Page 94 of Fate

“Lucian,” she asked, not wanting to pose it at all. Needing to. Now they were alone. Now that the thought had taken root in her mind. “I’m not asking for it now. Promise. But... will you want a child with me? Someday?”

She needed him to say yes. Needed for it not to come from obligation. Not even because of his care of her—an indulgence, and nothing more. But she supposed she could not dictate such things. Could not make him want something he didn’t, not even to please her.

“You can tell me no,” she added, heart breaking just a little, but knowing it needed to be said. She would not trap him into any sort of vow. Would not push and wheedle and try to change his mind. He had choices, just as she did. “I’ll be all right.”

His hands stilled in their ministrations, but just for a moment. His mouth worked sooner, smoothing against her throat just the once as he seemed to struggle with his answer. “Iwant to want to,” he admitted. As if... as if that made any sense at all. “It is not you. Not your family that gives me pause.”

Her heart ached, but not with disappointment.

Well, perhaps a little.

“Yours?” she asked, so gently that she hoped it could not hurt him.

He gave it no voice, but she felt his nod, and when his grasp tightened it no longer felt quite the seduction it had a moment before. Comfort, instead, and she was breathless from the intimacy in it. There could be passion—oh yes, there could be that. But there could also be tender touches, the only change coming from the emotions behind them. The need for security, for solidarity. That they were together and would remain that way, even when the foes were shadows of past wrongs.

“Someday,” he murmured, so quietly that she almost did not hear it at all. But it made her heart swell, made her soften all over toward him.

“All right, then,” Firen declared, needing nothing more of him.

Not true.

She needed more.

But it was action more than words.

“I’m quite patient, you know,” she added, luxuriating against him when his hands became to move back toward her more intimate places. “Known for it, in fact.”

He snorted, and she caught at her smile by biting at her lip, not wanting him to see how his disbelief amused her. Never mind that he could feel it for himself. This was a game she was happy to play. “You do not believe me?” she asked, tilting her head, her eyes wide.

And Lucian knew just how to play also, for he brought his face toward hers, close enough that her eyes closed of their own accord. “Not in the least.”

She smiled, unable to help herself. “Then I am in good company, for I do not think patience is your finest attribute either.”

His hands smoothed down her back, settling on the waist of the last of her clothing. “And what is that, I wonder? Myfinestattribute.”

There were a great many things she could say. Should have said.

But he was nibbling at her again, and his purr was the faintest rumble to her ears, and it turned her thoughts in a direction that...

Well...

She reached up and cupped his cheek, her thumb coming to the corner of her mouth.

And he kissed it.

Just the flat of a digit that she had no idea might like to be kissed. “Your mouth,” she blurted, and watched his brow furrow as he pulled back just a bit.

“My mouth,” he repeated, as if that response was the farthest possibility from his mind.

“Your kisses,” she amended. “Which is probably a shame because it means I’m going to be selfish and hoard them all to myself, so no one will know just how fine you are at it.” She smiled at him. A little sweet, a little coy. “Just me.”

He did not seem to have an answer for her, whether an objection or an acquiescence of her praise.

Instead, he picked her up, the movement so sudden that she startled.

Only to be placed into their new bed. On quilts that were familiar, even if their surroundings were not.

He covered her, not with more blankets, but with himself. As he kissed her thoroughly, until there were no other thoughts inher head but him. Of the pulse that quickened and quieted in turn, of the thrum of her skin, desperate for more sensations.

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