Page 44 of Secrets and Starlight
It sickened me. All of it. Everything that Inarus had done. “Inarus should have allowed Gloom to claim the Isles rather than create his shade army.”
Vanessa shrugged, the water still dripping. “As long as someone was controlling Gloom, people would have died. We must find the shards. This has gone on long enough.”
Chapter fifteen
Morning Light
Ayla
I stirred, languid and sleepy, stretching out across the bed. Despite sleeping for only a few hours, I felt more replenished than I had in months. My body had been worked and pleasured and now relaxed in places I hadn’t known were tense.
For the first time in my life, I was no longer terribly lonely. Even alone in this bed, I knew Zayne was just outside—I could hear him speaking with Vanessa, his steady presence through the bond reassuring me.
The sea rocked the bed, and I debated surrendering to sleep or racing onto the deck just to be with him. I curled on my side, pulling the blanket higher, questioning the impulse.
I never wanted to need someone the way I need him.
The thought ricocheted through my brain, and I rolled onto my back, looking at the ceiling.
Curiosity drifted through the tether as if Zayne was checking on me. In reply, I broadcasted sleepy contentment through the connection, hopeful he understood the message:I’m fine.
Truthfully, I was only fineenough.
But I needed a few moments alone.
Zayne paused the conversation with Vanessa, but after some consideration, he carried on. Relieved, I relaxed into the bed. The room still smelled like him, cedar and rain, enticing and amazing. If he entered, I wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to pull him into bed just so I could taste him again.
At the idea of it, my mind burst with memories.
The blur of pleasure, skin, and moans; my memories fractured by fervor. And the bond... There was no denying that it was stronger than the day before.
I craved to have him always by my side, touching me, with me. Inside my mind.
And that frightened me.
Deciding that I was awake, I shifted the sheet aside, my attention drawn to my naked skin. Memories flashed again—the sight of him gripping my thighs, his tongue rolling along my clit.
It was so hot. All of it.
I really wanted to do that again. And more.
I swallowed, flushed and aroused and uncertain of it all. I reached for my neck, and light flared where my hand touched my throat, as if my skin remembered when he’d kissed me there.
It was dangerous to have someone that close to me. The fact that I trusted him as much as I did was a miracle, and the level of vulnerability this evolving tether required...
Shaking it out, I reached for the water skin Zayne had left and took a long drink. Dressing, I found my worn leathers to be a welcome reprieve from the fae finery, the red dress from the night before still crumpled in a corner.
As I prepared, my hands glowed and dimmed, the insistent yellow-white light and hum of power increasingly familiar. It was getting harder to control, and I couldn’t deny the power was strengthening.
Hopefully training with Ninti would help.
I needed control before I saw the Starlit King again. Before he could offer another lesson that I honestly needed. He was dangerous, a familiarity to him that was far more worrisome than the warnings.
My light flared again, thrumming louder. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing it to go away.
This time when he checked on me, Zayne didn’t waste time with the tether. He opened the cabin door. His silhouette filled the frame, imposing and intense. Dark shadows rippled out from him, and all I wanted was to be inside them. The memories of what we had shared suddenly felt far too intimate to be real, and I craved the evidence ofhim.
My light flared again. Embarrassed, I yanked my hands close to my chest.
