Chapter 18 #2
“And you haven’t been lying to me,” he says softly, “not really.” I blink and he sighs, running a hand through his hair.
“You may have been hiding your true Gift and you may have been using a different name, but I know you down to your soul…Thea.” The sound of my name on his lips, finally my name, makes heat wash through me, a shiver of pleasure rippling up my spine.
His lips quirk at the corners and I know that he noticed.
“I know that you’re kind and thoughtful and that you care about others so much that their joy is your joy, their pain your pain, even complete strangers.
” I know he’s thinking of the village and I quickly push those thoughts away.
“I know that you love Abrasian chocolate. I know that you are excellent at quills but cheat at cards and cups.” My mouth pops open to protest, but he only smirks and continues on.
“I know that you love to look at the stars, especially when you can’t sleep.
I know that you scrunch your nose when you’re trying to hold back tears and that you hum when you braid your hair, and that you twirl this lock around your finger whenever you’re deep in thought or worried about something.
” He shifts forward, voice going low and rough when he says, “I know the sounds you make just before you’re going to come, that hitch of breath and the quiet, gasping moan.
..” My entire body shudders and my cheeks heat, and his lips curl on one side.
He reaches out and takes my hand, running his fingertips over my knuckles before meeting my gaze again.
“And I know that you’ve said that you love me in your sleep almost every single night since the cave.
” I suck in a sharp breath, having no idea that I’d said something so important in my fucking sleep.
I’m somewhat mortified, truth be told, thankful that I haven’t said anything else before now that could have revealed my secret.
“But I would do fucking anything to hear you say it true, Thea.”
My eyes burn and he’s right: I scrunch my nose to try to keep the tears at bay.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so loved or understood or seen in my life, and my belief that the Makers brought us together solidifies.
Killian was made for me, to be mine, and I was made for him.
I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know how this works between us, or if Dorian will allow it to continue once we reach Duskthorne, but I will do anything to be with this man, to take this love and burn down the entire world for it if needed.
I crawl out of the bed and he shifts back in his chair as I approach, watching me with burning blue-gray eyes.
I slide into his lap, straddling him, and wrap one arm around his neck, tangling my fingers into his hair.
I slide my other hand across his cheek, his beard tickling my palm, and his big hands grip my waist, the heat of him seeming to burn through the thin silk of my nightgown.
Thank the fucking Makers that he put me in this after the battle, that only this tiny bit of fabric stands between us now.
I hold his gaze for a long, long moment, finally giving myself permission to leap, to fly with this man beside me forever.
“I love you, Killian Blackheart.”
His eyes slide closed and he leans his forehead against my own.
He exhales, long and slow, and pulls back to look at me once more.
He reaches up and brushes hair from my face, grazing his knuckles along my cheek, and I wait for him to say the words back, the three words I’ve been waiting my entire life to hear.
“I tolerate your presence more than most, I suppose—ow!” He laughs when I pull his hair, and I try to fight a smile.
“You are a horse’s ass.”
“And you love that about me.”
“Makers fucking help me, I do,” I sigh, shaking my head. “I really do.”
He grips my chin gently between his thumb and forefinger, and guides my face to his. Just before our lips touch, he says quietly, “I love you, Thea Sparrowhill. No matter what’s to come, no matter what obstacles try to block our path, I will never stop loving you and fighting for you, for us.”
Perfect contentment settles over me and I finally feel as if I’m right where I’m meant to be, like I’ve been running my entire life towards this moment, here, with this man.
I press my lips to his then, not able to hold myself back for another second.
I tangle both hands into his hair now, holding his face to mine and he growls in approval low in his chest. A frenzied desperation rises up in me, all of these weeks together, all of the years waiting to find him, how differently the battle against Amon could have gone—everything coming together in a storm that I can’t escape.
I rock my hips, feeling him hard and ready beneath me.
The kiss quickly spirals, far from gentle or soft.
It’s hard and deep and greedy. Teeth and tongues and lips clash, my hands dig into his hair and neck and shoulders, ripping at his shirt as he tears my nightgown down the middle, the silk parting easily beneath his fingers.
I gasp when rough palms cover my breasts, kneading and pinching and driving me wild.
He kisses down my throat, dipping his head to flick his tongue over one aching nipple and making me cry out in sheer bliss.
He closes his lips around the peak, sucking hard and making me writhe.
I grind atop him with abandon, the feel of his cock through his leathers gliding against me feeling so fucking good that I’m already close, that coiling deepening.
Just a few more thrusts with him in that spot right there and—
As if reading the thought and being entirely offended by it, Killian stills my hips and growls low in his chest, the animalistic sound sending shivers of sweet anticipation through my body.
“Oh no you don’t. You’ll be coming on my tongue first, love.”
I make a sound that’s somewhere between a gasp and a whimper as he stands, setting me to my feet. I sway slightly but ask in a breathy whisper, “How did you know…?”
His crooked, cocky smirk pulls his lips. “I told you—I know you, Thea. Every sound, every breath, every scent. Every fucking one.”
I swallow hard, that knowledge somehow incredibly sexy.
“Now,” he whispers, pressing me back against the tall chest beside the bed, “you’ll want to hold on to the top of that. Your legs will be giving out soon.”
“Fucking Makers,” I moan, breathless, and he slides to his knees before me.
He leans in and kisses my stomach, just below my navel, then lower, and lower still…
“Fuck!” I cry when he licks me, one long, slow lap of his tongue that sends a wave of pleasure through my entire body.
He groans and grips my thigh, placing it over his shoulder and shifting so I’m spread before him, his to devour.
“Makers, I will never tire of seeing you like this, Thea. Smooth and dripping and needy for me.”
I swallow hard but look down and meet his eyes. “And I’ll never tire of seeing you on your knees before me.”
“I’ll kneel for you forever, Thea, like the queen you are.
Only you. Always you.” I reach down and run my hand through his hair, and use my grip on the strands to guide his mouth back to me.
He grins and sets to feasting like a starving man.
I scream. I writhe. I come so hard that my legs do give out, just as he promised, but my iron grip on the trunk keeps me upright long enough for Killian to rise and lift me, tossing me to the bed.
I’m breathless, sweating and panting as I push up onto my elbows to watch him.
He unlaces his leathers and I watch, rapt, as his cock springs free.
He grips his shaft as he steps free from his boots and pants, and I lick my lips as he stands there, stroking while he watches me.
“You’ll tell me,” he says gruffly, eyes burning as he continues to stroke, as his gaze shifts to where I’ve let my knees fall wide in clear invitation. Not so much an invitation, really, but a demand. I need him more than I’ve ever needed anyone or anything. “You’ll tell me if it’s too much.”
“It won’t be,” I promise him. I can tell he’s warning me not just about his size, but of other things.
I’ve caught glimpses already of how he likes to be.
Rough kisses and nips of teeth, tight grips and groans of pleasure when I dig my nails deep into his skin, demands and commands and words that would make the most devout priestess blush and forgo all of her vows.
We are alike in so many ways, and our preferences in the bedchamber are among the many. Thank fucking Makers for that.
I hold his gaze and make sure he can see the absolute truth in my words before I speak.
“I want everything you have to give, Killian. All of it.”
His eyes slide closed for a moment, a small ripple of pleasure cascading down his lean, powerful body. He opens them once more and they’re absolutely blazing, a flame beneath a tempest. He smiles a sultry, sinful smile as he climbs on to the bed.
“As my queen commands it.”