A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

25. Rev

Chapter 25

Rev

I woke slowly, my need for rest warring with my need to comprehend where she was going with those soft kisses.

We had woken once together, both of us needing to relieve ourselves in the washing room after all that tea in the span of night. We both giggled in exhaustion as we were still bound and stumbled back to bed only to collapse onto each other and back into deep sleep.

The tea had worn off by now and from what my stirring mind could tell, where she was headed with that mouth, we wouldn’t need more just yet.

Her fingers grazed over my stomach as her kiss lay soft and gentle on the underside of me, hard and ready for whatever kind of pleasure she was going to put me through again.

I kept my eyes closed and waited to see which Karus she’d bring.

Coy and slow?

Rough and fast?

Ah, it was languid and teasing this morning, I realized, as she flattened her tongue and licked all the way up only to lazily kiss the top of what I wished I could slip into her as uninhibited as I did the night before.

“Fuck,” I breathed, which only led to some new torturous shape of her tongue before she slipped all of me into her mouth.

I gathered her hair in my left hand, our rights entwined over my stomach while I kept it out of her face as she worked, taking her sweet, sweet time as payback for what I’d put her though last night.

I’d never seen her so shaken, and I’d made it a new goal in life to see that a few dozen times more.

Somewhere in the depths of my mind, where logic was locked behind a fortified door, I wondered if we actually had time for this.

Knowing her, it was probable she knew we didn’t, which made the precarious way she’d bring me to an edge before backing off and grinning up at me all the more exciting.

“If you keep this up, we’ll be in even more trouble.”

She wrapped her free hand around me and sweetly kissed what she slowly stroked, her eyes watching me in a challenge.

“Come here,” I tugged on our bound hands with only the thought of pulling her on top of me to lose ourselves in rapture together.

“No, no, Baron Revich,” she mumbled with the same lips that I would have moaning in a moment if it was up to me. “We’ve had no tea and are surely late to this morning’s chastisements already.”

I sighed as she squeezed our bound hands together and began her confident strokes again. “At least bring yourself up here to me. Remember what we did on the top floor of—” I sucked a breath through my teeth, feeling the warmth of her wet mouth take all of me in again. “Of Viridis?”

I heard her muffled laugh as I slipped out of her mouth while she lazily stroked me up and down. “I do remember that. And if my memory is correct, you were supposed to be helping me research the Baron who discovered the use of rhyzolm.”

“I don’t care what I was supposed to be doing or what we should be doing now, just come here.” I yanked on our hands again, and she giggled as I successfully pulled her up to my chest. I rose slightly to catch her mouth and kiss her deeply. I rolled my tongue delicately across hers, giving her a glimpse of what exactly I’d like to do next.

She pulled away, laughing and resuming her strokes, this time faster and with a tighter grip. “I’m just giving you what you deserve, Revich.”

I think I might have actually growled as I grabbed her neck, bringing her mouth back to mine. She pushed me back down onto the bed and left my lips quickly, her mouth otherwise occupied in my final release.

I relaxed, breathing heavy, still exhausted from the night before. She kissed her way up my stomach and chest, settling her head on my skin.

“In a moment, Karus, I plan to return the favor.”

She exhaled heavily in a moan and stretched her body against mine. “I’m quite sore, actually. I think you’ve done enough for the next twelve hours.”

I stroked her cheek and closed my eyes. “In twelve hours, then.”

She laughed and made her way up to my chest, kissing my neck, then jaw and cheek, before settling her lips across mine.

The knock came first, followed by a sharp, “Baron Revich of Felgren.” I sat up quickly, startled by the intrusion.

“What is it?” I called, Karus coming up with me.

“Your presence with Karus of Felgren is requested in thirty minute’s time in the Queen’s study.”

I raised a brow at Karus and she grimaced. I had not been taken to the Queen’s personal study yet and could not predict if it was a good sign or bad.

“We will be there in thirty minutes,” I called, grazing a finger along Karus’s jaw. Her skin was soft and pale, smooth except for the raised freckles that occasionally littered her face and neck.

We heard the man outside our door clear his throat and then continue, “I am to escort you both to her study.”

“There’s no need.” Karus replied, pulling my fingers to her lips to kiss. “I know the way.”

The man paused before we heard his decision at the sound of his footsteps leaving the corridor.

“What do you think this is about?” she asked. “Surely, the Lady of the Spire and the Madame of the Mountains have not arrived yet.”

I shook my head and ran my fingers down her neck, then her chest, and took ahold of her left hand. “No, my guess is she’s heard a rumor and wants to hear the truth herself.” I kissed her wrist where her liberum mark had graced it for years before last night.

“How would she know so quickly?”

“I could not gather all we needed last night alone, my love. Servants talk. I think Mierah especially would have been willing to do so.”

“You got all of this from Mierah ?” she scorned.

“Yes, we’ve met.”

“Oh, I’m sure she loved meeting you.” She shook her head and clenched her jaw.

“Am I detecting you do not like Mierah?” I didn’t know if that was jealousy that crossed her face just now, but I was enjoying it.

“It started with Mierah not liking me . I’m surprised she helped you at all.” She paused and looked back to my face, her eyes flitting down to my bare chest and broad shoulders. “Actually, I know exactly why she helped you. And no, I don’t doubt that she got word to the Queen immediately about the kind of tea you needed.”

Her anger and irritation rolled off her, and I realized just how much I enjoyed it. For so many years, I watched Karus emit little to no emotion at all. She would recite the same answers to my questions in my study each day—her body like Karus, her mind not.

“Let’s go prove the rumors true, then. The Queen probably thinks I’ve entrapped you somehow. Maybe we can convince her I have not.”

“Oh, you most certainly have, Baron Revich. The difference is, I came willingly.”

“And many times over.”

She tilted her head back and laughed before falling into my chest.

I chuckled and smoothed the top of her hair.

She lifted her head to meet me and pulled our right hands up between us. “Are you ready?”

I nodded and began to help her untie our bonds. We pulled gently at the gold ribbons and slowly unwound them. They left red marks on our skin, and we both rolled our wrists, finally free of the physical bind, but never of the invisible one.

“Come on.” She pulled me up to stand next to her.

I stretched my arms up high, popping them and then settling them back down and around her waist.

She reached over and grabbed an apple from one of the trays, holding it up to my mouth to take a bite before sinking her own teeth into its red flesh. “I’m taking you out to the market and my favorite stall after we speak to the Queen. I hope it’s still there.”

“And what if the Queen does not wish me to leave the castle?”

Karus huffed, taking another bite and chewing ravenously. “This nonsense ends today. She’s had plenty of hours to think on what I said to her last night, and if she does not yet understand, I will make her.”

Karus always had a fire that burned for what she loved and who she believed in, and, though it had been months since she had woken, I had not seen it flicker as fiercely across her face as I did now.

“I believe you, love.” I leaned in to kiss her once more. “I believe you.”