Page 29 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

All-consuming.

He groaned.

The sound was so guttural it had her grinding her hips against him. Had an undeniable stroke of desire sending heat fluttering between her legs.

The hand draped across her neck and tangled through her hair pulled tighter, and she brushed her hands across his chest, gripping the fabric so tight he wouldn’t be able to leave. And she didn’t want him to.

“You are exquisite, Alora,” Garrik breathed. His lips and teeth grazed her neck, sucking softly.

Alora tilted her neck and faced the autumn sky. But her lips became jealous of the attention her neck received, so warm palms lifted to his face and pulled him back.

Garrik yielded to her touch, but his kiss was nothing short of desperation as his tongue slipped inside, tracing every curve of her mouth.

And she thought it such an erratic sensation; how utterly freezing he was against every burning piece of her. Inside her mouth and everywhere, his body ground against her. She wondered if that was how he would feel inside her too. Thrusting to the deepest parts of her. Long and slow strokes, drawing out a pleasure she’d been denied. Wondered how his hands would feel across every bare inch of her. How each beat of their hearts would dance to the same rhythm. Until his thrusts would become more desperate. And he wouldn’t stop until her starfire returned to the stars as she shattered, and he would crash into oblivion with her.

Before she could protest against her traitorous hand, it drifted down his body, lower and lower and lower. Garrik’s abdomen trembled at the touch, but he didn’t pull away. Not until her hand stopped at leather and she realized she had touched his belt.

But he still didn’t pull away. Garrik only pressed her harder into the stone wall, trapping her hand there, and kissed her wildly.

The next sound from his mouth was a pleasure-filled curse. Garrik shuddered beneath her touch. The hand on her back drifted to her waist and squeezed her tight. “We should stop,” he breathed against her lips. But his hand betrayed him too, brushing along her waistline. His voice turned into something unlike him as he moaned, “Starsdamn, Alora?—“

“Are you two coming?”

Their embrace broke in a startled jolt. Garrik stepped away, leaving her breathless against the stone wall as he adjusted his belt.

Thalon leaned with his back on the hewn wall, head turned away, a hundred steps above.

Blood rushed to Alora’s cheeks.Oh stars. Had Thalon seen?

Garrik’s face had shifted from lazy half-lidded desire to that of her High Prince. She noticed him pluck the fabric of his tunic and pause before his hands fell to his side. The hands that had threaded in her hair and caressed her now gripped the pommel of his sword. The other found his hip as he deeply inhaled, and ordered, “Go along ahead, Thalon. I required a moment. We will be up shortly.”

Thalon held his stare forward and nodded. Their Guardian needed only the quick twist of his body to begin climbing but hesitated to take a step, throwing a withering glare over his shoulder.

Garrik’s face shot up at him, body rigid before squaring his shoulders.

Alora noticed Thalon shift uncomfortably, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck and disturbing his Earned before he nodded, then began his ascent once more.

Garrik pivoted to her.

Alora’s breathing had slowed, but her heart still hammered against her ribcage while her lip curled between her teeth.

The look on Garrik’s face … how his hand carefully lifted to her cheek and stroked it so tenderly. A lover’s touch. “To be continued, Ara darling.” A promise.

Garrik breathlessly smiled. Not his usual teasing smirk but a true, rare smile. One that covered his face when he had forgotten who he was supposed to be. The High Prince of Elysian.

His hand fell, lacing strong fingers between hers.

She squeezed him back.

“Shall we?” Garrik’s eyes drifted to the endless staircase.

And in that moment, as Alora took a brave footstep onto the next stair, she decided that maybe …

Justmaybe…

Stairs were not entirely terrifying after all.

Garrik waitedfor her on the last step, hand outstretched, gleaming with the sun’s glare casting golden shards of light around his figure.

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