Page 53 of Artemysia
His voice lowers. “I can’t promise you much, but Icanpromise that I won’t die by a Syf hand.”
“Don’t make promises like that.”
“I swear it. You’ve seen me—I’m faster, stronger, more skilled than any of them. I won’t break your heart by letting a Syf kill me.”
“That’s a big promise just to convince me to sleep with you.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he grumbles.
Maybe he’s only trying to make me feel better, but no one can be certain when or how they’ll die, and it’s best not to tempt fate with such vows.
“It’s not a priority anyway. Sex, or love.” I shiver, and he presses closer. His heat is divine—scorching hot—though his arms and legs are bare. The small hairs on his powerful thighs tickle the backs of my knees.
“Why not?”
“If I get attached romantically and they die, I’m upset and sad. Then I can’t focus as well on my duties—keeping everyone safe and surviving our missions. My priorities are to keep my company alive. You?”
“No.”
“No to what?”
“All of it. Never been in love, never said it to anyone, never had it said to me,” he says.
“And you’ve been with many women?”
“Yes and no. Meaningless distractions. They felt the same about me. Everyone’s intrigued by the mysterious, handsome soldier who rolls into town. But no one really wants to get to know me, and I don’tstay anywhere long enough anyway. I’m a good time, and then they go back to the safe guy who offers them a real life. I don’t blame them.”
“But you get all the sex.”
His breathing stills for a moment. “No.” He pauses. “Not in the most traditional sense. Haven’t done that.”
I smack the broad hand dangling in front of me. “Don’t lie.”
He stiffens with my touch, but his reply is utter silence. He’s telling the truth.
“Why?” I ask, intrigue drowning out my hesitation. His hand relaxes, and our fingers tangle. His touch shouldn’t feel like a wildfire erupting across my skin, but where his thumb grazes mine, I’m set ablaze.
“I’m not telling you all my secrets in one night.”
“Does it not work?” I snicker, knowing it does. I’d felt it in the clock tower.
He’s thinking the same, apparently. “For fuck’s sake. You saw what you did to me in the clock tower. Even now, it’s driving me insane not to press against you the way I want.” He moves his hips against me roughly, and I feel the long, stiff length of his cock harden against my backside.
I accidentally let a low moan escape into the feather pillow as my grip tightens on his forearm.
He clears his throat, his lips grazing the nape of my neck as he speaks. “Make noises like that again and I won’t be able to control myself. I swear I’ll break my promise of keeping my hands off you.”
At this point, I doubt my own self-control. My traitorous body arches against him, needing more contact. At the same time, I keep telling myself how wrong this is, how I should just go to sleep. Will this affect our mission in Artemysia, or will it get us killed?
I start with the easiest one to address. “Why are you telling me all this?”
“You asked, and I promised I’d never lie to you again. You won the right.”
I’m taken aback by his vow to be truthful. It does feel a like victory to hear him say this. Maybe he trusts me, so he’s being honest, or else he’s always true to his word. Either way, I win.
I was honest, too—in that I can’t afford feelings of attachment. Andall my instincts say not to involve myself with him.
But I don’t know what possesses me turn my head just enough so that my lips press onto his shoulder behind me to give it a kiss.
