Lord of the Abyss - By Nalini Singh Page 0,42

He might want to take another bite later. Better if she didn't have warning. "You didn't tell me what you're making."

"Biscuits," she said, shooting him a suspicious look before returning her attention to the dough. "Normally I'd do it with dried lushberries, but since we haven't had a chance to dry them, Jissa found me a box of raisins."

Regardless of her outward calm, Liliana wasn't sure she drew a single breath until Micah moved around the bench to pick up a small green fruit. That was when she noticed something incredible. "Your armor." It had vanished from his arms, all the way to his shoulders.

"Hmm."

His response startled her less than the fact that his skin was tanned, his muscles defined against skin stroked with warmest gold. "You don't always have the armor on." She'd assumed it was part of her father's twisted spell, but what if the armor had been created by the powerful magic of a small scared boy thrown into the void without anyone to catch him as he fell?

"When are the biscuits going to be ready?"

Looking down, she saw that she'd finished with the preparation. "Not long."

Micah walked over to pull open the oven door, the muscles in his arms gleaming in the heat. She felt her abdomen go tight, her mouth suddenly bone dry.

"Liliana." A deep, coaxing voice. "It's not night yet, so I can't kiss you. But you can kiss me."

Blushing, she put the biscuits in the oven, watched him close it, wanting to lick and kiss her way down those arms. "Where are Jissa and Bard?" she asked, waving a hand to cool her face.

"Playing chess."

"Oh." She went to pour a cup of tea, but her hand was trembling so hard she sloshed it. Putting down the pot, she said, "Go away. I can't think with you here." And she needed to think. He was too deep in her heart now. She didn't want to take him back to Elden, to the evil that awaited there.

But she must.

If she didn't, Elden would fall forever.

And Micah would never forgive her.

She choked back a harsh laugh. He was never going to forgive her, no matter what. The touches, the kisses... they were stolen. Even knowing that, she couldn't stop herself. She would continue to be a thief for the fragment of time that remained.

It wasn't all selfish, she tried to convince herself when guilt reared its ugly head - he'd begun to shed his armor. Every instinct she had told her that that armor needed to be completely gone before he'd remember Elden. And once he remembered, he'd have to rebuild the armor for the biggest fight of his life. But time...time was trickling by so fast. She had only until the moon rose full again, the final midnight too close.

"Liliana."

Clenching her hands on the edge of the bench, she said, "The biscuits smell good."

"So do you."

She folded her arms, stalked across to look him in the face. "I'm not beautiful, Micah." It had to be said, because such sweet lies hurt. "You don't have to say things like that."

His lashes, thick and silky and long, swept down over those amazing eyes, lifted again. "Yes, you are."

That tone of his voice was already intimately familiar. "Just because you say so doesn't make it true!" She felt like stamping her foot like some bad-tempered child.

"I'm the Lord of the Black Castle," he reminded her once again with dark arrogance. "My word is law. Don't forget to think about our kisses. I'll lick up your taste again come sunset."

Liliana was still staring at the closed door minutes later when her smallest friend in this castle full of old magic and whispering ghosts skittered over her foot in sharp reminder. "The biscuits!" Grabbing a cloth, she opened the oven and pulled them out in the nick of time. "Well," she murmured, looking down at the twitching nose of the inquisitive creature who had come to look quite healthy, "I think, for that, you get a whole biscuit to yourself."

She swore he chortled in glee.

Micah left Liliana a vivid silver dress this time, the threads so fine they picked up every shimmer of light and multiplied it a hundred times over. She would look like a falling star, he thought, and he would kiss her.

His body heated within the confines of the black armor, and for the first time, the weight of it irritated him. Still, he couldn't take it off, not tonight. The air had grown heavy with a