Page 162 of Flame and Sparrow

I let out a soft cry as he shifted beneath me, pressing even deeper, but managed to catch my breath enough to say, “Then I’ll prepare for the disastrous end.”

His laugh was savage as I braced my hands against his chest, squeezing my breasts together, drawing his attention to them. He buried his face between them while his hands unclenched from my thighs and roamed over the rest of my body, nails leaving a trail of pebbled flesh wherever they scraped across.

He finally let one hand rest against my lower back, holding me firmly in place as he thrust. The other hand took its time traveling up the length of my body, fingers pinching the swollen peak of a breast before continuing upward, lightly wrapping around my throat. Then he leaned back, bending just slightly at the waist, so his hips lifted and he penetrated even deeper.

I felt my control slipping, my muscles going rigid. His name became a cry rather than a gasp, and his grip on me tightened as he leaned up to kiss me, letting his lips linger against mine as he asked, “Are you going to come for me, Wildfire?”

Every syllable that purred from his mouth vibrated through my entire body in a way that felt torturously good. Words failed me, but I managed to nod in response. That response was all that mattered in that moment—there was only me and him, his question and my answer, the world reduced to nothing except the ending we were both chasing.

He stayed on his knees but hooked his arms beneath my legs, pulling them out straight beside him so he could better control the angle and speed at which he drove into me. I started to lean backwards, fingers clutching for ground, for balance, but he forced me back upright.

“Arms around my neck and eyes on me, Wildfire.”

The edge in his voice was my final undoing; I could hear how close he was—closer even than me—and it made me feel powerful even as I followed his commands. The building waves of my climax rolled through me, and this time I didn’t resist them. I let them carry me over the edge, and I dug my fingers into Dravyn’s back and carried him with me, tightening my hold until I had pulled the satisfying roar of his release from deep within him.

As our cries faded, the night seemed strangely quiet all of sudden, with nothing but our too-fast heartbeats disrupting the silence.

The sky still flashed with occasional bursts of fiery, falling starlight.

Dravyn stretched out his legs behind me while I remained in his lap, facing him, the essence of him warm and dripping between us. He studied me like I was something altogether new—something he desperately wanted to know better—his fingers tracing the lines of my face, his lips moving slowly over mine as if memorizing the way his fit with them.

After our shaking stopped, we curled up together on the blanket he’d made of my cloak. He wrapped his arms around me, holding tightly, as though he was still afraid I might not stay as I’d promised I would.

A few minutes passed before his breathing slowed and he asked, “Do you feel as though you’ve just survived a disaster?”

I considered my response through the distracting sound of my heart still pounding in my ears. “No. But I feel as though tomorrow might bring bigger disasters.”

“Don’t think of tomorrow then,miran-achth.”

“That word… You called me by it the night of my trial with the Star Goddess, too.”

His body shook with quiet laughter. “Do you forget nothing?”

“Rarely. It’s both a blessing and a curse.”

He kissed my temple and loosened his grip on me somewhat, his attention shifting to something in the distance.

“What does it mean?”

“Can I keep at least one secret from your ever-curious mind?”

“I’ll figure it out on my own, eventually.”

“I’ve no doubt.”

I twisted toward him, giving him my most persuasive pout.

He responded by wrapping me up in his arms again and rolling us both so we were more fully entangled in the cloak, so tightly intertwined that I could barely move—much less turn to pout at him.

It was such a silly, undignified and ungodlike maneuver that I couldn’t help laughing and forgetting about my questions for the moment. I relaxed against him with a contented sigh instead, lifting my gaze back to the sky.

We lay together for some time, watching the last of the stars burn out and fall to the ground, until a new question tugged at the edges of my heart.

“When did this happen?” I wondered in a whisper.

“This?”

“You and me. How did we get from where we started to…this?”

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