Page 117 of Synodic

This image wasn’t drawn in his usual crisp stylings but slightly shifted, as though I’d moved during my picture being taken. It was how he must have seen me as he fought the effects of the poison that coursed through his veins, as he battled his visions of Fou.

It was then I realized the last touch that lingered on him was hers.

I had to remedy that, erase her oily touch from him just as sure as he had erased so many of my traumas.

I looked up into his heated gaze as he slowly removed the book from my hands, placing it face-down on the table. “What do you think?” he asked, his cool breath washing over me as he lightly traced his finger down my arm, causing my skin to erupt into goosebumps.

“They’re alright.”

It was a lie and he knew it. They were spectacular. I had no idea Rowen possessed such a gift, and it broke my heart that he kept it from me, thinking it would protect me from ever knowing how he felt. To never give me any hope.

But I had hope now, and my mind couldn’t stop conjuring all the ways we could be happy, ignoring the parts of my brain that warned Erovos was still searching for me.

He raised one dark eyebrow, not believing me for a second. “Just alright?” he asked, taking my bait.

“Well, there was a drawing I didn’t see.”

“Oh?” His hand trailed its way back up my arm in a featherlight stroke that sped up my breathing. “And what would that be of?”

“Me,” I said, honing in all my concentration. His touch was sending my mind reeling a million miles away while keeping my body at rapt attention exactly where I stood.

A laugh rattled through him. “I think we’ve established they are mostly of you.” Rowen’s touch continued, tracing electrifyingly along the curve of my collarbone, and he watched as my nipples tightened through the kaftan.

“Yes,” I said breathlessly, looking at him through my lashes, my chest heaving, “but one where darkness or poisonous hallucinations aren’t wrapped around me would be nice.”

“Would you like to be wrapped in something else?” His eyes sparkled mischievously. “You do look rather appealing in my sheets. Would that appease you? If I drew you in nothing but them?”

“I would like that,” I barely whispered, heat pooling in fervent pulses between my legs.

“On one condition,” he said, picking up and twirling a lock of my hair. “That is, if you agree to it.” His eyes shot to my face.

I could barely think straight, let alone breathe properly. Rowen intoxicated me with his gaze, his breath, his tantalizing touches. I would agree to anything he asked. “And what would that be?”

“That before I do, I get to thoroughly and utterly explore you, taste you, and exhaust you.”

Rowen’s words had my entire body throbbing to the point of pain, and I curled my fingertips around his neck to keep steady.

Our gazes never broke, acknowledging the desire we had both been fighting for so long. A mutual agreement that we were done denying the aching flames burning within us.

My hands slid from the tops of his shoulders, down the front of his molded chest, feeling the strength and need pulsing beneath him like a surging tide in his veins, the necklace gone. My own heart pumped faster. “Well then, what are you waiting for?”

Without another word, Rowen swept me up in his arms, and a breathy gasp escaped my lips in surprise.

He carried me to his bed, stopping when his knees hit the cushion. He guided my body through the opening of the draped canopy, and the lightweight fabric brushed against my sensitive skin. Sitting me down in the center of the bed, he prowled the rest of the way through the netting.

He took a beat back on his heels, looking at me. His dark hair fell across his brow and his stubbled face regarded me with tamped carnality. “A fitting place for you, is it not.”

“Only when you’re in it next to me.”

He smiled that wicked smile that exposed the white tips of his canines. “The possibilities of the things I will do to tire you into sleep, only to wake you in a similar fashion, are endless.” His words quickened my swirling pulse, and his wild need for me both scared and thrilled me.

He leaned forward and climbed up my body, my eyes tilting up as his lengthy form settled above me. I panted in achy anticipation, needing his touch more than I’d ever needed anything in my life.

Unable to wait a moment longer, I pushed my hips against his, and all at once, his steely control shattered. The invisible leash that had held him back for so long snapped, and with a pained groan of my name, he crashed down onto me, taking my mouth with his, starved and unrelentingly.

I gasped into his hungry mouth, surprised by how much he had been holding back with me before. How utterly he had been depriving himself.

Taking advantage of my parted lips, his tongue dove inside, tasting and pushing against me in a devouring kiss that was surely consuming my very soul. I gave it gladly, knowing I was taking a piece of his as well. We were both giving and giving, but nothing felt taken or lost. We were two auras merging together, creating a third color unknown to any spectrum, wholly me and wholly him, but somethingmore.

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