Page 101 of Fragile Oath

I placed a hand on his cheek, meeting his tumultuous gaze. There were no easy solutions I could offer. I was no closer than I had been before to figuring out this blasted poison, let alone who the Viper was.

But that didn’t mean I had no comfort to give.

Driven by a pressing need to be closer to him, to combine my warmth with his until we both felt a little less lost, I lifted up on my toes. He leaned down to meet me without hesitation. His kiss was warm, sending tendrils of desire coursing through me, but he kept it chaste, no doubt being conscious of our surroundings.

I didn’t want to be conscious of our surroundings, though. I didn’t want to be conscious of anything but him. I wrapped a hand around his neck, gently scraping my nails against his head and deepening the kiss.

This time, he hesitated for a fraction of a second, long enough for me to second-guess myself before I felt his smirk against my lips.

Then he was backing me against the stacks with one firm hand on my shoulder and the other on my waist. He slid both hands down my body with tantalizing pressure until they covered my wrists. Then he gently brought my arms up until they were over my head, skating his mouth over to nip just below my ear.

“Is this what you want, Love?” His breath was scorching on my skin.

He pulled back just enough to read my face, and I nodded, peeking up at him through my lashes.

It was strangely empowering, the intoxicating waves of desire that crashed from his body to mine. The claiming of a space that had almost been taken from me, a home that someone wasstilltrying to take from us both.

Davin’s face went slack with need. He pressed against me, and I found that I liked the pressure, that I wanted more of it, needed to feel him. I wriggled a little until he tilted his head, rapid-fire gauging what it was I wanted in his endlessly sexy way.

He shifted his grip to hold both my wrists in one capable hand, gliding the other along the side of my body. He put the barest bit of force on his hold, examining me closely for my reaction – my consent.

My entire body flushed crimson-hot in reaction, and I cut my gaze to his. “Don’t treat me like I’m–”

“You’renotfragile,” he cut me off with a growl, the words reverberating from his body to mine.

Then he was crushing me against the stacks with an intensity that was firm, but not quite bruising, lowering his mouth to my lips, my jaw, my neck, while his free hand inched toward my thigh.

Just like the night he had called me his, there was a marked difference in the feeling I got ceding control to someone I trusted absolutely with my safety – with myself.

“Not shy, either, apparently,” he murmured.

“There’s no one here.” My protest was breathy.

“Yet. It isn’t locked.” Amusement glimmered in his tone and, once again, I felt his smile against my skin.

That gave me the smallest bit of pause. Then I remembered his haunted expression when he walked in, the way he had been unsettled and restless in the weeks since I left, and how at odds with that he was right now.

Besides, we were in the back of the stacks and Malishka was here to alert us. So I arched into him, a small smile playing on my own lips.

“Then we’ll just have to be quick about it.”

He slid his hand down to the hem of my skirts, slowly dragging his fingers up my calf, then my thigh. I gasped, and he covered my mouth with his, swallowing the sound.

“Shh, Lady Galina,” he admonished me, dragging his tongue against the seam of my lips. “This is alibrary. Can’t you be quiet?”

He nipped playfully at my bottom lip.

“I can be quiet if you can,” I murmured.

He let out a smug chuckle, inching his hand further up my thigh. “That’s a bet I’m willing to take.”

We both lost that bet.

* * *

After our timein the library, Davin was no more inclined to leave my side than he had been when he came in. I couldn’t blame him, not when I felt that same looming sense of urgency in every aspect of our lives.

If all of this was to destabilize the monarchy, would the Viper really be satisfied with an exiled Davin while the rest of the royal family was still in power? It felt like more than Davin’s freedom was at stake here. All along, he had been safe, and I had been the target, but how long could that really last?

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