Page 123 of Firebird
She lay back onto the pillow and laughed. “Silly man.” She trailed a hand down my bare chest. “I am alive. I am with you. We are free.” She glanced around and frowned. “Where are we, by the way?”
“In one of Trajan’s homes. In Pisae.” I glanced around. “It is one of his smaller ones. No one lives here regularly so I knew this would be safe for a night.”
She inhaled deep. “I smell the ocean.”
“Yes. The Tyrrhenian Sea. Sapphirus dragons love the water.”
Malina practically leaped out of bed and hurried to the window. Then she looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Come look, Julian. It’s beautiful.”
“That it is,” I agreed as I went to her.
Gods, she was divine. The moon gilded her in silvery light, the ocean breeze streaming through her dark, wavy hair. I wrapped my arms around her waist and nuzzled my face into her hair.
“You smell so good.”
She laughed, then we grew quiet, staring out the window and down at the sea, waves glittering like glass. For a few moments, we said nothing at all, completely content in holding one another.
Then she pressed her head back against my sternum and I kissed her crown.
“So what happens now?” she asked, her arms crossed over mine at her waist.
“In a few hours, at dawn, we gather some provisions and leave for Britannia.”
“Britannia?!”
“Yes. That’s where Trajan has a home no one knows about.”
“What about Stefanos, Ivo, and the others?”
“Trajan will get them there, if he can. Or he’ll hide them somewhere safe.”
“So we’ll all be safe,” she said contentedly.
“We will.”
“Then what? What about everyone else?” Her concern was as much my own.
“We’ll wait until my betrayal has died down, and we form a new plan.”
“Died down?” she scoffed, trailing her hands over my chest. “You burned half of Palatine Hill.”
“Not half,” I argued. “A quarter, maybe.”
Her smile returned as she arched a brow. “You were beautiful.” She pressed a kiss to my sternum. “And fierce.” Then she kissed me again before lowering to her knees.
“Malina,” I warned. “You’re still injured.”
“I only need one thing to make me feel better.”
She gripped me around the base of my cock, already hard at the first press of her lips on my skin.
“You shouldn’t,” I whispered, as I combed her hair away from her face.
“I decide what’s best for me, and this is what I want.” Then she wrapped her sweet mouth around the tip of my cock and my knees buckled.
“Gods,”I muttered, bracing a hand on the window frame, my other scooping beneath her hair to her neck.
She sucked me deep, loosening her jaw so I could slide even farther down her throat. I groaned as I fucked her mouth slowly, grazing my thumb to the edge of her mouth so I could feel where I slid inside her.
