Page 60 of Petals for Deadly Power

The touch of his fingers on her skin made her core and heart tighten. What wouldn’t she trade with the Cardinals to allow her to know what his lips tasted like?

“In my ordeal . . . The Core Cardinal asked me if I would keep my feelings and needs aside to protect the land, to avoid a panomquake, and I said yes. She said if my answer turned out to be dishonest or untrue, the crystal feather would break.”

Ciaran inhaled deeply. She was expecting an answer along the lines ofI understand and respect it,The land must be protected, orThe feather is more important than anything else.

His hand trailed up her throat until his thumb stroked her bottom lip. When he spoke, his voice was gravel.

“What needs do you have, Hope?”

She exhaled against his finger, her eyes unable to move from the trap where his eyes and his lips were.

“All the forbidden needs you could imagine. Every single one of them.”

The glint in his eyes matched his side smile. “My imagination is very creative.”

“Every. Single. One,” she repeated, begging she was able to keep her hands off the unmistakable growing bulk between his legs. The growing bulk she had dreamed about.

“Something was allowed that didn't break the land.” He flicked the knot of her braid, his fingers skillfully letting her black hair loose. “Do you remember how I . . . confirmed you had Core panom blood?”

She would never forget what she'd felt when he opened the skin on her palm and licked her blood.

“How is that possible?” Her voice came out as a gasp or a beg, she didn't know the difference anymore.

“Llunal is involved in that magic, in blood research and processes, not the Cardinals.”

Thank the five damned Cardinals she was sitting.

Research.

Re-search.

Notforbidden research.

If Llunal ever needed a new acolyte, he only needed to ask.

A quiet moan left her mouth. “Do it.” The desperation in her voice and her blood had reached a new level of insanity.

Ciaran pressed his nose against Hope's head, his deep, uncontrolled, almost desperate inhale making Hope press her thighs together.

“I could taste your hand again, or a different place.”

“Lick me wherever you want, Ciaran.”

The metallic hand on her back tensed, holding her flesh with strength she didn’t mind one bit.

“Not where I truly want. The Cardinals wouldn’t approve if I lick the blood between your legs, and I wouldn’t be able to control myself.” He nestled his head in the spot above her clavicle, his nose pressing on her throat sending all sorts of explosions to the nerves throughout her body. “Classic old Cardinals, drawing the line at kisses and private parts. A shame, because I would love to thoroughly research every single sensitive part of you down there.”

A quiet moan left her mouth. “Lick me, Ciaran. Do with me whatever you can.”

“Such a shy moan, that was,” Ciaran hummed against her skin. His finger traced a line down her throat, Harming her until she felt her skin open and the thick, red liquid pooling next to where his mouth rested. “It’s not enough. I need to know if the way you moan is the way I imagine when I come thinking about all the things I wish I could do to you.”

Hope half-opened her mouth, her head tilting backwards so Ciaran had access to the full extent of her neck. Her thoughts blurred with desire, desperation,need.

“Lick. Me.”

When the touch of his tongue met her open skin, her blood, the world faded—the worldchanged. The world was Ciaran, his tongue, the way he desperately licked as if her blood was what was keeping him alive instead of the air he breathed.

Bless the father of blood research, his shadows, and every single one of his stars.

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