Page 66 of To Wake a Kingdom

I let out a bubble of laughter. “Definitely.” I drew him closer. “What do you have in mind?”

He slid his cock against my wetness, and I groaned at the lusciousness of those hard ridges against my soft skin.

“How about bravery?” He placed a gentle kiss on my neck. Bravery—it was one of the first things Kianna had said when we’d woken up. That it wasn’t one of my gifts. But maybe that wasn’t true anymore. I nodded, a lump growing in my throat.

“Brilliance.” He dropped a kiss on my collarbone. “Kindness.” A kiss above my breast. “Loyalty.” A kiss between them. He trailed his lips lower and lower, kissing me slowly as he bestowed these new gifts like drops of crystal hung from sparkling chandeliers.

“Strength. So much strength.” I liked that one. “Selflessness. Generosity. Humor. Wit.” His mouth below my navel, he swept his tongue in lazy circles, and my hips came off the bed, savoring this wonderful torture. He pulled back to look at me.

“Ferocity. Definitely that.” I gave him a sated grin. “And how about sensuality?” He waggled his eyebrows, and I laughed.

“I like those very much. Thank you, Commander.”

“Don’t thank me, Thorne. Those are yours. You took them. You didn’t need me or anyone to give them to you. You’ve had them all along.”

A light awakened as the weight of his words slid under my skin, taking root like a hundred-year oak. “Then thank you for helping me realize it,” I said, my voice soft.

He flashed that crooked grin I loved so much, and it felt like my heart tripled in size. We kissed again, his body crushing mine, and I ached deep in the furthest reaches of my battered soul.

“Fuck, I’m so hard,” he whispered into my skin. “I want you so much.”

“You have me, Ronan. Take me.” Among the shredded tatters of a ruined life, a piece of me had been found, and I wanted every part of him.

With a thrust, he was inside me, and I cried out as I dug my fingers into his back. “Thorne,” he breathed. “You’re so beautiful. Gods, you feel so good.” Another thrust stroked into me, slowly filling and stretching.

As wind and snow coalesced into a blank white canvas of sky, its ferocity echoed the swirl and storm inside the room. With Adrian, our love had been sweet and warm and new, but this was something entirely different. Wild and breathless, it was layered with curtains of smoke and heat and wonder. It felt ancient and gilded with the permanence of time, rich with a lifetime of stories yet to be written.

My hands slid along the expanse of his skin, exploring the dips and ripples of his muscles while they bunched and contracted as he moved into me.

“I love it when you touch me,” he growled, the guttural sound so raw I clenched around him. As he moved faster, he clamped a hand on my hip, a gesture that claimed me as his. I opened myself up, wanting to give him everything. With a bruising kiss pressed to my mouth, he thrust harder, his long and firm strides building friction.

He pushed up on his hands, piercing me with an intense look that thickened the air between us. My hands scraped over the hard planes of his chest and stomach, and he closed his eyes and groaned, his head falling forward. An arm sliding under my waist, he lifted my hips and drove into me harder, his hips churning as curls of smoke and silk and ribbon gathered us into a tangle. He thrust once more, and I cried out as I fractured again. He followed soon after with a ragged moan that thrashed through the air.

Mouths meeting in a wash of elusive breath, we descended back to earth in a frisson of panting, sweat, and immutable satisfaction. Propped on his elbows, he collapsed on top of me, trailing kisses along my neck before he pressed his lips firmly to mine.

Not sure I could form words, I stared at him, tracing his lips, cheekbones, and jaw with trembling fingers.

He offered me a crooked smile. “Are you okay, Thorne?”

With my head tipped back, I blew out an extravagant breath. “My gods, yes.”

His answering smile was lit by the stars and, right then, the only thing I wanted was to make him smile like that every day for the rest of his life.

Arms wrapped around me, Ronan lay down and pulled me in close, twining his legs with mine.

Outside, the snow whipped across our view, reflecting in slivers of moonlight like glitter tossed in handfuls up to the sky. As we snuggled into each other, the room flickered under a curtain of shadowed light. Embers glowed in the fireplace, casting a rosy glow that matched the flush of my skin and the color of my restored heart.

For tonight, I let myself be pulled from the brink of loneliness. Tonight, the darkness would remain outside and, here, I would only think of the good.

Chapter Twenty-Six

5 days left

Sleepwasinshortsupply for the rest of the night as we reveled in the touch and taste and feel of each other through the hours. By the time we awoke, sunlight streamed in through the curtainless windows, warming bare skin and mussed cotton sheets. The storm had broken, leaving everything covered in a fresh layer of snow.

Ronan was already awake, looking down at me as my eyes fluttered open.

“Are you watching me sleep?”

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