Page 197 of A Vow of Embers

So dangerous.

We both still had on our lower undergarments and I briefly wondered how long it would be before those were removed, too.

“Nothing to say, Lia?” he teased as he crawled over me. “You usually enjoy it when I undress.”

It was true. “You make me forget how to speak,” I confessed as I reached out to run my fingers along the tantalizing lines and ridges of his chest. He grunted slightly at the contact and the sound thrilled me.

“I’m going to make you forget everything. Even your own name,” he promised in a gravelly voice.

I believed him.

He reached down and stole a quick, sweet kiss. “But you won’t forget mine. Because you’re going to be calling it out over and over.”

His voice was like fingertips on my skin, and my heart beat so violently and arrhythmically that I worried it might stop completely.

“Are you thinking of the relief and pleasure you’ll feel when I kiss you?” he asked as his gaze swept over me. “Because I am.”

It was the only thing I was going to think about now. I reached up to brush my fingers across his lips, and he turned his head to kiss each fingertip individually before licking them. The wet heat of his tongue somehow surprised me all over again.

He turned his head away from my hand and I wanted to protest. “Tell me you don’t want me, don’t want this, and I’ll never ask you again.”

It reminded me of Stephanos and Zalira earlier, how he had said something similar to her.

And just like my sister, I couldn’t say the words.

“Because if you don’t,” he said before he kissed my collarbone, “I will show you how much I need you.”

I tingled and ached in a way I didn’t understand and I shifted restlessly, his heated gaze following every movement I made. “This is just desire.” I wouldn’t let myself pretend that it was more.

“It is need,” he insisted.

“To make you king.” I reached up to tug him closer, as I hungered—just as he’d said—for his kiss. For him to do more.

He didn’t move, waiting until I met his eyes. “No, Lia. I need you. As my queen. My wife. In my life. And my bed.”

Again the words he was speaking felt unreal. Unbelievable. I couldn’t let myself hope.

“I am in your bed,” I teased, wanting to make light of a moment that felt overwhelmingly heavy.

“That isn’t what I mean. I want you to truly be my wife. For us to consummate our marriage. I want to sink into you as waves of pleasure rack your body, and when you shatter, I will be there to catch you. We will be joined in a way that can never be undone, as we become one. We will belong to each other.”

I didn’t know what to do. What to say. I could only gape at him. There was a flash of worry in his eyes, and then he began to touch me. To kiss my jaw, my throat, traveling down, marking each part of my body as his. When he reached my breasts, the things he did made me arch up and let out a sound of surprise and delight.

I thought of the lute player I’d seen earlier at the party because Xander was a master musician and I was his instrument. He ran his fingers over me, carefully stroking and plucking to elicit the exact reaction he wanted, knowing precisely how to get me to respond. I couldn’t stop moaning and my heart pounded so hard that it felt like it would bruise me.

He turned me mindless, my blood burning and moving through me like hot honey, thick and sweet and syrupy. Intoxicating threads of desire spiraled inside as I desperately quaked beneath his expertise, my lungs blazing as if I had swallowed embers. Need and pressure built and built until it was almost unbearable.

I reached down and grabbed his hair, wanting to pull him back up to my aching lips.

“Xander,” I begged, needing his mouth on mine.

Then he was there. “Say it again,” he said with a growl.

“Xander,” I breathed, caressing his perfect face with my hand.

There was wonder in his eyes, awe. Then it was replaced with a hungry and heated look that made me want to wrap myself around him.

“You will be my undoing,” he said before he finally kissed me.

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