Page 134 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
“Cruel, torturous creature.”
“I can be…”
Caer turned towards her. She traced the edges of his profile with her gaze, committing the outline of him to memory. She imagined the feeling of his skin beneath hers, of his body pressed to her flesh. Her centre tingled—with the residue effects of heat or just his presence in general, she couldn’t be sure.
She could feel his breath on her again. Her own seemed to clamber towards him, begging to braid with his. Vines, her entire body felt like it was vibrating beneath his gaze.
Maybe it was just as well she couldn’t kiss him. Because if she kissed him… how would she ever disentangle herself?
“Ais?” Caer prompted. “Your stare is very loud.”
Aislinn swallowed. “I was thinking it was just as well I can’t kiss you.”
He frowned. “How so?”
“Because if you ever kissed me, I think I’d fall in love with you, and if I fell in love with you, I don’t think I’d ever stop. I think that would be it for me, that love would reign over me as I reigned over Faerie. I would love you all your life and all my life after… long after you were dust.”
For a long moment, Caer stared at her, eyes large and soft, all honey and whiskey. “If it were my life at risk, I’d definitely be kissing you right now.”
“What if I’m all right with risking it?”
“I’m not.”
“Yeah,” she said, turning her gaze towards the ceiling, “I understand that.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. Because if it was your life you were risking, I wouldn’t want to do it either.”
He ran his hands through his hair. “I… don’t know where we go from here.”
She leaned back towards him. “I don’t think you’ll hurt me. When you’ve used your powers before, you’ve always been stressed, terrified—”
“You think I’m not now?”
She pressed a hand against his chest, keeping to the fabric of his shirt. His heart thumped against her fingers. “Want to feel mine?”
His hand drifted over her breast, skimming against the cloth. “God, I wish I could touch you.”
She was half-tempted to command him, to glamour him into doing it. Maybe her power was stronger than his, and she could command him into control.
But making someone do something against their will was abhorrent… even if she knew he wanted it too. It would not be fair. She would not do it.
“Caer…” she whispered, her words brushed with longing.
Half her name, a desperate, murmured, yearning sound followed from him, and then his mouth was over hers and all at once they were kissing. His lips moved against her, hot and claiming, his hands drifting to her waist, against her back. Her own wrapped around his neck, pooling into his hair. She wanted to inhale him. To consume him. His kiss was wildfire.
This was foolish, reckless, stupid. She knew all this and she didn’t care. It was worse to be away from him. Ithurtnot to touch him. Gods, she needed this. Needed him—all of him.
“Ais…” he murmured against her neck.
“Don’t stop,” she said, aware of the whimper in her voice, “please.”Please don’t stop. Don’t ever stop. Touch me like this forever.
His tongue pressed against hers, his body hot. The flesh of their stomachs slid together. She needed more hands, more tongues, more teeth—more ways to explore him, hold him, mark him.
For he was hers and she was his in a way she had belonged to no one and never would again. He tasted of woodsmoke and earth and sweat. Of a scent that slashed through her like a thunderstorm. Heat coiled inside her. She raked her hands down his back—
He shuddered with pain, letting out a low hiss.
