlor. Thorne led me to the center of the empty gaming hall, his hand warm and steady in mine. He pulled me close, one arm encircling my waist as the other held my hand against his chest.

We swayed to the gentle tune. Our bodies moved in perfect sync while the world around us faded away until there was nothing but the music, the dance, and the heat of Thorne’s body pressed against mine. I rested my cheek against his chest, breathing him in.

For a moment, I allowed myself to let go and imagine a life here with Thorne. A life free from the burdens and expectations of the knowledge and memories I carried. And those that eluded me. A life where I could wake up every morning in his arms, where we could build a future together. It was a beautiful dream, but that’s all it could ever be.

He tightened his hold on me as he whispered, “Stay with me. Right here in this room. Don’t let that beautiful mind of yours wander quite yet. Let me paint the picture.

“Imagine waking up every morning in our bed, tangled in sheets with the sun streaming through the windows. I’d pull you close and kiss you softly, savoring the feeling of your warm skin against mine. We’d linger there. We’d worship each other. I would love you, Paesha. I would love you flawlessly.

“Eventually, we’d make our way downstairs to steaming cups of coffee. The orphans would come running in, their faces bright with smiles and laughter as they told us about their dreams and plans for the day. We’d sit together, one big happy family, sharing stories and reveling in simple joys.

“After, you’d go to check on the older children’s studies and training while I met with Tuck and Archer to discuss business. But it would be different from now, less danger, more focus on helping the Salt and building a brighter future for Stirling.”

He paused, twirling me away with the crescendo of the song, letting his beautiful story wash over me until he pulled me close again, lifting my chin until I stared into his eyes. “And at the end of the night, we would crawl back into our bed, lost in each other once more. I would worship every inch of your body, trailing kisses along your soft skin until you trembled beneath my touch.

“I’d take my time, savoring the taste of you, the sounds you made. My hands would map these beautiful curves of your body, committing every sigh, every gasp, every shiver to memory. I’d tease you, stoking the embers of your desire until they burst into flames.

“When you were aching for more, when you begged me with these enchanting eyes, I’d finally give in. I’d settle between your thighs, and with excruciating slowness, I’d make you mine.” He trailed his hands down my arms. “We’d move together until the world shattered around us. I cannot give you the worlds, Paesha darling. But I can give you ecstasy.” He paused, though the song hadn’t ended. “Let me worship you. Let me show you that I can be enough.”

I met his intense gaze. “Actions speak louder than words. Show me.”

“Leave us,” he ordered the violinist, his voice a low rumble against my mouth. The music cut off abruptly and hurried footsteps retreated, the door closing with a soft click.

Something flared in Thorne’s eyes, hot and hungry. With a low growl, he claimed my mouth in a searing kiss. His tongue delved deep, tangling with mine in a dance as old as time. I clung to him, my fingers tangling in his hair, holding him to me as if letting go would mean letting it all go, and I wasn’t ready for that moment just yet.

Without breaking the kiss, Thorne lifted me from the ground. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried me across the Parlor, setting me down on the edge of the bar. He broke the kiss, his breathing heavy as he rested his forehead against mine. “Stand on the bar,” he commanded.

I did as ordered, moving to my feet to stare down at him. He pulled a chair over, flipped it around and rested his arms on the back as he sat, eyes never leaving mine. “Undress for me.”

I met his unwavering gaze with steel in my veins as I tucked my thumbs into my pants. Slowly, teasingly, I pulled, letting the fabric slip down my legs to pool at my feet. My shirt followed seconds later. Thorne’s stare was molten as it raked over my body, taking in every newly exposed inch of skin. Thorne’s hands clenched the arm of his chair, but he made no move to touch me, content for now, to simply watch. My skin flushed and tingled under the heat of his gaze.

“You’re exquisite. A goddess made flesh.”

“It’s too bad you sent the musician away. I would have danced for you.”

He lowered his chin. “Do it anyway.”

And so I did. Swaying my hips in a slow, sensual rhythm, my bare feet gliding across the smooth wood of the bar top. The air was electric against my naked skin as Thorne watched me with rapt attention, his eyes dark with desire.

I lifted my arms above my head, letting my fingertips trail down my own body, feeling the intensity of his gaze like a flame against my skin. “Like this?”

His jaw tightened, but his eyes remained fixed on mine, unwavering. “Perfect. Don’t stop.”

So I didn’t. I spun slowly, giving him a long, deliberate view as I ran my hands down my waist, my hips rolling to a rhythm that was made just for us. I felt myself losing any sense of the room, lost in the thrill of his attention. Holding a steady rhythm as I moved, I slid my fingers down and down, imagining they were his as I held eye contact with him and lowered myself toward the bar, twisting, bending, sitting so I could spread my legs and watch him jerk with surprise.

“You’re torturing me, you know that?” he said, his voice low, dangerous.

“I thought you could handle a little torture.”

“Careful, darling. You’re playing with fire.”

I smiled, letting my eyes fall to his lips. “It’s fine. I prefer the heat.”

A slow smile spread across his face as he leaned in, his eyes filled with promise.

He crooked a finger. “Come here.”

I stepped down, walking toward him, my hips swinging with each step. He spun the chair around, sitting down again, and when I was close enough to touch he reached out and grasped my hips, pulling me to stand naked between his spread thighs. His hands skimmed up my sides, fingers dragging deliciously against my sensitive skin, until he cupped my breasts.

Pressing a gentle kiss to my navel, he rolled my nipples between his fingers, tugging gently, and I arched into his touch with a soft moan as sparks of pleasure shot straight to my core.

“So responsive,” Thorne praised. One hand slid down my stomach to delve between my thighs and he groaned when he found me already wet and wanting. “Good girl.” He grabbed my leg and lifted, propping my foot on his knee as he kissed my inner thigh, that stubble of his brushing against my resolve. “Now tell me this is only mine.”

“So demanding.”

I gasped as he circled my clit with a finger.

He surged to his feet, claiming my mouth in another searing kiss as he walked, him forward and me backwards. The edge of a gaming table hit the backs of my thighs and Thorne lifted me effortlessly to perch on the felt covered surface.

Cool air kissed my heated skin. He urged me to lay back on the red felted top that was soft beneath me, a decadent contrast to Thorne’s rough hands as they mapped my body, leaving trails of tingling awareness in their wake.

He kissed a path down my neck, pausing to suck at a point of my shoulder that had me clutching at his hair and arching off the table, seeking more of his touch. His lips continued their journey south. His mouth trailed kisses of fire in its wake as he lavished attention on my breasts, drawing each aching peak into his hot mouth in turn. He kept moving down until he paused at the scar on my abdomen. I thought for a second it would be over. That he’d remember what that wound meant for me and my future, but instead, he brushed the most tender of kisses over the slightly raised flesh, smoothing it with a finger, and then continued moving down. When he finally reached the center, I trembled with need, my core throbbing and slick with desire.

“Look at you, spread out for me like a feast,” Thorne murmured against me. “Tell me, do you still taste like sin?”

And then his mouth was on me. His tongue tasting me as I bucked against him. He held me down on the card table, gripping my hips. He worshiped me with his mouth. Sucking and licking and thrusting until stars burst behind my eyelids and I cried out my release.

“That’s it, darling,” he praised, working me through the aftershocks. “Let go for me. Only me.”

When I finally floated back down, body limp and sated, Thorne was there, gathering me into his arms and kissing me deeply, letting me taste myself on his tongue. The hard length of him pressed insistently against my thigh and I reached between us, intent on returning the favor, but he caught my wrist.

“Not yet,” he growled. “I’m not done with you.”

In one smooth motion, he flipped me over onto my stomach. Thorne’s hands skimmed down my back to grab my hips.

“You have the most spectacular ass, and I’ve been forced to stare at it in my shirt for far too long without touching.” He gave it an appreciative squeeze before landing a sharp smack that made me yelp and arch into his touch.

“Such a good girl, taking what I give you.” Thorne soothed the reddened flesh with his palm before trailing his fingers through my legs. “You’re so wet for me, aren’t you, darling?”

There was a brief rustle of fabric as he freed himself from his trousers, and then he was there, the thick head of his cock nudging my entrance.

Thorne’s voice was a low rumble. “Tell me you want this, wife. Tell me you need me like I need you.”

I moaned, pressing my ass against him, desperate for more. “I’ll tell you whatever you want, just… please.”

With a low growl, he surged forward, burying himself to the hilt. I cried out at the stretch, clenching around him as he filled me so completely.

Thorne groaned, his fingers digging into the flesh of my hips as he held himself still. I whimpered. Bent over the card table, I leaned, rocking back on my heels, silently begging him to move. And then he did, pulling nearly all the way out before slamming back in, setting a punishing pace. The table creaked beneath us. The plush red felt rubbed deliciously against my sensitive nipples with each powerful thrust, the dual sensations sending sparks of pleasure zinging through my veins.

He slid a hand in my hair and tugged, pulling my head back as he snapped his hips forward again and again, driving into me with a primal urgency. Each powerful thrust sent shockwaves of pleasure radiating through my body, building and building until I was teetering on the edge of oblivion.

“That’s it, darling.” His voice strained with the effort of holding back his own release.

I shattered. Fluttering and spasming as ecstasy crashed over me in wave after blissful wave. Thorne’s rhythm faltered, his hips stuttering as my climax triggered his own. With a guttural groan, he buried himself to the hilt, spilling deep inside me as he chanted my name like a reverent prayer.

We stayed like that for a long moment, both of us struggling to catch our breath. Eventually, Thorne pulled out, leaving me feeling empty and aching in the best possible way. I turned to face him and he pulled me to my feet, hugging me, claiming my mouth in a languid kiss, pouring every ounce of tenderness and affection into the slow slide of his lips over mine.

“Stay with me.”

I said nothing, lost in the bliss of the moment as he lifted and carried me up the stairs, his steady heartbeat lulling me into a state of drowsy contentment. He shouldered open the door to his office and crossed to the bed, laying me down with a gentleness that contradicted the raw passion of our moment downstairs.

Thorne crawled in behind me. He pulled the blanket up and his arm snaked around my waist, pulling me back against his chest until there wasn’t an inch of space between us, skin to skin from head to toe.

I sighed, melting into his embrace.

He nuzzled into the crook of my neck, his lips grazing the sensitive skin there. I shivered, arching into his touch as his hand slid up my side, fingers tracing patterns on my skin. Slowly, he brushed my hair aside, exposing my neck to his wandering mouth. He pressed a soft kiss just below my ear and then froze. I felt his breath hitch, his body going rigid behind me.

“What is this?”

Confused, I tilted my head, trying to see what had caught his attention. “What’s what?”

His finger traced a spot behind my ear, sending a jolt of strange energy through me. “This tattoo. A snowflake. When did you get it?”

I frowned, reaching up to feel the skin he’d touched. It tingled beneath my fingertips. “Very funny. I think I’d remember getting a tattoo behind my ear.”

Thorne sat up, gently turning my head so he could examine the mark more closely. His brow furrowed. “Paesha, I’m not joking. There’s a snowflake tattoo behind your ear. It’s small, but it’s definitely there.”

I scrambled out of bed and hurried to the mirror hanging on the wall. Pulling my hair aside, I angled my head, straining to see. And there it was. A perfect, intricate snowflake, no larger than a coin, etched into the skin on my neck behind my ear. The lines were so fine, so detailed, it looked almost like frost clinging to a windowpane.

And then it hit me like a bolt of lightning. Alastor. The memory he’d shown me, of Thorne cradling Winter’s dying body in the snow. The cold. The ice. The snowflakes drifting down to settle on her still face.

The Remnants must have marked me. A reminder of the forbidden glimpse into Thorne’s past. His deepest pain. Though I couldn’t tell him the whole truth, afraid to twist this night into a painful reminder for him, I gave him just enough to understand. “Alastor left this when I gave him Harlow’s name.”

“A snowflake?”

I shrugged, lying to him a second time tonight. “Maybe it means she’ll be whole by next winter. Maybe it’s a promise.”

“He’s a god. Unless he spoke those words aloud. I can promise you it isn’t.”

“Well, there’s nothing to be done about it now.”

I should have been far more cautious when dealing with Alastor, though I’m not sure the outcome would have changed. I crawled back into the bed and let him wrap me in his arms once more, purposefully slowing my breathing until he thought I was asleep. I just couldn’t tell him any more lies today. He hadn’t deserved any of them. Eventually though, we really did fall asleep and when he woke up before the sun and snuck out, I waited until I couldn’t hear him anymore before I got up and dressed into my leathers.

I let my eyes linger on the golden book on his desk for several moments before I snatched it, with every intention of telling him I was going to head to the graveyard. But he’d beat me to the punch, his words appearing on the page as if he were standing there writing them.

Good morning, Paesha darling.

You looked so peaceful lying there asleep. I didn’t want to wake you. Just going to pay a visit to our friend Alastor.

~Hoping you’re still naked when I return,

Thorne Noctus

Ice shot through me. He was going to do something reckless, and he was completely alone.

Gods, Thorne. Wait. There’s something I need to tell you.

But he wouldn’t listen. Stubborn fucking man as he was, had already made up his mind. I ran for the door and swung it open, bolting down the stairs, shoving the book into my pocket as I raced outside. But Thorne, broad shoulders, and brooding, wasn’t there. Instead, it was Jasper, doubled over, panting, arm pressed against the side of the building as if he’d run a mile.

“Thorne?” He asked between gulping breaths. “Archer?”

I spun toward the street, torn between helping Jasper or going after Thorne.

“He’s not here. Neither of them is. I’m sorry, Jasper, but I really have to?—”

The one-armed cook stood up straight, no longer struggling as he let out a sharp whistle and all hell broke loose. Strange men, all very bulky, emerged from around corners, from alleys, from behind bins. They moved with a lethal grace, circling me like a pack of wolves closing in on their prey. I whipped around, heart pounding, searching for an escape, but there was none.

The pounding of my heart was the only sound I could hear, drowning out all other noises in my head. I turned back to Jasper, betrayal and confusion warring in my chest. His face was etched with sorrow, his eyes haunted and apologetic.

“You lied. You were bound to the prince this whole time.”

“No!” he said, lunging, trying to reach through the men. “I was never bound to the prince.” But before I could demand an explanation, before I could even draw breath to scream, a heavy blow landed on the back of my head.

Pain exploded behind my eyes. The world tilted and spun as my knees buckled. I reached out blindly, fingers scrabbling against the rough brick of the Parlor wall as I fought to stay conscious. But it was a losing battle. Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision, narrowing my world to a pinpoint of fading light. The last thing I saw as I crumpled to the filthy cobblestones was Jasper’s anguished face.