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“That’s the problem—I bleeding love it.”
He shook beneath her, his mirth vibrating in her bones. “Didn’t expect that?”
“It’s been a bitter pill to swallow,” she admitted, only making him laugh harder. “I have yet to actually stay here, though. Mostly, I come up when I need a break between the madness of gatherings.”
“Do you object to staying here tonight?” he asked, gravel crackling in the words. “Only, I would rather not wait another minute to make love to my mate.”
Straightening, Lunara grabbed both of his horns and tightened her thighs around him. “Brandir aht Bordoroth, I would stay with you in a muddy hole for the rest of forever if that’s what I got out of it.”
It was like pressing one of the panels in the Montrealm to put out the stones. An instant switch from light to delicious dark.
Whorls of power rippled up his arms, flashing as raw desire slammed into her through the bond. “Noted,” he rasped, sinking blunt teeth into his bottom lip. He considered her, eyes roving. Calculating. “Bed, bath, table, chair, settee, or floor?”
She loosed a shaky exhale and closed her eyes. “Surprise me.”
Brand’s teeth landed at the soft spot where neck met shoulder, his tongue trailing up to hook behind the lobe of her ear, and Lunara sighed.
She wanted to stay there like that, eyes closed and everything, for the rest of her days.
“I’ve bathed you more than any creature has a right to, and I hope to do it again and again,” he rumbled, some of the Greater coming through in his primal tone. “I’ve had you for hours in beds and on the furniture. Up against the walls. The sink.” Brand moved, Lunara’s body rocking. “But I’ve never had you on the floor in front of a roaring fire. I think I’d like to watch the way it warms your skin. Follow the dance of shadows with lips and hands. Let go, little moon.”
Brand set her down, his hands skimming down her sides. She was about to call the particles away from herself, commanding her garments to disappear, when he said, “Don’t even think about it.”
She giggled, a flush trailing the goosebumps from head to toe. “How did you know?”
The bond pulsed, something like a lopsided grin tugging at her heartstrings.
His touch landed on her ankles, her toes curling as it ghosted up, and up. When he reached her hips, the hum he loosed shot straight to her core. Possessive and approving at once. He always made that sound when he found her unfettered by anything as awful as undergarments, as if every time was a surprise. As if he didn’t know full well what wouldn’t be there.
“One of these days, I’m going to don a pair of knickers just to shock you.”
He chuckled at that, kneading her arse. “I dare you. If you can keep them on for an hour, I’ll wear them on my bloody head for the rest of the same day.”
Lunara threw her head back and laughed. “Not fair. You know I can’t.”
“Thank the fucking Sisters. Arms up.”
She did as she was told, and he drew the thin, gauzy dress from her body.
The flat of his hand landed on her sternum, palm running down, down, down and around her waist. Eyes still closed, enjoying the tease of it, Lunara wasn’t ready for the wet heat of his tongue to land on her hip bone, following the natural line there. Then the other side. Her whimper was a tremble of breath. A plea.
He disappeared and she wanted to claw him back. Until she heard the rustle of his trousers, the fabric landing somewhere nearby, and she couldn’t stop herself from looking anymore.
Brand stood before her in all his glory, olive skin rippling over muscle and sinew. Her mouth watered at the sight of his jutting cock, proud and taunting her with the last time she had it. With the memory of his taste and the guttural command in his voice when he offered his fervent blood gift.
“Look at you.” He traced a line down her arm closest to the fire, head shaking. “Moons or flames, it doesn’t matter. No light in this world can resist you. I’d bet my own life that even Solyrian would listen if you called him to yourself.”
“In some ways, I already have,” she said, shivering under that heady gaze as she stepped closer. “If I am the evening, you are the morning, Brand. I am midnight radiance calling to her crowned dawn. Sunset to her sunrise. Dusk to daybreak, my perfect other and opposite.”
Brand blinked down at her, jaw ticking. “I had almost that exact thought,” he said, hushed and reverent. “The final piece of me coming home to you.”
“Oh.” A flare in the bond almost toppled her, Brand showing her what he went through in that moment.
He sank to his knees again, eyes never leaving hers as he hooked an arm behind one of her legs and settled it on his wide shoulder. “How fortunate I am to be the sunlight, then. He has the absolute privilege of being one with the darkness multiple times a day.”
His grip pressed into her hip and thigh as he leaned forward, latching onto her throbbing pearl. He sucked once, twice, then released her. “He wakes and wraps her in bright arms, a lingering kiss at dawn before cradling her weary body through the day.”
Another long lick and pull, drawing a whining protest from Lunara when he let go. He fell slowly back to lay on the floor, taking her with him and adjusting her knees on either side of his head, suspending her aching center over his face.
