Page 493 of Kingdoms of Night

I failed to suppress a giggle. “How do you shave with no reflection?”

Tamuz brought me closer, pressing on my lower back. “By feel.”

There was a question in the way he traced the knobs of my spine, tracing the words on my skin in an unknown, but primally understood, language.

Giving into instinctive desire, my answer was to climb into his lap, legs bent beneath me as I straddled him. Immediate with urgency, he pulled me closer and our chests met, trading breaths as I continued my exploration.

Stubble coated his squared jaw and stopped at the matching cheekbones, the texture creating a titillating friction that urged me to drag my fingertips across the lower half of his face, tracing the outline of his lips.

Tamuz’s large hands found my elbows then stroked up my arms til they began a tortuously slow descent down my bare back, as if he were trying to map my body by feel. Like I did to his face.

My exploration rose to the part I aimed for whenever we spoke. From the dip in his top lip to the long bridge of his nose, my thumb traced the sculpted angles, prompting him to tilt his head down and into my palm.

“Meissa,” he shuddered, low and gravelly.

His hands wrapped around my waist as I smoothed his thick brows, following the arched ends to circle down to the feature I’d been saving for last.

“I wish I could see your eyes.” I felt his lashes first, long and firm, sliding shut to let me trace the half-moon shape, the pull at the edges from his thick, double-eyelids under the end-tips of his brows.

Imagination came to life, creating a vivid approximation based on my sensual findings. His face was wide, strong bone structure bearing firm features that were set in a natural glower. A resting face made to command respect through sheer intimidation, and the unspoken threat of his might.

“I wish I could show you all of me,” he rasped, gripping my hips, sharp thumbnails against my lower ribs. “Watch your face as you truly meet mine.”

Oversensitivity swept across my body, heightening the awareness in the softest parts of my skin and redirecting the blood rush from my head to beneath my collarbone and between my hips.

His heavy breathing filled the room, echoing within my ribcage. I felt the hot, wet exhales against my palm as I sought out his chin and felt his firm, full lower lip drag against my thumb.

My hands weren’t enough anymore, and I knew my eyes couldn’t achieve what I hungered for now.

Unfulfilled since we left the altar, I finally kissed my groom.

All caution was thrown to the wind as he responded, burning away the hesitance of my inexperience. Feeling his jaw work to press and slide his mouth against mine, I forgot whatever else led me to this moment. The nebulous desire to sate my curiosity and longing for a man, the pressing duty I’d hoped to fulfill, none of it mattered as he scraped his nails on the thin material of my dress.

Wound up by the suggestive scrape, caught between the thrill of fear and fascination. He could gut me with those talons, feast on my entrails like the beasts that thrived in pitch-blackness. But he favored my mouth, using the teasing press of his nails to spark a gasp and slip his tongue past my teeth.

Instantaneously consumed, the flush intensified and lulled me into the sweet, overpowering haze of undiluted wine. For all I knew, each drag of his long, flexible tongue against mine could be feeding me venom, making me delirious. But I knew that this was spreading from within me, each turn of his head and huff of his breath chipping at my core.

His arm hooked around my waist, supporting my weight as I leaned back to take in deep breaths. He chased my lips, palms caressing my thighs on the way to my knees, and found my chin instead. Unbothered, he kissed along my jaw til he reached my ears, “Is this what you want?”

“Can’t you tell?”

“Not your intentions, no,” he purred into my ear. “Is this your desire for me, or a method to liberate me?”

“Either or. Both. What does it matter?”

“It matters if you don’t mean it,” he said. “Nothing would be achieved unless you do.”

The potion ought to take care of that, it had already made me brazen and confident to pursue my goal, it could heighten whatever I already felt towards him.

I stroked his hair, feeling the big waves all the way down to the locks hanging over his shoulders. “We can’t know unless we try.”

“Could you forgive me if it didn’t work?” He pressed a gentle kiss to my cheek. “Would you return to my arms if the effort failed?”

“What is there to forgive?” I wrapped my arms around his neck, reached for his wings and felt them rise into my grasp. Thick bone stretched the leathery skin until I met the curving ends. Taloned peaks marked some jutting joint, like an elbow. “You don’t bite, do you?”

Iltani’s rumbling groan reminded us of her presence. She had uncoiled from her spot and taken to circling us along the top curves of the room.

“No, but she does,” he laughed lightly, meeting her head with a pet.

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