Chapter 51
“Aalto and back,” Kye swore under his breath as his free hand wrapped around my jaw, holding it in place. “Can I kiss you?”
I was surprised he even asked; he looked ready to devour me. “Yes,” I said breathlessly, the word hardly out of my mouth before his met mine.
Hot and hard, he crashed into me, and a pool of warm liquid gathered in my stomach as I immediately opened for him. The taste of mint invaded my mouth. Fingers curled into the roots of my hair, rendering me still and at his mercy, and I didn’t care. Not as my body roared to life under the heat of his hands and mouth. The wild flick of his tongue, the tilt of his head as his fingers guided me in the opposite direction, deepening our kiss.
He backed me into the nearest wall, my shoulder blades thudding against stone with sudden carelessness, my hands entrenched under the hem of his shirt, seeking the blinding warmth of his skin.
I hated him, but suddenly I lost the will to care.
An hour ago, I’d pledged to avenge my loss of freedom with his murder, but the desire to fulfill that promise to myself sank into the depths of my mind, replaced by a tangle of arms and teeth and silky heat waves radiating from us both.
I didn’t care about Hadrian. I cared about Selena and Thaan even less. Kye’s palm curved into the nape of my neck, his mouth open and hungry against mine, and I found I cared for nothing in the entirety of the world.
A groan rattled out of me from the depths of my core, and I felt him shiver in response. He wedged a knee between my legs through the skirt of my dress, and my skull rocked backwards as my arms rose over my head, tailbone grinding into the stone to grant him access.
A warning went off in my head like a pealing bell, loud and jarring. Don’t go too far; don’t cordae with him. I’d meet the demands of the carnal demon within me, but I wouldn’t do that. I’d stop myself well before.
Still, I suffocated the sound, throwing it on a ship and sending it sailing far away, even as its ringing echoed from over the horizon.
“This dress,” he rasped with impatience, fingers falling to the zigzagged stays of my corset. I felt the tug of them as he worked them loose, then grasped under the edge of the whalebone and teased it down. It fell in a floating cloud at my feet, and my breath hitched at the sudden cool air that rushed in.
Just as fast, he ambushed me with his body, his forearm thrust vertically alongside my face, his fist clenched against the opposite side of my head, hips driving against mine hard enough to feel the arousal that bulged through his pants.
I stood in minuscule swatches of white lace, prim over my golden skin, my breasts and hips. He rumbled with pleasure as his mouth searched the hollow of my neck, one hand finding mine and pinning it to the wall as the other trailed down my side, clenching the flesh of my right thigh. He wrapped it around his hip, grinding his weight into me—his chest, his stomach, the pulsing heat between his legs. I thrust into him, my spine digging into the wall and my hands behind his neck, leveraging myself enough to raise my left leg so I could anchor my feet together behind his back.
“Fuck,” he said, his voice so rough he might have swallowed sand.
Securing me in place with his hips, he grasped the back of his shirt at the neck and whipped it off over the top of his head, sending it flying. I paused at the sight of him.
I’d seen him shirtless before, but he was bigger than I remembered. Tiny goosebumps covered the bare skin of his chest, the deep V of his lower abdomen a shadow in the candle-lit room. I’d almost forgotten his Leihaniian tattoos, patterned lines and triangles stacked over his shoulder and down an arm, skin vibrant between rows of black ink.
He raked my body with his gaze, irises molten gold and ravenous, liquid metal churning over an inferno—I could barely stand the heat of the fire behind his stare.
His hands shifted to the center of my back, untying the strap of my lace bralette, each end dangling off the side of my shoulders. I shrugged it off, with a sudden urgency to be rid of the Mihauna-damned thing as my arm remained locked around him.
Kye yanked it off for me, his ravenous eyes drinking me in with savage approval as he ducked forward, teeth testing the tautness of my skin. He sank into my chest, his thumb rough over the peak of my nipple until his mouth followed, and when he gently sucked it in, I felt my lungs suddenly devoid of air.
Any delusion of self-control blew away under the whirlwind of moisture between my legs, heat rippling and rising in my core. I clenched my legs as a ragged moan left me, my eyes heavy and my vision spinning. He flattened me into the wall with an arm, dropping his head to my bare stomach, tongue exploring the valley under my ribcage. Breathless, I closed my eyes, adrift in the feel of his teeth scraping the rim of my navel, my hands lost in the soft waves of his hair.
Fire lit under my skin. He truly was a forge, melting me wherever he touched. I was a cast made of ordinary clay, but he was the liquid gold that poured over me, filling my empty frame as we molded together, all the grooves and creases between us knit and bound into a solid block of earth and metal.
Kye reached under me, cupping my seat with his hands, lifting enough to tear the lace off my hips. It split down the seam with a visceral rip as he turned and stalked to the petal-laden bed. He threw us down together, covering me with himself as though he couldn’t bear to not touch me for even the slightest moment.
He arched over me, blindly winding his arms under my knees and tugging my hips forward, golden eyes locked dangerously onto mine as his breath suddenly flowed hot between my legs.
Warning bells pealed over distant water.
My tongue knotted in my mouth as smooth, raw heat lashed at the apex of my thighs. Words were there, somewhere. But I couldn’t think of them, and a moment later they sank to the depths of the things I didn”t care about, along with contracts and promises I didn”t care to keep or not keep.
He dragged his tongue over me, fingers twisting into mine. Lungs tight, drunk with ecstasy and fire, I watched the dark roots of his hair as he leaned onto his forearms, pinning my legs open against the mattress. A sharp ache in my thighs protested the sudden stretch, laced with the sweet bite of pleasure. My back arched of its own accord, hips rising to meet him as I forced my own knees wider.
Bells.
Alarm bells somewhere in the distance. Ringing under a sea of molten gold, metal waves crashing and beating and—
The sweep of his tongue up my center drew a moan from my lips.
He tilted his face right and left, hungry for every angle of me, and when he wrapped his teeth and lips around the core of my body, I lost all sense of sight and sound.
“Kye,” I whimpered, my voice strangely heavy.
The vibration of his answering groan lit under my skin. Flames exploded. The fire grew wild, a living thing both inside and out, greedy for my oxygen and the need to consume.
Fingers curling around the strands of his hair, I bucked my hips, the wet warmth of his tongue over my skin a rabid wind that only drove the fire within me, burning me alive with a heat I hadn’t known existed.
Bells, bells, bells.
The muscles in my abdomen tightened.
It was pain; it was pleasure.
It built and built, my nails raking over the curve of his shoulders, until I loosed a shuddering whimper, my body leaving me to contract and relax all at once, my legs losing control as waves of sharp euphoria hit me in exploding bursts, one after another.
Kye’s mouth rode the shudders of my body, claiming me until at last I lay still, listening to the sound of my heart pumping heady intoxication into every vein. My legs and arms were somehow spent, though I’d seemingly done nothing at all.
He propped on his elbows, head between my knees. A satisfied smile curved into his lips, the corners of his young eyes crinkling, and for a moment, I could imagine an older Kye—hair streaked with silver, dimples deeper in the creases of his grin—giving me that feline smile.
A ringing blared in my ears, loud enough to block out the sound of my rasping lungs.
Don’t cordae with him.
Spasms still carving tunnels through my limbs, chest heaving with my gasps, I stared into Kye’s eyes as his hand slowly drifted down my left hip and onto my leg. He stopped.
Stopped and laughed, cruel and mocking, the sound of disbelief evident in his breathy voice. Steel whispered against leather as he unsheathed the knife tied to my garter, and he brought it slowly to my skin, pointing it at my bare chest.