Page 143 of A Court Bright and Broken

I nodded, running my hands through his hair as he stripped off his shirt and moved us to the bed. Laying me back on it, he climbed over me and straddled my hips, his knees bracketing my body.

His eyes looked nearly black as he gazed down at me. From this angle, I could see the tattoo he’d been so ashamed of his whole life. It was small, at the very top of his ribcage on the right side. As his glamour wasn’t currently in use, it was black instead of glowing with color.

Unable to stop myself, I reached up to trace it. Stellon’s body shuddered under my gentle touch. He clamped a hand over mine, pressing it flat against his torso.

“You aresobeautiful,” he whispered. “I am the luckiest man in the world to get to touch you and hold you and kiss you. I want you to be mine forever.”

I couldn’t speak, nearly paralyzed by the sound of his voice and the sight of his powerful body atop mine, his hardness contrasting with my softness.

All I could manage was a breathy, “Please.”

I couldn’t specify exactly what I was asking for, but Stellon gave it to me anyway.

Dropping to all fours, he hovered above me, working his way down my body, touching me and pressing kisses that sank right through my shift and set me on fire, erasing all thoughts apart from his incredible hands and his persuasive mouth.

“I want you so much,” he said.

“I want you, too,” I managed between breaths.

Slowly he inched my shift up and out of his way, urging me to lift my arms so he could pull it over my head.

His sharp inhale hissed loudly in the quiet room as he got a look at me fully unclothed.

“Let me take you now, sweet Raewyn,” he whispered against my stomach. “I know we’re not married yet, but I will be bonded to you for eternity. Then no one will be able to keep us apart. I’ll never be able to be with anyone else, and my father willhaveto accept you as my princess.”

The words yanked me from the lust-addled state I’d existed in for the past few minutes. Had I understood him correctly?

Feeling like I was swimming for the surface from the floor of a deep ocean, I reached down and slid my hand beneath his chin.

Stellon stopped kissing my abdomen and looked up at me.

“What did you say?” I asked. “You’ll never be able to be with anyone but me if we bond?”

He gave me a drowsy looking smile, still deep in that ocean himself. “Exactly the way I want it.”

That’swhat his father had meant when he said the women in the retinue were all that was left to him.

Elves could only have one true mate for eternity.

Stellon tried to go back to those mind-erasing kisses, but I kept my grip on his chin firm.

“But you are immortal. I will die far sooner than you.”

He shook off my protest. “It doesn’t matter. I will count each day with you a treasure, and we will not think of the future, just live every day in paradise while we can.”

As certain as Stellon sounded, I recognized the delusion in his words. It was like being splashed with a bucket of cold water. I sat up and scooted back.

“We can’t do this,” I said. “It’s not fair to you.”

Stellon rocked back on his haunches, running a hand through his hair and blowing out a long breath.

“I should have just kept my mouth shut—or moved it a few inches lower.”

Feeling heat bloom in my face, I tried to focus on the life-and-death matter at hand and not the intoxicating feelings and visual image that produced.

“I never knew that was how it was for Elves. You can only have one bond-mate in your lifetime?” I asked just to be sure.

He nodded, confirming it. “That’s right. And you are the one I want. I’m ready to commit to you for eternity.”

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