Page 112 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
To places where we shouldn’t venture beyond this fleeting moment, on the magical beach that would disappear from underneath us at any moment.
But Zandyr had already swept me off my feet.
I’d turned into a being driven solely by instinct. Did I know where to place my hands? No, but circling his neck so that I was flush with his body seemed like a good idea. My fingers twistedin his sleek hair, tangling the strands as I’d been craving to touch.
My lips, which had only been used for talking and biting until now? They meshed with his in a maddening rhythm that beat against my chest. The pressure. Gods, the pressure between us was building with a fierceness that took my breath away.
When his tongue slid against my lower lip, I had to open my mouth. The primal part of me dictated every move and sigh.
Zandyr’s fingers wound in my hair with scorching, assured movements, igniting every inch of skin he touched. I gasped, a small, pleading sound, before his large palm cradled the back of my head like he’d done it a million times before.
His tongue slid gently against mine. Patiently. Coaxing my movements with a composure so at odds with the desperate way I clutched his shoulders. As if the waves would have washed me away into the great big sea if Zandyr hadn’t grounded me.
But he was there, a perfect blend of hard lines, strength, and teasing touches.
He was everything I’d been raised to run away from, and I wanted nothing more than to get even closer to him, until he consumed me and I him. The hunger, the unquenchable need for him, pulsed through me.
As his lips and tongue did terrible, wonderful things to me, I grew more impatient. Braver.
My hands gripped and pulled at his shoulders. He seemed to have the same idea, as his palms settled on my thighs. In one swift motion, he pulled me up, until we were chest to chest. My legs wrapped around his middle of their own accord. I was too focused on the taste and feel of him to notice.
But I definitely heard and felt the low groan that vibrated through his throat, pulling a moan from mine.
He broke the kiss only for a moment, long enough to whisper, “What are you doing to me, menace?”
Then he was upon me again, ravenous and seeking, swallowing whatever reply my frazzled brain could have come up with.
The kiss turned more frantic. Free. Tongues twirling, hands grasping. Everything was harder and faster and I wanted more.
I held onto Zandyr, hands and legs wrapped around him like the vines draped over his tower. And just like back at his tower, my stomach dropped somewhere near my locked ankles as his mouth closed around my lower lip, sucking it into his mouth, and driving me wild.
I learned fast. With Adara, with Allie, and now with him. I did the same thing he had, but my teeth scraped gently over his lip.
He stilled. As I started to doubt myself–too hard, too much, too inexperienced–Zandyr rocked himself against my center, a rumble tearing from his chest.
Lost in a myriad of tastes, sounds, and touches, I wanted this moment to last for an eternity. To endure until we were nothing but a blend of flesh and moans and teeth. To forget who we’d been born to be, what awaited us once we stepped off the beach and went back to the mighty Citadel, to simply exist in this realm of wonder we’d created.
This wasn’t the hollow connection he’d talked about on that first day in Phoenix Peak. It was demanding and desperate.
My legs gripped onto him tighter.
This. Him. All of him.
“Evie,” he whispered against my lips. I leaned toward him, chasing the ghost of that breath.
Zorin’s troubled neigh cut through the haze of desire, startling me.
My stomach dropped. The ocean was threatening to swallow us, ready to reclaim the beach. Zandyr’s ankles were already submerged.
We needed to get away.
I ripped my mouth from Zandyr’s, a spike of fear shrouding my thoughts.
“Evie, are you alright?”
I shook my head. “I’m scared of the water.”
Zandyr tilted his head back, locking his eyes with mine. “Don’t worry, I got you.”
