“You can be a saint for everyone else,” he whispered with promise, “but I want all those wicked parts of you. Give them all to me.” He took the dagger from her and nodded at the chalices. “Do you want to use those? Most do for this and thevotai, but—” His gaze devoured her as he nicked his thumb. “You can put your mouth anywhere on me. In fact, I highly encourage it.”
She giggled again and reached for his hand. As she licked the blood off his thumb, pleasure shot through her with such ferocity she had to brace herself against him. The fresh new potency of magic inside his blood was cold and spicy, yetsomehow also sweet. “Does this happen for everyone?” she asked, her voice trembling. “It’s a non-intimate bond, right?”
“It could be because we’re sharing right from the vein, which is why most use the chalices.” He frowned. “But it has to be our blood. For most a single drop, even a mouthful, isn’t enough to elicit a reaction.” He took her hand, the blade in his other. “May I?”
She nodded eagerly and kept nodding as if he’d stolen her every brain cell as he nicked her thumb and drew it into his mouth. Dez kept his eyes on hers, and gods, that was—
Intense. Not just from the tingle in her veins, but the desire pooled between her thighs that grew by the second.
Only when he released her, did she suck in a jagged breath. His thumb swept over his chest to replicate the position of her scar, then painted hers in crimson, too and layered her blood atop his. He wrapped her in his arms, their bodies flush, and his indecent arousal hard against her stomach. It took everything in her not to tear off his trousers and sink to her knees. The thorns writhed beneath his skin, threatening to break through.
“We need a phrase, right?” she said, her voice brittle. “You pick.”
Dez watched her, his head tilted, all their plans after they completed the three bonds written across his face. “Setta vi eres mi poina, enna va fentama.”
Her eyelids fluttered closed as she savoured his voice. “Say it again.”
That spurred a breathy laugh, but he repeated it, lower this time. “It means ‘be my pillar, and I will be your foundation’.” He kissed the thin skin beneath her ear. “Is it satisfactory?”
“It’s perfect.” After she repeated the phrase in her dreadful accent that lacked Dez’s grace, her chest began to tingle. The blood sank into his skin, as it did hers, and wove a tangle of roses.
No, not roses.
Noxcore.
The flowers wove around his scars, as they did hers, like they could erase the hurt and heartache of the past. Instantly, the dam restraining his power burst, and his magic flooded her, raging and tumultuous, and gluttonous. The air knocked from her lungs, and she blinked up at him in disbelief. She’d seen his power in the Sacred Lands, but this was bewildering.
As her power filled him too, he leaned on her, his breaths ragged. “I knew you were strong, Em, but you’re truly incredible.” A smug grin claimed her lips and he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “For thevotaiI was thinking—” He sat on the bench and pulled her into his lap, her knees on either side of him. “I was thinking of something more intimate.”
“Mmm, how considerate of you.” His erection strained against his trousers and pressed into the soft, aching spot between her thighs. She wiggled her hips and pulled a deep rumbling groan from his throat. Twiddling the blade between her fingers, she gave him a coy smile.
“More blood needs to be exchanged for this bond,” he said. “Thevotaiwill mix the colours of our vestiges once we have our ceremony, but right now it will look like any other scar.” He nuzzled her cheek. “Where would you like it? I don’t care as long as it matches yours.”
She sliced a shallow cut on her wrist. “Next to our other bond. On my palm.” She took his thumb and layered his blood atop hers.
Dez nicked a small cut on the side of his neck, tossed the dagger aside, and seized her wrist. He lapped up her blood and hummed in satisfaction. Then he mumbled another series of foreign words into her skin.
“Translation, Dez,” she whispered and leaned in.
He groaned against her hand. “‘I give my blood, body, and soul.’”
Poetic as always. Emmery sucked on his neck, her fingers threaded into his hair, and his hands bracketed her hips to hold her back as the thorns tore through his skin. He hissed under his breath, and his eyes squeezed shut in pain, but they sank into each other. Lost themselves. She fought her insatiable hunger to be closer, to touch and meet everywhere, but he kept her away from the thorns, though the space was excruciating. A special brand of torture.
She whispered the words into his neck and her palm tingled like the brush of a million fluttering wings. The blood sank in as their bond formed.
Her lips left a constellation of kisses as she trailed to his jaw, his face, his cheeks, his nose, anywhere she could reach.
Dez released her hand and captured her lips. The kiss was ravenous, desperate, and she quickly lost control, her every muscle coiled as her blood rushed and the wet space between her legs throbbed.
“Molh havan za vania. Una brelle aspretto.Senta el mio,” she breathed into him. “I’m yours, Dez. Always.”
Their bond sealed. The sunlight inside her consumed her entirely, and she lit up like a star, burning for him. It was like seeing the sun for the first time, a glimmer of light heightened to a blinding blaze as she overfilled. As if she’d always been a half vying to be whole.
“Now that you’ve made an honest man out of me”—Dez caught her hand and held it against his cheek—“should I carry you to my bed? Or should I take you right here, Emmery?”
“Here. Please,” she whispered, not wanting to wait a second more. Needing him now. Craving him.
“Since you asked so nicely,” he hummed. “How would you like me? Should I tease you until you’re begging? Lay you down andtake you slow? Until you're mindless and whimpering?Mmm, but I suppose since time isn’t on our side, we’ll have to wait for another night.” He took her bottom lip between his teeth and gently bit down, before he kissed her so thoroughly her knees nearly gave out. “Maybe I should have you sink down onto my cock and take me how you please. Because I can’t tell you how many dreams I’ve had of you doing just that.”