32. Chace
With Raven’s hand in mine, I led her from the gala, out through the grand doors, and into the palace’s enclosed rose garden. A floral courtyard on a grand scale, surrounded by the castle walls, trimmed in majestic architectural elements, yet open to the sky.
Of course, the flowers gracing the royal oasis couldn’t compare in sight or scent to the alluring female at my side.
The silk of Raven’s gloves slid softly against the skin of my palm. And yet I would favor…
“Do you mind?” I towed us to a stop and raised a questioning brow at her as I gently tugged on the fingers of one glove.
It covered her arm to her elbow, and, if permitted, I would prefer to remove that barrier. Feel her flesh against mine.
Her gaze dropped to her hands. She shifted her weight and worried her lower lip.
Am I making her uncomfortable?
I released my hold, my chest tightening.
“No. I don’t mind. Not at all.” She shook her head. “Camilla chose them to hide all the cuts—”
The knots in my chest unraveled, and I shushed her with the gentle press of a single finger to her mouth.
“This last week has been a storm of events and emotions, and there are many things we should discuss, but not at present. Let’s take this moment to enjoy your restored health and simply be in the now. ”
“O…okay.” She dragged her teeth over that plump bottom lip of hers, and I found myself fixated on the movement.
Reminded of our kiss. The one I still hoped…no, intended to revisit. Something inside of me warmed and twisted my gut.
“You scared me.” I tugged her left glove free and set it on the edge of the closest planter. “At the warehouse and then again yesterday, showing up at the pub in such a depleted condition.”
I freed her right hand from the other glove and tossed it with its mate.
“I’m sorr—”
My fingers found her mouth again. I needed her to hear me while the courage in my chest persisted. But first…
Signaling my intentions, I removed her mask and placed it with her gloves. I never wanted anything to hide her face from me. Not ever. Granting her the same consideration, I slipped my own mask free and set it atop hers.
“I know our history hasn’t been the most…” I folded her hands within my hold while searching for the right word. “Cordial.”
Raven huffed softly, bringing a smile to my lips.
“But I feel…” My gaze intensified. Warmed. “As if our world is evolving, and our dynamics are shifting. Am I wrong?”
She wet her luscious ruby lips and shook her head, her wide, bright eyes never straying from mine. Again, she bit that inviting lower lip and―
Reaping gods. Those lips.
I blinked and cleared my throat.
“Yesterday, after that prick of a prince knocked me out and spirited you away—” My voice caught in my throat, and I dropped my gaze to the feathered skirt of her gown.
Her otherworldly, goddess-made gown.
When I awoke in one of the pub beds to find her gone, my mind had crowded with an army of unthinkable scenarios and actions. But she was here now, alive, breathing, and in good health.
I swallowed hard.
The warmth of her palm caressed my cheek, drawing my gaze back to hers.
“For a moment,” I confessed, “I feared you might have died.”
“No,” she mouthed, and I wanted to capture that word, that breath, with my lips.
I stepped forward, pressing into her, collapsing the open space. She glided back, matching the distance. A predatorial dance between the goddess of death and her god of war.
I curled my finger around a few strands of her hair and gently tugged them forward through my loose hold. She sighed, her long lashes dusting her cheeks.
“I cannot let anything like that ever happen again.” My voice was more growl than reaper. “I can’t see you harmed.”
I spoke the truth I’d been slowly realizing ever since our first specter attack. And now… Now I was beyond done with all the pretenses.
I pressed forward once more, and this time, she didn’t retreat. “Do you understand?”
She nodded, her lips parting, screaming for me to seize them. Make her mine.
“I… May I…” I couldn’t push words past the song that was everything Raven now filling my head.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Not a question, but what? Permission?
My restraint was slipping. The line blurring between how I should act and what I desired. Her lips called to me, and her starry-midnight blue eyes hypnotized me, led me to forget myself.
I detected no hesitation or indecision on her part, and none certainly existed where I was concerned. My want and need for her had become a fierce lifeforce within my soul, deepening my hunger for everything she was willing to share.
I wrapped my hands around her waist and dragged her flush against my body, needing to feel her near. Yet no near was near enough. Her hand slipped over the savage beat of my heart, sending a jolt through my nervous system.
Her name growled in my chest with a rumble, and her returned murmured “yes” snapped my control.
I drove us, bodies intertwined, against a wall, between two spiraled cypress trees.
My lips crashed over hers, and she opened for me, moaning a welcome.
Her lips upon my mouth were infectious, fatally so.
The taste of her, the feel of her, the glorious scent of her, obliterated me in so many ways. Ways I openly welcomed.
I needed to experience her with every single one of my senses so that I might alleviate any lingering worries about her wellness.
I simply needed her―everywhere, in every way.
Our kisses deepened, became eager and devouring.
Greedy and raw. A primal need for connection and reassurance.
Reassurance of safety and shared emotions.
And yet so much more. My hands and mouth venerated the lines of her face, the curves of her body, and my name whispered like a prayer on her lips.
Her fingers tangled in my hair, pulling taut, as my lips coasted along the stretch of her swan neck and brushed the exposed, soft upper swells of her breasts. Her breathy sounds shot straight to my cock and…gods below…I was incredibly hard for her.
My mouth found hers once more, soaking up her responses. I discovered a new favorite pastime: coaxing gasps and moans from her lips. Lips that were deliciously sweet and so godsdamn dizzying.
She pulled and yanked at my vest, baring my chest and sending shivers across my skin, a pang above my heart. I was losing myself to wild abandonment, and soon I might not care where we were. I’d pull her to the ground, right here in the royal garden. Or take her against the wall.
I needed her, but stronger than my need was my desire. My passion for all that she was, all that she would ever be. And when our relationship moved to that next level, it would not take place in a semi-public garden. She deserved comfort and privacy, the best of all things that I could provide her.
Holding my animalistic urges (and needy hands) in check…because, reaper help me, I wanted to explore her plunging neckline…I bestowed my devotion upon her in a lover’s passion. Kissing her fiercely over and over, without end.
Roses bloomed, and stars fell as the night sky and the wispy mists of ether hugged our bodies and honored our union. We were consumed in our moment. Commanding and worshiping.
A posed cough signaled the arrival of an unwanted third party.
“What?” I growled and, keeping Raven safe within the cage of my arms, turned my head and cast a hard glare over my shoulder.
At my back, Raven’s friend…servant…whatever…the guy I now knew as Lucas…shifted uncomfortably. “Terribly sorry to interrupt this most beautiful moment, but the crown prince insisted I retrieve you immediately.”
I grunted. “Then it is time?”
“I don’t know to what you are referring, but I would assume so. Yes. I shall await you by the door.” Lucas pointed toward the gala and then quietly slipped away through the garden.
I turned back to Raven. Her lips were swollen, blurred with the red of her lipstick…just the way I liked it…and a kaleidoscope of questions filled her gaze.
“You and Winter are up to something.” Her brow pinched.
I nodded.
“Even after what happened yesterday?”
I chortled and brushed a soft kiss to her lips. “Even so,” I murmured. “I promise to behave.”
“Meet me back here afterwards?” Her fingers glided down my exposed chest, traced the lines of my tattoo chains, and my body burned in response.
Jolted with something akin to static electricity. My desire for her thickened, stretching my pants uncomfortably.
“And if for some reason we miss each other…” She dipped and pressed a kiss between my pectorals.
A groan rumbled at the back of my throat. “You’re making it very difficult for me to walk away from you right now.”
I yanked at her hips, tugging her to me. Even with her large feathery skirt, we fit perfectly together. She smiled, a wicked little thing, and placed another kiss on the underside of my chin.
“If we miss each other later, you can likely find me in my room.” She raised a finger, indicating a bird-mobbed terrace in a long wall of terraces.
Of course hers would be teeming with crows. My mouth ticked up in a humored grin. Swinging my attention back to her, I brushed my lips against her temple.
“Now I know how to always find you. Just follow the crows,” I whispered, then drew back and cupped her face, pressed my forehead to hers. “I’ll try to be quick.”
“Do that,” she replied as I reluctantly stepped away, collected my mask, and crossed the garden to Lucas’s location.
I left her pressed against the wall, partially hidden between twisted cypress trees, glowing like the moon in the sky. Damn the gods, I hated walking away from her.
I veered straight for the male in waiting while tying my mask back in place.
“Um, sire,” Lucas drawled. “You have a little…”
He twisted a finger in the air, motioning to my face and upper body.
I glanced down at Raven’s brand upon me, her ruby lipstick clinging to my skin. I had half a mind to leave it, let Winter see her mark upon me. But…our tentative relationship would be better served if I cleaned up before rendezvousing with the prince of pricks.