Page 65 of Heart of the Summer Queen

So, I say nothing.

The intensity, the longing, in his eyes is too much to bear. I break our stare, instead looking down at the coarse blanket wrapped around my chest.

“Have you warmed up?” Elaric asks.

“Yes, I have,” I say, glancing up to meet his eyes briefly. “Thank you.”

He pauses, noticing our entwined limbs. “Would you like me to let you go?”

Simple words, yet laden with deeper meaning. His gaze spears me, searching for the truth in mine.

My voice is breathless as I say, “No. Don’t let me go.”

And then the suffocating tension shatters as his mouth claims mine. Or perhaps it is I who first closes that final distance. Not that it matters. My mind is lost to all but the fervor between us.

Our kiss is frenzied, as if the other will slip through our fingers. His lips burn against mine, and he pulls me closer, until there’s no line to where I end and he begins.

His teeth graze my lip, and the furnace within me ignites into an untamable inferno, fueled by all the thoughts I’ve had of him since our wedding night, all those painfully tense moments where the two of us have wanted each other so desperately. Though it has been only two weeks since that night, now we kiss as if we have been starved of each other for eternity.

“Adara,” he says. I feel my name against my lips. A question.

“I want you,” I murmur. “I want you so much.”

Whatever control he has left is frayed by that. His tongue demands entry, swirling around, exploring my mouth. I allow him to claim me, as I wish so dearly for him to claim the rest of me.

His hands run down my bare shoulders, my skin burning at his touch, and the solidness of his muscles bears down into me.

“I need you,” he rasps. Evidence of his desire digs into my leg, and a fresh wave of yearning crashes into me, my core slickening with restless need.

I arch into him, but it’s not enough. Not until he’s inside me.

But there’s little time to protest.

His fingers wander across my chest, finding the corner of the blanket I tucked under my arm.

My breath hitches as he plucks out the folded fabric. And then, before I can blink, he tears the blanket from around me, leaving me exposed beneath him.

Cool night air rolls over me I as Elaric scans over every inch of my naked flesh. His burning gaze renders my nipples into hardened peaks.

“You’re perfect.” His fingers glide across my collarbone, and I shiver. “Every part of you is perfect.”

“Please,” I moan.

He tilts his head, regarding me, and a smirk dances upon his lips. I roll my hips, but I can hardly move with him straddling me.

“Please,” I say again.

His fingers return to my face, tracing my lips. “Tell me what you want, Adara.”

“You,” I gasp. “All of you.”

His hand brushes up the inside of my thigh, the calluses on his palm grazing my skin. Higher he climbs, though his hand slows. Until it comes to a stop.

And then, just as I’m convinced he’ll advance no further, his fingers sink into me, parting my wet folds.

The movement is so sudden I can’t stop from crying out. I clench around his fingers, aching for more. Yet he pulls themout, torturously slow. I open my mouth to object, to beg, but then he slides his fingers back in.

Pleasure sparks through me like lightning.

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