One glance from Max, and the lanterns all flickered to life at once, bathing the tentโs spare interior with a
delicate orange glow. The door had hardly closed behind us before we yanked each other back into an embrace.
I had never kissed anyone like this before, and now, I never planned to stop. It was like walking into a world of color when all Iโd ever seen was black and white. I loved the way he tasted โ loved the way his mouth offered me long kisses and short ones, teeth occasionally claiming my lips in little, affectionate nibbles, tongue skimming mine. When his mouth moved to my cheek, I mourned it only for a moment before he trailed kisses down to my chin, to my jaw, lighting fire to my neck.
My knees were going to give out.
I โ somewhat ungracefully โ dropped to the ground, falling over my bedroll, Maxโs hand still in mine. He followed with a movement that was far smoother, lowering himself to his knees and crawling over me. Gods, I had never seen anything so beautiful โ the grace of the movement, the intensity of his focus on me. It was so wrenching that I wished I could capture the image and save it forever.
And then his weight was on top of me, and his mouth smashed against mine, and I once again lost all capacity for thought. No, I was nothing but nerves, impulses responding to his touch, back arching against his body.
My hands raked over his back. I could feel his muscles, his movements, beneath the thin cotton fabric of his shirt, but I wanted skin. I only managed three buttons before Max yanked the shirt off over his head.
โWait,โ I whispered, stopping him as he began to lower himself to kiss me again. He straightened, and I took the opportunity to justย lookย at him.
โWell,ย thisย isnโt fair,โ he said, raising a pointed eyebrow as his eyes fell to my shirt.
โBe patient.โ
I ran light fingertip touches over the line of his shoulder, down his chest, up the other side. I paused at the scar on his left shoulder โ where I had wounded him in the sparring ring. Then I trailed my hands over the lean muscle of his abdomen, across the ridges of his ribs. He let out a hissing exhale that may have started in arousal but ended somewhere closer to a hitched chuckle.
โI canโt remain appropriately seductive if youโre going to tickle me. Itโs going to ruin my image.โ
The scar over his ribs was longer, fresher, still mottled with angry purple. I only vaguely remembered running IlโSahajโs blade across his side. This wasnโt even a clean cut, the scar thick and wavy. With the rot, Iโm sure that Sammerin probably had to remove all of the decayed flesh before โ
โI see you, Tisaanah.โ Max caught my hand in his. Then lowered himself over me and pressed his lips right between my eyebrows, where the tension of my thought had pooled. โNo thinking,โ he whispered, against my skin.
And just as I was about to wonder how, exactly, I was going to fulfill that request, he gave me a kiss that made it all too easy โ impossibly easy โ to comply.
The warmth of his body hit me through my clothing, but stillโ
His hand slid up my side, pausing at the button at the apex of my neckline. Waiting for silent permission.
My hands met his, tearing it off me, and then there was nothing between us but our skin.
I still could not pull him close enough. I wanted to touch him everywhere, wanted to drag my nails across every muscle.
When his hand ran up my side and settled over my breast, his whole body shuddered. So did mine. Desire burned in my core. Suddenly, I was unbearably conscious of his weight between my thighs. Of the touch of his fingertips as they ran up the insides of my legs. Not as high as I wanted them to be.
Not enough. Never enough.
I yanked at the button of my breeches. Max sat up, straightened, helped me pull them off. Captured my leg and planted a kiss on the inside of my knee. Then further up, on the inside of my thigh, this one punctuated with a gentle close of his teeth, a rough curse beneath his breath.
Need, new and unfamiliar and utterly consuming, overtook me.
Then he sat up, straightened. The world suspended for one long moment, silent save for the quiet cracking of the lantern wicks. I felt his gaze sweep over my body, slowly, as if drinking in each inch. Felt it, not saw it, because I turned my face, self-conscious for reasons I couldnโt totally understand.
My body had always been one of my most valuable commodities, and I used it as such. It had never bothered me to be looked at.
But then again, Max wasnโt justย looking atย me. He never had. This was beingย seen, barer than I ever had been before. No counted dancing steps. No costumes. No false confidence.
โI wish I was better with words,โ he murmured. And when I could finally bring myself to turn back to him, the sight of him caught in my chest and squeezed โ that face, the gaze that met me with such bare, raw honesty.
I was in love with him.
The thought floated through my mind, simple and unshakeable. Undeniably true, even though I couldnโt bring myself to say it. Even if maybe, in the end, I wouldnโt be able to keep him.
โYou do not need them,โ I whispered back. A truth we both understood for fact. Especially when I looked at him and saw my silent confession reflected back at me.
My fingers ran down Maxโs sides, settling at narrow, muscular hips and running along the waistband of his trousers. Unbuttoning. He let out the most beautiful sound I had ever heard, a heavy exhale that dragged its claws over me with the hint of a groan.
That one movement broke the thread of tension as we fell upon each other again. I tasted every inch of him, every expanse of skin, and relished the way he unraveled as I traveled down his chest, over the cords of his abdomen, and lower and lower, until he grabbed my shoulders and dragged me back up to his face. โNot now,โ he murmured, the words mu๏ฌed by an impatient kiss as he flipped me beneath him.
I hardly had time to prepare myself before his fingertips slid between us. Slid into me. My back arched. The world went white.
Gods below.
โNot now,โ I whispered, and his hands didnโt stop as the breath of his chuckle unfurled against my mouth.
โMaybe I want to take my time with you.โ
โJust like you.โ I had to focus very, very hard on forming each word. โIt always takes you so long to do things.โ
My breath hitched. I heard the smile in his voice as he responded, โAnd youโre always so demanding.โ
Demanding!
I dragged my fingernails down his arm, shifting my hips lower. And then I finally hooked my legs around him โ finally felt him settle at my entrance. I pulled away from him enough to meet his gaze.
โI win,โ I whispered.
โMy ego will never recover.โ
The smile faded, and he smoothed tangled hair back from my face.
โYouโre sure?โ
I was sure of nothing anymore, except for this. My teeth skimmed his ear as I answered, โYes.โ
He gave me one long, passionate kiss, and pushed into me.
And my whole world unraveled, expanded, narrowed. My back arched. Awareness was limited only to this. To the places where we were connected. Where he was inside me, yes, but also every inch where my arms wrapped around him, my legs, our stomachs. For a moment, he just held himself like that, pressed within me, and I could feel him trembling. Our lips were against each otherโs, sharing ragged breath.
Nothing โย nothingย โ could ever feel this good. This right.
I let out a little moan, dragged my fingernails over his back.
And something about that snapped some invisible thread of tension.
He withdrew, then plunged back into me. I met each stroke, my hips rolling against his. Our bodies asked and answered, ceded to each other, moved with unhindered intuition.
Together, we burned.
I rolled over him, pressed myself against his chest, and he clutched at me like he still couldnโt decide which part of me he wanted to touch most, taste more. He settled for all
of it: my lips, my neck, my breasts, his hands running up and down my back, my legs, the growing heat where we were connected.
My thighs clenched around his hips, as if I could pull him deeper. I felt myself building, rushing to a wild edge, and for the first time in my life I relished that utter lack of control, threw myself into it. And I knew he was, too, because his movements were faster, thrusts wilder. He sat up so that he could pull me to him, and I lost all capacity for words, for thoughts, for anything but instinct.
Maybe I said his name โ whispered it, or moaned it, or shouted it. I wouldnโt know, because the end obliterated me, a pleasure so intense that I shattered.
And he followed me over the edge of that cliff, his fingers in my hair, his lips uttering a groan against my neck. His hand grabbed mine and squeezed, fingers intertwining just as our bodies did. He clutched me like he would never let me go.
And he didnโt. Not even as the wave crashed over us, as the pleasure subsided into a numb, beautiful tranquility.
We fell back amongst blankets and lay against each other, our panting slowing to something deeper and smoother. Max lifted a lazy hand to lower the flickering of the lantern flames. I nestled my head against his chest and watched his knuckles around mine dim beneath the lowered light, our skin falling into the cool silence of shadow.
Still, he did not let me go. Not as his breath deepened. Not as my vision blurred. I never looked away from those hands.
My last thought, as sleep took me, was that I wouldn’t mind at all if I was tethered to his harbor forever.
