Page 89 of Fae Exile

My attention drifted to the scar she’d now always have, the evidence of what I’d done to her.

Would I ever stop feeling a spearing pain through my own heart when I noticed it? Probably not. I didn’t deserve her forgiveness, nor was I certain I deserved her love. But when she gave it so freely, so insistently, even, I couldn’t find the strength to resist it.Her.

I couldn’t resisther.

I tried to hold back and let her rest, I really had. But after torturing myself with desire for as long as I could resist, I caved and woke her to make love again.

One of the times, it had been with my tongue between her legs, where I could taste our commingled passion, another sucking her breast into my mouth—hard—in that way I’d already learned drove her crazy. And the final time, with my dick already notched at her entrance, so welcoming, pulling me in like it was the most natural act in the world, as if us being apart were the real unnatural state.

I intended to explore her body until I understood it as well as my own, to know every one of her likes and dislikes, and to give her every imaginable pleasure.

She’d only just returned to me, and already I knew I couldn’t be without her. More so than when I’d sent her out into the Sorumbra with little more than a desperate hope she’d survive.My heart had broken. Surely it had. It was still bruised and battered, a mangled mess. But I’d found the way to keep going then, at least for a while. One step in front of the other, one day then the next, all to free the kingdom and secure her safety.

As dawn loomed, the sky already lightening but not yet colored with the pinks that would soon arrive, my heart grew heavy. And as night gave way more fully to day, my every inhale was dragged down by the weight of my worry.

There was nothing more precious in all the realms than this woman. As much as I loved Larissa, and as seriously as I took my duty to protect her, here, where no one could be witness to my silent thoughts I could admit to myself the darkness of my secrets.

I’d allow even Larissa to die if it meant saving Elowyn.

I didn’t know whether it was the mate bond or just plain love, but somewhere along the way Elowyn had morphed into an obsession. It was as if she were a magnet and I its polarized pair. Every piece of me was drawn to her, longed for her, needed her. The mere thought of being in a separate room from her in this blasted place where danger lurked around every corner made my skin prickle.

I had no idea how I’d survive this love for her. It was more intense and consuming than anything I’d ever come close to experiencing before. I empathized with those addicts who huddled in dark corners in the poorest parts of Embermere and the clan territories. They were addicted toolvidian, the juice of the pale violet flower, which when distilled into a resin and then heated was said to deliver a bliss so mighty that anyone who tried it just once would forever chase it again.

Elowyn was my olvidian.

With a cute sigh, she began to stir and, as if it were instinct, she pressed her perfect ass and long, lean legs farther into my body as it curled around hers. I’d rested my head in my hand, upon my elbow, better to study her, but now I laid it next to hers and pulled her flush against me, draping one of my legs across hers, my hand finding its way to the flat of her stomach as if we’d been doing this every day of our adult lives.

Mmmmmm, she hummed before groggily adding, “I could get used to waking up like this.”

Unabashedly, I sniffed the curve where her shoulder and neck met, then groaned, dropping a kiss to the same spot. “Too late now, you’ve already spoiled me,” I mumbled as my lips tasted her skin. “I’ll no longer settle for anything less. You’re mine now.”

Again she hummed contentedly, but my body clenched with the irrational need to hear her say it back to me. Whether she realized it yet or not,shewasmine.

But I’d sworn to myself I’d be patient. I’d wait as long as it took for her to come around and openly embrace everything it meant to be mates. What a gift it was to find my mate in this cursed world. The chances were about one in eleven. Before her, I’d never dared allow myself to hope for it. As hard as this life was, it was easier to bear without the added disappointment.

She wiggled her ass cheeks against me as she burrowed even farther into my hold. Any ruminating I’d been doing stuttered to a stop as my entire focus pinned itself to all the spots where our bodies met.

“How long do we have?” she asked with a crane of her neck that confirmed Saffron still slept soundly.

“Long enough. And also not nearly long enough. Never enough,” I rumbled into her hair. It smelled like rose petals.

“Good. It would’ve been just like the queen to summon us first thing and interrupt our fun.”

That unwelcome—yet necessary—reminder made me pause. I had to be responsible. As capable as she was of defending herself as a warrior, Elowyn was still unaccustomed to the waysof court. Within these walls, every single move had to be thought out, its ramifications considered.

Within the palace, we waged war.

And I’d be damned if anything else happened to her on my watch.

Yeah right, Rush. What are you going to do when the queen comes at you both? She’s more powerful than she’s ever been. Practically the entire kingdom would be happy to see her dead, and still no one’s been able to take her down.

I growled at the threat the queen posed to Elowyn, to us, so long as she lived.

“No need to get all worked up,” Elowyn said with a quick glance at me over her shoulder. “Or should I say, get worked up all you want? I’ve cleared my schedule. You, me, and that stunning bejeweled wand you’ve got going on are all I need for the rest of the day. I don’t even care if I eat so long as?—”

“We need to talk,” I cut in abruptly.

She chuckled, a husky, slow roll that tingled through my thighs and urged me to sink inside her.

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