Chapter 18
RYLAND STORME
Icaught the briefest flash of pale skin before I stepped into the hall and put my back to the door, my heart lurching as I tried not to imagine what Lyrae Antares looked like naked.
I closed my eyes.
What she’d look like lying in a bathtub, black hair floating around her, blue eyes beckoning me closer.
The tangerine-honey scent of her arousal already saturated my senses; my cock was so hard I had to reach down and rearrange myself, every part of me wanting to stalk back inside that room, pin her to the bed and sink deep into her.
Thrust into her tight, wet heat until the walls between us disappeared and her eyes were soft and unguarded, her lips swollen from my kisses.
I dragged a hand down my throbbing cock, once, twice, fuck….
The last time we’d been together, she’d been so young—shit, we both had been—her face still rounded, her body curvy and soft.
This new Lyrae was a warrior, nothing but muscle and strength, lean and lithe and powerful enough to…
I blew out a long breath, hands curling into sweaty fists as I tried to decide where to go to finish myself off.
Nearest fucking broom closet, here I come.
These past few days had been a tangle of emotions and memories I’d purged from my very soul, through blood and pain and sweat and utter force of will.
How easily everything had slipped back into place between us—fighting instantly turning to carnal lust—a century of time vanishing with the snap of a finger.
In the beginning, this had all seemed so very simple.
The High Seer’s owl shifter showing up on my doorstep, demanding my services.
Me, being in the right place and time for once, as he’d dropped a prettily wrapped package right in my lap.
Smuggle the Commander of the Dreadwatch through the Shadowlands ward, and we’ll give you piles of gold.
Torin and the Fae Queen handed me the keys to the kingdom, except they came wrapped up in the prickliest package I’d ever known.
I’d had everything figured out, my future secure, then she’d stepped from those shadows like a fucking queen, robbing my lungs of breath, stealing every rational thought from my head.
Eyes filled with so much rage, I’d known two things.
The female I loved was alive after all.
And she hated me with every cell of her being.
But right now, Lyrae was in my bed. Acres of creamy, naked skin pressed between my sheets, the scent of her coating my fingers.
I shoved them into my mouth, licking off every last hint of her like a glutton.
I could have skated my fingers up the inside of her thigh and found her wet, slick folds, and then…
I bent over, caught between the need to claim the future waiting behind this door… and walking away.
I should let her hate me.
That would be the easiest path. Keep feelings out of this, so when we accomplished our goals, we’d go our separate ways and never think of each other again.
But some stubborn male part of me couldn’t allow her to go on hating me.
No, I craved her approval like I craved her body, like I craved her love, with every fucking inch of my lying, rotten being.
I wanted to turn that hateful glare into needy moans, wanted her writhing beneath me as I plunged into her wet heat and devoured her screams.
These past two days had driven home one simple truth.
Lyrae Antares was the only woman I’d ever loved.
Still loved.
Would always love.
And I didn’t give a shit about Kaden Rooke or the Butcher or the artifacts or the piles of gold waiting at the end of this.
All I wanted was her.
“The bastard only had soup in the kitchen. And the bread is stale, but I toasted a few slices over the fire, so they should be edible, at least.” Varian carried the tray like an extension of his arm, halting in front of me when I didn’t move.
I opened one eye, unsure how long I’d been standing out here, debating with myself about going back inside, seeing if I could charm my way back into my own godsdamned bed. The faint splashing sounds had ended, so I assumed…
“She’s getting changed.”
“Into what?” He glanced between me and the closed door. “Her clothes are soaked in Grimbeast blood, she only brought one extra shirt, which she used to cover her mouth when we crossed the ward.”
I rapped my knuckles against the door, hard enough to break my bruised knuckles back open. “There are clean shirts in the drawer. Top one.” Varian lifted a brow and I winced. “Okay, mostly clean.”
“I thought she was dead, Ry.” The dishes on the tray rattled as he changed hands. “When she went under that water, I thought…”
“Well, she’s not dead, is she? She’s very much alive and even more pissed off than before, and Lyrae is off limits, and she’s staying that way, just like we agreed.”
“Don’t be a fucking asshole,” he hissed. “I didn’t plan any of this. As for our agreement…I don’t know, Ry. There has to be some way to…” He didn’t finish, but he didn’t have to. Both of us, scrambling to figure out how to have everything we ever wanted, when the world always gave us so little.
For a long moment, we stared each other down, until I finally stepped aside, the shadows swallowing me up.
No, it wasn’t my fault we were both in love with the same woman.
Fate had decided that for us.
And for these past hundred years, when Lyrae was nothing but a long-lost memory, Varian and I spent countless nights wishing her back to life, planning out our imagined futures, the three of us together, inseparable, like when life had been simpler.
How easy it had been to fall into those fantasies, to imagine a life outside of the slums, without the poverty and the constant danger. To have the future I’d always dreamed for us, like that one perfect sunset, shared on a rooftop with a female I could never forget.
“Lyrae, I brought food,” Varian called through the door. “I can leave the tray out here, if you’re not ready for me to….”
She flung the door open, braid undone, her pale blue eyes widening when she saw what was on the tray. Funny how stale bread and broth becomes a feast when you’re starving.
“Oh gods, that smells…come in. You can put everything over there by the fire. How did you find food? I figured the Dark Prince survived on nightmares and evil, since he’s such a twat.”
I didn’t hear what Varian said in response, because my head emptied out at the sight of those long, lean legs stretching from the bottom of my shirt, barely hitting her mid-thigh, accentuating the curve of her perfect, toned ass, the swell of her flushed breasts pushing up over the low neckline.
Unbraided, the end of her perfectly straight hair kissed the small of her back, a sleek fall of deepest black catching the firelight with flashes of blue that almost matched her eyes. And the way she moved—even after these past days, she still moved like a dancer, elegant and sleek and graceful.
She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, and she was wearing my shirt. Pure male satisfaction curled in my lower belly, my cock hardening again before I turned away and headed down the hall.
Broom closet, here I come.
She was warm, and soon to be fed, and if I knew Varian at all, he’d inspect her from head to toe for injuries, rub healing salve on every last little cut, then watch over her until she fell asleep.
And while I wanted nothing more than to press her down into my bed and tie her up, lick every delicious inch of her until she screamed my name, I had a Dark Prince to see, and a bargain to fulfill.