My chest tightened at the naked grief in his voice. His mother, the queen, was dead, and he would probably never see his homeland again.
“I’m sorry about your mother,” I said quietly. “And, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I made the bargain with your cousin.”
He shook his head, staring down at our hands. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I should have told you who Caladwyn was. The fact that I didn’t has nothing to do with you andeverythingto do with me.” Kaden’s throat bobbed as he swallowed.
His golden skin seemed to glow in the firelight, which threw long shadows under his dark lashes. A few locks of raven hair had fallen down over his face, and I had the nearly overwhelming urge to brush them to the side.
“You are not a means to an end, Lyra. Not to me.” Kaden’s voice was slightly hoarse, and his thumb made a gentle stroke along the back of my hand. “It might have started out that way, but . . .”
Those stormy gray eyes traveled up to meet mine, and I went utterly still as his free hand came up to cup the side of my face.
His touch was so tender, so unexpected, that I think I stopped breathing.
Then his thumb brushed the swell of my bottom lip, and something between us seemed to snap. I moved toward him at the precise moment that Kaden threaded his fingers through my hair and crushed his lips against mine.
They were hot and soft and everything I had imagined. He tasted like mint and fire and . . . something else. Something that was just him.
Though his touch had been gentle, his kiss was not. It was scorching. Hungry.Desperate,as he devoured me in a clash of tongue and teeth.
My breaths turned into gasps as I met him inch for inch, the two of us locked in a battle to take what we so desperately needed — what I’d wanted since he’d kissed me at Caladwyn’s party.
That night-and-leather scent engulfed me as Kaden gripped my waist, pulling me closer. My nerves sparked and burned at the contact, and a throbbing ache erupted deep in my core.
Every look, every touch ignited like kindling on a fire. I speared my fingers through his silken black hair, and a low growl rumbled through him.
Delight coursed through me as he nipped my bottom lip, and I found myself wondering what other sounds I could pull from that gorgeous mouth. I tugged lightly on the strands of his hair, and he deepened the kiss to the point that I saw stars.
More. I wantedmore.
As if he’d heard my silent demand, Kaden hauled me into his lap. My knees hit the bed on either side of him so that I was straddling his hips. And when his tongue slipped out to caress my bottom lip, I opened for him completely.
My insides turned to warm liquid as his hands traveleddown my waist, along the curve of my hips, and around the backs of my legs. Gripping my thighs, he tugged me closer until my breasts were smashed against his hard chest.
Another scorching wave of heat erupted at my center as I felt his hardness through my leathers. Unable to stop myself, I ground against him, and his hands came around to cup my ass.
“Fuck, Lyra.” Kaden growled the words into my mouth, digging his fingers into my flesh and pressing me closer until there was nothing between us.
And yet it still wasn’t enough.
I needed to feel his skin on mine — needed to brand my own desire into his flesh.
Hands shaking, I fumbled with the buttons of his leather jacket and peeled it down his arms. Kaden wriggled out of it and tossed it onto the bed behind him as I made quick work of his T-shirt.
Tanned golden skin gleamed in the firelight, and I felt Kaden’s eyes on me as I took in every glorious inch.
I couldn’t stop myself from gawking at him — or from running my fingers along the sharp line of his collarbones, where wispy black lines of intricate tattoos licked at the protruding bone.
Kaden was a god made flesh, and that ache inside me intensified as my eyes traveled along his broad chest and swept over his bare shoulders. The angry puncture marks from the Vikkarni’s bite had already healed, leaving only faint pinkish divots behind from where those fangs had sunk into the muscle.
His chest was a riot of swirling,movingblack ink — rough waves and clouds that converged to form a snarling face straining from the mist. The lines were so intricate, theagonized expression on the face so realistic, that I could have stared at the tattoo for hours.
Bobbing on the surface of the tumultuous sea, buffeted by the waves, was a shield. A crest, I realized. It was hard to make out the details of the shield through the thrashing spray, but I caught a glimpse of a single dagger wrapped in flowering vines.
Slowly, my gaze wandered from the ever-changing artwork inked along his midsection, down the corded muscles of his arms to the perfect lines of his abdominals, which clenched beneath my light touch.
My cheeks heated. I hadn’t been conscious of touching him — or aware that my fingers had followed the exact path my eyes had taken. And yet my need for him overrode my embarrassment as I flicked my gaze up to meet his.
Wild, unchecked desire swirled in those fathomless gray eyes. Kaden remained absolutely still as I touched him, watching intently to see what I would do next.
