Within half an hour, a soft knock at my front door announced Arken’s arrival. Perhaps the Fates didn’t despise me after all. She was early.
“Why hello there, Little Conduit,” I purred, opening the door and tugging her tome-laden book bag off her shoulder as she entered the room, promptly hanging it on one of the hooks by the door. I needed to find her a better solution for all those textbooks. I knew she had a sentimental attachment to that bag, but the woman was going to fuck up her back if she kept lugging that shit around on one shoulder.
I was pleasantly surprised when she leapt into my arms the very moment my hands were free, thighs wrapping around my waist, her smiling lips capturing mine for a deep, slow, welcoming kiss.
Everything awful about my afternoon faded away, barely a thought in my mind now that I drank her in, taking hold of her by the ass and sipping on her kisses like they were the finest wine in the world. Utterly intoxicating.
Her scent was invading my senses, all lemon and moss and the smell after rain, blending with the subtle, earthy fragrance of her sweat and the salt of her skin. I could lose myself in her essence, given the opportunity.
Gods, someone bury me in a lemon grove. Even in death, I want to remember her when it rains.
When I finally set her down, we had already made our way back to my bedroom, and she giggled. “Miss me, Captain?”
“You know I did.”
“Likewise,” she whispered.
It was then that my gaze drifted to her bare neck.
The pretty, pale, andperfectly pristineskin of her throat.
It was only over a decade’s worth of training that kept my face calm, straight, and smiling while something primal in me began to howl and snarl.
Don’t. Don’t do this.
As Arken took a private moment to slink into the washroom, peeling off multiple layers of clothing, I took several long, heavy breaths, pinching at the bridge of my nose.
Get your shit together, Kieran.
I was sure she had a perfectly good reason for this, even if I wasn’t feeling very logical or intelligent right now. With no small amount of effort, I managed tomostlycompartmentalize, burying the way the sight of her throat wiped clean simultaneously infuriated and destroyed me.
It’s not that fucking deep.
Right. Yeah. It didn’t have to mean anything at all, really—this was just common practice. Plenty of my previous conquests had done the same. Not that I had particularly cared when they’d done it.
And if you didn’t give a damn about them, you have no right to give a damn about it now.
By the time Arken returned, I had myself under control. Though the fact that she was now donning the dark green lingerie set I’d left out for her to discover…I was about to lose control in an entirely different way.
“Holy fucking shit.”
Arken’s fingertips were already glimmering with Light aether as she leaned against the door frame, running one hand seductively over her curves.
“Yeah?” she breathed, staring me down with half-lidded eyes like those dark lashes were just too heavy, too luscious to keep lifted at a time like this.
I moved toward her like a man possessed, ready to drop to my knees and beg for just a taste of that perfect cunt. Mostof Arken’s own underclothes were a bit plain, which came as no surprise. She was a woman who put function over fashion, prioritizing comfort over appeal. Probably because she knew damn well that she would be the most appealing woman in the room no matter what she wore. She could break hearts in a burlap sack.
But I was still about ready to pen a personal, heartfelt thank-you note to Ysabeau.
“Yeah. Gods, yeah. The Source should just take me now, Asher. You’re fucking devastating.”
“Mm, you do such dangerous things to my ego, Vistarii.”
“I’m about to make it worse,” I whispered hoarsely.
In a move very unlike me, given my preferences, I did indeed sink to my knees before Arken Asher, still fully fucking clothed. And rock fucking hard, but that went without saying.
I took hold of one of her legs, soft and smooth, and bent my neck so that I could press gentle kisses up her calf.