Chapter 34 Odessa #2
“The scout is dead, and I’ve heard nothing of others. There should have been others. There’s a chance it wasn’t a scout at all.”
Now he sounded like the Mavins. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.” Ransom exhaled. “But we might have time to return to Turah. Though if we go back, I won’t take you or Evie to Allesaria. It’s too dangerous, and I don’t trust my father. But…”
“You’re going to Allesaria.”
“Yes. To stop my father.”
“And what?” I scoffed. “You’ll just drop us off somewhere?”
“You can stay in Perris.”
The city on the Turan coast was a mirror to Roslo across the Krisenth. If we sailed the crossing, we could be there in ten days or less.
“And Zavier? If he’s alive?”
“Then he’ll stay with you, too. I won’t let him go to Allesaria, either.”
“No.” I shook my head, stepping out of his hold. “If you go to Allesaria, then I’m coming, too.”
“You’re not.”
I tossed up a hand. “We came all the way to Quentis to have this argument again.”
“Odessa—”
“You can’t even act against your father because of all your ridiculous blood oaths.” I paced the length of the bedroom and, for the second time tonight, felt the urge to strangle a stubborn, infuriating man. “What happened to us staying together?”
“If something happened to you, I’d never survive.”
“That goes both ways.” I crossed the room again, putting my hands on his bare torso. “We’re stronger together, Ranse.”
He tossed the circlet aside. His hands dove into my hair, pushing the curls away from my face.
My gaze dropped to the dark veins that spread out from his sternum, snaking beneath his taut skin. There were more than there’d been in Ellder. The infection was spreading, across Calandra and through his body.
Where there is poison, there is a cure.
What if I didn’t find a cure in time? The High Priest had been siphoning the Lyssa from Ransom’s blood, but if he’d spent a month searching for me, then he’d gone too long.
My best chance at a cure was using Father’s healers in Quentis.
We needed to stop Ramsey from infecting his militia in Turah.
How could we be in two places at once?
“What do we do?” I whispered.
“We worry about it in the morning.” Ransom hooked his finger under my chin. Then he bent and sealed his mouth over mine.
One sweep of his tongue, and the chaos in my mind vanished. The noise quieted until all I could hear was the soft hum from his throat.
I wound my arms around his waist, splaying my hands over the hard muscles of his back.
He kept my head in his hands, slanting his mouth over mine to deepen the kiss.
Gods, he tasted good. I could spend my lifetime kissing this man and it wouldn’t be enough.
He licked every corner of my mouth with long, languid strokes of his tongue that made my knees go weak. He sucked on my bottom lip until my nipples pebbled beneath the satin of my nightgown, pressing against his hard chest.
A throb settled in my core as I let my hands roam over his skin, feeling that incredible strength beneath my fingertips.
There were still moments when it didn’t feel real. When I was afraid I’d open my eyes and he’d be gone.
He trailed his mouth along my jaw and cheeks and temples and forehead, like he was trying to convince himself this was real, too. The light scrape of beard on skin made me shiver.
Ransom’s fingers came to the thin straps of my nightgown, peeling them over my shoulders until the fabric slid down my body, pooling at my feet.
I untucked the fold in his towel, letting it drop.
His tongue darted out and licked his bottom lip as his gaze raked over my naked body, head to toe. His throat bobbed as he swallowed hard, and then his mouth stretched in a slow smirk. “The things I want to do to you.”
A flush warmed my cheeks. “Tell me.”
“I want to lick every inch of your skin. I want to come on those pretty nipples. I want to fuck you all night. I want to make you see stars and forget everything except the fact that you’re my wife.”
Those promises, that final word, made my sex clench.
His hand snaked up my bare hip, his fingertips leaving a trail of tingles along my ribs as he dragged them higher and higher until he traced the swell of my breast. He tormented me for another moment, his cock thick and hard between us.
My core throbbed, and my breath hitched.
“I love you.” I waited, breath held, for him to say it back.
Ransom’s eyes were darkened with lust, but they were green. A rich, mossy green that reminded me of the Turan forests. “Don’t forget.”
He crushed his mouth to mine, the tenderness and teasing from a heartbeat ago gone as he swept me into his arms and crossed the room with a few long strides, laying me on the bed. There was an urgency to his kiss as he came down on top of me, a hunger for more.
His teeth scraped my lips. His hands dug into the soft flesh of my hips as his weight pinned me to the bed.
Ransom was everywhere at once, and if there was even a small thread of my consciousness tied to reality, he severed it the moment he slid inside my body, filling me so completely I cried out his name.
A string of incoherent sounds escaped my mouth as he made good on his promises, tasting my skin and fucking me into oblivion.
Stroke after stroke, thrust after thrust, he brought us together in a frenzy until I was a writhing, trembling mess beneath him.
My fingernails dug into his shoulders, hard enough to leave marks, and then I shattered, coming apart so entirely my vision was nothing but white as tears leaked from the corners of my eyes.
“Odessa.” Ransom spoke with his lips against my throat, my name murmured in a voice that was mine and mine alone. His body quaked as I clenched and pulsed around him, the piston of his hips never pausing until I was entirely wrung out.
I was still reeling with the aftershocks of my orgasm as he pulled away and came all over my nipples, his release hot and sticky and so erotic I liquefied.
Once he was spent, he sank back on his knees, his face tipped to the ceiling as he closed his eyes to regain his breath.
Never in his life had he looked so at peace. Even with those dark veins spreading from his heart, he was perfect. Mine.
Ransom cracked his eyes open and stared down at me and the mess he’d made. The cocky grin that stretched across his lips was breathtaking as he rubbed a hand over his beard, covering his mouth as he gave a soft laugh. Then he hoisted me up, pulling me against his chest as he tugged me off the bed.
We barely made it to the bath before he was inside me again. He made good on every promise, fucking me all night long.
And by the time dawn kissed the horizon, I was fast asleep in his arms.