Page 75 of Sanctifier

“Taryel,” she gasped.

He kissed her, and as his lips took hers, he began to move his hips, slow and rhythmic, grinding low over her sensitive part.And because she couldn’t touch him but to kiss him back, she was overwhelmed by the feel of him inside her, hot and firm and so, so perfect. She rocked her hips in tandem with his, her back arching.

The pleasure of it, the scalding gold of desire began to build again in her, a coiled-up ribbon that was ready to unspool.

“You are perfect.” Taryel’s words were hoarse, cut through by his own desire, his loss of control.

She saw that he was losing himself in her, his eyes closed, utterly vulnerable, and focused on what they shared in that moment. That alone made her fall over the edge again, her sweat-soaked thighs tightening around his hips as she came, a tide of pleasure overwhelming her until there was nothing and no one but Taryel.

And when he finally shuddered against her, thrusting hard again and again, he spoke her name softly, once, a benediction.

They lay together in a tangle of sweat and legs and nightgown, breathing hard, coming down from that celestial height. Taryel rolled onto his back and pulled Ru with him so her head was nestled on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her. Kissed her forehead. Stroked her hair.

“Ru,” he said, almost awed, as if he would never tire of saying her name.

She only laughed gently, her cheek stuck to his chest with sweat, still breathless, still soaking wet between her legs.

She had not, she realized, felt so content in a very long time.

CHAPTER 27

Frost clung to the palace facade like a thin layer of crystal shining in the pale sunlight. Ru stifled a yawn as she walked with Lord D’Luc in a courtyard that seemed to be made of glass.

She and Taryel had finally slept an hour or so before dawn, her head nestled in the divot of his shoulder. But not until after hours of research, case studies, and experiments. Ru had needed to know every inch of Taryel, what made his heart beat faster, what made him groan with unselfconscious pleasure, what made him gather her in his arms and throw her down to the mattress, devouring her with kisses.

She had to knoweverything.

And he had conducted his own experiments as well, tasting her, driving her near out of her mind with lust, using his fingers and his mouth in ways she had never experienced, with that heavy warmth in her heart. With such tenderness in her partner’s eyes.

She had only just returned to her rooms when Hugon was due to arrive, and she knew her appearance wasn’t up to his usual standards. But it didn’t matter — she clung to the memory of last night, a bright star in her chest, the first true happiness she had felt in this place.

“Aren’t we going to the cavern today?” Ru asked after they’d been walking through the courtyard in silence for a time. The lord’s silence unnerved her, made her worry that he had something worse in store.

“Hmm?” he said, glancing sidelong. “Did you say something?”

Ru stopped and turned to face him. “You haven’t commented once on the state of my hair. Which is awful, by the way. Or my gown, the same one I wore yesterday. What’s wrong with you?”

“Ah,” said Hugon, giving her a distracted once-over. “I hadn’t noticed.”

Strangely, the lord’s lack of interest in Ru agitated her. “Aren’t you going to berate me? Remind me of my fate as the Destroyer? Push me further into despair with every word?”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. It was such a human gesture, so unaffected that it seemed wrong on him. “Delara,” he said, “would youliketo go to the cavern?” He had yet to meet her gaze, as if his thoughts were leagues away. But she thought she caught a glimmer of that ache of fear and sadness in his eyes.

“No,” she said. “I’d like to know what’s bothering you.”

At last, his gaze snapped to hers, and she was stung by the despair in it.

“Do you want to know?” he said, his voice low. “Do you truly? You’d like to see into the mind of your keeper? You’d like to know what dark thoughts swim beneath the surface, what ailment plagues me, who’s been twisting my arm behind the curtain?”

Ru hesitated, not knowing what to say.

Hugon laughed mirthlessly, shaking his head and gazing into the distance. “I thought not. Who am I to you, to anyone? A man of science, once. The regent’s advisor, an honor long sincediscarded. And the things I…” his words cut off suddenly as he turned his back to her, walking a few steps in silence.

“Am I supposed to pity you?” Ru asked, watching him warily in case he spun on her in some sudden rage. His movements and speech seemed erratic, strange — a Hugon D’Luc she’d never seen before.

He turned slightly to gaze at her over his shoulder. A light snow began to fall. “I’d rather you didn’t,” he said. “Your pity would only drive the blade deeper, I’m afraid.”

“I don’t pity you.”

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