Chapter 30
Bressen
It had been a long day back, mostly because I was away from Cyra for much of it. The second I returned I’d wanted nothing more than to sequester myself with her in our room, but I had responsibilities I couldn’t shirk, especially given recent events.
First, I’d secured Talyn and Morland in dungeon cells below the Citadel. Both had gone willingly, Morland because I still had control of his mind, and Talyn because she’d agreed to be locked up with him until we figured out how to remove him from Aidan’s body.
Then I’d met with Samhail and Axenus. We needed to stay at the Citadel for the time being, mainly because I couldn’t keep Aidan, or at least his body, locked up in Hiraeth. This meant moving the household back to Callanus for the time being.
I also met with Jasper and Maziren. Thank the gods they’d both already known about Morland’s takeover of Aidan, because I would’ve had an interesting time explaining to them why I’d locked up the Lord of Derridan otherwise.
The bigger issue was how we’d handle Aidan’s absence from the palace in Seatherny.
So far, Aidan had only been gone for about two days, and Jasper had told the palace staff that Aidan was simply taking a much-needed break.
It was believable enough given that most of the servants and guards had started to notice the change in their lord’s demeanor over the last week, but we needed a more solid plan moving forward.
We could stall for maybe a week, but we’d eventually need to come up with a more permanent explanation for Aidan’s absence.
Lastly, I began making plans for another ocean voyage. I’d lifted the memory block on Cyra and Axenus, and they’d both been shocked to remember being on the island near where we’d found The Stalwart.
Flynt, one of the warriors freed from the necklace, had insisted Praya was still alive, and we were almost certain one of the women we’d met on the island must be her.
Someone there had gotten into our heads – into my head – and planted a memory wipe so deep it had taken Magdalene’s incursion to jar it loose.
Perhaps it was hubris, but the only way I could explain that was the presence of another syphon.
I’d promised Talyn we would get Morland out of Aidan so she could kill him, and Praya’s assistance was the only option we had right now to do that.
It was a long shot, but it was our only one.
Regardless of Talyn’s vendetta, we needed to extract Morland and get Aidan back to ruling Derridan.
If we couldn’t, then we had a whole new set of problems.
As it was, it was a miracle nothing catastrophic had happened the last two days with, not one, but two Triumvirate lords missing.
Cyra and I would need to make our journey to the island as quickly as possible because we’d essentially be leaving Thasia with only the High Council of Polaris in charge, unbeknownst to them.
I trusted Samhail and Axenus to keep things running in Hiraeth while I was gone, and Jasper and Maziren were competent enough to keep things under control in Derridan, but I didn’t want to tempt fate.
We had to get back before Sandrian and Magdalene realized we were gone.
I assumed they’d be busy moving their headquarters now that we knew where they were, but I wasn’t betting on anything.
It was late when I finally got back to the room I shared with Cyra in the Citadel, and I opened the door quietly in case she was already asleep.
I wasn’t surprised to find her awake, sitting by the fire reading. She looked up when I entered and closed the book. For a few seconds, we just looked at each other across the room, the distance between us more than physical.
I’d already felt the change in her when I returned, but it had broken my heart when Axenus told me what had happened at Revenmyer. In killing Clarice, I was afraid Cyra had taken another step down a very slippery slope.
I crossed the room to Cyra in a few strides. She set her book aside and stood to meet me. Part of me wanted to crush her body against mine, to claim her so thoroughly she’d wonder how she ever survived without me inside her, but another part of me urged patience.
That other part remembered sitting in a dungeon cell wondering if I’d ever see her again.
It remembered being stripped naked and facing Morland’s threats of removing my cock so I’d never again be able to bury myself inside my wife.
That part of me had promised if I ever saw Cyra again, I’d savor every second with her.
I’d take things slow and draw out our time together as long as possible as a reminder of what I’d almost lost.
Cyra looked confused when I stopped just in front of her and lifted my hands to cup her face rather than dragging her against me. I kissed her forehead, and she blinked at me.
“Bressen, what are you-”
I slipped one arm around her waist and pulled her gently to me before I silenced her question with a long, sensual kiss. The fingers of my other hand threaded through her thick, dark locks as I held her in place, not roughly, but just firmly enough so she couldn’t move.
I deepened the kiss as my mouth continued to move over hers, and when I finally pulled away nearly a minute later, Cyra was breathless.
We were normally ravenous around each other, and it had been a long time since I’d simply kissed her slowly and deeply like that.
“Bressen,” she breathed.
There was one thing I needed to talk to her about before we went any further, though.
“I spoke to Axenus,” I said, and her body tensed against me.
She raised her eyes to meet mine. “I’m not sorry I killed her,” she said. “You killed that man in Bronwyn when I was threatened. Well, Clarice threatened Axenus.”
I raised a brow, and she looked back at me defiantly. We both knew the situations weren’t the same, but I wasn’t going to argue with her now.
“I don’t want to lose you,” I said quietly, and her face softened.
She knew what I meant.
Cyra’s expression turned sultry. “Do you want to punish me for what I did?” She bit her lip, and my cock went hard.
Fuck.
My punishments were never really punishments. Cyra enjoyed it far too much when I was rough with her, and maybe I enjoyed it a bit too much as well.
Thoughts of pushing her to her knees and fucking her mouth until she choked around my cock flitted through my head, but I pushed them away. Ironically, if I really wanted to discipline her for killing Clarice, the best way was not to give her the punishment she wanted.
I swallowed hard and willed the traitorous appendage between my legs to calm down.
I shook my head. “Not tonight,” I said, my voice graveled with need. “Tonight, I plan to take my time with you. To use a slow hand.”
She only blinked at me as I trailed my hand down her face until my thumb brushed her lips.
“All I could think about while I was gone was how much I neglected these lips,” I whispered. “I should’ve spent so much more time kissing you than I have. I promised myself that, if I made it back to you, I’d rectify this grievous mistake.”
I lowered my head toward hers ever so slowly. Her lips parted in anticipation, and her chin tipped up to meet me. I paused just as my lips touched hers, and I heard her stuttered inhalation.
I could fuck my wife easily enough. At least once a day I bent her over a table or pushed her legs open and had her wrap them around me. We’d fuck hard and fast until we were both panting with the effort and covered in a film of sweat.
But that’s not what I wanted now.
Right now, I wanted to make love to my wife.
I wanted to seduce her, to make her pant not from physical exertion, but because I’d driven her so close to the brink of madness that she couldn’t remember how to breathe.
I wanted her body to be so sensitive that I could make her come just by blowing softly on the right spot.
And I wanted her so drunk on what I was doing that her world narrowed to the existence of us and us alone, and she forgot every pain and worry she’d felt the last few days.
“Did you miss me while I was away?” I asked.
A stupid question. She’d killed a woman when she’d woken to remember I was gone, but I still needed to hear her say it.
“I burned half the woods down near that clearing when Talyn took you,” she said. “Does that count?”
I smiled. “Only half the woods?” I asked. “I suppose that’s a start.”
She started to smile, but it faltered.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I…slept in Samhail’s room last night,” she said, then went on hurriedly. “Just slept. We didn’t touch each other. I couldn’t be in here alone. The room was too cold and empty without you. I needed to be near someone, and Samhail…” She trailed off.
“Was someone?” I finished for her with the hint of a smile. “Did you think I’d be upset?”
She let out a relieved breath. “I hoped not.”
“Cyra, I know you and Samhail are close, and I trust you both,” I said.
“To be honest, if I couldn’t be here to protect you, I’m glad he was.
I’d rather have you climb into bed with him and feel safe and comforted than have you lay up here feeling cold and alone.
” I paused. “Did sleeping next to him help?”
She hesitated before nodding. “It wasn’t the same as having you here, but I could at least fall asleep with him close by.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” I said.
Her mouth tipped up into the hint of a smile. “Are you sure you don’t want to punish me?”
I gave her an indulgent smile of my own. “Actually, I think I will.”
She let out a squeak of delight as I scooped her up in my arms and carried her to the bed. I laid her down in the middle of the mattress, then rolled her onto her stomach. I stretched out alongside her and gathered her hair to pull it away from her back and neck.
“I call this first part ‘Death by a Thousand Kisses.’” I said.
I kissed the bare spot at the base of her neck. “One,” I said. Then I opened two of the buttons at the back of her dress and kissed the patch of skin they revealed. “Two.”