Page 73 of Sanctifier

But her self-consciousness fled as soon as the door opened.

A tall figure with hair in wild disarray, shirt hanging open, stood in the doorway, backlit by a dying fire. His face, bleary with sleep, split in a slow grin.

“Ru,” Taryel said.

“I…” she trailed off, lost for words. Why had she come here?Because you want him, she thought.You always have. And you’re tired of waiting.But all she said was, “I didn’t think you’d be asleep.”

He said nothing, lifting a hand toward her. He moved slowly, as if frightened of scaring her away. His thumb brushed her cheek, and he cupped her jaw gently, burying fingers in herloose hair. Her heart threatened to burst open in her chest like a blooming flower. It had been only hours ago since they were entwined in the gazebo, but this… this felt entirely different. Slow and deliberate.

“I was dreaming of you,” Taryel said.

In that state of near half-sleep, his gaze was unguarded, his eyes clear. Ru overflowed at the sight of him. There was too much feeling inside her and not enough of her to hold it in.

“Taryel,” she said, curling her fingers around his wrist, holding him there as if afraid he might let her go. The artifact spoke a bloom of joy in her belly, spreading outward like flaming gold, filling her with a certainty that seemed impervious to questioning. “I missed you.”

These three words were the truest she had ever spoken. It was as if the world had unfolded and come together in a shape that was deeply and indescribably known to her.

He swallowed visibly, and the relief on his face was so palpable that Ru’s chest hurt. “I missed you too,” he said.

Then he was sweeping her into his arms, closing the door behind her, and pressing her up against it with gentle ferocity. His body felt as if it were an extension of her own, though they were both fully clothed. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and while his chest was flush with hers, his breath hot on her neck, his hands holding her tight against him, there was nothing salacious in it.

The artifact burned in her, repeating:Yes, yes;a songbird greeting the dawn. And it was not coercive, nor was it overwhelming in its need. It was as if the artifact, once so determined to aim her in its chosen direction, had finally found contentment. With Taryel, she was herself, her whole self, and the artifact was a reflection of them.

Ru felt, in that moment, her arms wrapped around the Destroyer, her face buried in the warm space where his neck methis shoulder, as if their bodies were shrouded in a bright light. Their embrace, lit from within by the cursed thing that bound them, was holy.

She hadn’t felt so vibrant, so alive, in months.

Taryel was beaming as he carried her to the bed, as if he couldn’t believe their luck. And when he tossed her onto the blankets, her dressing gown falling open just enough to reveal a sliver of her thin silk nightgown, the look on his face made her heart shudder happily. He stood over her and hesitated, and with his open shirt and mussed hair, the circles under his eyes, he appeared strangely young, more vulnerable and human than he’d ever looked.

Ru sat up and took his shirt in her impatient fingers, pulling him down to the bed. He kissed her sweetly at first, pure revelry. But soon, the kisses slowed, his mouth more purposeful. Hungrier.

She had dreamed of this a thousand times, both waking and asleep. Had imagined with great detail how the weight of him might feel, how his fingers would touch her skin, how he would go about pushing her to the brink of her pleasure.

But this was not something she could study or break down into parts. Taryel’s slow undoing of her was unfathomable. It was as if she were meeting him for the first time, this man who said he belonged to her, and who, until now, had always seemed hidden in the shadows of his past.

Now, at last, Taryel washersentirely. He deepened his kisses, teeth nipping and tongue seeking. Unable to help herself, Ru arched her body upward, yearning for more of him.

Her body was painfully eager, but Taryel still seemed hesitant. His knees bracketed her on the bed, and his elbows kept him firmly above her, a tantalizing few inches between their bodies.

Fine. Ru would do it herself. She moved her hands down his body, her fingers brushing through his curling chest hair, trailing lightly down his sides. He moaned, pressing his face into her neck.

“Ru,” he said, muffled and desperate.

“What?” she said, pulling at his shirt until it came free from his trousers. She pushed it off his broad, lightly muscled shoulders and down his arms until he sat up and wrenched the shirt off, tossing it across the room.

His expression was so lustfully devious that Ru’s breath caught.

Then his mouth was on hers again, and gradually, almost painfully, he lowered his body to hers. When he began to kiss her neck with lips and tongue, she gasped, her hips bucking against him. Pleasure bloomed in a searing ache as his hard length pressed against the most sensitive part of her, so much so that the pleasure was almost unbearable.

“Not yet,” he breathed, hot in her ear, and he raised himself onto his knees again, leaving her bereft. He looked at her with a tenderness she’d never been privy to before. She had been in bed with young men before and even sometimes thought herself in love. But this… the way he looked at her was pure, almost sacred.

Taryel said quietly, “Ru, you are… beyond description.”

She laughed, and as she did, her dressing gown shifted further, revealing her bare shoulder and the hint of a nipple.

He groaned, crashing into her. He caressed her neck, shoulders, and mouth with worshipful lips. With slow, deliberate movements, he untied her dressing gown. And with one hand, he eased it open all the way, sliding his palm over that thin, silk nightgown, so sheer she knew he could feel the heat of her want. His hand skimmed up her lower belly, making Ru’s hips rock upward involuntarily. And his palm slid upward still,ever so slowly, his thumb circling her navel, until his fingertips brushed the edge of her breast.

She gasped, a quick intake of breath, as he moved his fingers deliberately over her nipple, one by one, a touch so delicate it was almost nothing, but the ardor of his caress ignited her like a wildfire.

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