Tale of the Heart Queen (Artefacts of Ouranos #4)

Chapter 30

C HAPTER 30

A fter the innkeeper graces us with another scathing look, she nods a quick, gruff yes, and then we scramble upstairs. A fire is already crackling in the hearth, and I make my way over, holding my freezing hands to the heat, my fingers aching from the thaw. I start to peel apart my clothes, struggling to extricate myself. They’re heavy and crusted with blood and sand and dirt, sticking to every crevice of my body.

The sound of running water comes from the bathroom, and I grab a blanket and wrap it around myself. I enter to find Nadir already stripped down to nothing, facing the tub with his hands on his hips. I lean against the door, taking a moment to admire every inch. The carved ripples in his back and his hair swooping over the curve of his shoulder. Those two divots in his lower back that bracket the entry to the round firmness of his ass. My gaze travels lower, sloping over his thighs, noting the way the candlelight glints off the arch of his calf. Even his ankle bone manages to stun me.

“I feel you ogling me, Lightning Bug,” he says, peering over his shoulder and flashing me a smile that both breaks and stitches up the pieces of my heart.

“Can you blame me?” I ask, moving closer, wrapping an arm around his waist, and pressing myself against his back. My nose buries into his skin, and I inhale deeply, drinking in the scent of cold winter nights and the wind cutting off snowy peaks. The scent that has become my safety and my home. The soothing call in the dark when I’m stumbling blindly through shadows.

My hand spreads over his stomach as my fingers forage along the ridges slicing over his torso. The lines of muscle and the hard angles of bone and sinew. I slide my hand higher, caressing the lines of his sculpted chest, circling a finger over a nipple, making his breath hitch.

I open my mouth and gently sink my teeth into the curve of his shoulder, wishing I could consume him. Keep him. Never let him go.

“You’re killing me,” he says, his voice soft.

“Not this time,” I reply. “This time I’m here to save you.”

A low growl rumbles in his chest, causing a spike of heat to flare between my thighs.

“Can I offer you a seat in the tub?”

I nuzzle my cheek against his back, savoring the heat of his skin. “I don’t know, I rather like this.”

His laughter is low and soft. “I do, too, but we have a problem.”

“Hmm, what’s that?” I stick out my tongue and stretch onto my tiptoes before I lick his earlobe and then suck it between my teeth, deriving the most exquisite satisfaction from his answering shiver.

“That you’re touching me, but I’m not currently touching you.”

I laugh softly. “Doesn’t seem like a problem to me.”

I drag my fingernails over his stomach, loving the flex and shift of his muscles as he attempts to hold himself still. “Does this bother you?” I ask, dragging my fingers lower, the trail of hair under his navel feathering against my fingertips.

“ ‘Bother’ . . . is not the right word,” he says with a low moan as my hand drifts lower. His skin radiates heat, and I drop the blanket still clutched around me before I press my body against his. Skin to skin, we stand in the swirling warmth as the tub fills with steaming water.

“Don’t move,” I whisper as my hand circles around his erect cock, wrapping it firmly before I slide my hand down then pump him with several strong strokes. His hips move with each decline, and I blow over the back of his neck, watching an eruption of gooseflesh spread over his skin.

“Lor,” he practically whimpers.

“Shhh,” I say. “I just want to touch you.”

“As long as I get my turn,” he growls as liquid heat pools below my navel and drips between my thighs.

“In a minute.” My hand continues with long, languid strokes, eliciting a reaction from each vein and pulse .

“Fuck,” he hisses. “Please.”

“What do you want to do?” I say in a teasing voice.

“I want to do everything,” he says. “Touch every part of you. Taste every part of you. Be everything for you, Lor.”

“You are everything for me,” I say, and he peers over his shoulder, his eyes hooded and brimming with lust.

“I will never be enough for you, but I will keep trying until the day I die.”

“Don’t say that,” I whisper, reaching up to kiss him softly. “You are more than enough.”

His eyes flutter as I stroke him harder and faster, and our faces hover an inch apart as we breathe in each other’s space.

I want everything too.

Our eyes pin together, and he sucks his lower lip between his teeth as I grip him firmly. He covers my hand with his and guides me as we stroke him together.

The steam from the bath curls up, slicking our already flushed skin. Nadir grunts as he grows harder and thicker before he comes, his warm release coating my hand. He turns around so I’m facing him and then guides my hand towards me, dragging his cum over my stomach and my breasts, circling my nipples. He paints over me, drifting lower and lower before his hand slides between my legs, and he uses his release to circle my clit before dipping his finger inside to mix with my own wetness.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful,” he whispers. “So fucking perfect.”

He kisses me hard and then pulls away.

“Get in the tub. It’s your turn.”

I smile and then do as he asks, stepping into the hot water before he joins me and sinks in. He pulls me down so I’m nestled between his legs. The water is stingingly hot, and my toes finally start to thaw for the first time in days. I lean against him, resting my head on his chest and feeling the beat of his heart. For several minutes, we sit in silence, listening to one another’s breaths as Nadir softly runs his hands over my shoulders and down my arms and back up again.

“Are you okay?” I ask after a minute.

“I am now.” He twirls a lock of my hair between his fingers. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“I do, but not right now. How about you?” I look up at him, and he gives me a rueful smile.

“Same, I guess.”

“I want to go back to Aphelion. I need to make sure Tristan and Willow are okay. I’m worried about the others, too.”

He blows out a sigh.

“Yeah, me too.” Something crosses his expression.

“What is it?”

“I’m just wondering if that’s where my father will search for you.” He gives me a pointed look. “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I assume he is still after you?”

“Yes,” I say. “You should assume that.”

He shakes his head and rubs his face. “We’ll talk about this. After.”

“After?”

“After I enjoy you a bit more,” he says with that smirk that always manages to rip out my heart.

He captures my chin between his fingers, and I wince. Nadir’s eyes darken as he gently tips up my face, noting what I assume is a mottling of bruises courtesy of his father .

“Who did that?”

“Who do you think?”

“I’ll fucking kill him.”

“I know.” I place a hand on his chest. “But let’s return to ‘enjoying’ for a minute, please?”

He growls low in his throat and kisses me as his hands smooth over my thighs and stomach, slipping over the water and soap in a way that feels decadent. His hand moves between my thighs, and my legs fall open as his gentle fingers slide along my core.

“Mmm,” he murmurs into my throat. “I’ve missed this. Feeling how wet you get for me.”

He circles my clit, and I gasp, my arm reaching around to grab behind his neck.

“It was less than a week,” I say, and he laughs low and dark.

“It felt longer for me, and even a moment without you is too long. Don’t you know that by now?”

His fingers continue to tease, dipping into me and then back out as circling around.

“I missed you too,” I say. “Every single moment, I only wanted to get back to you.”

“When I couldn’t feel or hear you anymore—” He breaks off with a shudder. “I was sure she was preventing it.”

“Maybe it was the Evanescence,” I say. “What if it cuts people off from the surface?”

A moan slips from my lips as he touches me, his fingers plunging into me with a thrust.

“Maybe,” he says. “All I know is I never want to go back there. At least not until we decide we’re done with this life. Together.”

I exhale a breathy whimper as he drives his fingers in again.

“Fuck,” he says. “That sound. It makes me so fucking hard. I need to be inside you, Lor.”

“Yes,” I gasp as he fingers my clit again. “Please.”

I flip around and straddle his hips, kissing him. Bending his head back and just devouring him. I want to taste him and feast on him. Soak up his essence and every piece of him until he becomes a part of me. We kiss, and we kiss like the world is ending, and maybe it is, but if we don’t survive, then maybe it will have all been worth it because at least we had this. And that’s all I ever really needed.

“Lor,” he moans into my mouth. “I don’t know how I lived before you or how I’ll ever live without you.”

My hips rock into his, the hard length of his cock rubbing against me with the most delicious friction.

“You never will. From now until the sun burns out and the mountains crumble into the sea, I will be yours, Nadir. This is my promise.”

I’m not ready to tell him yet what fate might await me, but I will tell him after this. He deserves to know. None of it changes how I feel, and if anyone can help me sort this out, I know it’s him.

He stares into my eyes, and I see the promise written in them. We were nearly lost. The Aurora King almost broke us one more time, but never again. Zerra tried to keep us apart, but nothing and no one will ever find their way between us .

“I don’t know how I got so lucky,” he says.

“I might say the same thing.”

Then I reach between us and guide the head of his cock into my entrance, slowly, so slowly sinking down as he clings to my hips like he’s being shredded apart bit by bit.

I take my time, savoring the stretch and the way he fills every inch of me. When I’m fully seated, I wait, remembering the first time we did this. Remembering when I’d fought so hard against it but then I finally fell, and the plummet was the greatest feeling of my life.

“Are you okay?” he asks, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear and trailing a finger along my cheek. There’s so much concern and love in his expression that my heart expands in my chest. This cruel prince who kidnapped me and tied me to the foot of his bed while he threatened to feed me to his pets. This cruel prince who isn’t so cruel as long as he loves you. The prince who took my heart and held it in his hand and forced me to see him. But who would have handed it back to me if I’d asked.

“I’m okay,” I say, and then I lift up and drop down as we slowly churn together, our breaths mingling and hearts aligning in this divine bliss.

“I love you,” I say. “I need you to understand just how much I love you.”

He quirks a smile, and the sight makes my heart seize in my chest. “I know, Lor. I know you didn’t want to—”

I cover his lips with my finger.

“No. That isn’t true. I wanted to. From the very beginning. I never didn’t want to. ”

He smiles, and it’s bright and beautiful, and I ride his hips, clinging to his shoulders as he guides me up and down. Our magic weaves together, his ribbons taming my lightning. We move as one, exploding together before I fall against him, and we sit in the tub, wrapped in one another, until the water grows cold.

Then we exit the bath and cocoon ourselves in warm towels before he sweeps me up into his arms and carries me to the bed. We snuggle under the covers, and he folds himself around me so I’m nestled into the curve of his body.

This is where I belong.

He is where I’ve always belonged.