Page 116 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
His eyes slashed my way; there was a wicked glimmer in them now. “You like the idea of me kneeling in front of you? Noted.”
“No!” I raised my open palms. This was already turning out to be a bad idea. I felt so clumsy and uncoordinated, as if a single word or hand gesture would somehow ruin…what, exactly? “Let’s just get into bed.”
He straightened back up, quick fingers untying the armor laces at his throat.
I gulped. “What–what are you doing?”
“Undressing for bed.”
My throat turned all kinds of parched as the image of his chorded chest sparked in my mind.
His fingers stilled. “I could leave the armor on…”
And risk turning and hitting one of those blood vials? “No, you’re right. We want to be comfortable.”
Not to be outdone, I took off my robe, too, throwing it onto the nearest chair. When I dared look up, Zandyr stood there in a black tunic that put his entire clavicle on display. Then my eyes found his.
They had gone dark, the pupils eating away at the blue again, as his gaze trailed hungrily over me.
Right, I had the flimsy nightshirt on. I couldn’t deny that some small, insignificant part of me was flattered by thatstare. That deep, ravenous stare. Nobody had ever looked at me like that before.
With desire.
I swallowed deeply at the same time he did. Time stopped as we stared at each other, the air around us crackling with words neither of us said.
Zandyr recovered first. He closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened them back up, the craving had been leashed.
“Shall we?” He extended his palm toward the bed, as if inviting me to dance at some great ball.
This was going to be a long night.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
EVIE
The mattress? Divinely soft.
The duvet? A cloud of silk and down feathers that must have been plucked from Dria Vegheara’s magic ravens themselves.
The tension that had filled the room since Zandyr had laid down beside me? Unavoidable.
I sat there, completely still, all my senses overwhelmed byhim. The deep, burnished leathery scent was mixed with a minty fragrance. His breaths were even and precise, the perfect embodiment of the controlled man himself.
There was at least a foot of distance between us, but Ifelthis weight beside me.
I was so attuned to him, that even as my body finally wanted to drag me to sleep, my mind wouldn’t allow it. I was aware of each one of my breaths and heart beats. There was a sting in my throat from not swallowing for too long.
I sighed into the mattress. This had been a bad idea.
“I can feel you overthinking,” his deep voice broke the tense silence so abruptly, I flinched. “I can always leave.”
I opened my mouth, but wasn’t sure what to say. The truth was my body wanted to sigh to sleep with him here, no tossing and turning. “I’ve never actually spent an entire night sleeping beside someone.”
I sometimes fell asleep while grandpa Constantine read me bedtime stories filled with legends of great warriors and the villains they’d slain. My parents never so much as tucked me in or let me sleep in their bed, even when the temperatures had turned freezing.
Zandyr inhaled sharply. A second later, he twisted on his side, facing me. Even in the darkness, I felt his magnificent gaze caressing my face.
