Page 126 of Ecliptic

It was Rowen’s home! The place he drew over and over again in his sketchbooks.

I walked through Viltarran. Or at least an improved version of it. But how could that be? Aliphoura destroyed it years ago.

The stars glittered above, casting a silver glow along the cobblestone path. I crossed a bridge that arched over a river winding through the city.

My feet eventually led me to a grand stone castle encased in moss and glowing blossoms.

I slipped through the entrance, wearing nothing but my nightgown. I passed through great halls, dining rooms, and libraries filled with books. An awareness spread through my body. It was as if I intimately knew these halls, somehow aware of every passageway and alcove. As if Rowen and I had stolen kisses and touches within the hidden shadows.

A set of massive double doors called to me as a faint light glowed from within. My hand hovered over the iron handle before I pushed inside.

I gasped as a throne room stretched out before me. Pillars resembling trees lined the chamber, their stone branches extending up into an elaborate, vaulted ceiling. Wrought-iron windows spanned the walls, letting in fractals of moonlight that danced throughout the room. Vines and greenery cascaded from every surface, and the hall shimmered in shades of emerald, onyx, and silver. My eyes snapped to the matching thrones upon the dais. They were equal in every way and spoke of a shared power that made the flame in my chest thrum.

Suddenly, a presence that warmed my blood yet pebbled my skin came up behind me.

“Lady Damascus,” said a voice like sin and smoke. Hands trailed up the flares of my hips and locked around my waist. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

I rested my head against his shoulder and smiled. “Shouldn’t you? And when did I agree to take your last name?”

His hands tightened around me, and his mouth dipped to the curve of my neck. “Even in my dreams, you fight me,” he said, his lips dancing across my sensitive skin.

“This is what you dream of?” I asked, melting under his touch.

“It is,” he barely ground out, his hands gathering my slip over my ass. He moaned as he toyed with the edges of my underwearand slid them down my legs. “I dream of making you my wife and taking you in our throne room.”

The flame in my chest burst, exposing a soul-deep desire to be his wife and his undoing. “I would need a ring,” I said coolly, belying my burning body and pounding heart.

He spun me around to face him. His sharp and honed features danced across my face as if I were a star-filled sky. He was naked from the waist up, looking like he’d been chiseled from marble. His abs and lateral muscles rippled down to the V-shaped lines that disappeared into his pants.

We were both barefoot and tousled as if we’d wandered in from our sleep.

“I will give you a ring that rivals the stars,” he swore as he reached overhead and plucked a small vine from above us. He took my hand and wound the ivy around my finger, tying it off at the ends to secure it. “But for now, this will have to do.”

I didn’t think a heart could grow any bigger or love any more, but the look on Rowen’s face spoke of forever—in this life and beyond. “It’s perfect,” I said, tears welling in my eyes as I made one for him.

He admired the twisted vine around his finger, his smile so big I could see the peaks of his canines. “I’ve never been happier in my life.”

“Me either,” I said, rising up on my tiptoes to kiss him. His tongue darted between my lips as our arms and bodies crashed into an embrace. We held each other as if we had all the time in the world, not a few hours before battle. Our lips collided, and our tongues starved for each other’s taste. “By the spirits, you feel so real,” he groaned, his fingers digging into my hips hard enough to bruise. “I’ve dreamt of Viltarran often, how I would improve and change it, but your presence is altering the details. You’re making it better, more alive, as if you’ve added pieces ofyourself. As if we are sharing this dream and creating it together.”

I had astral projected into Rowen’s dream.Ourdream. It was of the future we wished to create. Together.

“Where are you?” I asked, suddenly remembering our bodies weren’t really here. Which was crazy because I felt him underneath my fingertips, pulsing with life and strength. And desire.

“I’m sleeping on the ground at our war camp. But I don’t want to talk about that right now. Not when I have you like this,” he said, grabbing the backs of my thighs and lifting me in the air. Honoring his request, I wrapped my legs around his narrow hips and planted kisses along his face and jaw. He walked me up onto the dais and placed me on one of the elaborately carved chairs. “I want to worship you on your throne. I may be a lord in title, but I am nothing without you. You are my lady, my goddess. My wife.”

He dropped to his knees and spread my legs apart. “And I shall worship you,” he said, his head of dark hair dipped to my core. His tongue darted out to lick my slit, and I jolted at the contact. My arms gripped the high-back seat of the throne to keep me steady.

His tongue licked in broad, torturous strokes, and I arched further into the chair. He passionately kissed my core, his hands gripping my thighs to keep them apart.

I squirmed in desperate need as his tongue pushed inside my entrance. “Please!” I begged, needing him to make me come.

He chuckled against me before honing in and concentrating on my clit.

My belly clenched. “Don’t stop. I’m so close. Yes. Ye?—”

Rowen pulled away, and my eyes shot open as he abandoned my body on a pinnacle with no release. I made a frustrated noise.

“I forgot to ask,” he said with an utterly wicked grin, his lips glistening with my desire.

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