Page 75 of The Half King
Cerise peered around the dark tent, looking for a vision or a sign—some hint of a change in her perception that might mean her inner eye had opened. But she saw only the shadowy outlines of her bedding and of Blue resting his head on her blanket pallet.
“No,” she told him. Now as much as ever, she was ordinary.
She hadn’t received the Sight.
Wait.
She hadn’t received the Sight.
There was nothing holding them back anymore.
One good thing could come from her failure.
Tossing a blanket onto his lap, she told him, “Put this on,” and then she grasped his hand and towed him out of the tent. She had learned the hard way that noise traveled through canvas walls, and she had no intention of giving anyone a show.
In the dim purple of dawn, she found the other tents tightly closed, but the group would awake soon and begin the morning routine of restarting the fire, preparing breakfast, feeding the horses, and packing up the camp for the day’s travel. Wherever she took Kian, they couldn’t go far without their absence being noticed.
“Where are we going?” he whispered, doing his best to wrap the blanket around his waist with one hand.
She shushed him and held out a palm to Blue in a command to stay. Blue hesitated briefly, tilting his enormous head at the king as if assessing his intentions, and then he gave a great yawn and padded back into the tent.
Without wasting another second, she towed Kian farther away from camp. She continued to the east, taking him back the way the caravan had come the day before, until they reached an enormous boulder that stood at the head of the trail. She remembered seeing the boulder when she’d passed it on her horse. At least ten feet tall and half as wide, it should block their noise as long as they were careful.
“What are we doing here?” he whispered.
“Gaining distance,” she told him.
He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again as she pulled him into her arms. He seemed to get the message then. His blanket fell to the ground. Less than one heartbeat later, she found herself pressed between two walls: one of smooth, solid stone, and the other of hard, naked flesh. With his mouth so close to hers and his warm breath stirring against her lips, all thoughts of failure vanished from her mind. The way he looked at her now—as though she were the only star in a black and endless sky—made her feel anything but ordinary.
“There’s not much time,” she whispered, running her hands down his back. “Do you want to make the most of it with me?”
A deep rumble sounded from within his chest, and then his hands were in her hair and his mouth at her ear, where he whispered her name with an urgency that brought every soft part of her body to life. He trailed one hand down her arm to her breast and then he palmed it gently, using his thumb to tease her nipple until she groaned and arched against him.
Her reaction seemed to please him. He nuzzled her ear and murmured, “Do you want more, my lady of the temple?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
“What shall I do next?”
“Kiss me,” she told him.
And so he did. He tipped up her chin and moved his mouth to hers, slow and sweet at first. The brush of his lips was indescribably soft, one tender sweep and then another. He skimmed the tip of his tongue along her upper lip, and when she opened to him, he explored her with shallow licks that tempted her to taste him in return. Their tongues danced and curled. With each warm, wet stroke, she felt her blood heating and rushing through her veins. They went on like this until their mouths moved in desperation and their breaths came in stolen gasps.
Breaking for air, Kian moved his lips to her earlobe and then kissed a trail down the side of her neck. When he reached the middle of her shoulder, he bit down hard, and a loud groan of pleasure arose from her throat. With a growl of his own, he suckled the spot, alternately ravaging it with the scrape of his teeth until she writhed in his arms. He drove her halfway to insanity with his mouth, and when he pulled back, she was dizzy and panting.
“More?” he asked, his eyelids heavy.
She licked her swollen lips and nodded. Whatever he was offering, she wanted it.
Any sliver of space between them was eliminated when he kissed her again. His hands traveled over her curves while he crushed her between his body and the wall of stone. Somehow, the nearness wasn’t enough. She tightened her arms around his broad shoulders in a compulsion to feel more of his weight, more of his skin. He seemed to share the same need, because he grasped one of her legs and hooked it around his hip, his fingertips biting into her thigh, his heart thundering against her chest. She could sense his control slipping, and the mystery of what would happen next, of what he would do to her, sent a jolt of anticipation down her spine.
This time, he didn’t have to ask what she wanted. She told him, “More,” in a voice she barely recognized as her own. She wanted more of the hot rush through her veins, more of his touch and his scent.
She wanted more ofhim.
He released her thigh and grasped the hem of her blouse, which he then lifted over her head with a roughness that thrilled her. After tossing aside her shirt, he hooked his thumbs around the waistband of her linen pants and pushed them to the ground in one swift motion. She kicked them free. Both of them fully naked, he took a step back and admired her. Though his attention made her blush, she fought against her fear and resisted the urge to hide herself. Kian cradled her waist between his hands and gazed at her reverently, taking in the dip of her navel and the outside swell of her thighs. The rising sun cast a glow over his face, highlighting the emotion and the desire etched there as he gazed at her with a silent question.
“More,” she commanded again and pulled him back to her with a kiss.
