high-lord

She has the most delicious thoughts about you, Tamlin,_ he said. __he__ wondered about the feeling of your fingers on her thighs__etween them, too._ He chuckled. Even as he said my most private thoughts, even as I burned with outrage and shame, I trembled at the grip still on my mind. Rhysand turned to the High Lord. ____ curious: Why did she wonder if it would feel good to have you bite her breast the way you bit her neck?_ __et. Her. Go._ Tamlin__ face was twisted with such feral rage that it struck a different, deeper chord of terror in me. __f it__ any consolation,_ Rhysand confided to him, __he would have been the one for you__nd you might have gotten away with it. A bit late, though. She__ more stubborn than you are.

I couldn__ talk about it, about them__ot yet. So I breathed __ater_ and hooked my feet around his legs, drawing him closer. I placed my hands on his chest, feeling the heart beating beneath. This__ needed this right now. It wouldn__ wash away what I__ done, but _ I needed him near, needed to smell and taste him, remind myself that he was real__his was real.__ater,_ he echoed, and leaned down to kiss me.It was soft, tentative__othing like the wild, hard kisses we__ shared in the hall of throne room. He brushed his lips against mine again. I didn__ want apologies, didn__ want sympathy or coddling. I gripped the front of his tunic, tugging him closer as I opened my mouth to him.He let out a low growl, and the sound of it sent a wildfire blazing through me, pooling and burning in my core. I let it burn through that hole in my chest, my soul. Let it raze through the wave of black that was starting to press around me, let it consume the phantom blood I could still feel on my hands. I gave myself to that fire, to him, as his hands roved across me, unbuttoning as he went.I pulled back, breaking the kiss to look into his face. His eyes were bright__ungry__ut his hands had stopped their exploring and rested firmly on my hips. With a predator__ stillness, he waited and watched as I traced the contours of his face, as I kissed every place I touched.His ragged breathing was the only sound__nd his hands soon began roaming across my back and sides, caressing and teasing and baring me to him. When my traveling fingers reached his mouth, he bit down on one, sucking it into his mouth. It didn__ hurt, but the bite was hard enough for me to meet his eyes again. To realize that he was done waiting__nd so was I.He eased me onto the bed, murmuring my name against my neck, the shell of my ear, the tips of my fingers. I urged him__aster, harder. His mouth explored the curve of my breast, the inside of my thigh.A kiss for each day we__ spent apart, a kiss for every wound and terror, a kiss for the ink etched into my flesh, and for all the days we would be together after this. Days, perhaps, that I no longer deserved. But I gave myself again to that fire, threw myself into it, into him, and let myself burn.

What?__ucien laughed. __es__ll those female faeries around you were females for Tamlin to pick. It__ an honor to be chosen, but it__ his instincts that select her.___ut you were there__nd other male faeries._ My face burned so hot that I began sweating. That was why those three horrible faeries had been there__nd they__ thought that just by my presence, I was happy to comply with their plans.__h._ Lucien chuckled. __ell, Tam__ not the only one who gets to perform the rite tonight. Once he makes his choice, we__e free to mingle. Though it__ not the Great Rite, our own dalliances tonight will help the land, too._ He shrugged off that invisible hand a second time, and his eyes fell upon the hills. __ou__e lucky I found you when I did, though,_ he said. __ecause he would have smelled you, and claimed you, but it wouldn__ have been Tamlin who brought you into that cave._ His eyes met mine, and a chill went over me. __nd I don__ think you would have liked it. Tonight is not for lovemaking.

Tamlin__ arm tightened around me, and he kissed the top of my head. I pulled back, looking up at him.The gold in his eyes, bright with the rising sun, flickered. __hat?___y father once told me that I should let my sisters imagine a better life__ better world. And I told him that there was no such thing._ I ran my thumb over his mouth, marveling, and shook my head. __ never understood__ecause I couldn__ _ couldn__ believe that it was even possible._ I swallowed, lowering my hand. __ntil now.__is throat bobbed. His kiss that time was deep and thorough, unhurried and intent.I let the dawn creep inside me, let it grow with each movement of his lips and brush of his tongue against mine. Tears pricked beneath my closed eyes.It was the happiest moment of my life.

Because all the monsters have been let out of their cages tonight, no matter what court they belong to. So I may roam wherever I wish until the dawn.

I reached up to touch his mask. It was so cold, despite how flushed his skin was just beyond it. My hand shook, and my breathing became shallow as I grazed the skin of his jaw. It was smooth__nd hot.He wet his lips, his breathing as uneven as my own. His fingers contracted against the plane of my lower back, and I let him tug me closer to him__ntil our bodies were touching, and the warmth of him seeped into me.I had to tilt my head back to see his face. His mouth was caught somewhere between a smile and a wince.__hat?_ I asked, and put a hand on his chest, preparing to shove myself back. But his other hand slipped under my hair, resting at the base of my neck.____ thinking I might kiss you,_ he said quietly, intently.__hen do it._ I blushed at my own boldness.But Tamlin only gave that breathy laugh, and leaned in.His lips brushed mine__esting, soft and warm. He pulled back a little. He was still staring at me, and I stared right back as he kissed me again, harder, but nothing like the way he__ kissed my neck. He withdrew more fully this time and watched me.__hat__ it?_ I demanded, and he laughed and kissed me fiercely.My hands went around his neck, pulling him closer, crushing myself against him. His hands roved my back, playing in my hair, grasping my waist, as if he couldn__ touch enough of me at once.

You can__ write, yet you learned to hunt, to survive. How?__ paused with my foot on the threshold. __hat__ what happens when you__e responsible for lives other than your own, isn__ it? You do what you have to do.__e was still sitting on the table, still straddling that inner line between the here and now and wherever he__ had to go in his mind to endure the fight with the Bogge. I met his feral and glowing stare.__ou aren__ what I expected__or a human.