Page 88 of Fragile Oath

It was a whole mountain of guilt I would just as soon leave behind, for both of our sakes. My remorse at lying, his at failing to keep me safe.

“You said you could be patient,” I breathed.

Could he hear my heartbeat thundering as loudly as I could? Could he feel the tension flooding between us, stretching across the distance that I wanted so badly to erase?

“Yes,” he said softly.

I caught his gaze, letting my guard down enough for my intention to blaze through. “But I don’t want you to be anymore.”

I wasn’t sure who moved first. All I knew was that his lips were on mine, and it felt like the missing piece to every puzzle I had ever tried to solve. He pulled me into his lap in a move that was commanding and gentle and entirely Davin.

I opened my mouth to his, savoring the faint taste of whiskey and cigars on his tongue when he deepened the kiss. My hands found his perfect hair, disheveling it for him like I had wanted to do so many times in the past, before moving down the taut shoulders I had admired every day in that storms-blasted carriage ride from hell, and every day since.

Still, there was too much fabric between us. I deftly undid his buttons while he pulled the ribbon from my hair, sucking my bottom lip into his mouth. Finally, I felt his bare skin, the muscles taut and rigid under my fingers, under my lips.

He ran his hands through my hair reverently before standing to move us both to his bed. Then, inch by inch, Davin reclaimed every bit of my skin, wresting it from the memories of Alexei’s bruises with his overwhelming tenderness. Each kiss against my mouth, my jaw, my neck was an apology, a promise, an act of devotion and desperation in one. Like he was afraid I would disappear again the moment he woke up.

I’m not going anywhere ever again.I tried to will the sentiment into every press of my lips against his skin. There was no talking this time, no banter, just his hands on my skin, anchoring me to this moment.

Anchoring me to him, for good.

ChapterThirty-Eight

DAVIN

I was havingthe dream again, the one where nimble fingers lightly traced the intricate lines of the tattoos on my back. I wanted so badly to stay in that space, where I hadn’t been accused of murder and Galina was still…

Galina was still here.

I turned, and she froze, her hand still suspended in the air. Her eyes searched mine as I roved over her perfect, nude form, taking in the fact that she was here and whole and alive andhere.

She hadn’t disappeared in the night. Hadn’t left. Hadn’t been taken.

I put my hand on her cheek, tracing the outline of her sharp cheekbones, down to her jaw, her collarbone, and lower while I tried not to imagine those same places covered in bruises, tried not to imagine how terrified she must have been when he was waiting in her rooms to kidnap her. When she stood across from him at an altar, and after…

“Davin.” Her voice was gentle, but firm. “Don’t.”

She interrupted my thoughts the way she had last night. I slowly moved my eyes back up to her face, lingering on every graceful angle and curve along the way. Finally, I reached her eyes. They were steady and solid. Resolute.

Not delicate, and never weak.

“He doesn’t get to exist in this space,” she explained, taking a breath. “If there are…things you need to know, we can talk about them, but not here, and not now.”

I considered her words.

“There’s nothing I need to know unless you want to tell me,” I told her honestly. “All I care about is that you’re safe.”

I hesitated before adding, “And mine, obviously.”

She searched my expression, her lips parting like perhaps I wasn’t the only one struggling to believe we had found our way back to one another.

“Obviously,” she breathed. Then, she gave a small imitation of my smirk, her fingers tracing a tantalizing line along my chest, then lower, over the ridges of my abdomen. “But you forgot ‘perfect’.”

“Well, that was a given.” I moved until she was underneath me, then leaned down to kiss her.

She made a contented noise against my lips, a sound I could drown in and still die happy. I twisted the silky strands of her hair around my fingers and gently tugged backward until I could drag my teeth along her neck, pausing along the way to press my mouth against her skin, to feel her pulse under my lips.

Slowly, I worked my way down her body, paying special attention to all my favorite parts.

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