Page 43 of Captive of the Stolen Empire

“Is that so hard to imagine?” He flashed a grin before his face turned somber. “Tell me, what were you planning to do this evening?”

My steps faltered. “Try not to fall into the fire,” I teased as I recovered with Lucien’s aid, picking up the pattern again.

Abruptly, he halted mid-dance. “Come with me.”

A thread of panic tightened around my neck like a noose. “Where—”

“You’ll see.”

He took my hand in his and navigated the throng of festivalgoers to the edge of the festival, far from the dancing, where guards watched the perimeter.

Had we been found out? My pulse beat wildly in my throat. He’d been kind, sweet. Was it all a ruse to get me to let my guard down? With my racing thoughts, I hardly noticed who we passed or where we went.

“Our guests are to remain at the party,” one guard said, stepping forward with his hand up to stop us.

Lucien made a shape with his free hand, so fast and fluid I completely missed its design.

“Never mind.” The guard stepped back into place.

They didn’t recognize Lucien, not without his armor, but they knew that symbol.

“Where are we going?” I whispered as Lucien led me past the guards and toward a handful of outbuildings. Festivalgoers cast wavering shadows against the wooden walls of a stable, a storage shed, and other buildings. A shiver of unease raced down my back. The desire to flee back to the party increased with every racing beat of my heart.

“Luc—”

He whipped around in a flash, his hand landing over my mouth. The sudden movement stole my breath. My spine locked up.

“Shh…” he whispered. “Just up here.”

My skin turned clammy. Off to where only shadows would witness my doom.

No one else wandered these narrow paths. Darkness prevailed, the structures blocking the blaze of the fires. The last flickering tongues of light trailed along the ground between the guards more than a horse’s length behind me.

At the end of the building, Lucien turned, pulling me with him around the corner into deeper shadows. He halted, grasping my waist and pushing me against the building. Smooth wood dug into my back through the material of my dress. “What are you—”

His lips stole my words as they crashed against mine, soft but demanding. His kiss contained no questions, no tentative seeking, only conquest.

And I melted for him.

Fear fled in the wake of desire. I wanted this—him, in a way I hadn’t realized. My arms laced around his neck, holding on for dear life in the turbulent storm of his kiss. Without the building at my back, I may have very well collapsed into his arms.

“Ilya,” he mumbled against me, a soft nip pulling at my bottom lip. My hands slid through his hair. Heat raced under my skin, warming me more than the bonfires. A tight knot twisted in my gut as I parted for him.

His tongue swept inside, stealing the last of my rational thought. There was only he and I, his lips on mine. Where we were, who we were, none of it mattered.

I whimpered as a firm hand slid down to cup my backside and pull me tight against him. Heat and moisture pooled between my legs as an unmistakable hardness pressed into me where our bodies molded together.

I panted, relishing the feel of his warm breath caressing my skin as he broke our kiss.

“I couldn’t do that out there.” His chest rose and fell as he held me firm. “But I wanted to. I—”

My hand fisted in his hair, tugging him back to me. Our bodies crashed into the building, his arms taking the brunt of the blow where they wrapped around me.

The taste of him, the soft growl rumbling from his chest, threatened to undo me. I shouldn’t have wanted him. Couldn’t want him. But I did. Every speck of my skin ached to be pressed against his own. In the moment, I didn’t care what he was, what he’d done, or what I planned to do to him. I needed this. Passion and heat—enough to burn away rational thought and just let me savor the taste of pleasure I so desperately needed in a wasteland of misery.

“Come back early,” he whispered, voice thick and heavy like wet sand.

I nodded, not trusting my words as I stared into eyes that threatened to devour me.

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