Chapter 10 #3
“You always did have a particular fondness for being debauched in here.”
His eyes slide along the room and a bolt of anxiety threatens to throw off my casual pitch.
“Yes, well, let’s not look too closely at the root of that particular predilection or we’ll be stuck talking about it all night.
” My heart hammers. He’s starting to look behind him, where the couch is.
It was my favorite place to be debauched, but it also happens to be four feet closer than usual.
“Valen,” I say his name too harshly. I need to smooth my voice to seductive calm, but it’s becoming difficult with my racing thoughts. I need a topic that will distract him, and nothing is coming to mind. “I did… come here for something else.”
“Hm?” He’s sounding distracted, his eyes on the couch. “Do tell.”
“I…” Panic surges. “I…” My heart is going too fast. I swallow, hands sweaty. Does he know? “Would…” I need to ask him something that will snap his focus back to me. Something that will cause him to ignore or forget any strangeness he might notice with the wall.
There’s only one thing I can think of, and only the threat of discovery could force it from my lips. “Would you have come… if I’d asked?”
It works. Valen turns back to me. His brows furrow. My heart pounds, my chest tight. He cocks his head. “Come…?”
“When I ran away.” I can barely hear, barely breathe. “You said I never asked.”
His lips part, his body going still. There’s a flicker of emotion in his eyes that I can’t quite place. Then slowly, quietly, he says one word, “Yes.”
My world stops. All that’s left is me and Valen and the six feet of distance between us. The question comes out in a terrified breath. “Why?”
The emotion flickers again and this time I identify it. Grief. “I think you know why.”
My inhale shivers. This was a mistake. I can’t hear that. It makes too many what-ifs surge in my mind. Like a murder of crows, they caw at me, circling and weighing down the trees of my mind.
We’re in the park again, Valen’s low, soft, and slightly raw admission of how he deeply loves me, and how I threw it out at the first stumble.
But it wasn’t a stumble. I was betrayed. Or was I?
I have to get out of here. I stagger to my feet, but hesitate. Lucas is trapped behind the couch. A creative combination of filthy expletives nearly burst from me, my eyes sliding to the aforementioned furniture. It gives Valen the precious moments he needs to seize the upper hand.
His magic flares. One second, he’s standing on the other side of the desk, the next, he’s before me.
I stumble and nearly trip into the chair.
He’s so much taller now, practically looming over me.
His face is slightly shadowed from how he’s backlit.
His icy eyes glow after using high-level sorcery. I’m trapped.
His head tilts, his voice low and velvety. “Now that I’ve answered your question, I believe it’s only fair you answer mine.” He takes a heart-thudding step closer.
We’re chest to chest, my head tilting back to look up at him defiantly, the panic sharpening my gaze to a razor edge of self-preservation. But his stupid, sexy voice shivers down my spine. “Did you want me to come after you?”
I swallow and drop my gaze.
“Astoria.”
It snaps back to him, like he called me to heel.
“Did you want me to chase you down?”
Too close. My heart is too fast.
He leans forward. “Hunt you to the ends of this earth…”
My breath huffs, heat pooling between my thighs.
Barely a millimeter from my ear, he whispers, “And refuse to let you go?”
The shiver that travels down my neck to my fingertips trembles me. My eyes flutter, head tilting back. I feel the rumble of his voice, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. “Tell me, Tori. Why are you really here?”
My trembling heart makes my voice a breathy, desperate whisper, “Valen.”
I’m not sure how it happens or who does it. All I know is that at the sound of his name, Valen pulls back and my head turns, and our mouths collide.
Heat. Blinding, searing, mind-consuming heat. I gasp against Valen’s mouth, his tongue sliding along mine, and my knees crumple. He catches me, crushing me to his body. We kiss and kiss, hands snaring and clawing each other as seven years of pining clash.
The papers, trinkets, pens, and an extremely rare book of prophetic spells blast off the top of Vincentius’ desk.
Our combined magic put too much gusto into the act of clearing it off.
I smile against his lips and he does the same against mine.
His hands smooth down my ass to grip the backs of my trouser-clad thighs.
He lifts and plants me on the empty desk.
I grab him, wrapping my legs around his hips and hooking to draw him in even tighter.
Another moan hums from my chest when I arch back, Valen’s strong arms keeping me mostly upright and cradled against him as he trails open-mouthed kisses down my neck.
My head falls back with a small cry and his mouth latches on to my upper neck.
He bites. Hard, punishing, and I spiral into an explosion of aching want.
His fingers deftly unbutton my shirt until he gets to my vest. He partially rips open both to get more access to me. He licks the swell of my breast and my nails snarl in his hair, happily wrecking the slicked-back look.
He draws me back up, his dark, hooded eyes meeting mine for a moment. Our lips graze, his breath against my mouth, my heart stuttering. His deepened voice tightens my thighs around him, drawing him tighter where I know I want this to end.
“I would highly recommend that your magician stop. He’s about to trigger a bloodline detection rune and unleash the flesh-eating curse.”
He kisses me again and my eyes snap open.
Caught.