28. Rozronuuk
Chapter twenty-eight
Rozronuuk
Cossgarth
O f all the things I’d expected I’d have to free Thea from, her lack of memory wasn’t one of them. To say it made my chest ache as though someone had buried a blade deep in my heart that she didn’t remember me was an understatement. I was her mate. She should remember me.
I tugged her dainty hand with mine as I swept us through the portal to Cossgarth, the Lost Dimension. No one would find us here. Ever. I was the only one who possessed the knowledge of its exact location these days. My brother had a fair idea, but he’d never tested his assumption. I hoped he never did. Although his backup right now wouldn’t be unwelcome, Thea would be even warier than she already was with no memory of me. She wouldn’t remember my brother nor dance with him in his castle. She wouldn’t recall how she’d come alive and carefree in the Winter Court. I should have sensed the danger to my mate from her sister.
Her memory loss was my fault as much as it was her evil twin’s.
Thea scrambled from my arms the second I let her feet touch the bumpy, moss-covered ground. She almost fell to her knees in her haste, but then she righted herself, dusting off her simple gown as though they’d made it of the finest threads. Underneath the simple clothes, she was still very much royalty in the way she moved, and the way she tilted her chin to glare down her nose at me. She sent my heart pounding and my palms sweating with the need to hold her close, keep her safe. Cherish her for the years we’d missed together and the memories that her sister had taken from us.
“Where are we?” she demanded, hands flying to her hips.
“Somewhere safe.”
“For how long?” She fired back all heat and passion.
Even with no memory of who she was, she still possessed the inner fire I loved about her.
“You’re safe forever with me by your side. Remember that if you think you should run away again.” I waved a hand at the broad expanse of this realm.
She gawked around the sparse green countryside. The Lost Dimension had little to it. An expanse of uneven, moss-covered ground. A few bushes offered meager deep purple berries as sustenance, which chimeras loved to eat. Oh, and chimeras too. Its one saving grace was the hot springs bubbling up from the rock pools in clear water that smelled like the faintest scent of volcanic ash whence they derived.
“We traveled here once before,” I said. “It’s where we first mated.”
Her shoulders shoved back like I’d shoved a rod down her back. “And did I agree to this mating?”
“Yes.” I grinned. “In the end, you begged for my cock.”
Her nipples strained against the material of her simple dress as though they were begging me to feast on them. It was strange seeing her in such simple attire. She might not dress as the siren queen right now, but her inner fire was there. It always would be.
“I suppose you expect me to beg for it now?” She cocked her hip out, causing the dress to cling to the side of her leg and making my mouth water for a taste of what they’d denied me for years.
I cleared my throat of the thickening desire building in my body. “No, my little queen, all you have to do is say the word, and it’s yours.”
Her brows puckered into a sweet little frown I wanted to kiss from her forehead.
“Why do you keep calling me that?”
“My little queen?”
“Yes.”
“Because you are.”
“I’m your queen?” Her frown deepened into grooves.
“Not in the way you’re thinking. You don’t rule me. We’re different creatures. I have my king.”
“So I’m a queen? Of my people?” She sat on the ground in an unqueenly crumble of legs, the fabric of her dress fluttered in a ripple of rough material.
I sat opposite her and picked up her hands as tenderly as possible instead of tearing the dress from her body.
“I don’t know the best way to help you remember. If I tell you, then will it be your memories or me telling you?”
She gazed down at our joined hands. At the warmth gathering between our caresses. Awareness skittered over both our bodies now we were touching.
Her tongue darted out to her lips. “Are you in love with me?”
I considered her question instead of my need to capture her tongue with mine. Was I in love with her? I found the answer at once.
I swept my knuckles over her cheek. “Very much.”
“Did I love you?”
I dropped my hand to my lap. “I don’t know.”
“Wouldn’t I tell you if I did?”
“We were together a short time before this happened.” I ached to hold her in my arms. “We didn’t have the time for deep heartfelt declarations of love.”
She patted her long hair as though taming her tresses would ease the racing of her heartbeat I saw pounding through the veins in her throat. “We don’t have the time now.”
“You’ve been gone years. A few more days or weeks won’t matter.”
She sighed. “What makes you think I’ll ever remember?”
“You.”
“Me?” she squeaked in surprise.
I inched closer until my face was inches from hers. “You are the strongest woman I’ve ever met. If anyone can battle this affliction and win, it’s you.”
She smiled a shy smile, so unlike the Thea, I knew. Perhaps she was different now. We both were, but she was my mate. Different or not, she was still mine. I hungered to kiss her, to see if the passion between us was still there. I sensed it humming against both our skins this close to each other. Our mouths were within kissing distance. Our bodies were within touching distance.
I groaned and sat back.
“What’s wrong?”
“I want to kiss you.” I swiped my tongue over my lips as though I felt her kiss on my mouth if I fantasized hard enough.
Her eyebrows rose a tiny fraction, her eyes darkened, and she wet her plump lips in a mirror action to mine.
“Maybe a kiss will help me remember?”
I slammed into her, forcing her back to the ground as I kissed her with a passion exploding deep within me. She moaned against my mouth. Let me ravish her plush lips in a ravenous kiss of tongues and lips until we devoured each other as though each lick and nip were the best things we’d ever tasted.
“Well?” I mumbled against her lips, not wanting to let the kiss end.
She shoved my shoulders backward until I repositioned them so she could look into my face.
“My body remembers. My mind doesn’t.”
“Shit.” I sat up, drawing her with me into a sitting position once again.
“We can always try more?”
She was amazing, even with no memory.
“We can, but I doubt that will help me think of the one word that will help you.”
“A word will help me?”
“Supposedly.”
She scoffed. “Words won’t help. More kisses might.”
“All more kisses will do is make me think of you and your luscious body, of how much I want to feast on your arousal until your legs tremble around my ears.”
She shifted in my arms. “I would have been a fool not to love you.”
I laughed. The sound echoed over the landscape like I’d sent my happiness on a wave to find others so they could hear my joy.
“Come, let’s find shelter for the night.”
“Out here?”
“There are small hollows near each spring that are perfect for curling up in and sleeping.”
That’s if a chimera wasn’t already in them, that is, but I didn’t mention those to her.
I helped her to her feet, took one of her delicate hands in mine, and led her over the moss-covered ground. She slipped once, clinging onto me tighter, and it only made me want to lose myself in her body harder. Perhaps seducing her would fetch her memory back, but I doubted it.
No, it was a word.
But what word?
We found the spring gurgling up from the rock pool. Steam wafted from the heated water. Thea gazed at the spring with a longing so different from the first time I brought her here when she’d complained about her feathers being wet. She didn’t have her wings out now though, so maybe that’s why she wasn’t looking at the water like it’d ruffle her spectacular feathers, or perhaps having no memory had changed her.
“You can bathe if you wish. I won’t harm you.”
“So you keep saying.” She fiddled with the buttons on her dress.
“I will look. though.”
She rolled her eyes.
“What? I need to make sure you’re safe.”
“You said it was safe here.” She glanced around frantically as though she didn’t trust my word.
Now I was required to mention the chimeras otherwise she wouldn’t believe me she was safer here than anywhere else.
“It is, but the chimeras aren’t always welcoming to intrusion.”
“Have you had a few run-ins with them?”
“Only once, when you sent me to fetch you a chimera heart.”
“I’d never do that,” she gasped.
I chuckled. “Little queen, you did, then you demanded I put it back.”
“Oh, good.” She unbuttoned her dress, dropped the garment to the ground, and stepped into the spring.
Her bare backside was a delight, I wanted to lick as much as I wanted to lick the front. I was a damn fool for not agreeing to screw her to see if her memory returned. Fool times a thousand as she gazed back at the growing bulge in my pants. I palmed my aching cock. Having my mate so close and yet so far away from me made everything painful. She wet her lips. I kneeled at the side of the hot spring. The moss was spongy under my knees, and I let her bathe without claiming her body as mine.
Without figuring out what the one word was, either.