owed it to herself to give in. To give herself the things she wanted, for herself and no one else.
Forgetting her etiquette entirely, Lilac’s skin prickled as her slender form under the thin tunic fit perfectly against his. It seemed she couldn’t quite kiss him deep or fast enough to accurately express the frantic need within her.
Deftly, he flipped them both over so that she lay under him. In the fluid motion, her tunic was caught in the blanket; part of the hem hitched up above her navel. Feeling the cold draft over her legs, she instantly reddened and moved to pull the cloth back down—but Garin caught her wrist. Her arm was especially tiny in his long, clenched fingers; he surveyed her face hesitantly, as if his own hastened movement had shocked him as well.
Panting slightly, the vampire lifted his eyebrows with a softened expression, as if to request permission.
Lilac released her tunic. Bunching the material in his own hand, Garin gingerly hoisted it over Lilac’s head.
The vampire peered fixedly at her now. His gaze fostered a silent calm, as if the turmoil within his shell of a monster had finally splintered—or else, become so complete that it no longer flickered any glimpse of sanity at the seams. The awe moved into something resembling an insatiable madness as his gaze passed slowly over her breasts—trailing lower, lower still—then back up again. He stealthily climbed over her, planting his lips upon her collarbone, kissing along her burning flesh until he reached her healed bite mark.
Her breath hitched when he hovered above the skin where Piper’s teeth had broken through. Pausing there, Garin seemed to scrutinize her veins with his nose; even then, a small noise of anticipation escaped her throat only when she felt his fingertips pleading the insides of her thighs.
At the sound, he immediately pulled back to rest his brow against her shoulder. “Princess.” His voice was pleading.
Lilac propped herself up, cheeks reddening further as she yanked the sheets halfway over her bottom. “Did I do something?”
“No, not at all. You belong to the kingdom,” he breathed. “I’m bringing you to the witch as promised. If I’m to keep you safe, then I can’t… This in particular is incredibly reckless. Your head needs to be clear for your coronation.”
“But do you not want—”
“You know what I want,” Garin interjected darkly.
Lilac bit her lip. Crown or no crown, she knew what she’d wanted. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to offer herself up to the Darkling before her. To the creature who so willingly risked his reputation and life for her, his own adversary. Even then, she knew Garin would never try to underwhelm the ruler she was meant to be. Unlike the bowing, scraping servants and the severe, cold scholars and the distant king and queen… Garin was the first to treat her in a way that felt like home. Not as royalty, and not a Darkling sympathizer, either, but as a person worth a damn and more, regardless of her beliefs. It had nothing to do with whether or not he obeyed her orders—she doubted he ever would—and everything to do with the way he looked at her. The things he expected of her.
Garin rose on his arms to glance almost warily down at her. Pinned by his gaze, she slowly ran her palms along his shoulders down his arms, marveling at the graceful, deadly power knitted into the tensed muscles there.
“Then,” she began, then hesitated.
“Anything. Anything else.”
“Kiss me, for now.”
Pressing her arms into the blankets, the vampire bent to press his lips to hers once more. Beneath him, all the luminosity within her fractured under all that was twilight and shadow.
It would do for now.
Embers dancing in a slow-burning fire, they kissed until Garin’s slowly worsening hunger became too much of a distraction for him. Eventually he collapsed beside her, a smoldering heap of rubble and ash.
Garin wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her up against him. There was no protest whatsoever; in fact, his cool skin felt wonderful against her sweat-beaded limbs.
Suddenly, he propped himself halfway onto one arm and stared down at her. She thought he would tell her something she half longed to hear, half feared.
Instead, his brows stitched together in apprehension. “I’ve corrupted you, princess.”
A wry smile formed upon Lilac’s lips. “I did that to myself, a long, long time ago.”
He pulled the blankets up and over the both of them for her sake. “You’re impossible, Lilac of