Page 76 of Dark's Savior

Yes, he certainly couldn't pretend he didn't care for her now. And by his right as a nillium of the First House, she was his now, alone. And that was just fine. That was more than fine. Let his brother laugh.

Ryziel brought his mind back to last night and the image of Aly. Even the ship now barely preoccupied his thoughts as much as it had in the last few months. And he knew they were at the last leg now of its completion. With Coria dead and the hidden chamber still stocked full of ionx and the other needed minerals, they could easily return and take it all. Then, in only a few weeks’ time, the ship would be fixed, and they would be off Lethe Maws for good. Yes, this should be the focus of his thoughts, but instead, he thought only of Aly. Of her soft body beneath his, not just in the crystal garden but in the bath they used once returning to the lair, then in his bed after. Now that he had let go of his fears, he was starved for her. And there was still plenty of time to make up for all those lost moments.

Aly stirred again, and this time, her eyes fluttered open. She groaned softly and turned to face him. When she saw him looking down at her, she smiled, her small hands coming to rest against his chest. He took one of them and brought it to his mouth with a kiss—that touch that he knew was intimate to humans, though he knew it wasn't exactly like how they did it but he would work on that.

"What time is it?" she asked.

Ryziel rubbed a hand across her back. "Early. But I will have to take you back up soon."

She groaned and seemed to mumble something along the lines of "do I have to?" while rubbing her face against his chest.

"Afraid so, yes. But only for a day. It would be best for you to work and be seen so that no one suspects anything."

She sighed and rolled onto her back. "And I have to see my team. I can't miss a meeting, or they will start looking for me."

He tightened his hold on her. "Such as that man?" He didn't mean to sound annoyed, but it couldn't be helped. She looked at him with confusion.

"What ma—do you mean Julian? Or Mark?"

Ryziel didn't say anything. Mainly because he didn't know the man's name.

"You...saw us together?"

He looked away from her and shrugged, realizing his mistake. She stared back at him. "You were watching me?"

"I...just wanted to make sure you were all right." He looked back at her and could see her brows were raised at him, but she didn't seem agitated. If anything, she gave him a sly little smile.

"Well, Julian has Kate, and Mark is just my friend. We aren't together. But I'm glad to know you were at least thinking of me, even after you told me I couldn't come back."

Ryziel's mouth tightened into a frown. He still felt the guilt of that moment, even now.

A sudden idea occurred to him then, and the frown flipped back to a smile. "By the time you return, we will have gathered a lot of the minerals and started reworking them into materials for the ship."

"Can't I come down and help—"

He shook his head. "One day above and I don't need you going anywhere near that place again. With Xilya and Nar, it can be done quick enough." He brushed his fingers along her jaw. "But I will have a different task for you when you return. For you and me alone."

There was a wicked spark in her eyes and next thing he knew, she was on top of him. She straddled his hips, and he felt himself grow hard beneath her. Her delicate hands trailed along his chest and stomach, and he thought he could never get enough of her touch.

"You don't have to call it that, you know," she said, laughing. "It is not a chore to be with you like this." Her hand slipped down till he felt her hand grazing the hard length of him.

He groaned and gripped her hips. "I don't mean this. Something that involves you and I traveling to another part of the Keep. One last time."

"Oh." Aly's hand gripped him and moved him to her center, where she eased him inside her. She sat firmly back against him and he could feel every bit of her heat tightening around him, making him bare his teeth with a hiss. "Then I am more than happy to help."

He laughed. "I'm sure you are." He moved his hips up to meet her and watched her tilt her head up, arching her back.

"Will it be dangerous?" she said.

"Possibly."

She said no more, only moved against him, and he was content to let her.

***

Moving the minerals out of Coria's hidden den was as easy as he had hoped it would be, though it did still take the whole day to do it. Once they were collected in full and taken back to the lair, Nar had the tanks ready to harvest them completely. It would take several days for such a large batch to be ready to process into actual usable materials, but after that, it wouldn't take long to use them to patch the ship and have it running. What was estimated to take several more months now would only take weeks, and Ryziel was more than ready to be gone and sailing toward home.

"All works out in time," Xilya said as they set down the last container and began to help Nar fill the tanks. "You are still certain about giving the ship over to me once you return home?"

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