Chapter 79
Chapter
Seventy-Nine
EVIE
T he walk back to our home had been a flurry of hiding behind houses and trees, as we stole kisses to the rhythm of the drums still beating through the night.
Zandyr and I left the feast much earlier than tradition called for, but, for once, we could be selfish. We even snuck into Phoenix Peak through the new hidden gash in the wall, so we could avoid the warriors now stationed at the open gates. They would know why we were slipping away from our own party, and we’d had enough rumors about our relationship to last us an eternity.
“Just wait until they start asking about heirs,” Zandyr said as we walked inside my garden, the traps now suspended.
I sent a silent prayer for Loryk’s overtrusting soul, as I did whenever I entered or left my courtyard. May he find peace among the gods.
“Your mother was already dropping hints tonight,” I said. “And we can’t blame the advisors for that any longer.”
“The wine definitely didn’t help. That might have been her first glass in more than two decades.”
The excitement stirring in my belly quickened as I opened the door to the house. Our home.
I expected it to be silent and dark. Instead, I found myself standing in front of a long row of lit candles which carved a path up the stairs.
“What is this?” I asked, rooted to the spot.
“A romantic fire hazard. I have it on good authority it’s a Protectorate tradition on the wedding night. The light guiding the couple into their bright future.”
I turned to him, eyes wide. “You talked to Allie.”
“I did. It was…illuminating.” He stepped so close to me, his hot breath ghosted across my forehead. “And I understand there’s one more tradition which is absolutely necessary. May I?”
I nodded, even though I had no idea what he was talking about. Protectorate wedding customs hadn’t exactly been high up on my reading priorities in the mountains. Why sour my heart with things I could never have?
Yet here I was now, looking up at my husband, the feared Dragon and Blood Brotherhood king–who scooped me up in his arms, eliciting a loud yelp from me.
“What are you doing?” I asked as my arms circled his neck and my head rested on his chest. It was instinct to snuggle into him at this point.
“I’m protecting you from evil spirits lurking at the threshold of our home, obviously.” He stepped through the doorway, carrying me as if I weighed nothing. In this gauzy dress, I might have. “And I do like you in my arms.”
“I like it, too. It’s my favorite spot in the whole world.” I rubbed my cheek against his chest, right above his heart, the bond between us tickling my skin. I felt a wave of pure happiness wafting off him as he ascended the stairs to the bedroom. “You’re loving this whole protection thing.”
“I do love protecting you. You have no idea how much it’s turning me on.”
I giggled, even as a spike of desire coursed through me. Despite all the happiness and giddiness, a lingering nervousness clung to the recesses of my mind.
He kicked open the door to our room, as if I needed any more reasons to find him absolutely delectable. I inhaled sharply as we entered. The back of my room was now dominated by the humongous bed from that tower of his, filigreed wooden panels and all. Despite its imposing size, it fit right in.
“You mentioned you loved my bed,” he said, answering my unspoken question. He leaned down, nuzzling my neck. “And I’ve waited a long time to have you in it.”
Damn him and that seductive voice of his, which sounded gruff and filled with sinful promises.
He let me down gently from his embrace even as a strange tension rose between us. As soon as my feet touched the floor, I recognized the source–the last time we’d done this, we’d both been miserable.
The drums still beat in the distance, the house was still silent save for our breaths.
The painful echo of those memories managed to pierce through the happy haze.
He remained silent behind me, just like before.
“This is different,” I said. “ We are different.”
“Yes.” He stepped in front of me. “You don’t feel the same way.”
“How do I feel?” I murmured as we moved closer to each other, until our breaths mingled together.
“Warm. Happy. Desirous.” He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear, fingers grazing my temples. He frowned. “Nervous. Why are you nervous?”
“Well, I–” I licked my lips. “Weren’t you nervous the first time you…you know.”
How was it that I could face assassins and the advisors with my back straight and my teeth bared, and yet I stumbled over words now, with just the two of us in this room?
His large palms engulfed my shoulders. “I was. Everyone is.”
The memory of him fretting over his first kiss flared in my mind for the briefest second. I kept that particular image to myself.
“But you don’t have to be,” he went on. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want. We have all the time in the world now.”
“So if I don’t?” I asked with trepidation.
“Then we won’t,” he said simply, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
I licked my lips once more. His eyes jumped straight to my tongue. “But I do.”
“Good. Because I plan on giving you the perfect night. I already messed up the first.”
“To be fair, you ruined two of my wedding nights. You also killed Fabrian before we could indulge in wedded bliss.”
He grinned, even though a rumble of jealousy rushed through him. “Then I need to make twice the effort.”
“What do you want–”
Before I could finish, his lips were on mine, searing. “I want to kiss you.”
“Doing a fantastic job at it,” I said as his tongue wound against mine.
The rest of the world filtered away to nothing as I lost myself in his embrace. We both took our time to savor every moan, every touch, every rustling of silk as his robe and my dress fell to the floor, knowing we’d survived too much for too long to rush now.
Since he’d strutted into my life with nothing but a smirk, my entire existence had changed.
We’d become the perfect counterparts, ready to take on whatever obstacle we had to face, no longer alone and fighting by ourselves while others watched on indifferently, but together.
We shouldn’t have made sense, him raised in the confines of court and me in the solitude of the mountains. Yet we did. We’d both had our own seclusions to endure, which had molded us into the people of today.
The king and queen of the Blood Brotherhood.
The Dragon and the Blue Queen.
He was the strength to my power and I was the stubbornness to his ambition.
And, gods, when we touched, I really believed the fates had created us as an even match, to forever burn and triumph together.
His large hands splayed on my back, tugging me into him as he swallowed my whimper. Outside these walls, I was the fearsome queen and he was the warrior they told tales about to make children behave.
In here, all I wanted was to melt against him.
Not breaking the kiss, he guided me back to the bed–his big, tall, imposing bed, which had the softest mattress to have ever been created. Kind of like the man himself, wasn’t it? Intimidating from afar, comforting to the few lucky enough to be allowed inside.
And I was a lucky, lucky girl.
As soon as the back of my knees hit the mattress, Zandyr’s arms tightened, pulling me up. I could spend the rest of my life climbing that powerful body of his, but he had other plans tonight.
With a care so at odds to the burning desire radiating off him, he lay me down gently on the bed, body covering mine.
As soon as I felt his weight on top of me, something snapped. Maybe it was the bond, maybe I’d just been waiting too long for this, but my nails dug harder into his back and my legs wound around his hips, not letting him go for anything in this world.
“Someone’s possessive,” he laughed.
“You really want to talk about who’s the most possessive one in this room?”
“Gods, no. I’m only interested in making you lose your mind.”
“Yes, please.”
His chuckle melted away as a frenzy took over us, hands tugging at what remained of our clothes, desperate for more flesh to touch and taste.
My undergarments vanished in a flurry of fabric, leaving me wholly and deliciously naked.
“I love feeling you against me.” He deepened the kiss, his tongue doing wonderful things to make me lose control. “To kiss those lips I’ve been dreaming about…”
His mouth trailed lower, teeth nipping at the soft skin on my neck, right in that spot that made my toes curl.
“To taste your skin.” His lips left a blazing trail down my chest, only stopping when he reached my left breast, lavishing it with the kind of attention I’d also been dreaming about. “To hear your moans.”
I gasped as his palm slid between my thighs, slow, but certain. I sensed him probing the bond gently, checking to see which touch I liked best and which flicker of his fingers drove me absolutely wild.
“I love everything you do.” I sounded breathless and sultry and how could I make my real voice do that?
“I hear you just fine,” he purred. “And that little sinful tone should only be for me–and my big ears.”
I laughed despite the bubbling pressure inside of me. I knew what he was doing–eroding my nerves away and trying to make me as comfortable as possible.
Gods, could he get more perfect?
The slow touches against my center whisked away whatever logical thoughts I still had. As I writhed on the bed, his fingers turned more insistent, delving further down.
We both moaned as he inserted a finger inside of me, gentle as can be.
“You’re so warm,” he whispered and stole another kiss.
His breathing turned haggard as his hand moved faster, more insistent. My hips began to roll in tune with his movements, as if he played me like an instrument and knew exactly which chords to strike.
“Musician,” I muttered, barely coherent. “You could…musician, too.”
“I think there was a compliment in there somewhere.” He raised his head to watch me, taking in every twitch of my lips and every sweep of my lashes as my eyelids fluttered, slipping a second finger inside me. “You’re the artist here. The sounds you make are sweeter than any melody.”
Not one to disappoint, I threaded my palms through his hair and arched my back, moaning louder as he found a sensitive spot in my center.
The pressure built and built, pushing the groans out of me. As he set a steady, maddening rhythm, the sounds turned to growls, matching his.
He would have kept this pace forever, relishing in attuning my body to this blissful state, but I was growing restless. I pressed my hips harder against his hand, trying to get more of him in me.
With a sudden shift, my heated flesh yielded. An echo of a sting raced up my spine as the tangy smell of blood filled the air.
Zandyr stilled. “Are you alright?”
I sensed his caress through the bond, soothing and tender.
“Yes.” I readjusted my position and the small ache vanished. “Don’t stop.”
He started pumping in and out once more, tongue drawing circles on my neck in the same pattern his thumb touched the bundle of nerves that made me clutch his shoulders desperately.
“I want you,” I pleaded.
“I’m all yours.”
“In me.”
His growl reverberated through my chest and mind. The sensory overload was too much. I fisted the sheets to ground myself.
He slid down my body, leaving a trail of blazing kisses on my already heated skin, a wicked glimmer in his eyes.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Menace, we have wasted enough time without knowing each other.” He spread my thighs, licking his lips hungrily, even as his gaze never left mine. “I plan on savoring every moment I am honored to have you in my life. We’re not sleeping tonight.”
In one swift movement, he replaced his fingers with his tongue. My back rose off the mattress, shaking, the moment I tasted myself and my blood on his lips through the bond.
Growls vibrated from his throat straight into me, like he was purring, which only intensified each sensation.
“Gods, you’re good,” I whispered.
“You’re exquisite.”
I sucked in breath after breath as he sucked on me, cresting higher. That tension was threatening to burst.
“I need you in me,” I groaned, barely coherent, driven by pure instinct.
“Say my name first.”
“Zandyr, please .”
In a flash, he was once again above me, hips aligning with mine. This time, I captured his lips in a kiss that was all tongue and biting and moans.
Inch by delectable inch, he pushed inside me, his own desire threatening to overwhelm him. My muscles relaxed, taking him in slowly.
“So warm,” he muttered, head caving in the crook of my shoulder.
His teeth nipped at my skin, soft enough not to pierce, as he began moving inside me. Distantly, I remembered him telling me he could also use his powers to prevent a baby before we wanted one, the last rational thought my mind could conjure up before I was overcome by the lust mirroring between us.
With his right hand, he steadied my hips in just the right position to hit that teasing spot inside of me that made my breathing come up short.
The bond reflected his sensations to me and back again, until there was no delineation between us. We were energy melding together, rising higher and higher.
His teeth dug deeper into my neck, my nails raked across his back. The tenderness was gone, replaced with pure primal passion.
Every other sensation vanished. The softness of the sheets, the warm candles, the flickering lights, none of them mattered right now.
Only me and him, linked through body and mind, now and forever.
He pressed his forehead to mine. “I love you,” he said, voice strangled with need.
“I love you, too.”
We rose together, a symphony of sensations crashing down on us both. My body shook at the same time his tensed, for what might have been eternity or only one moment. The bond tightened so hard, our minds merged in a burst of energy that seared through me.
I was his and he was mine.
Now and forever.