Lord's Fall (Elder Races #5)(73)

The back of her nose prickled and her eyes grew damp.

He watched her face with a shadowed gaze. “It hurts to see things through your eyes sometimes,” he said quietly.

She looked at him quickly. “Is it harder on you that I came?”

He took a deep breath. “I don’t know. Maybe in some ways, yes. Gaeleval said through his mouthpieces that I’m vulnerable in ways I’ve never been before, and he’s right. But in other ways, I’m stronger and better with you than without.” He gave her a small smile. “And there’s an added benefit. I don’t have to miss you.”

She couldn’t smile back. “So I wasn’t wrong to come?”

“No, Pia,” he said. “I still don’t like it that you’re here, but you weren’t wrong to come.” He paused. “I suppose this is partnership.”

“Yes,” she said. “This is partnership.”

She leaned forward then and kissed him, openmouthed, and he sank a hand underneath her hair to cup the back of her neck as he kissed her back. His breath ghosted over her as he licked the corner of her lips. “Dammit,” he murmured. It was the barest thread of sound, yet it still carried the force of his frustration.

Her br**sts felt heavy and full, and she throbbed with emptiness. “We could be really quiet,” she breathed.

A corner of his sexy mouth lifted. “Well, I could be but I don’t think you could. You tend to get a little noisy at times, lover. Not that I’m complaining in the slightest, as it speaks to your enthusiasm. I merely point out the fact.”

She walked two fingers up his arm as she leaned forward. “We would just have to find a way to keep me muffled,” she murmured against his ear. “Got any bright ideas?”

“You know I do,” he told her. Then he lifted back his head to give her a serious look. “As long as you’re sure. The conditions could hardly be any less ideal.”

“I’m sure.”

They were so lucky they could share stolen time together and draw comfort from each other in a warm, dry place. She was so incredibly lucky that she could relax against his inexhaustible strength and feel the two most luxurious things of all, love and safety. So many people would endure that night feeling neither love nor safety, and many of them might be in the valley. Dragos might not believe that the enthralled knew much about what was happening to them, but she wondered if something of their spirits knew. She had to wonder what Beluviel felt that night, or the children.

Dragos reached overhead and clicked off the flashlight, throwing their tent into darkness. A dim light from the campfires and the blazing passageway showed through the tarps. As her eyes adjusted, she saw the outline of his head and broad shoulders. He hugged her close, his big hands running down her back.

“My fingers are cold,” she warned in a whisper.

“You know that doesn’t matter.” She could hear a smile in his murmur.

She gave into temptation and slipped her hands under his black silk sweater, and all the starch melted from her spine as she came in contact with his bare, hot skin. He sighed and shifted closer, slipping his hands under her own sweater to cup her br**sts.

Are you warm enough? he asked, as he ran his fingers along the edge of her bra to the fastening at the back.

Mm. I’m plenty warm now. She reached over her head and pulled her sweater off as he unfastened her bra.

He bent his head, and she wondered what he saw, as he massaged her bare br**sts gently. I always thought I was a leg man, he said, his voice filled with lazy sensuality. Until I became acquainted with your truly outstanding br**sts.

Were they outstanding? She tucked her chin in and looked down at herself, but her body was just as shadowed as his was. She remarked, doubtfully, I’m pretty sure they’re just boobs.

They’re exquisite works of art, he told her. He pulled off his own sweater and set it aside on top of hers. And since you have the most remarkable legs I have ever seen, I get the best of both worlds.

She smiled against the satin skin covering the hard muscles of his shoulder. She teased him about her changing body, partly in an effort to cover up how she occasionally felt self-conscious at her thickening waist and growing br**sts, but he never left her in any doubt that he loved everything about how she looked, not only before the pregnancy started to show but at every stage since. She simply couldn’t hold on to her self-consciousness for long.

Aren’t you a lucky man, she said.

He bent his head further and licked along the swell of one breast. I am a lucky man, and you know why? While I find everything about your body unutterably sexy, the most sexy thing of all is your mind. When you talk to me telepathically and I’m in a conference, sometimes I get a hard-on and I have to leave the room.

Is that why you’ve shown up for a quickie when I thought you were busy? She scratched his flat, hard ni**les lightly with the edge of her fingernails.

Of course. He hissed and grabbed her hands. Dammit, woman, hurry up and get your jeans off.

You say the prettiest things, she told him.

He exhaled a silent laugh as he helped her to wiggle out of her jeans. Then he tugged at the fastening of his fatigues. Get over here, he said. He coaxed her into sitting on his lap, facing him. I’m not going to spend half the night pulling splinters out of your ass.

Ooh, my hero, she crooned, full of sensuality and happiness. She raised her arms, lifting her hair off her neck as she arched her back, and she felt the breath leave him. He fitted his hands on her rib cage, and before she could stop him, he lifted her up to suckle at her ni**les.