Page 19 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

“Please,” I murmured, digging my fingers into his hair. The wing that wasn’t pinned by our bodies twitched as if he was holding himself back. “You’re the one who made somanypromises.”

“Urchin,” Caspian groaned, pressing his face into my neck. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t,” I said confidently, tugging on his hair a little and pulling him closer. He was hard against me, and I tried and failed to grind my hips against him.

“Menace,” he hissed, sliding his hand down my waist. “Is this what you want?”

“Yes,” I gasped as his hand slipped below my trousers and between my legs. I was wearing nothing beneath the night clothes, and Caspian groaned as his fingers met slick skin and damp curls.

“Skies, Marina,” he rumbled, his fingers teasing my entrance as his thumb circled a spot that made me gasp in pleasure. I opened my legs wider for him, and he chuckled. “Greedy.”

“Very,” I agreed, turning my attention to the bulge currently pressed against my thigh.

Caspian shifted to allow my hands to slip beneath his waistband, where I found him hard and already beading with desire.

He groaned as I palmed his length, teasing the tip with my thumb. “Urchin,” he warned, eyes squeezing shut as he attempted to master himself. “I can’t focus when you do that.”

“Good,” I replied, nipping his earlobe. It was the only part of him I could reach with my mouth, our arms and hands between us as they were, but it had the desired effect. “I want you wild and free like the sky.”

Caspian shifted all of a sudden, rolling over me and pulling me tight against him into a bruising kiss. One hand returned to the space between my thighs, his fingers sliding into me and pushing all thoughts from my mind. His other hand captured my wrists, holding them above me and preventing me from touching him.

“You first,” he growled, pumping into me gently. I arched into him, ignoring the slight ache in my skull. Caspian must have felt it though, because he released my wrist and moved to cradle my head. “I want you unraveling before me.”

I gripped his back, letting my fingers dig into the soft feathers where his wings met his spine. We groaned in unison, the feeling of his fingers so deep inside me and his thumb circling me enough to have me shattering after only a few moments.

He caught my cry of ecstasy in a kiss, thrusting his hips against my leg as he cradled me tightly.

“This will last longer next time,” he promised, pressing kisses to my jaw as I tried to catch my breath. “When I claim you as my mate.”

I laughed, digging my fingers into his hair again as I brought his mouth back to mine. My headache was worse, and I had to accept that Mira might have been right to warn us against anything more vigorous.

“What about tonight? You haven’t—”

“I’m fine,” Caspian insisted, pressing his lips to mine again. “Tonight was about you, my love. And I can feel that your head aches.”

“But—”

“I can wait,” he interrupted, amber eyes fiery in the dim moonstone glow. “And I need you well first. I have promises to keep, after all.”

“So many promises,” I teased, nipping at his lip as he settled me more comfortably against his shoulder.

He laughed, tucking me in close as he kissed the top of my head. “And I intend to keep every one of them.”

Chapter 8

“I want you totake the medicine twice a day for the next week,” Mira said, pulling away and moving toward a shelf filled with little bottles and vials. “Then you can lower the dosage to once a day.”

I was back in the healing wing as requested, Caspian hovering like the insufferable seagull he was just beyond the curtain.

It was both endearing andannoying.

“Three drops on your tongue, four if you’re having a hard day,” Mira continued, rattling off instructions as she stoppered a glass vial. She had listened to my breathing again with the strange tube—a stethoscope, she said—and made indecipherable mutterings as she scratched notes in a little book that she kept in her pocket. “You can take it in tea if you prefer. For the taste.”

“And when can I stop taking it?” I asked.

She looked at me over her shoulder with a frown. “Never.”

“Never?” I balked.