Page 4 of Rules of Stone
“Any other limitations?” River asks, picking up one of the amulets and twisting it suspiciously in his fingers.
“One more.” Autumn bites her lip, her voice apologetic. “The amulets’ magic builds a disguise so complete that it mutes all bonds. You will feel neither the quint nor your mating bond while you wear them.”
4
Lera
“Idon’t think we should go,”River says, letting himself into my bedchamber a few hours after our briefing. Closing the door with a soft click, he strides to where I’m already packing, my clothes and weapons laid out neatly atop the four-poster bed. “I can’t leave the throne only six months after taking it.”
My jaw tightens at both the lie and the reason behind it. “I imagine Autumn can manage the day-to-day operation. Given the few centuries of experience she has at it.” Three centuries, to be exact—all the time River stayed away from Slait Court, returning only six months ago to finally depose the monster who sat on the throne.
River has the decency to blush.
I cross my arms, glaring up at him—not an easy feat with how close the large male is standing to me. With his straight back and broad shoulders, corded thighs and mirror-shined black boots spread slightly apart for balance, River eclipses the world without trying. But he isn’t going to eclipse me. “If you’ve come to tell me how much your male instincts will hurt if I—”
“But youdiedsix months ago,” River snaps, the sudden break of his iron control vibrating the room. His shadowed gray eyes study me with such intensity that my chest tightens. He swallows, a slight tremor running through him. “I still feel the terror of that moment every time I close my eyes. So yes, Leralynn, I hate seeing you in danger. In pain. There is nothing in Lunos or the mortal lands that’s worth that for me. For any of us four. Someone else can go.”
“Stars. River.” The anger simmering my blood softens, and I reach up to trace my fingers along the angle of his square jaw. The tension inside him radiates through the skin, the muscles shifting beneath my fingers. The rare glimpse into my quint commander’s vulnerability makes my stomach clench. But it doesn’t change reality. “Then I think it’s fortunate for both realms that at least one of us can think clearly,” I say gently.
“Leralynn.” River’s voice drops, his hands gripping my hips.
I shake my head. “Someone else didn’t grow up in the mortal realm. Someone else isn’t a weaver. And someone else is certainly not part of the second most powerful quint in all of Lunos. We might be mated, but we are still a warrior quint. We were chosen by the magic to go out anddothings. And this is the first of many.”
River closes his eyes, his chest expanding with his breaths. A heartbeat later, he pulls me fiercely against him. “Two points of clarification,” he whispers, his warm breath ruffling the hair on the top of my head. “First, once we discover the full extent of your new weaving magic, we might bethemost powerful. And second… No matter how powerful you may one day become, I will always want to keep you safe. It is a hazard you’ll be forced to weather for centuries, Leralynn.”
“You are blaming the mating bond for making you insufferable?” I swallow, sounding hoarse as that very bond rouses to River’s woodsy scent and caresses my soul. “Seems rather convenient.”
Taking my chin between his thumb and forefinger, River raises my gaze toward him. His gray eyes study me, shifting into commanding intimacy. “Very convenient,” he echoes, his strong face filling my vision, his shoulders blocking the world from view. A purposeful motion, and one that makes my heart stutter in spite of itself.
River’s singular undiluted attention fills me, holding me in place as heat floods my sex. My hand twitches toward him, and he stills my motion with a look, my thighs clenching together in a mix of need and outrage.
A pleased, knowing glint fills River’s gray eyes, his nostrils flaring delicately. “Yes, I smell it,” he whispers into my ear, his gaze trailing down my abdomen until there is no question as to what precisely he refers to.
Heat touches my cheeks.
“You are beautiful when you blush,” River whispers. This close, I can feel the pounding of his heart, striking his ribs as hard as my own. His free hand slides down the curve of my hip and thigh, lifting the silk hem of my lavender nightgown. Cool air brushes my thighs a moment before River’s warm hand trails up the sensitive skin, dipping unapologetically inside my undergarments toward the dampness I know is there.
Stars.Even after six months, the intensity of my new fae body still comes as a shock. It isn’t just the longer, shinier hair and smoother, near-glowing skin, it’s the avalanche of sensation. What used to merely arouse me now drives me insane with want.
I squirm on instinct, and River’s other hand drops from my face to cup my backside firmly, keeping me in place as he slides through my slickness. Extracting his glistening hand, he licks his fingers clean, growling with soft pleasure.
Stars.I open my mouth to—
River’s lips capture mine, swallowing whatever protest I was about to utter.
My body tenses, River’s claiming flooding me with sensation so intense, I can’t stay still. Yet I can’t move either. Not with the male’s hands and mouth on me, his feet shifting to trap mine between them. Giving me no escape. No chance to do anything but feel him. Feel us.
One heartbeat builds on the next until the slow throbbing vibrating through my core grows so insistent, I am gasping for air. Pulling back slightly, River scrapes the points of elongated canines along my bottom lip, making me writhe beneath his hands despite certain consequences.
River chuckles, his hand slipping right back beneath my skirt, up my damn inner thigh and—I gasp as a finger slides inside me, his thumb flicking over the sensitive apex. A zing spiders along my skin, my sex clenching around the glorious intrusion, the burst of sensation both too much and not nearly enough. When the callused tip of River’s finger traces my hood, I whimper outright, rising onto my toes for relief that won’t come.
River’s lips brush my ear. “I can ignore the mating bond’s instinct no more than you can ignore this, luv.” Another trace along my hood, coupled with tiny flicks on either side of my apex until I’m squirming despite his hold. “But please, try as hard as you like.”
“Bastard.” Raising my hands, I rake them over River’s back, the press of his hardness against my mound dizzyingly satisfying.
With a growl, he pushes me away to arm’s length, his breaths ragged, his gray eyes gleaming with barely restrained need. A predator targeting prey. With the next breath, River shoves me back and back, until my thighs press against the edge of my bed and my breaths come in ragged, desperate gasps. With a sweep of one thickly muscled arm, my neat piles are strewn across the floor.
“Those are my travel clothes,” I warn.
