by Sadie Moss
Corin’s breath hitched, and he caught my hands, pulling them roughly away from his face in a tight grip.
For a moment, he just stared at me, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
I could see the warring emotions passing over his face. He didn’t want to believe me. He wanted to keep living in the lie that told him he was no good to anyone, that the Gifted were better than the Blighted somehow, that he was the weak link in our team.
But I wouldn’t let him.
“I love you, Corin,” I said, speaking past the lump in my throat. “I’ve loved you since I was fifteen. I loved you the eight years we were apart, and I love you now more than I ever thought possible.”
He blinked once, the glint of his eyes in the darkness disappearing for a second.
Then a strangled noise spilled from his throat, and he pulled me toward him, kissing me desperately.
Chapter 11
This kiss was a homecoming.
Reveling in the familiar feel of his lips against mine, I breathed a sigh into his mouth—a sigh I’d kept pent up inside for eight years.
He leaned forward, rising up on his knees and pulling my body flush against his, our lips still connected in a kiss I wanted to drown in. Warmth flooded me from the roots of my hair to the tips of my fingers and toes, and if I’d been standing, my legs would’ve given out.
“I love you, Lana,” he breathed against my lips. “I always have.”
His mouth trailed across my jaw, down my throat to my collarbone, passing over the quartz necklace he had given me so many years ago. I tilted my head back to give him better access. Only a single star was visible through the canopy of leaves above us, and it gleamed like a diamond in the darkness.
Corin let out a soft groan of satisfaction when he tasted the skin of my neck, brushing the sleeves of my dress down so he could place open-mouthed kisses along my shoulders. Goose bumps broke out along my skin as his movements shifted from desperate to deliberate, then from deliberate to savoring.
I had him back.
I had my Corin back, and this time I was never letting him go.
Dropping backward onto the soft grass, I pulled him down with me, kicking the soft fabric of my skirt out of the way so I could wrap my legs around his waist. The hard length of him pressed against my core, sending sparks flaring through me.
His mouth met mine again, our lips teasing, exploring, rediscovering each other. He kissed me in soft pecks and nips until I couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed the back of his head, pulling him closer to deepen the kiss, sweeping my tongue inside his mouth as my other hand roamed his back, desperately trying to find a way to get his shirt off without breaking any of our contact.
My one-handed attempt at undressing him wasn’t very successful, but I did manage to untuck his shirt from his pants, running my fingers up the bare skin of his back, nails grazing his warm flesh. He pressed back into my touch like a cat, pulling away from me just long enough to sit up and unbutton his shirt.
In the darkness under the tree, only his silhouette was visible, but I didn’t need to see to appreciate the fine lines of his body. I reached up, tracing my fingers over the muscles of his stomach, up to the light dusting of hair on his chest.
He stayed still, letting my wandering hands rediscover his body. It held the familiar shape of Corin, but it was different somehow too. Stronger and harder. More powerful. There were no more lingering traces of the boy I once knew—this Corin was all man.
His breath came faster as my hands became greedier, sliding over the strong muscles of his chest and brushing his nipples. I ran my palms down his arms, feeling the power in his biceps, the thick cords of muscle in his forearms. When I reached his hands, I laced our fingers together, the rough callouses on his palms sending little shocks of pleasure through me.
I gave a tug, and he complied willingly, swooping back down to capture my mouth with his again. Our joined hands rested on the grass above my head as Corin braced his body over mine, moving gently against me as he dipped his tongue into my mouth over and over.
Desperate to increase the pressure and unable to use my hands to draw him closer, I twined my legs tighter around him, pressing into his ass with my heels as I raised my hips to meet his.
He tore his lips from mine, his eyes like endless dark blue pools as he gazed down at me breathlessly.
“Fuck. I missed you so much, Lana.”
I nodded, biting my swollen bottom lip. I wasn’t sure if I could speak without crying. And I didn’t want to cry. I wanted to keep doing what we were doing—erasing all the time we’d lost, finding each other again under a tree that might as well be a million miles away from another living being.
Corin used one finger to tug my lip free of my teeth then brushed the pad of his thumb over the swell of my lips, gazing at them intensely. He leaned down to kiss me again, and we rolled over until I was draped on top of him.
He reached around to the back of my dress, pulling the zipper down slowly. When he reached the end, he slid his hand through the newly created opening in the fabric, skimming his palm over the swell of my ass before pulling me closer to him. We both groaned as his cock pressed against me, and he repeated the action several more times, pulling me closer each time, his hard length grinding into me until I was panting.
I sat up, slipping my arms out of the cap sleeves of my dress and letting the fabric pool around my waist. Corin’s breath hitched as he looked up at me. He palmed one of my breasts, running a thumb over my peaked nipple, then sat up suddenly to take it in his mouth.
“Corin!”
The word was half gasp, half plea. I wasn’t even sure what I was begging for, but apparently he did. He switched his attention to my other nipple, gliding his tongue around it with gentle pressure as his hand slid up through the back of my hair, supporting me as I arched into his touch.
“I want you, Lana.” He whispered the words as he trailed his mouth back up to my mine, tasting the skin of my breasts and neck with warm, wet kisses along the way.
“I thought you had me,” I murmured, a small smile quirking my lips as I looked down at him.
“Do I?” With his arms wrapped around me, Corin pulled back for a moment to gaze intently at me.
I nodded, swallowing the tears that wanted to come. “You always have.”
The words had barely passed my lips when Corin moved like lightning, flipping me onto my back again. My dress had gathered around my middle, and I lifted my hips to help him work it down my body, the grass underneath us cooling my heated skin. He tugged the fabric free of my legs, and I was vaguely aware of him kicking off the rest of his clothes before his hands were on me again. His palms slid up my calves, fingertips massaging the muscles lightly, and I drew in deep breaths to ride out the sensations ricocheting through me.
Corin lowered his head and kissed the inside of my knee, and a sound that started as a cry and turned into a groan burst from my lips. I needed more, needed him.
But he seemed determined to draw this out, extending the delicious torture as long as possible. My fingers dug into the soft grass around me, searching for purchase as Corin continued moving up my body with torturous deliberation. He carefully unclasped my dagger sheaths, setting them aside and kissing the exposed flesh they’d once covered. His hands slid along the outsides of my thighs to grip my hips as his teeth and lips worked their way slowly up my legs, alternating sides and making me squirm with impatience.
My breath came in sharp gasps as he reached the apex of my thighs, the mere thought of the man hovering above me making tremors course through my body.
It had been too long.
I had missed this too much.
He moved his head an inch higher, his hot breath teasing my core, and that was all it took to undo me. I couldn’t bear it anymore. Pleasure exploded through me, and I grabbed his head, hooking handfuls of his hair to pull his face toward mine.
He didn’t hesitate. His lips met mine in a fiery kiss, cutting off my
loud cry as his cock slid into me, the sudden exquisite fullness prolonging my release. He stilled inside me, and I fluttered around him, my body still tensing and contracting.
An agonized groan rumbled in his chest.
“Is that your way of welcoming me home?” he asked, his voice thick. “Because I think I like it.”
I snorted, running my fingers over his back as I tried to catch my breath.
Corin looked down at me, unmoving, as if he couldn’t bear to let this moment end. I wasn’t in any hurry to let it go either, and as I looked up at him, traitorous tears seeped out of the corners of my eyes, sliding down the sides of my face into the tangle of my hair.
The feel of him above me, inside me, was perfection.
I had missed this so much.
I didn’t think he could see my tears in the darkness, but he surprised me by kissing away the wet tracks at my temples with warm, soft lips.
Finally, he began to move, pulling back before sliding into me again. Each time he filled me, I was overwhelmed by the sensation of completeness, of perfect fullness, as if our bodies were always meant to be joined this way. Corin’s bare chest brushed my breasts with every stroke, the feel of his skin against mine sparking a new flame everywhere we touched.
His thrusts became deeper, more powerful, and we kept trying to kiss, fighting the motion of our bodies to keep our lips connected. His teeth nipped at me, and his harsh breaths filled my ears as his body strained above me.
“Gods, Lana. I remember this. I remember you like this.”
The tension in his voice matched the tension building inside me like a taut band ready to snap. I chased the feeling, wanting to crash over that cliff again at the same time I never wanted this to end.
And then I had no choice.
The waves of pleasure washing through my body peaked, becoming a torrent of feeling. Like leaping off a cliff, it was too late to change course, and I flew into oblivion, crying out Corin’s name as I clung to him.
“Oh, gods. Lana!”
He drove forward one more time and stilled, his body shaking as he pulsed inside me. Aftershocks quaked through us both as we clung to each other in the darkness, our bodies still joined, our breaths and heartbeats mingling in a discordant rhythm. Finally, Corin lifted up onto his forearms, smoothing my sweat-dampened hair back from my face as he looked down at me.
There was a peacefulness in his expression I hadn’t seen in a long time, and a shiver of happiness ran through me.
When he pulled out, my body protested the loss immediately, craving our contact like it would crave water in the desert. He flung his hand out, groping around in the darkness for something, then finally grasped his suit jacket and laid it out next to us. He rolled over onto it, pulling me with him until I was draped half over his body, my head resting on his chest as his arms wrapped around me. He arranged his white shirt over us, tucking it around me protectively to keep out the chill in the air.
I hardly noticed the dropping temperature. His body was too warm and mine too sated to worry about a little thing like the cold. But the gesture made my heart swell.
How could he ever think he doesn’t protect me?
We lay in comfortable silence for several minutes, his hand tracing an idle pattern up and down my arm while his heartbeat under my ear returned to normal.
“This isn’t at all how I expected the evening to go,” he finally said, a smile in his voice. “I wouldn’t have thought one of the worst nights of my life could turn into the best night, but now I don’t think I’d change a thing.”
My mood darkened slightly, remembering the earlier pain on Corin’s face. “I would. I’d have killed that fucker Nicholas Constantine if I could have.”
His arms tightened around me, and I heard him swallow. “I’m glad you didn’t. I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if you got in trouble.”
Wanting to steer the conversation away from Nicholas for now, I lifted my head, splaying my hand across Corin’s chest as I looked down at him. “My grandma and I had a talk at the palace after you left. That’s why it took me so long to come find you. But she… she seemed like she might be changing her mind. She’s lived in this world for so long it’s hard for her to see another way, but I honestly believe she could be a good person. She wants to do the right thing; she just needs a fire lit under her ass.”
Corin chuckled, his body relaxing again. “Well, lucky for us, lighting fires under asses happens to be your specialty.”
“I think you mean ‘being a pain in the ass.’ That I can definitely do.” I dropped my head back down, snuggling closer against him.
His chest rumbled with laughter again, and he pressed a kiss to my hair.
“Corin?” I bit my lip, almost afraid to ask the question that danced on the tip of my tongue.
“Yeah?”
“How do you feel about… the other guys?”
“They’re my family,” he said immediately, his voice strong and sure.
I swallowed. “But how do you feel about me and them? I mean, you’ve seen me with them. I—I don’t know how to explain it. This bond does weird things, makes me feel… or at least, I think it’s the bond. I really don’t know anymore.”
My question, or explanation, or whatever it was, became a jumble of word vomit as I tried to find a way to make him understand what I felt.
There was a moment of quiet, filled only by the rustling of the drooping willow branches in the wind, and then Corin spoke.
“I think I get it, Lana. And I’m okay with it.”
“Really?” I tilted my head to look at him, shock in my voice.
He grunted. “Don’t get me wrong. If it were anybody else but them, we’d be having a very different conversation. Or no conversation at all. I’ve never really been interested in sharing. But the five of us… our situation is different.”
My palm flattened against his chest, as if I could read the contents of his heart through our contact. “Are you sure? It’s really all right with you?”
“I love you. With or without the magic that connects us, I love you. But I’m bonded to your magic just like they are, and I know how it feels. It’s powerful, Lana—that pull. I can’t ask you or them to deny it. It would tear us all apart if you did. And we need you. They need you, even the ones who won’t admit it yet.”
A shaky breath passed my lips, a sigh of both relief and trepidation. “I… I think I need them too. It doesn’t make any sense, but I feel that same pull.”
His shoulders lifted in a shrug beneath me. “It’s magic. It doesn’t have to make sense.”
I snorted. “Good point.”
“But you know what? There is one thing I’m sure of, one thing that does make sense.” He rolled over onto his side, pressing our bodies together as he captured my lips in a slow, lazy kiss—like he was finally starting to believe we had all the time in the world. “This.”
Chapter 12
We walked back to the house under the moon and starlight, shooting shy, giddy glances at each other all the way.
Tomorrow, all the dangers facing us would intrude again. We’d have to deal with the fallout from the disastrous ball, and I’d have to meet more of the Representatives to see if I could learn anything new from them. But for tonight, I held Corin’s hand and breathed in the fresh, crisp air that smelled of lilacs and hope.
When we reached the large mansion, all the rooms were dark. Beatrice had returned at some point from her meeting with Rain, and the other men had given up waiting for us. Corin made a half-hearted attempt to say goodnight to me at my door, but I pulled him inside the room with a whispered laugh. We threw off our ruined formalwear and curled up under my soft blanket, and for the first time in weeks, I didn’t dream of fear-filled gray eyes, but of blue ones. And green ones, and warm chocolate brown ones, and dark eyes that swirled with mystery.
The next morning, after waking me up with a reminder of why last night was one of the best of either of our lives, Corin nipped the tip of my no
se and slipped out of bed, pulling on his pants before running a hand through his sandy blond hair. I smiled at the sight of his lean body in just a pair of dress pants slung low on his hips.
Though it was tempting to burrow back under the warm covers with the sheets that smelled like Corin, I stretched and crawled out of bed myself.
I hurriedly threw on another conservative, fashionable dress. This one had a full, knee-length skirt, which would make moving easy enough. Corin’s eyes heated when I pushed up the fabric to strap the twin daggers to my thighs, and a flush rose in my cheeks. When we’d known each other in Wyoming all those years ago, he’d never been shy about showing affection. I had a feeling that hadn’t changed, a suspicion that was confirmed when he followed me to the door, catching me just before I opened it to sweep my hair aside and kiss the back of my neck.
Jae was just emerging from his room down the hall as Corin and I exited mine. He glanced up at us and froze, his green eyes widening slightly. Something passed over his face, but it was too quick and too subtle for me to figure out what it was. Jealousy? Regret?
I wasn’t sure. Jae’s emotions were still hard for me to read sometimes—except in the presence of his father, when they became as obvious as flashing neon lights.
He recovered smoothly, walking toward us with a steady stride. “Good. You’re up. Akio, Fenris, and I talked last night, and we have a plan we’d like to run by you.”
“Sure. I like plans.”
Jae smiled at that. Corin pressed a kiss to my temple and then headed in the direction of his room, probably to put on some real clothes.
Akio and Fen were already in the kitchen when Jae and I arrived. The incubus perched on a stool at the island with the languid ease of a model posing. Retta was folding linens while Fenris flashed his big, sad brown eyes at Darcy, who somehow resisted his adorableness and smacked his hand as he reached for a loaf of sweet bread cooling on the counter.
