“I forgot what it was like to live without that mark inside of me,” he said softly. “My mind feels clearer than it has in a very long time.”
He stood then and strode toward her. He was still naked from the waist up. The wound on his arm had already begun to heal, but there would always be a scar.
She swallowed hard, flustered by his naked torso, even though they had already shared a bed. “I’m sorry if the pain was too much. I tried to be as gentle as possible, but…”
He tucked his thumb beneath her chin and gazed at her fiercely. “Do not apologize to me for that. You saved me. Again. Before, it was my life. This time, Reyna, I swear it was my soul.”
She trembled from the heat of his touch. It was difficult to focus on their conversation when his eyes were raking across her with a feverish need. “Before, when you said it was Unseelie, was that true?”
He nodded, jaw rippling. “What’s more, it spoke to me. It tried to make me kill you, Reyna.”
“I’m very glad you didn’t.”
“I would never harm a hair on your head.” He pulled her closer, so close that she had to tip back her head to see the fire in his eyes. “Do you know what you have done for me? Do you have any idea how trapped I’ve been by my father’s words? I am finally free, Reyna. I am free because of you. And I would rip apart the very fabric of this godforsaken world to do the same for you.”
Reyna could not help but gasp at the intensity of his words. They filled her up with hope and fear, all thrown together in a perfect storm. No one had ever spoken to her this way, with so much conviction and emotion in his words.
“I would do it again a thousand times over,” she whispered.
“We should celebrate,” he growled into her ear, scattering goosebumps across her bare arms. “Let me claim you under the stars.”
Her breath hitched as he lifted her from the ground and carried her to the edge of the cliff. She clung to him, fingers entwined behind his neck, and he slowly lowered her onto her back. As she watched him undress, her eyes caught on a brilliant light behind his head.
Stars.
She pushed up onto her elbows and gazed up at the sky. The mists had cleared, revealing a dazzling display of distant suns, shooting light across the expansive universe. There were hundreds of them. Thousands. The shadows had cleared, revealing a darkness that was as deep as any she had ever seen. But with it came the stars.
“Lorcan, I can see stars,” she said, pointing up at the sky.
“I know. I’ve been staring at them for the past hour, trying to make sense of it all.” Smiling, he sank to his knees, fully naked and very much aroused. “Our world is changing, Reyna Darragh. I don’t know why and I don’t even understand how, but we’re a part of it. You and I. And I will gladly face whatever it is with you by my side.”
A thrill went through her heart. She did not know what she had done to deserve this male, but here he was laying everything bare before her. She had him, and he most definitely had her. And she would never let him go, no matter how hard the world tried to tear them apart.
He climbed on top of her, gently pressing her back onto the smooth stone. His length pulsed against her core as he gently spread her legs wide on either side of his hips. Hot need dripped from her thighs, her entire body thrumming from anticipation.
“I want you inside of me,” she whispered.
A lazy smile stretched across his face. “Patience. We have all night.”
Reyna did not think she could wait all night. After everything that had happened, she was desperate for his touch. They had faced down a god together and had won. She’d almost lost him. She needed to feel him, every single part of him.
“I think,” he said softly after he dragged his tongue from her neck, down to her naval, and then almost to her very core. She was practically a writhing mess already. “I think I would like nothing more than to see you bathed in the starlight, riding me until you’re spent.”
Suddenly, she felt very shy, and Reyna Darragh never felt shy. “I’m not sure what I’m doing. You might not like it.”
His voice rumbled with a deep growl. “I like everything you do.”
“How do I know how to move?” she whispered.
Gently, he wrapped his hands around her hips and flipped her over so that she now straddled him. “Just move in a way that feels good to you.”
Her heart pounded in her ears, and she wet her lips. She placed her palms flat on his corded muscles, enjoying the feel of his skin beneath her hands. But before she could move, he grasped her hand.
“Only do this if you want to, Reyna. Because I will gladly take you however you’d like.”
“No,” she said, suddenly feeling emboldened. “I want to try this.”
He smiled and settled back onto the ground, his fingers splayed across her hips. Slowly, she began to rock against him. His length throbbed within her at once. Pressing harder against his chest, she moved faster, gasping when the hardness of his cock hit the very back of her core. A thousand sensations flooded her body at once.
“You’re amazing,” he murmured. “Everything about you is everything I love.”
She moved faster, gasping each time they crashed together. He rose his hips to meet hers, thrusting deep inside of her. Pleasure stormed through her body.
She dug her fingernails into his skin, riding him with increasing wild abandon. With a growl, he grasped her arse and tugged her harder and harder against him, his thrusts growing more eager with each passing beat.
Suddenly, the stars exploded in the night. Her climax hit her like a force of nature, and a million tiny tremors soon followed. When she was spent, she sagged against him, her fingernails still digging deep into his chest.
He flipped her onto her back, his length still deep inside of her. “I am very close, Reyna Darragh, but I will not push you past the edge once more unless you want me to.”
“I want you to,” she whispered without even a moment’s hesitation.
He shuddered hard as his thrusting began again in earnest. Once, twice, and then once more, and Reyna was already a trembling mess all over again. Lorcan grunted and throbbed one last time, emptying his seed deep into her body. They clung together until their trembling faded.
Blissful exhaustion fell down on her. With a sigh, she let it pull her under.
The very last things she saw before she drifted to sleep were the stars reflected in her lover’s eyes.
They’d journeyed three more days when trouble came. At the base of the third gnarled finger, the mountain they needed to climb to reach the portal, Nollaig stopped to gaze up at the high mountain pass that zig-zagged overhead.
“I see movement in the distance,” she said quietly. “I think someone is following us.”
“Following us?” Tarrah asked with a frown. “Or tracking us?”
“That’s pretty much the same thing where I’m concerned,” Nollaig replied. “Whoever it is, they are far more interested in us than I’d like.”
“They might just be curious,” Tarrah said. “Just because they’re following us doesn’t mean they wish us harm.”
“It does,” Lorcan said firmly. “Either they know who we are and they wish to kill us or use us in some way, or they have no idea who we are, and they plan to kill us for a meal. Neither option is one I’d like to face.”