I hooked an arm around his neck. Our eyes met for a moment. His were hooded and dark, only a thin rim of steel-gray remained around his wide, dark as night pupils.

His hair fell over his forehead, black strands mixed with white in the front. Not really white, I noticed from this close, but clear. His silver strands were transparent. The scarce light of the night broke in them with iridescence, shining through them.

“Voron…” I parted my lips.

His mouth claimed mine, his heady taste invading my senses. I clawed at his chest inside his shirt. I wished we had fewer clothes on. I wished to feel him with my entire body, my bare skin against his. I wished…

He pressed firmly, working me with his deft fingers.

And all my wishes disappeared.

Only the need remained.

It swelled with hot pressure in my core. With Voron, I didn’t feel shy or self-conscious. I felt wanton. I opened my legs wider, taking everything he was giving me. I tore at his buttons, peeling apart the layers that hid him from me.

“Touch me,” I begged while touching him.

He tried to shift out of my reach, but I slipped my arms under his shirt and around his torso, pulling him back to me again.

“Stay.” I kissed his chest. “Stay with me.”

“Sparrow…” he moaned. “You’ll be my demise, little bird, but what a sweet death that will be.”

He slid a finger inside me, his thumb pressing on my clit. My hips bucked. I rode his hand harder, desperate for a release.

I’d wanted this for so long that the climax came way too fast. Pleasure crested and broke into white-hot fireworks of orgasm. It was a wonderful ending. But to me, it felt like a perfect beginning. A beginning of something more.

I held on to Voron, riding the last tremors of bliss. He swallowed my moans with his kisses, cupping me between my legs. I pressed into his hand, trapping it between us.

“More.”

I wasn’t ready to let go of him. Now that I finally broke through his barriers, I wished for it to last. I wanted to climb into his heart and live there.

But he shifted away from me. Setting me on the ground, he let my skirts fall down back in place. He adjusted the shawl over my chest, then buttoned his shirt, his fingers trembling slightly. As he closed the buttons of his vest, however, his composure returned.

“Voron?” I swayed his way, missing his body next to mine.

He gazed at me calmly, and I felt the doors in the walls around his heart slam close, locking me out again.

“Let’s get you back to your room.” His voice still sounded a little rough. But he acted with the usual calm demeanor of the High General I knew, not the passion of the man I longed to know.

My knees felt barely strong enough for my legs to hold me. My inner muscles spasmed deliciously with the aftershocks of the orgasm. Walking was the last thing my body wanted to do. Instead, it wanted to stretch languidly inside the loving arms wrapped around it.

But I rolled back my shoulders and took a step away from him, widening the distance between us. “I’ll find the way on my own. Thank you very much.”

He ignored my words. Falling in step at my side, he walked me to my room.

“Good night, Sparrow,” he said with a brief nod before leaving me alone.

Once inside my bedroom, I shut the door, then leaned with my back against it and closed my eyes.

My muscles trembled from exhaustion. Warmth still tingled inside me after the one and only orgasm I ever remembered having with a man.

Voron took away my memories, but he now gave me a new one in return. And this one was all mine to keep.

ChapterTwenty-Four

SPARROW