Chapter Thirty-Four #2
“No.” I have finally had enough. “None of that again. Never again. Not after what we shared in that inn. Not after everything we’ve been through. We don’t know how this journey will end, but we damn sure know—I damn sure know—what I feel for you.”
He starts to speak, but I raise my hand to stop him. “I’ve waited all my life for you, too. Don’t make me wait one more minute.”
His gaze is hotter than the fire beside us, but he still hesitates, clenching his hands to fists at his sides. “If you knew what I’ve done. What I’ve promised …”
“I. Don’t. Care.” Frustration and desire go to war inside me, but anger crests past them.
I yank my shirt over my head, taking my undershirt with it, and stand bare to the waist before him. Right there, in front of the fire and anyone who might return to camp at any minute.
“I want you, Kaelen, and I think you want me, too. Either do something about it, now, or I will never offer again.”
I’m trembling with the amount of courage it took for me to do this. To subject myself to utter humiliation if he refuses. To the sound of my heart breaking if he walks away.
He stares at me, his mouth falling open and his eyes purple flame. Then he takes the single step to reach me and sweeps me up into his arms, my shirt still clutched in my shaking hand.
“You humble me, Solitude Grace,” he murmurs into my hair, and then he strides toward the trees, holding me so tightly I can feel his heart beating against my cheek. “And I will never—could never—turn down such an offer from you.”
He walks far enough into the forest that the campfire is only a faint glow in the distance, and then he lowers me to sit on a fallen tree so that I’m face to face with him. I drop my clothes and put my arms around his neck and press my face to his shoulder, suddenly shy to be undressed before him.
His laugh is low and deep and wicked. “Oh, no. You don’t get to hide from me now, beautiful one. And I have to decide on a way to punish you.”
My head snaps up. “You what? Punish me for what? If you think—”
“I think that if you ever again bare that beautiful body where anybody but me can see it, I’ll find a way to lock you in my bedchamber, naked, for a very long time.”
“When this is all over, I’m not sure I’d hate that,” I say primly, trying not to smile.
His amusement fades as he looks at me, his gaze painting heat down my body. “Soli. My Solitude. I have to have you right now. Please say yes. Ever since those bounty hunters … the thought of what they might have done to you if we hadn’t defeated them, I have been losing my damn mind.”
“Kaelen.”
“Forget words. I need to fuck you until I believe you’re alive and unharmed. I need to feel my cock so deep inside you I know you’re still here. Still mine.”
The force of his desire shimmers between us, catching me off guard. My skin lights up with such exquisitely intense desire, it takes me to the edge of pain. “Kaelen—”
“We’re done talking,” he growls, his voice low and broken. “Tell me yes, or tell me to leave. I’ll walk away if you order me to. But tell me now.”
He takes my face in his hands and stares into my eyes with so much naked wanting I’m surprised I don’t go up in flames—which immediately strikes me as a bad thought to have, wearing the amulet. But oh oh oh the way he’s looking at me.
“Tell me yes,” he demands. “Please. I need to be inside you. Or I need to find the strength to walk away.”
I pull his face to mine and kiss him so deeply that I don’t know where he ends and I begin. I want to climb inside his clothes, inside his body, inside his mind.
I want to climb inside his heart.
So I tell him yes.
In the space of two rapid heartbeats, he’s stripping my clothes and boots off my body, frantically kissing every bared inch of skin.
I reach for his shirt ties, but he tears off his clothes until he stands nude before me, the evidence of his desire erect between us. “Now. I need you now. Now, now, now.”
He’s still kissing me, and he clamps his body to mine so tightly that my sensitive nipples rub against his chest and make me moan. My nerve endings are a forest fire of need so intense it’s almost pain, and I can’t seem to catch my breath.
I wrap my arms and legs around him, and we move together in a frenzy of almost primal necessity. I spare a thought for the key and amulet, but they lie still and quiet between us like simple bits of gemstone and metal.
I can’t breathe air. I only want to breathe him, his scent, his skin, his taste and touch and feel. I can’t get enough of him, and I never will, because the feeling of him inside me and all around me is everything I never knew I wanted, and now I’ll never, ever be willing to give him up.
“Don’t leave me. Swear it,” he growls between kisses, his powerful body pounding into me while I arch into him, moving in rhythm with his thrusts. “I can’t take it. When I thought I’d have to see you die—”
He takes my mouth like a conqueror, giving no quarter and leaving no doubt of his intentions. “Mine. You are mine. Swear it.”
“Then you’re mine, too,” I say, claiming him. Caught up in the moment. He can be mine until he can’t. But I shove those thoughts aside.
“Yes,” he growls. “Always. Come for me, my Solitude. Now.” He drives into me, thrusting harder, until colors sparkle behind my eyes and inside my heart and body and soul. I launch into a whirlwind of emotion and sensation that lifts me higher and higher until I shatter in his arms.
Kaelen groans my name, his back arching when he comes, and for a long time we stay together, just holding on, tiny aftershocks trembling through both of us. His hands move up and down my sides and back, caressing.
“No more,” he says when we can speak again. “I surrender to my fate.”
“Your fate?”
“You, Soli. You’re my fate,” he whispers, then takes my mouth again. Not with heat or urgency, but with comfort. With commitment.
With a promise.
Before I can reply, we hear horses galloping down the path toward us.
“It must be Chitai and Andras,” Kaelen says. “And they’re riding too fast for this to be good news.”
We quickly dress and race back to the fire, arriving at the same time as our companions.
“We found the temple,” Chitai says, studying us.
Andras’s sharp eyes miss nothing. I’m sure both of them know what we were up to.
“What happened?” I refuse to be embarrassed.
Andras swings down off his horse. “We met two warrior scholars guarding the gate. They denied us entry.”
Kaelen swears beneath his breath. “What? Did you tell them we’re on a mission from Artemisen herself?”
“No,” Chitai drawls. “We said we were there to invite them to a dance.”
I ignore the sarcasm. “This can’t be happening. Surely once we explain, once we show them the amulet …”
Elianna and Trick ride up the road to join us.
“I sensed we were needed,” the sorcerer says briefly, searching our faces. “What happened?”
Chitai fills them in while Andras drinks deeply from a waterskin.
Trick folds his arms. “Well, that’s it. We tried. Time to move on to the next plan.”
Everybody ignores this.
“We show them the amulet,” Elianna says.
Even though I just said the same thing, I slowly shake my head, having second thoughts. “But should we show them the amulet? What if this is an elaborate plot to take it and the first key from us? What if—”
“What if the long-extinct Valourian snow leopards appear and start singing drinking songs?” Andras drawls. “What if the Zhagarn invite us to a tea party? We can’t operate on ‘ifs’ right now.”
“Andras is right,” Kaelen says. “We need more information, and the only way we’re going to get it is to go to the temple and ask.”
“Ask again,” Chitai amends, her eyes narrow.
“Ask again,” Kaelen agrees.
I see movement by the fire, and Bern and Sergeant Neville walk over to us, both carrying weapons.
“We heard a commotion,” the sergeant says. “Is it another attack?”
“Not exactly,” I say and then fill him in.
“To the temple, then,” Kaelen says. “Now is better than later.”
“It’s a trap,” Neville says.
“It probably is,” Chitai agrees. “Won’t they be surprised when we spring it and slaughter everyone who gets in our way?”
“I’m not so much in favor of slaughter,” I say. “Or at least, not unless we’re defending ourselves. Maybe we could just try to communicate like reasonable people?”
Chitai laughs. “When has that ever worked? But sure. Talk first, slaughter later.”
Great.
Talk first, slaughter later.
I should embroider that on a shirt.
I’m still wondering if she’d wear it when we finish the little preparation we need and start up the mountain path toward the temple to find out exactly how unwelcome we are.
Maybe this key won’t be guarded by unspeakable evil, just stubborn scholars.
I definitely don’t want to slaughter scholars.
Against my skin, the amulet heats up.