across hers. Wrapping my fingers in her hair, I held her lips beneath mine. Our tongues danced, an unhurried exploration full of emotion. I continued to move inside her, torturously slowly and so wonderfully deep. Her breaths mingled with mine, and together, we fell into each other completely.
The heat of the shower didn’t compare to the warmth of her skin. She was a mess of water and breathy moans, and she was the most stunning being I’d ever seen. Breasts and stomach slipping against me. Thighs squeezed tightly around my waist. The deep heat of her core as she wrung tight around me.
She was the ache in my heart. The breath in my lungs. This was Leena. This was my life.
She kissed me with enough raw passion to bring tears to the backs of my eyes. I broke our kiss to trail my lips down her neck. Along her necklace. Over her heart. She trembled and snuck a finger under my chin, bringing my mouth back to hers. I angled her hips against me and ground into her, rocking deep into her core and drawing heated moans from her chest.
“Don’t stop.” Her voice was no more than a breathless groan.
Meeting her gaze, I whispered, “Never.”
Her body shivered and tightened, pulling me in deeper, and she pressed her head against the wall. Mouth open, she cried out as her orgasm throbbed through her, and the sensation wrecked me.
“I love you, Leena.” Pressing into her, I rode out the last of her tremors. Heavy breaths spilling from her, she cupped my face and slid her tongue into my mouth. The taste of her shattered the last of my control.
Groaning, I spilled myself inside her and clutched her tight against my chest. Never again would I lose her. Never again would she endure the horrors still lingering in her teary gaze. Never. She was mine to protect and love.
And I would follow her anywhere.
Thirty-six
Leena
I never wanted to leave the safety of the shower, but while Noc would never say it, I could see the anxiety in the depths of his eyes. He wanted to get back to his people. To check on Calem. To assure himself that his brothers were safe like the Council had promised. So we dressed and ate in hurried silence, each of us consumed by the unknown path our future would take.
When we emerged from our room, Gaige was already waiting for us. Dressed in a cranberry-colored tunic, a black vest, and slim-fitting trousers, he wore a nonchalant smile that didn’t match the curiosity burning behind his steel-blue gaze. “Ready to go? I’ll be accompanying you.”
Tension sparked like an electric current between the men. Noc’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Thank you.”
Gaige didn’t falter. “Shall we?”
Waiting at the edge of the forest, our assassins lingered in a darkness of their own making. Standing near Oz and Calem, Kost said something to his brothers and smiled. Then he turned, caught me with his stare. His smile strained but didn’t disappear completely. With a pointed look between me and Noc, he nodded, just the slightest tilt. I wasn’t sure he’d ever count me as a friend, but at least he seemed to accept my relationship with Noc. There was hope yet.
I glanced at Noc in time to see a pained tightening to his jaw, and he sped up to meet Emelia and Iov. He could finally feel again. Show the breadth of his emotions. And not a moment too soon, because his brethren needed comfort. He placed a gentle hand on Iov’s forearm, worried eyes inspecting the bandages clinging to the wound just above his heart.
Morbid silence deafened the life of the wood, drowning out birdcalls and keeping beasts away. Beds of furling shadows carried our dead. Assassins walked beside them, eyes tight and focused on the path before us. I couldn’t bring myself to look at them for more than a moment. Noc floated between them all, whispering condolences and soothing whatever pain he could with his words.
The gate to Hireath appeared on the horizon before Gaige spoke, breaking the reverie. “He’s a good leader.”
Dragging my gaze away, I studied our escort. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Any sentry could have escorted us to the border.”
He smirked. “That’s not a question.”
“Why you?”
Running a hand through his windswept brown locks, he shifted his stare to the assassins walking in front of us. “I’m an ambassador for Charmers. I’ve held council with the king of Lendria for the past ten years.