“Dare you think to cage me when I’ve invited you to fly with me, Gavyn, but refused?”
Everything about him stilled, even the swirling lust and possessiveness had become a canvas of nothing.
She pressed the flat of her palm over his heart. “Are you not tired of being constrained, Gavyn, of denying this desire between us? The world around us will soon burn, and everything we hold dear will be engulfed in the unrelenting flames of war. I feel it, you feel it, and I am bracing for our world to upend. I will wait no more to live.”
A reflecting need fired in his eye, and hope stirred in her heart.
“Let's just be free tonight and feel no regrets in the morning,” she murmured, her heart a pounding mess.
His expression became inscrutable. “You are a danger to yourself.”
She curved her lips into a challenging smile. “And a little bit of danger to you as well, I dare hope. Now shall we dance?”
There was only a brief hesitation before he swept her into the dance with raw grace and power. With a throaty sigh, she curved her smaller frame into his and rolled her hips in the sensual undulations of the itsu. They danced, the fires in the cavernous room leaped, flickered, and sweat slicked her skin. Each roll and dip became a provocative mimicry of how hot and beautiful it would be between them should he ever accept her invitation to ride rough and wanton between her thighs, to make slow and endless love, to hold her after and kiss her with sweet tenderness. Emotions swelled inside of Xian. She wanted a life with Gavyn, and for the first time in her life, she felt as if she would reach out, demand he take her, and face whatever consequences he feared.
The time to be bold and reckless was now. The safe haven she had grown up in had shattered, the idyllic days were no more, and each morning without war must be treasured. “I will leave my door open for you,” she murmured into the curve of his neck.
The pulse against her lips tripped, and then jerked into a furious pounding, but he did not object. Her breath caught at that realization, and she drew back, swaying slowly against his body, and peered up into his eyes.
“Go to your palace now. I will come.”
Chapter 2
Gavyn’s voice was a slow, lazy drawl, thick with tension and arousal.
For a wild moment, Xian thought she misheard. “Gavyn?”
He pressed his mouth against her ear. “You have swished your sweet, lush ass in front of me for ten years. You torment me daily with what I hunger for and cannot have. You enter a room, and my skin becomes sensitized, my heart pounds like I am an untried lad, and my cock gets so hard it is a fucking wonder it does not break through the front of my trousers. Ten years ago I kissed you, I cannot recall what madness drove me…but I touched you, tasted you, and since then I've bedded no other. A few hungry kisses from you has sustained me for ten years, Xian.” A rough breath shuddered from him, and he continued, “Tonight…tonight I am going to take all that you have offered. I am going to ride your pussy for hours, sometimes the ride will be rough, but I’ll always be sweet with you. And I will punish you with pleasure for my years of waiting in half agony and half hope of you ever being mine. But first, we will talk. There is much I have to tell you.”
The air crackled with tension, her breasts grew heavy with need, and her heart pounded in fear and excitement. "You have waited…no lover in ten years?"
“None,” he said gruffly, his tone a horse echo of unfulfilled need. “Not since the first time I kissed you.”
Her throat burned and she wanted to hug him to her and shout her joy. They swayed together for a few more beats. “I’ve never been with another man,” she confessed softly.
A tender kiss was pressed to her temple. “I know.”
Her lashes fluttered over her cheek at the dark possessiveness in his tone, unable to understand why she responded so. “I do not desire one night, Gavyn. I want forever.”
He flinched. It was subtle, but she caught it.
He cupped her cheek with one of his hands and dragged the rough pad of his thumb across her lower lip. “Do not ask for more, Xian, tonight is all I have to give. I am a damn fool for falling under your wiles, but it seems I cannot stop my stupidity this night.”
“Why would you not give us more than a night of passion? Tell me what you fear. Do you think Ajali will not approve a match between us?”
There was a slight hesitation before Gavyn said with an odd light in his eyes. “I have secrets that would see you turn from me.”
“Never,” she vowed, assured of the love which beat in her heart for him. “You speak the impossible.”
He twirled her, and her back was now plastered to his chest. A slight dip from him and his breath caressed her ears. “I speak a reality.”
“Everything that has been well ordered in our world is changing. Trusted friends have proven to be betrayers of the kingdom. The peace accords are threatened. My nightmares of slaughter are more frequent, and I can see that everything is about to change. The only thing I am sure that will never change is how I feel about you…and the possibility of us.”
They faltered in the center of the ballroom, uncaring that hundreds still danced, responding to the primal thrill elicited by the drums. She turned in his arms, lifted her hand and cupped his jaw. “Tell me…what are you afraid of?”
His eyes softened and the harsh cruelty of his lips curved into a small smile. “Are you aware everyone is staring at us?”
“Only a few,” she said, staring into his eyes, wishing she could see this secret he feared. “I am certain in a few hours the rumors that Princess Xian has finally claimed a consort will echo throughout the kingdom.”