Out of the Shadow at Last novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Bond

The east wing door was barely shut before he had me against it.

His mouth came down on mine, hot and hungry, and the cloak slid off my shoulders onto the floor.

"Slowly," I said, laughing, against his lips.

"I've been slow for six days."

"Then be fast."

He lifted me.

My legs went around his waist, and he carried me across the room with his hands under my thighs, kissing me the whole way.

He didn't take me to the bed.

He set me down on the thick bearskin before the hearth and knelt over me, and the firelight made gold of his shoulders.

I pulled his shirt over his head.

The claw marks on his side had closed to four pink lines.

I ran my thumb down them, and he shivered.

"Mine," I said, without thinking.

His eyes went dark.

"Yes."

He undressed me with great attention.

He drew my dress down off my shoulders, and my smallclothes down my legs, and kissed each place as it was bared.

Collarbone, ribs, the inside of my knee.

He kissed the seven scars on my finger last, and I made a sound.

"I've got a lot of years to make up for," he said, rough. "Let me."

"Make them up, then."

He lowered his head and took me in his mouth.

I arched off the bearskin.

He was slow and then not slow, his tongue flat and hot against my clit, and his hands holding my hips to the floor.

I twisted my fingers in his hair and said his name.

He slid two fingers inside me and curled them, and the room went white at the edges.

"Ivar, I'm going to..."

"Do it."

I came hard, with a cry I couldn't have stopped, and he drew every last pulse out of me with his mouth.

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