“Yes,” he growled, taking my bottom lip between his teeth. “I love it when you’re murderous.”
His thumb worked quick circles above where we joined. Desire blazed through my veins, my magic swelling like a living, breathing entity all its own.
Incorrigible, that’s what he was. And I loved him all the more for it. I splayed my hands against his dark shirt, the scar left by his mother thick beneath my palm. His heart thumped hard and fast, galloping alongside mine as we raced toward the edge of this cliff.
“I’m so close.” To falling. To flying.
His hips rocked harder, and those skillful fingers knew exactly what I needed to get me there.
Rían growled my name, his body convulsing into mine, filling me with warmth and pleasure and happiness. He rested his forehead on the cool stones and panted into my neck as we both came down from the high.
My lips grazed his chest. His collarbone. His neck.
That was strange.
I drew back to study the scars stretching across the tanned skin of his throat. I could’ve sworn they hadn’t reached all the way around. The lust-filled fog crowding my mind dissipated. He had a new scar. The revelation shouldn’t have surprised me. He had defied a pirate, after all. Caden may have shown me mercy, but the same courtesy would not have been extended to Rían.
My prince tugged up his breeches but didn’t bother with his belt.
I traced my fingertip along the silver flesh. “He hurt you…”
Snorting, Rían fixed my skirts back in place. “Please. It’s hardly a scratch.”
The “scratch” was as thick as my little finger and reached from one ear to the other like a sick silver smile. The thought of Caden taking a blade to my beloved’s throat… “I’m going to kill him.” If ever our paths were to cross again, he would rue the day we met.
Rían’s forehead rolled against mine, his light laugh fanning across my cheeks. “You know what that does to me. Looking to go another round, murderous Aveen?”
He could tease me all he wanted; I wasn’t jesting.
Rían’s arms snaked around my back, holding me to him. I wasn’t sure how long we clung to each other, filling our lungs with every breath. My mind drifted to the last time we stood like this, when Rían had offered his roundabout proposal of marriage.
I’d never felt the need to be attached to another, especially to a man who would expect me to be placid and silent, a “proper” lady. My prince had never been that man. He liked when I snapped. Reveled in my bite. The fury that lived within me turned him on. He may have requested I glamour myself to keep me safe from the Queen’s wrath, but not once had he asked me to change who I was deep down.
And wasn’t that the kind of partner we all should strive to find? One who loved you for you, weeds and all. Why had I been so afraid to tie myself to this man? Our marriage didn’t have to resemble my parents’ or any of the unions back in Airren. It could be whatever we wanted it to be.
It really was so simple.
I pressed a final kiss to his heart before stepping back and taking his hands in mine. His cerulean eyes sparkled with more love than I ever thought I’d find. My throat thickened with tears, but I swallowed them away. Now wasn’t the time for tears, not even happy ones. I’d wasted far too many while he was gone. “Before you left, you asked me a question.”
Rían’s smile faltered with his heavy sigh. “You were right to turn me down. Why would you want to marry a man who doesn’t respect your wishes?”
Oh, we would be discussing that at length. But not right now. “I really shouldn’t,” I said. “But I do all the same.”
His dark brows came together. “Aveen—”
I lifted my hand to cover his beautiful mouth. His swollen lips curved beneath the press of my palm. “Allow me to get this out. Please.” When he nodded, I let my hand fall. “Growing up, living with my father, marriage was always this looming threat, a reminder of a woman’s purpose and her place in this world: beneath a man. I never wanted any part of it. But you’re not some stuffy old lord trying to use me as a brood mare or for my father’s estate. You’re a man I’ve chosen for myself and will continue to choose for the rest of eternity. And seeing as I’m the one doing the choosing,Ihave a question to askyou.” I let go of the hand I was still holding and dropped to one knee. Despite the layers of my skirts and shift, the stones still felt hard beneath me. “Rían Joseph O’Clereigh. Will you do me the tremendous honor of becoming my husband?”
His lips lifted, revealing the deep dimples in his cheeks that I loved so much. “Aveen Cora Bannon, I thought you’d never ask.”
* * *
RÍAN
Moonlight seeped through the open window, gilding my fiancée’s sleeping form. As tired as I was after journeying across the sea—on the King’s personal ship, might I add—there wasn’t time for sleep. I didn’t bother tiptoeing across the room or easing onto the mattress. No, I stomped right over and plopped down next to Aveen. Not that it mattered since my human slept like the dead. And for good reason. I’d thoroughly worn her out after her proposal and again after gorging ourselves on Eava’s cake.
I drew the coverlet down, revealing the soft skin of her shoulder, and gave her a shake. “Wake up. Hurry!”
Aveen shot upright, her hair a mess of tangled gold where it fell over her bare chest. “What is it?” she rasped in a voice thick with sleep, peering into the darkness. “What’s wrong?”