Chapter 22 #3
I gasped, and Xandros laughed. A full, rich laugh that lightened me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.
I made to splash him again, but he caught me around the waist, pulling me closer. The movement sent water sloshing against the stone.
My palms landed against his shoulders, and our laughter faded. My fingers moved of their own accord, tracing the stars I had wanted to touch from the first moment I saw him.
His skin was smooth like marble, but still charged and alive. I followed a path of constellations from his chest to his collarbone before tracing the next set to the center of his neck.
My fingers stopped there. His throat bobbed once beneath my touch.
Heat soaked through every place our bodies touched.
One of his hands spanned my waist beneath the water. The other rested against my back as he inched me closer. My breasts pressed lightly to his chest with each breath.
His eyes dropped to my lips.
My pulse fluttered beneath the skin at my collarbone.
His arms stayed loose around me, leaving me room to move away. I stayed exactly where I was. His fingers flexed once against my side.
“Wildflower,” he practically whispered the word.
Heat slipped beneath my skin and pooled low in my belly. My breath caught softly between us. It moved through me differently here.
Here, where there were no guards to overhear us and no imminent death waiting on the horizon. Just his voice, the soothing water, and the steady pressure of his hand at my waist.
I continued my exploration of his constellations, this one near his shoulder again. Then I arched an eyebrow. “Not Shrub?”
A deep laugh rumbled through him, and my body softened toward him in response.
“You know, I never believed your explanation.”
A crease appeared between his brows. “For what?”
“Wildflower.”
His moonlit gaze searched mine.
“You told me it was because of the shrubbery.”
A grin split his mouth, and the sight of it made me ache.
He tilted his head. “Well, that was part of it.”
His thumb moved slowly against my back. I swallowed, allowing the water to carry me even closer to him.
Every part of him reacted to the movement, his pupils widening enough to hide the silver of his irises.
“So, why did it stay?” The question softened something in his face.
Water shifted around us as he drew a quiet breath.
I waited.
His attention dropped to the tattoos winding along my arm. He kept one hand against my back while bringing the other out of the water to trace my vines. A thrill moved through me at his touch, and an emerald glow stirred through the leaves in response.
“When I first saw you, you were covered in blood.”
“Well, that is remarkably romantic.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. His fingertip followed the curve of a leaf toward my elbow.
“You had a creature twice your size trying to eat you.”
I tipped my head, watching him. “And somehow you were captivated.”
His finger stilled. His eyes lifted to mine and stayed there.
“You were making the ground fight for you.”
My smile faded.
His gaze dropped again as his fingers slid down to my wrist. He lifted it from the water and brought it to his mouth, pressing a kiss to the vine there.
His lips lingered against my wrist. My pulse beat once beneath them, then again, each one sharper than the last. I stayed perfectly still while his thumb brushed over the glowing leaf beneath his mouth.
“I grew up watching things die.”
He kissed another leaf.
The warmth inside me changed.
“Trees first. Whole stretches of silverwood where nothing returned after winter. Then animals. Then my people.” His gaze remained on the vines along my arm. “Every few years, another star disappeared, and everyone learned to look at the empty place where it had been without staring too long.”
I touched the scar over his heart.
His chest rose beneath my palm.
“I don’t remember Asterra before it started dying.” His gaze returned to mine. “There was never a version of my home where loss was surprising.”
My fingers curled slightly against him.
A drop of water slid from the end of his hair and struck my wrist.
“But then I saw you.” His thumb brushed over the vine near my pulse.
“You were bleeding, and afraid, but furious, and stubborn enough to challenge something that should have killed you. The earth moved when you touched it. Roots broke through dead ground because you asked them to.”
My mouth went dry. His attention remained on my arm, his thumb moving slowly over the green light beneath my skin as though he could still see that first patch of broken ground between us.
“Afterward, everywhere we went, you kept doing the same thing.”
“What?” The word came out softer than I meant it to.
His eyes lifted to mine. A small smile lifting his perfect lips.
“Living.”
For a moment, I heard only the quiet movement of water around us and the sound of my pulse beating in my chest.
Xandros’ hand traveled up my arm slowly, his fingertips following the vines from my wrist toward my elbow. My leaves brightened beneath each pass.
“You grow vines from your own skin, Verena. You walk into places that have forgotten what life feels like and carry it with you. And not just because of your Wild.” His fingers stopped against one glowing leaf. “It’s who you are. You are that life.”
My breath caught somewhere high in my chest. I looked down at the water between us.
He tilted my chin up, bringing my face back toward his.
“Wildflowers have a way of appearing in broken places. Places that have been burned, abandoned, or left for dead.” His thumb brushed my lower lip. “They find whatever light remains, and somehow, they still bloom.”
My heartbeat struck hard against my ribs.
“They survive.” His eyes lifted from my mouth and moved slowly over my face before finding mine again.
I could barely breathe. “You make that sound easy.”
“I know it isn’t.”
My hand pressed more firmly against his chest. My eyes stung, and I blamed the steam.
Xandros leaned forward, pressing his forehead against mine.
“But that is why the name stayed.”
I swallowed, taking a moment to collect my thoughts.
“So, the shrubbery had nothing to do with it?”
His mouth curved close to mine without quite touching.
“No,” he said, amusement creeping back into his tone. “Though the shrubbery was extremely compelling.”
A wet laugh broke out of me.
His hand slid into my hair. “I also thought you were beautiful.”
I went still.
Xandros drew back just enough to look at me. His eyes held mine, all trace of amusement gone.
“Well, you buried that rather deep.”
“I was getting there. I was trying to give you something more meaningful than I find you painfully attractive .”
A flush rushed across my face, and his mouth curved again.
My fingers spread against his chest, and his smile faded beneath the touch.
Something inside me gave way.
For a moment, my lips hovered in front of his as we breathed the same air.
My breaths came more quickly, and his followed suit, until he finally closed the distance and pressed his lips to mine.
It was slow at first, a gentle exploration of his mouth against mine. His hand tightened at my waist, fingers digging into my hip with an intensity that made me ravenous.
I kissed him harder.
Flames surged beneath my palm. Gold flared across his chest, and the thread between us came alive with a force that stole my breath, pulling through him and into me until I could no longer tell where the answer began.
I slid my fingers into the wet hair at his nape and pulled him closer.
Xandros steadied me without breaking the kiss. One hand moved down my back and stopped at my hip, his fingers spreading against bare skin beneath the water.
I shifted closer deliberately.
His breath caught.
The sound sent a sharp pulse of want through me.
I kissed the corner of his mouth, then his jaw. Storm-charged air and warm amber lingered beneath the mineral scent of the spring, familiar enough now that I could have found him with my eyes closed.
His lips pressed to the place beneath my ear.
My head tipped back.
Sparks followed the path of his mouth down my throat. I dug my fingers into his shoulders.
“Xandros.”
He stopped and the sudden stillness pulled my eyes open.
His face hovered close to mine, his breathing uneven.
“Tell me.”
I knew what he was asking.
My heart pounded harder.
I lifted my hand to his face. My fingertips moved along his cheek and into the wet hair beside his ear before tracing the pointed tip. He went still beneath my touch.
I cupped his cheek, the star in my palm resting against his skin.
“I want this.”
His eyes stayed on mine.
“With me?”
My thumb stilled against his cheek. I nodded.
Then I made myself say it. “I want you.”
The breath he released trembled across my mouth.
I curled my hand around the back of his neck. “And before you ask me twelve more times, I’m sure.”
One corner of his mouth lifted a little higher. “I was only planning on eleven.”
I kissed him again.
This time, every trace of his careful control slipped away. His arms closed around me and lifted, and I wrapped my legs around his hips on instinct.
His breath caught against my mouth.
The sound sent flames racing through me.
One of his hands moved down my back, following the curve of my waist until his fingers settled against my hip. His calloused fingertips dragged over skin already aching beneath every touch.
“Wildflower.”
I kissed him before he could say anything else.
His mouth moved over mine, then along my jaw and down my throat. Every place he touched seemed to wake beneath him. I clung to his shoulders while rippling water moved around us, my pulse racing harder with every slow pass of his hands.
When his touch drifted lower, my breath caught.
Xandros stopped.
I caught his wrist before he could pull away.
His eyes lifted to mine.
I laughed against his mouth before he kissed me again.
The laughter dissolved into the kiss, and something hungrier took its place.