Page 82 of Ember and Eclipse
“Inside,” she breathed, as if this was a delicate thing, and speaking normally would shatter it. Taking his hand, she led him back into the house and down the hall to her bedroom—theirbedroom.
But when he pulled his hand from hers after only a couple of steps, she looked back at him.
“I don’t want to take advantage of the situation. No matter how much I need this, I need you to be sure even more. If we do this, our bond is confirmed. It means you accept it. It can’t be undone.”
Rel took his hand in hers again and pressed it to her chest. “I know you feel it. You aremine.” She pressed into him as his hand drifted to her waist. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she stood on her tiptoes. Against his lips, she said, “And I’m yours.”
Those three words were the spell that broke him. He let out a rough, primal noise against her mouth that tightened her core, as he grabbed her backside and effortlessly lifted her.
Wrapping her legs around his midsection, she kissed his lips, his jaw, his neck. Her hands delved into his hair at the nape of his neck, earning her a thick sound of pleasure.
In long strides, he moved them to the bedroom.
She wanted him,neededhim. Their nights of being pressed together with only the bare skin of her arms and his torso were no longer enough. She needed to feel him everywhere, be with him in every way.
Devdan sat on the bed, leaving her to straddle him. And though she could feel the charge between them, the same way it felt right before lightning struck, he did not rip her slip from her. Instead, he kissed her reverently, holding tight to his control. His hand tangled in her hair, guiding her how he wanted her so that he could explore her thoroughly.
“Please,” she murmured when their lips parted, and she wasn’t even sure what she was asking for. Her hips rolled against him of their own accord, seeking out more of him. He was hard beneath her, but his pants separated her from fully experiencing the feeling.
“You don’t understand. I’ve waited”—he kissed her throat—“to be with you. To touch you in all the ways I’ve wanted to. To take you and give youeverything,” he rasped. “I’m trying not to lose control.”
“I know you’ve been so patient,” she said breathily. Butherpatience was on the verge of breaking altogether. She’d been waiting an entire lifetime without realizing it and couldn’t wait a minute longer. “But I want you to lose control.”
He shook his head, his tongue trailing a path around the emerald and down to her collarbone. “Not this time.”
A wanton sound left her.
“Not this time,” he repeated quietly against her neck as if reminding himself.
They still had too many layers between them, though. She moved her hands down his tunic until she could grab the bottom in her fists, tugging on it impatiently. He leaned back just enough, reaching over his head to pull it off, only to move back to her throat, nibbling and kissing it. She ran her hands down his smooth chest, and his muscles reacted to her touch.
He’d bandaged his arm, the cloth knotted off around his bicep. In her haste to have him, she’d forgotten that he’d sustained injuries. A bruise was forming on his ribs from where Havenar kicked him, and his knuckles were raw and scabbing. But he didn’t seem to care either way.
“I just realized,” he murmured, pulling back to look her over, “you wore something similar to this out into the woods tonight. I should have killed all of them for witnessing you in such a thing.”
“I’m fully covered, which is exactly why you need to remove it.”
His hands trailed down her body, not quite touching her. Then, grabbing her high on her thighs beneath the slip, he pulled her against him, her center traveling the entire length of his erection.
A soft noise escaped her and brought a knowing smile to his lips. He lifted her slip, dangerously slow, but it was the hungry look as he exposed her that had her on the verge of ripping it off.
When the material was finally over her head, he leaned back, taking her in.
She let him look even though she felt like she would combust at any moment. Instead, she ran her fingers over his jaw, his bottom lip, and around his neck. His throat bobbed beneath her palm before he rumbled out a needy sound.
With a look of disbelief and awe, he stood up, lifting her only to set her down on the bed. She was completely naked while he was still in his pants. The disparity seemed wholly unjust.
“I need—” but the exactneedseemed impossible to put into words.
“I know.” And he did because his fingers went to his pants after he kicked his boots off. She watched him, her eyes roving down his sculpted torso and tapered waist to follow the movement of his hands.
But his eyes were on her.
Mercifully, he revealed himself quicker than he had taken off her nightgown. He was a vision to take in, so much so that her mouth watered, and a pressure formed in her core. His muscled legs, the perfectly chiseled lines above his hips, the dusting of curls that went from his belly button all the way down to his considerable length.
She had seen two men naked in her lifetime, and neither of them had been as beautiful as the man before her. Not even close. It was almost unfair how perfect he was—like the gods themselves decided to mold him from their image.
“This is what you do to me,” he said as he wrapped his fist around the girth of his cock. He was hard with desire forher. Not her body, not to use her, but because he neededher. He choseher. In her entirety.
