Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(66)

But of course, I wasn’t yet done with my queen.





38





ROWAN





The reverent strokes of his tongue had left me dizzy, limp-limbed. Every one of my muscles had gone supple.

But he’d kept kissing at the apex of my thighs, and that molten need had built again. Orion, naked and glorious, moved up my body, his mouth on my skin. My hips, my breasts. Worshipful, indeed.

With each brush of his lips, liquid heat slid through me, and an ache coiled more tightly in me all over. Gentle and reverent though he was, I could feel the tension vibrating through him. His careful control could snap at any moment. My gaze slid down over his strong arms, the shadows carving his muscles. I gripped him by the shoulders and pulled him up higher over me. “More.”

“More,” he repeated.

My body was slick from lust and the humid air, ready for him.

His coal black eyes bored into me, letting me know he’d taken control. I raked my hands over his back, urging him into me. I brought my thighs up on either side of him and slid my hands toward his hips to move him closer. He paused at my entrance, teasing me, and my arousal unfurled in me. “I need you now, Orion.”

This time, he wasn’t making me beg. Rock hard, he slowly pushed into me, filling me. He stretched me just to the edge of discomfort. Oh, gods…

My head tilted back as the erotic charge hummed through my core. I whispered his name, raking my fingernails deeper into his flesh.

“Look into my eyes, love,” he murmured.

I met his gaze, my breath catching at his unreal beauty as I adjusted to his size. My thighs wrapped around him.

The temperature in the forest had climbed so high that some of the leaves had begun to burn like candle flames—but that was a problem for later.

With his enormous body, he pinned me to the moss. Slowly, he started to move in and out of me, taking me, stoking my arousal. Not Rowan anymore…just a succubus, a creature of the wild.

Ecstasy spiraled through me, primal and overwhelming.

He thrust in again, slowly, his eyes locked on mine. “You’re mine, Rowan,” he breathed. “I love you.”

I felt I should return the sentiment, but a plea for more was all I could manage as his powerful strokes had me coiling with sexual pleasure.

He covered my mouth with his, moving faster in me. Making the ground shake beneath us and the air glow with the gold of the sun. The world was on fire, and we were creatures of the light.

I shuddered as my orgasm tore through me. My cries must have reached the forest’s canopy, the city across the river—a scream only a banshee could appreciate.

Orion growled as my clenching muscles gripped him.

Just when I thought it was over, everything started again, the dip only the marker to begin another climb. I rocked my hips at a blinding speed, and before I knew it, my mind was fracturing again, my body shuddering.

With Orion’s release, his mouth opened wide enough that I could see golden flames licking at the back of his throat from deep within his core.

In that moment, I had no words anymore, only the heat and the light, and the perfect ecstasy of a wild beast set free.





*



I curled up into his arms, listening to him breathe, as rain slid down our naked bodies. Once my mind had cleared again from the mist of arousal, I’d managed to remember the words for the storm spell and doused the flames.

Orion stroked his hand down my damp hair and nestled me further into him. Goosebumps had risen on my skin in the cool air.

“Rowan,” he said softly, “I ripped your dress. Again.”

“Either you’re going to need to take up sewing, or I need to start wearing things that are much easier to take off around you.”

He kissed the top of my head. “You could just stay naked. Around me,” he clarified. “Not around anyone else. I don’t need Kas and Legion getting an eyeful.”

“I’m genuinely not at risk of becoming a nudist.”

“Rowan.” He propped up on his elbow. The shockingly pale blue of his eyes gleamed in the darkness. “When are we getting married?”

I stared at him. “Is this…a proposal?”

He traced a fingertip over my collarbone. “A proposal?”

I fought the urge to smile. After seeing Orion uncharacteristically vulnerable so many times recently, I found myself relieved that his wild confidence had returned. Also, he really had no idea whatsoever how normal social conventions worked.

“Usually, it’s a question,” I said. “You ask someone if they want to marry you before assuming. And there’s kneeling and a ring.”

“Ah.” He nodded slowly. “Shall I get a ring?”

“Yes.” I ran my fingers through his hair. “Orion, do you think we have everything we need now? We have the grimoire and the Lilu.”

We’d both rule the City of Thorns. But what I was really asking was, You’re not hell-bent on revenge anymore, right?

His fingers stilled on my collarbone, and he took a breath before answering.

My nerves fluttered with dread at his silence until at last, he said, “Yes. We have everything.”

I lay flat on my back on the damp earth, staring up at the star-flecked sky through the boughs. I was perfectly satiated and happy, and his hand trailed down my body, following the curve of my waist, my hips.