Page 76 of Lady for Embers

“How?” he breathed, pure lust dripping from that one word.

“Hard. Fast. Just like this,” she demanded, jerking her hips free and grinding back against him.

“That’s my queen,” he murmured into her ear, and then he slid inside her in one hard thrust.

“Gods, yes,” she gasped, propping herself up on her elbows and giving herself over completely to him. His ?ngers dug into her hips as he gave her exactly what she’d asked for, slamming into her over and over until the scream he’d promised her came from her lips. He consumed that too. Pulling her up onto her knees, back ?ush against his chest, he gripped her jaw, turning her head so he could capture her mouth. His tongue plunged in, tangling with hers, devouring every sound as she went weightless in his arms.

He pushed her back down, his hand pressing to her spine and holding her to the bed as he thrust into her a few more times beforea deep guttural groan came from him, and she knew he’d found his own pleasure. He rolled off of her, gathering her into his chest, soft kisses peppering her brow, her eyelids, her nose.

“And now, my Love? What is consuming your thoughts?”

“You. Only ever you,” she sighed before sleep ?nally claimed her, just as he’d said it would.

“Why are you awake before the sun?” Sorin groaned, his ?ngers grazing over her bare ?esh as she slipped from the bed.

“I want to talk to Rayner before we ?nd Cass and Cyrus,” she answered, pulling on undergarments and pants before slipping a tunic over her head. This one had ties that criss-crossed along the top, and she quickly pulled them tight.

“He is still sleeping, Love. Like you should be,” Sorin grumbled. “Like everyone else is. Come back to bed.”

She was working a braid into her hair. “Then let’s go spar.”

He lifted his head, golden eyes seeming to glow in the darkness of their room. “It is still dark out, Scarlett. We are not sparring in the dark.”

She was slipping her feet into boots, but she paused as something occurred to her. “Get up, Sorin. I want to do something.”

“We did something last night,” he grumbled again, his face falling into the pillow. She smirked at him, sending her shadows to glide along his body, and he groaned. “Keep that up, and I am pulling you back into this bed, Princess.”

Her smirk turned to a scowl. “Come on, Sorin. I have an idea.”

He looked up at her at the words, and she could just make out the look of resignation on his face as he pushed to a sitting position along the edge of the bed.

“What idea?” he asked, scrubbing a hand down his face.

“It involves Traveling,” she said, more and more of the details of this plan falling into place.

Sorin was on his feet, reaching for pants on the ground. “And where are we going?”

“Right now, we’re going to look at some maps.”

“Maps,” he repeated.

“I told you what I learned about the tracking Mark, but until we ?gure out the details of that, we should use this to our advantage.”

“So we are scheming again?” Sorin asked, brushing by her to get a fresh tunic from the armoire.

“I never stop scheming, Prince,” she returned sweetly, getting a little lost in the ripple of his muscles as he shrugged on the shirt.

He smirked at her. “I am getting mixed messages this morning, Princess. Are we scheming, or am I taking you back to bed?” She bit her lip, seriously contemplating her life choices at the moment, and Sorin laughed, slipping on boots. “Too late, Love. You already got me up and out of bed.”

“Oh, I will get you up all right,” she muttered.

“Such a dirty tongue before dawn,” he tsked, dropping an arm around her shoulders and leading her to the door.

“Which is what I would use to get you up,” she returned, stepping out of their quarters.

“You are going to make this a very dif?cult day, aren’t you?” he sighed.

“One could say it will be very hard,” she agreed nonchalantly.

---