Chapter 30 #2
When he pulled back, Ryneth was still looking at him like he hadn’t recovered. “So what did you see when you got there?” he asked, voice rough.
Daven’s lips ticked up at the thought, and he tightened his hold on Ryneth’s throat. “Nothing. Just the storm. But then the thunder hit, and things got weird.”
“What do you mean?”
“First, Vandor found a black mask on the ground. I didn’t think much of it at first. Probably Concordant, from when they landed behind the hospital like we saw.
But then he got cagey about it. And then the lightning struck…
” Daven took a long sip from his drink, needing the bitter aftertaste of the whiskey as the memory hit with full force.
“Then what?” Ryneth whispered.
“Then she just stood there. At the window.”
“The royal consort?”
“Yeah. Which is… I mean, it’s not possible. She’s been asleep for over a decade. But as the lightning struck, she just stood there. It was creepy.”
“Did she just stand there? Or did she do anything?”
Daven shook his head, shivering when he recalled that moment in the storm. “I honestly can’t explain it, but the moment I saw her, I just knew where to go. There wasn’t time to think. We just… moved.”
Up and up they had gone.
Daven got lost in the memory, only for Ryneth to drag him out of it with four quiet words.
“I saw her too.”
Daven stilled. “You did? How? Were you—”
“On Cyprian’s charcoal drawing. There was a storm on there; the one you were in. And she was there, in the corner. Standing at her window.”
Ryneth leaned closer, pressing into Daven’s grip around his throat, and Daven’s cock hardened even more. Fuck, he didn’t want to have this conversation right now. He was tired, pent-up, and looking for trouble.
But seeing Ryneth lean into him, wanting Daven to choke him gently, was more than just sexy. It was enough to melt his fucking brain.
Yeah, once Daven had him where he wanted him, Ryneth would be making those pretty sounds all night.
“The drawing kept shifting,” his aethera continued. “Like it was trying to show us where to look. Then Moargan ordered everyone up to Breaking Storm. And that’s how I found you.”
“Hmm, you did. You scared me tonight.” Daven’s hand slid from Ryneth’s throat into his hair, fingers curling at the nape. The air in the cabin shifted. “You chose that storm.”
“Did I?” Ryneth huffed a soft laugh. That soft laugh nearly undid him, his breath catching when Daven brushed his lips against his. “You walked straight into it.”
“No, baby.” Daven licked the shape of Ryneth’s mouth, purring when his bonded gasped and parted his lips. “You came for me.”
“That’s because I knew you were lying in the kitchen.” Ryneth’s fingers stayed twisted in Daven’s shirt, but his eyes didn’t. They held on Daven’s mouth like he needed the shape of it there. “The second you walked out, I knew something was wrong.”
Without giving Ryneth space to continue, Daven crushed their mouths together, chasing the taste of rain and the soft sound Ryneth made into his mouth. Ryneth leaned into the heat, his fingers tangling in Daven’s hair as their mouths molded together in an all-consuming kiss.
When he pulled back after what felt like forever, the corner of Ryneth’s mouth lifted. “I guess storms tend to attract my attention.”
Daven smiled and brushed his mouth once against the corner of Ryneth’s. “That’s more like it.”
Moving his hand from Ryneth’s neck to his jaw, he hauled him into his lap, his boots shifting for leverage as he pressed Ryneth back into the leather seat. Ryneth’s hand moved from Daven’s collar to his throat, his nails catching on his skin.
Every breath came fast.
The cabin still felt too small for what was happening between them.
“Mine,” Daven growled against Ryneth’s mouth. “Next time, I won’t lie to you and leave you behind. I should have known you would come anyway.”
Ryneth answered by biting back, his pupils blown wide as he dragged Daven’s head down for another kiss. Daven felt the static from Ryneth’s skin jumping into his own, a stinging, electric reminder of the power they shared.
Sliding his hand down to Ryneth’s hip, his fingers dug into the damp fabric of his trousers. In his mind he was already undressing his bonded, already dragging his hands over every inch of him.
A soft cabin chime cut through the silence.
The hover car slowed as the docking lock engaged.
The cabin lights shifted from amber to sharp white.
Daven stiffened, his forehead resting against Ryneth’s as both of them fought to steady their breathing.
Ryneth let out a jagged breath that was nearly a laugh. The timing was cruel.
The driver partition stayed closed, but the shift in pressure reminded Daven exactly where they were.
He pulled back, his eyes dark, his jaw set. Then he reached out and straightened Ryneth’s torn collar with fingers that were still slightly shaky. “Come on, baby. Let’s go home.”
He opened the door and stepped out, reaching back to haul Ryneth to his feet. He didn’t let go of his hand.
“Walk,” Daven muttered, pulling him toward the private lift when Ryneth took too fucking long. “Don’t make me drag you through my own lobby, aethera. Keep looking at me like that and we won’t make it to the door.”
The penthouse door had barely shut before Daven caught him.
Fisting one hand in the front of Ryneth’s shirt, Daven planted the other hard on his hip and slammed him back against the wall beside the entry with a sharp thud of glass and breath.
His mouth crashed over Ryneth’s, swallowing his gasp, like every kiss since the hospital had only made it worse. Since the car. Since the second he’d seen him walk out of that storm alive and bright-eyed and his.
Ryneth made another broken sound against his mouth, fingers catching at Daven’s jacket, and that was it. Whatever was left of Daven’s control snapped clean in half.
“Mine,” he growled against his mouth, biting hard enough to make Ryneth flinch before he took him again.
His glass hit the console by the door with a careless clink. The bottle followed a second later.
Then both of Daven’s hands were on him.
One slid into Ryneth’s damp hair, wrenching his head back just enough to open his throat, then his mouth followed the line of it, licking, biting, sucking at the warm skin beneath the torn collar until Ryneth arched against the wall with a sharp, helpless breath.
“Daven—”
“Don’t.” Daven bit the side of his throat, then soothed it with his tongue. “You’ve been teasing me since the car.”
Ryneth shivered when Daven’s hand slid down, fingers spreading hard over his ass and hauling him flush against the hard line of his hips so he could feel exactly what he’d done. “Fuck.”
“Yeah.” Daven nipped at his jaw once more, then gave his ass a hard squeeze. “Terrace. Now.”
Ryneth blinked at him, dazed and flushed, lips swollen and wet.
Daven stepped back just enough to look at him and wanted to ruin him right there. “Go outside, baby,” he repeated, and smacked his ass hard enough to make him jolt. “And be good for me for thirty fucking seconds before I lose what’s left of my mind.”
Tipping the rest of the drink back, he followed him toward the terrace, and when the doors hissed open, he stepped out behind him and flung the empty glass into the dark. It vanished without a sound.
Ryneth stopped at that. “Show-off.”
“You haven’t seen the part I’ve been trying not to show you all night,” Daven said softly. “Go stand by the glass for me, baby. I want one second to look at you before I put my hands on you.”
Ryneth shivered, but he did it. He turned and put his back to the glass, chest rising too fast under the ruined shirt.
Daven took his time crossing the last few steps, letting his gaze drag over him from the wet white hair to the torn collar to the bite darkening at his throat.
Fuck. That was better.
Ryneth’s lips parted, breath catching as color climbed high across his throat and into his cheeks, and Daven felt it like a hand low on his spine. He loved that. Loved how Ryneth always looked half furious when he was turned on enough to forget how to hide it.
“That’s it. Stand there and let me look at you.”
Ryneth swallowed, like he was unable to formulate any words.
That would be a first.
Stepping in close enough to feel the heat coming off him, Daven slid one hand over Ryneth’s waist, slow this time, his thumb brushing the edge of the open shirt before dragging over the hot skin beneath.
Ryneth jerked under the touch and bared his teeth, that sharp little snarl breaking free when he got too wound up to stop it.
Daven smiled. Good Light, he loved that too. The way Ryneth went soft and vicious at the same time, like he didn’t know whether to run or climb into his lap.
“Watching you fight out there nearly drove me insane,” Daven said, his mouth brushing the corner of Ryneth’s. “You have any idea what you looked like?”
Ryneth’s fingers caught in Daven’s damp shirt. His eyes flashed, bright and wide and furious in a way that only made him prettier. “Daven…”
“Mm.” Daven grazed his mouth over Ryneth’s lower lip without quite kissing him. “All lit up. Hair a mess. Looking at me like you wanted to bite.”
He kissed him then, slow for half a second, just enough to make Ryneth lean in, then bit down on his lower lip and took the sound that tore out of him.
Blue sparks snapped between them. Static jumped across Daven’s jaw and the glass behind Ryneth in sharp bright bursts.
Daven only tightened his grip. “What?” he murmured, dragging his lips over Ryneth’s again without giving him enough. “You don’t like it when I do that?”
Ryneth grabbed a fistful of his shirt. “You know I do.”
“Yeah,” Daven drawled. “I know.”
He kissed him harder, one hand in his hair now, the other at his waist, crowding him back into the glass until a rough, helpless sound broke out of him. Daven felt it like a reward.
“That sound,” Daven breathed against his mouth, already half gone on it. “Do that again.”
Ryneth did.