rooms.
“Piper,” Killian said softly as he closed the door.
She turned to him, her features soft in the candlelight.
“Everything is different now,” she said quietly.
He nodded.
“He accepts us,” she said, in a voice that hinted at disbelief.
“You were incredible today,” Killian told her.
“I barely remember,” she said simply. “All I could think of was Kieran, and you.”
The words were heavy with meaning.
“Heath told me what they’re saying at the taverns,” Killian told her, smiling.
“He did?” she asked.
“Oh yes,” Killian told her. “No one can stop talking about the little prince’s nanny in the flame-colored gown, taking down the false princess with a single shot from the legendary bow of Devona.”
Piper looked down modestly, but not before he saw her delighted smile.
He moved to her quickly, taking her hands.
“I know none of this is what you planned for,” he told her. “You didn’t expect to be a mother, you didn’t ask to be taken to Faerie. You never asked to be a princess, and certainly not the princess of a court at war.”
He took a breath and soldiered on. “You didn’t ask for me to fall in love with you. But here we are.”
She gazed up at him, her eyes luminous.
“Piper, our Kieran isn’t preventing a war anymore,” Killian made himself say, feeling as though he had swallowed glass. “If you tell me you want to take him back to your own world, I will not stop you. But I will never love another. And if you ever change your mind, I will be right here waiting for you, for as long as I breathe.”
“Killian,” she whispered.
And then she was going up on her toes, pressing her mouth to his, telling him with her body what she hadn’t yet with her words. Promising that she was his. That she would stay.
He pulled her close, until there was no space between them, and devoured her mouth.
They struggled with each other’s clothing, grasping at cords and buttons as if they had never dressed or undressed before.
At last Piper stood before him, naked.
Moonlight from the window bathed her in soft light. She was so beautiful that he was afraid his heart might forget how to beat.
He moved to her as if through water. The very air seemed to caress him and slow his movement.
She slid her hands up the planes of his chest, her gentle touch eliciting a violent response from his body.
He fought for control. He had to treat her with reverence, not rut with her madly on the floor.
He took her by the hand and led her to his bed.
She crawled in, maddening him with the movement of her bare hips.
At last she lay in his bed, her hair spread out on the pillows, arms outstretched to him.
Killian had heard the old men’s tales, that laying with the same woman grew less sweet with repetition.
But Piper seemed exquisite to him, her beauty more wondrous each time he beheld her.
“Please,” she murmured.
He realized he had been standing before her, staring at her as if she were a painting in the Hall of Honor.
He crawled in, pinning her body to the bed with his.
Oh, but she was soft and warm.
He struggled for control as she wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him closer for another delicious kiss.
He kissed her with as much patience as he could muster, soaking in her every sound and tremble.
27
Piper
Piper felt her whole body go weak as Killian abandoned her mouth to trail kisses down her chest and belly.
His hands were warm and insistent as he nudged her thighs apart, desperate to reach her sex.
She had never been so ready, so frantic for his touch.
For all that forbidden love was supposed to be romantic, this anointed joining was even more so.
Killian tasted her tenderly and she thought she would faint with the pleasure of it.
She closed her eyes and colors swirled behind her eyelids, reds and golds and burnished bronze as his tongue swirled its own pattern against her, sending her closer and closer to paradise.
The teasing ecstasy seemed to go on and on, as if Killian were testing her to see how far he could push her.
When she cried out in frustration, hips trembling with need, he gave her one final lick and then crawled up to cage her head in his arms.
“Are you ready, Piper?” he whispered to her.
She could hear the need in his voice.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“This is forever, our joining,” he told her. “There is no going back.”
“I am yours,” she told him.
His eyes went