Chapter 28 #2
“All healed.”
His gaze met mine when I looked up. Something smoky on my tongue made my nostrils flare.
“What are you thinking of now?” I asked quietly.
His smirk was firmly in place, like he knew what I tasted. In the early morning light, his green eyes told me everything I needed to know. “You, Chaos. Always you.”
I reached up on my tiptoes, wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled him back to me. He didn’t resist. Our lips met again in the silence of the Oldwood. Maybe this time we wouldn’t be disturbed.
He coaxed my lips open with his tongue, searching like it’d been years since we last kissed instead of hours. Every stroke matched a step as he walked me backward to the nearest tree, only pausing when my back pressed against its trunk.
With a gentle caress of my jaw, he tipped my head up, granting himself access to the column of my neck. The way he mapped it with his tongue sent sparks surging through me. I might not feel magic shifting between us, but the world seemed to shift beneath my feet with his quest.
“Hart.” His name was like a secret I hadn’t yet voiced. A whisper to the winds of my deepest desire. I didn’t think I imagined his pause. His shiver. His fervor as our lips met again with urgent need.
Heat built with only the feel of his mouth on mine.
It wasn’t enough. I wanted an inferno. His gaze was a flame, and I wanted it to burn me.
I offered him the other hand, near his lips, silently requesting his assistance.
He didn’t require urging. The bite was gentle.
He made space between the silk and the tip of my finger with his teeth.
My breath caught with anticipation as he dragged the material from my skin.
Both hands finally free to explore, I sought him. With unsteady movements, I untucked his tunic. I wanted to run my fingers over the hard lines of him. I wanted his mouth back on mine. I wanted the Oldwood to bear witness to my passion unleashed.
“So greedy,” he whispered as he dropped the glove to the forest floor. My hands found the ridges of his abdomen, and I dragged my nails over them. His chuckle was low. “It’s a shame you already achieved envy.”
“I have other emotions to collect,” I said, raking my fingers over him again, letting the fire build within me with each pass.
He froze with my words. I released my grip. “What is it?”
“I have to ask you again, Chaos. What is this to you?”
I met his gaze, understanding the question for what it was. “Us finding our way back to each other. Us forging our own destiny, rejecting what the goddesses desire.” I touched his chin and cupped the side of his face as his weight leaned into my palm. “This is you and me.”
“And?” he pressed, his eyes closed with the intensity of our connection.
“And if this continues, I assure you that the pendant will glow orange. But is that a bad thing?”
He huffed. “It’s a bad thing if you feel any pressure to proceed. There are other ways to feel lust.”
I laughed. “I’m well aware. I’ll choose this one, if it’s all the same to you. As I told you, I have faith in our ability to find our way through this. We’ve already done so much. You’re the should-be king who defied a goddess’s summons. I’m the jeweler who stole the king’s source of power.”
He pressed a kiss to my wrist. “You’re the ember in every heart in the city. The rebellion silently simmering in humans for years. They just didn’t know what to do with it.”
His words made me sound like something … more. The rebellion followed him. The Cursed King would be the face of change in Kavios, but he’d made me feel this way before. When he spoke of my fearlessness in the face of danger. “You always make me sound like more than I am.”
“Maybe you’re just everything to me.”
I didn’t know who moved first, but we came together again with a ferocity I couldn’t explain.
His hands caged my waist, securing me against the tree.
His lips caught mine, worshiping as much as they demanded.
They moved down the slope of my neck. He palmed my breasts through my blouse, and the moan that escaped only seemed to urge him on.
His mouth followed his hands, nipping and lapping, leaving wet marks across my white top.
I didn’t care. My hands speared his hair before I realized he knelt before me.
His teeth toyed with the hem of my shirt, pulling it out of my skirt to find skin.
In the same breath, his hands were at my ankles, working their way up my calves, my thighs. Beneath my skirt, our connection flamed.
“Hart,” I panted as I pulled my shirt free, granting him the access he searched for.
“I’m working, love.”
Not Chaos.
The name stole my breath. The one I’d barely confronted myself.
Then all thought disappeared as his fingers found my center.
Magic shifted, a thick, physical thing between us. I had no capacity to think about what it meant. Surely, the gem glowed orange beneath my blouse. It was irrelevant. All that mattered was Hart’s hand and its next stroke.
“More,” I demanded. Thankfully, he seemed in no mood to make me wait.
His fingers circled and plunged. I didn’t know whether the fire was from our connection or the heat he stoked with each and every movement.
My body chased his touch, and with a low growl that sounded a lot like, “Chaos,” his head disappeared beneath my skirt entirely.
The first press of his mouth against my hip was a tease. The second touch, the stroke of his tongue against my heat, was all-consuming. My knees shook, and his hand braced my thigh.
Then I couldn’t catch my breath as he feasted.
His tongue worked, and his fingers filled me.
The sensation was too much—it was not enough.
Each stroke was too perfect, the fire between us burned too hot, and before I could process, flames erupted, cascading through my body like waves of molten lava.
Hart’s grip only tightened, holding me steady, as his tongue savored every second of my desire.
When my focus returned, Hart freed himself from my skirts, stood, and pressed a kiss against my lips. I held him there, sought the feel of him against me, not nearly sated. My want for him had only just ignited.
“We need to get back,” he whispered against me. “We can get back into Kavios tomorrow. My brother—he— Well, I have a lot to tell you.”
I knew he was right. And I had no fear of the information. I hadn’t bothered to ask what happened during his escape. There was no doubt in my mind he’d reveal the relevant details when we were free of danger.
My body ached for him. Even as my mind knew we had work left to do.
I held his gaze, and in the soft light of the rising sun, I imagined a thousand mornings like this.
A thousand mornings getting lost in each other without the weight of the kingdom pressing down on us.
I’d fight for every moment until then, and for a thousand mornings after.
Kavios deserved better. I’d do everything to give its citizens a brighter future.
Hart and I together could see it done. I might not know what our connection was, but I knew inherently that, if given the chance, it could burn our enemies to ash.