the woman I still see as my queen, but I cannot just simply bow down and die for her, because she does not see my work in a positive light. I struggled and gave her freedom, and yet she calls me a traitor. But I will be accepted in Cynnia’s world, once again given a place as commander of armies.” He paused and his smile grew even wider. “I will be once again faced with the Fire Starter, allowed to be close to her as she is forced to work with me. It will be an interesting experience, and I wouldn’t miss it.”
With rubbery, tired legs, I pushed to my feet and stepped around him as I walked back to the shore. “I’m realizing that this is the best answer I’m going to get from you.” Shuffling through my clothes, I picked up my left boot and opened a small compartment in the heel where I withdrew a small iron key. I walked back out to where he was standing in the water, watching me.
“You had the key?” he demanded.
I reached up and inserted the key into the lock, trying to avoid his gaze. “Of course. I had to be able to set you free if you saw reason.”
“And what if you were killed?”
“Cynnia has a second. You would have had to go see her,” I replied as I removed the iron collar and tossed it out into the water.
“I should have suspected as much,” he grumbled.
“I’m sorry, but keeping you weak was the only way of keeping you from killing me in my sleep.”
A weak smile crossed his mouth for a second as he reached up and let his fingertips stray across my cheekbone. “I don’t think that I would ever be able to do such a thing to you, no matter how bad things became.”
I shook my head, my cheek brushing against the palm of his hand. “You would have done so to protect yourself. It would have been understandable.”
To my surprise, Rowe continued to stare at me with his piercing gaze roaming over my face. “I always suspected that I married the wrong sister.”
I tried to form the words that Cynnia would have been a wise choice, but the words grew stuck in my throat because I knew without a doubt that he was talking about me. I knew by the softened gaze and his hand lingering on my face. Also through the infusion of power from the earth that I had given him, he now fully knew my feelings for him.
“You look at me with the same compassion in your eyes that you always have. You don’t see the monster that I’ve become. You don’t treat me like an outcast like the rest of our kind.”
“Because you’re not,” I argued, cupping his cheeks with both of my hands. “All I see is a man who has sacrificed more for us than anyone else. You only wear the scars to prove the trials you’ve been through.”
“And you wear your scars on the inside. We are a pair.”
Rowe pulled my face closer to his and kissed me gently on the lips. My eyes fell closed, basking in the feeling of being touched by another; to feel such warmth and intensity toward another creature was new to me. No naturi had ever touched me in such a way. They had used weapons to hurt, but I’d never been touched with compassion and what could only feel like love.
Threading his fingers through my hair, Rowe pulled me tighter against him, deepening the kiss. My hands slid from his cheeks to his chest as his tongue slipped into my mouth, tasting me. I moaned against his mouth, enjoying the feel of his warm chest pressed against mine. I traced his scars with one hand, trailing from his shoulder down to the top of his pants.
Rowe gave a soft chuckle as he slid his mouth away from mine and down my neck to my shoulder. “You taste sweeter than honey and your hands are driving me more than a little mad.”
“Should I stop?” I whispered, stilling my hands where they rested on the sides of his stomach.
“I don’t think there is any stopping now. We owe each other this after so many years,” he admitted. “You’re not the only one who has been watching from afar, admiring but remaining silent.”
This time I leaned in and pressed my lips to his mouth, kissing him deeply. We had done our duty to our people. We were owed this moment, no matter how brief it might be. Without breaking the kiss, Rowe scooped me up in his arms and carried me out of the stream to gently lay me down on the soft earth of the bank. He pulled back and looked at me laying beneath him in the pale moonlight. My black wings were thrown out to either side, like two dark glistening sheaths of night, while my pale white body shone like a grounded star. A small sharp pain intruded into the moment from my wounded wing, but I paid it little heed as I focused on him.
“I’ve watched you grow as a warrior,” he said. “I’ve admired your determination and your strength, but I never for a second expected you to be so beautiful.”
Kneeling beside me, careful so his knee did not crush any of the feathers on my wings, he drew his hands slowly over my naked body. His fingertips danced over my thin waist and cupped my breasts, drawing a soft moan out of me as my back arched.
Rowe pulled away from me for a second to remove the last of his clothes and then gently spread my legs so he could kneel between them. My heart pounded in my chest as a mixture of fear and longing raced through my veins. I had never been with a man. I wanted his touch more than I wanted my next breath, and yet at the same time I feared what was about to happen. What if I couldn’t perform as he hoped? What if I disappointed him? What if . . .
His hands resumed their roaming on my body, but this time there was a new sense of urgency. His mouth followed close behind his fingers, washing my body in a series of long wet kisses that left behind a trail of fires. My legs shifted around his waist, pulling him closer to me. His hand finally dipped between my legs as one of his fingers slid deep inside me, wringing a low moan from me in the sound of his name. My body writhed beneath him as he moved his finger slowly in and out of my body.
“I’m trying to take this slowly for you, Nyx, but you’re breaking what little willpower I have,” he said in a rough voice.
In response, I reached out with one hand and slid it down his body until I finally reached his hardened member. My fingertips grazed the tip and his whole body jerked between my legs.
Rowe put his free hand beside my head, moving his body closer to me so I could more easily reach him. I wrapped my fingers around him, slowly stroking him, drawing a low groan out of him that seemed pulled from his very soul. He was rock hard within my hand and yet the skin was velvety soft. None of his scars reached past his waist, leaving him perfect, but only for me to see.
“I can’t wait any longer,” he moaned as he once again shifted his position between my legs. Grabbing both my wrists, he held them over my head as he slowly guided his body toward the entrance of mine. He pressed slowly inside and then pulled out again, bringing a whimper of need from my throat. I didn’t want slow. I wanted him inside of me. I needed this feeling of desperation to be squashed and his body deep inside of mine.
“Rowe,” I moaned, shifting beneath him in an attempt to press more of him inside of my body.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he groaned before plunging deep inside me. There was a flash of pain as my body struggled to expand enough to accommodate his size. He paused, unmoving inside me, as he leaned down and kissed me. His tongue swept through my mouth until I was moaning again. It was only then that he started moving, sending the first waves of pleasure through my body.
“Release my hands,” I pleaded, squirming beneath him as I raised my hips to meet each of his thrusts. It took me only a second to catch his rhythm, driving a fresh moan from his body.
Rowe forced out a chuckle and shook his head, sending his long black hair cascading around his face. “If you start touching me, I’ll lose what little control I do have.”
“I need to touch you, Rowe.” My breathing grew heavier and my eyes closed as I concentrated on the feeling building between my legs. “Rowe?” I said in a fractured voice.
“Just let it come,” he whispered in a husky voice. At the same time, he picked up his speed, pounding inside of me a little harder. He released my wrists and let his hands sweep down my flushed body. Each touch only added to the feeling, until the dam finally seemed to break. A scream was ripped from my throat and my body arched beneath him. Muscles clenched around him as he slid in and out of me, sending fresh waves of pleasure through my frame.
As the last ripples of pleasure ran through my frame, Rowe let out a low groan. I could feel him expanding
