The Dragons of Nova (Loom Saga #2)(68)

They peeled apart an hour, or a minute, later. Time no longer mattered. She would burn it on the passion pyre they’d been immolated upon all afternoon. With it burned her principles and her self-respect. She had coupled with a Dragon as if her life depended on it. But luckily, she had exhausted her ability to care alongside every other muscle in her body.

The ceiling came into focus; it had never been more fascinating. It was the only thing safe to look at. The room was a mess from their tumbling. Things had been broken, furniture had been moved and scratched. Blankets made mountains on the floor, the warmth of their body heat more than enough.

Cvareh didn’t move either. Arianna closed her eyes. Already the feeling was returning, the want to place her mouth on his again. It had been so long since she had last touched and been touched—since she had even wanted to be touched by anyone. She had clearly yet to find satiation.

“Why?” Cvareh’s voice was still deep and thick. It had a purr to it like a well-oiled engine that set her hand to moving, her knuckles brushing against where they’d fallen on his thigh.

“Why what?”

“Why me?”

Arianna laughed. Her voice was hoarse and raspy. “Really? That’s your question?”

“I have more.”

“As do I.”

The pillow shifted next to her and Arianna turned toward the sound, meeting his eyes. The understanding that had always been there had deepened. It shone brighter, as if she could see his very magic in the air around him.

“So, why?”

“I don’t know,” she confessed to both of them.

“You don’t know? Something the infallible Arianna doesn’t know?”

“I will bite off your tongue. Don’t think this changes anything.”

“This changes everything.” Cvareh sat. “What we are was not what we were.”

She watched the muscles in his back stretch. His skin had a certain pallor in the dim candlelight. Flickering shadows danced in lines and muscular curves. Lean and strong. Strong enough to hold her up. Strong enough to support her if she chose to let him shoulder some of her burdens.

“Nothing has changed,” her mouth insisted. She spoke lies, to herself, to him, to everything they were. Her body may have been ready, long overdue even, for a lover… but her heart. Her heart was another matter entirely. “We are two people merely filling needs.”

He placed a hand between her arm and side, leaning toward her. His fingers brushed the line of her jaw but the touch was different than before, without haste. And yet it still possessed fire. They had not been a flash in the pan. Something burned deeper, more determined. A small flame, but a white hot and relentless one.

“You don’t believe that.”

“I do.”

Cvareh smiled knowingly. She rose upward and kissed the expression. He’d given her no choice. There was only one way to expunge that look from between his cheeks. Still, it persisted when she pulled away.

She kissed him again. She kissed him harder. He tasted suddenly of longing and salt tears her eyes had stopped spilling years ago.

“I know you, now,” he muttered upon her. “I know you, Arianna.”

Resistance was futile. The man could think what he would; the more she objected, the more he persisted, the more she slid down into him like quicksand. She could hardly breathe if the air wasn’t sweetened with the tang of his scent.

“I want to show you something.”

“What?” She let his hands tangle in her hair, a mess from the fight and their sex.

“It’s not on Ruana, so we’ll have to travel.”

“Where?” The idea of venturing into the unknown with him was not as frightening as it should’ve been.

His fingers coaxed out the knots he’d made. “Do you trust me enough to let me not tell you?”

She hated him for the question. She hated him more for the answer that already leaped from her tongue. “Yes.” Arianna pressed her eyes closed. How had she arrived at that answer? It was like adding two and two together and getting yellow. “And I will kill you for it.”

“I will not give you a reason to.” Cvareh stepped away, hunting for his clothes. He made no effort to smooth them, only enough to patch them back together from where she’d torn at them. His shoulder pieces were hopelessly lost. Fortunately, Dragons wouldn’t think twice about him walking around in next to nothing.

Arianna followed without instruction, picking through what was salvageable. She was still too Fenthri to stomach the notion of walking in nothing, even with her illusion. Still, the most important piece was the splint that helped her hold her illusion in place.

“Head upward, and tell me if you have trouble finding the departure platform. I’ll saddle the boco.” His palm fell on her hip, and his magic surged at the touch. It wrapped her up in a familiar embrace, already intertwined before his lips fell on her ear.

“Arhoncedov,” he breathed.

It was a sound just for her and it sparked off his tongue with sheer power. He’d cast forth a tether, and now it fell on her to take it.

Arianna took a half step closer, her own arm wrapping around him. Cheek to cheek, she leaned for his ear. It had been a long time since she’d last established a whisper link. The silence that had filled her mind upon Eva’s death should have been enough discouragement to ever do it again. She’d vowed not to.