Page 64 of Heir Of Sun And Moon
“What if I don’t want you to go slow?” I whisper, looking at him from under lowered lashes.
His fingers grip my thighs more tightly, enough to let me know that he’s holding back, but not enough to hurt. Unburdened desire floods my veins as I watch his eyes widen and brows draw up. For the first time since meeting Flynn, I think he might be speechless.
“I just assumed that we should since you haven’t—”
“I have,” I interrupt. His surprise morphs into confusion for a few beats, but then another emotion bleeds in. His eyes narrow faintly, and the corners of his mouth tighten as a near grimace takes form.
“With who?” The words are clipped, the change in his demeanor catching me off guard.
My eyes hold his, trying to decipher what I said wrong as I ask, “What do you mean with who?” We’re both staring at each other, an unpleasant tension pushing us apart as I lean back a little to see him better. The tightness of his lips relaxes a fraction, but he’s still looking at me like he’s learned something new he doesn’t like. And that thought makes me nauseous with panic. “Flynn, what are you talking about?” I suddenly feel shy with the apex of my desire still flush against his body.
“What areyoutalking about?” he counters.
“You can’t answer a question with a question,” I mumble. When he doesn’t say anything and instead tilts his head forward, encouraging me to respond, I sigh and slide my hands down from his face. “Aren’t you getting tired of holding me?” I deflect, a different heat rising to my cheeks as I now realize that perhaps Idon’twant to vocalize my thoughts.
“Don’t insult me,” he scoffs lightly, easing some of my worry. “Tell me what you are talking about.”
My cheeks puff with breath as I pinch my lips together, my fingertips digging into the hardness of his muscular shoulders. Awkward seconds pass that only grow more so as time goes on. Finally, I exhale and dip my chin, hoping it doesn’t sound as bad as it does in my head when the words start tumbling out of me.
“I just meant that I know I’ve been locked in a tower and have barely had any mortal interaction, but I know what it means to be… intimate. Or I have read about it, at least.” My whole body tenses as I cringe—it definitely sounds worse out loud.
Flynn is silent, though his shoulders underneath my hands relax and lower. Suddenly, we’re moving until he gently pushes my back up against a stone wall. Bracing me there, a hand leaves my leg to cup the side of my face. His eyes hold mine for a moment before our lips meet again. The feel of our tongues sliding together draws an indecent moan from me, my legs once again squeezing to bring him in closer. His hips push into me in response, and my mind goes blank—utterly blank. Thank the gods he is holding me up because I’m completely undone under his touch. Flynn pulls back slightly, our lips separating but still close as we breathe each other in.
“We need to slow down,” he whispers. I let out a frustrated groan in response—to which he just chuckles darkly. With one more searing kiss that ends far too quickly, he lowers me to the ground and guides me over to the couch. “We also need to talk,” he says, tone going serious.
I nod my head because I know. I enjoyed a few minutes of distraction where it felt like, for once, my world was coming together rather than falling apart. Unable to stop the quiver of fear that alters my voice, I ask, “How long do we have before the king finds out what I’ve done?”
“He’s not going to find out,” Flynn growls. A muscle in his jaw pulsates as he grinds his teeth together.
“But… the guard?” My skin tightens at the memory of his hold on me. One look at Flynn and I know his thoughts are the same.
“Is no longer a problem.” The words are solemn as he holds my stare, unyielding in the fierce way he looks at me.
“The blood,” I whisper, eyes rounding as realization clears away the remainder of the lust that had been coursing through me. “You killed him?”
“I should have, for the way he touched you,” Flynn snaps before seeing the look on my face and exhaling loudly. “No, we fought, but I was able to subdue him. He’s tied up at the base of the tower.” A crease forms in the middle of his brows, his gaze dropping from mine like he’s ashamed that he didn’t do more.
“Flynn, you made the right choice.” I bring my hand up to cradle the side of his face and tilt his head up to look at me, my thumb caressing his skin. “I don’t want you to kill for me,” I plead. “I just wantyou.”
He huffs out a laugh, his rueful smile piercing straight through my heart, and leans in, planting a sweet kiss on my lips. I feel his atonement, as well as his protective spirit, in the way he moves his mouth against mine.
“And I want you. Do you have any idea how terrifying that is?” He swallows, a hand coming to rest on my knee. And there, in the slight tilt of his head and furrow of his brows, he shows me the small hurt that’s inside of him. The one he won’t voice but that is there all the same.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you anything about me leaving,” I say with a breath, my hand coming to rest on top of his. “I wanted to ask you to come with me, but I didn’t think you could. Wait, howareyou able to help me?”
Flynn goes still in response, eyes searching mine. I take our intertwined hands and flip them so his palm is facing up. When I untangle mine from his, I look for that slash of a scar that signifies his blood oath, like Alexi had. But the skin there is smooth. Grabbing his other hand and flipping it over, I see the same thing. Confused, I look at him as a tiny seed of doubt winks into existence within me. “I don’t understand. Why don’t you have a scar from the blood oath?”
“Because the oath, it didn’t take.” He takes my hand in his once more, thumb lightly trailing along the back, as he speaks.
My eyes widen as they dart from his eyes to his hands and back again. “How is that possible?”
I don’t know many details about how magic works in our kingdom or beyond, but I do know from the history books I have read that magic is in the very land of the Continent. And that, when mortals give a drop of their blood and speak certain words with intention, it creates a sort of contract bound within the confines of that magic.
“That’s a story I promise to tell you when we are long gone from here. For now, we need to talk about how we are leaving tomorrow.”
I want to ask more, to implore how he was able to skirt aroundmagic,but my attention gets snagged on his words. “Tomorrow?” I breathe, watching as he nods his head in response.
“Yes. Tomorrow, you and I are leaving this placepermanently.” He squeezes my hand one more time before standing and walking over to the satchel I had dropped when I first came back into the tower. After sifting through the contents, he places it back down.
