Page 135 of Flame and Sparrow

He responded with one last deep thrust of his tongue, and I shattered.

I surrendered fully, and my body was no longer my own; I writhed and started to twist away from him, but he held me against him, drinking in my release, savoring me until I’d finished. It was a full minute, at least, before my thighs stopped shaking. Only then did he let me go.

I collapsed beside him, sliding down so my head could rest against his chest. His heart.

It still surprised me, the human-like beat of it.

He was quiet, contemplative, his fingers trailing up and down my bare back. When I shivered from a combination of aftershocks and nakedness, he heated the air to a soothing temperature with no more effort than an extra deep breath.

“Do you still feel nothing but disdain toward me?” he asked after a minute, and I could almost hear the smirk behind the question.

I blushed at the memory of those words I’d said to him right before we’d kissed for the first time. We’d come a long way since that night, hadn’t we?

“It’s complicated,” I replied.

He chuckled, sitting up and reaching for the glass he’d placed on the table, washing down the taste of me with the remainder of his wine.

I grabbed the shirt I’d borrowed and went to clean up for the second time that evening. When I came back, I found him opening the balcony door for an impatient little griffin.

Moth swooped in along with a cold, smoky breeze. He collided with my chest—as clumsy and unruly as ever—but I was getting used to catching him like this, so I managed to secure him quickly. I planted a kiss on top of his head, which made him purr deeply.

Dravyn closed the door but stayed next to it, watching the sky. It was flashing with the same sickly green color I’d first seen hours ago.

“This was happening earlier, too,” I told him.

“Valla is restless,” he muttered.

“Valla?” I repeated. “You mean the upper-heavens?”

“Mm.” He pulled the curtains over the door. “The Moraki and their feuds often get violent, and sometimes it rattles us even down here.”

“Their feuding…does this all go back to what the Storm Marr mentioned earlier? The Edgelands business?”

“That’s most of it, yes.”

“You told me you would explain more about the Edgelands troubles, and the Death Marr, after I survived my second trial,” I reminded him.

“I know. And I intend to keep my promise.” He glanced toward the bed, and I was overcome by a sudden urge to crawl under the covers with him, to pretend we were somewhere else for awhile.

“But let’s rest tonight,” he said, as if he could sense my unspoken desire. “Tomorrow, I’ll take you to the Edgelands to see the truth for yourself.”

Chapter37

For several minutesafter I woke the next morning, I thought I was still in a dream.

Dravyn’s arms were wrapped tightly around me, holding me against his bare chest. His breaths were slow and easy, his heart thudding peacefully against my back.

I still wore his shirt, but it was untied, hanging open, bunched up and leaving my lower half fully exposed—I might as well have been entirely naked. In the bed of a god. A god who had given me the most powerful orgasm of my life last night.

I shuddered pleasantly at the memory of my release, and Dravyn stirred and pressed closer to me, nudging through the curtain of my hair, pressing his nose into the crook of my neck and exhaling a warm breath that sent shivers down to my toes.

His breath was all it took to make my body wake up completely, to come alive in hopes of picking up where we’d left off last night. Honestly, I’m not sure it had ever truly settled—nor had his. Spending the night tangled in each other’s arms had done nothing to calm either of us down.

My one saving grace was that he was not as exposed as I was; he still wore the loose pants he’d slipped on before crawling into bed beside me. But that wasallhe wore, and the thin material didn’t fully conceal the firmness—or the impressive size—of his arousal. That hardened length pressed against my backside as he leaned his mouth toward my ear and murmured, “You know, gods have little need for sleep…but I could get used to doing it if it means waking up beside you like this.”

“I wouldn’t get used to it,” I mumbled back. “I’m still not convinced this is a good idea.”

“Perhaps I could convince you?” His mouth tipped toward my ear again, giving my lobe a gentle, playful nip. “I can be very persuasive when I want to be.”

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