“You have control of it,” he says, his tone nothing but pure confidence.
“I could slip—”
“You won’t.”
“Your timberwing is watching us.”
“He’s sleeping.”
“What if I—”
“Auren,” he says, cutting me off. “Stop doubting yourself and fucking kiss me.”
I slam my lips against his so quickly that he’s still forming his last word when I fuse our mouths together. My lips slant and search, urgent and desperate.
Slade instantly has his hands on my hips, yanking me against the hard lines of his body. The move has me panting, and as his tongue delves into my mouth and commands desire, I moan right into him so he can swallow it down.
After a few moments, I pull away, gasping for air, my hands clinging to his corded arms. “I didn’t gild you,” I say breathlessly. “I kissed you—touched you, right here in the middle of the day, and I’m controlling my magic.”
The pride shines through his eyes so bright that I can bask in it.
A hand comes up to tenderly tuck a piece of loose hair behind my ear. And then, as if the male has no fear whatsoever, has complete confidence in my new shaky hold of my magic, skims his bare finger along my swollen lips. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
His words make a wave of bashfulness rise up.
“You have taken everything thrown at you in such a short amount of time. Look how far you’ve come, Auren.”
“I want to get so much further.”
I want to get as far as I can.
“You will,” he tells me.
This time when I kiss him, I fall into him easily. I relish it. Revere it. I’m caught in the rapt earnestness of this moment, and I just indulge. Because here I am, in a place that doesn’t exist, with a fae king who shouldn’t be, kissing in the midst of daylight when I’ve always had to shut myself away from the light.
After so many years of being chained to the presence of the sun, I’m here, in the middle of the day, kissing. Touching. Feeling.
The overwhelming moment has a tear slipping down my cheek to mingle between our lips, until I’ve flavored our kiss with the brine of my emotions.
Slade pulls away, a frown dug in between his brows, and I answer his silent question. “I just…never thought I’d have this. Never thought I’d ever be able to really live during the day.”
“You can,” he tells me. “You will.”
The idea is so incredible that it doesn’t even feel real. Sniffing, I wipe at my eyes, and a smile spreads across my face.
“What does that smile mean?” he asks, taking in the glint in my eye.
“I’m just thinking about all the other things we can do now. At any hour of the day. Without any clothes covering my skin at all.”
Slade reaches behind me to grip my ass. “Excellent point.”
He moves to kiss me again, which will probably lead to some other excellent things, but a chuff beside us pulls us apart again. We both look over at Argo, whose glowing eyes are leveled on us with judgment.
“I told you he was watching.”
Slade makes a noise under his breath. “That’s enough practicing for today,” he says, taking my hand as he starts tugging me toward the exit. He scoops up my gloves from the floor and puts them in his pocket.
Then he pulls me out of the cave and into the snowy day, walking fast enough to make me laugh. “The things I’m going to do to you…”
Elation surges up through my chest because I am positive I want to do every single idea he has in his head. I’m out of breath by the time we get all the way down the slope and back to the Grotto. When he shoves the door open and we burst inside the house, a laugh bursts with me.
Until Slade and my own steps come to a jarring halt at the sight in the living room.
Everyone is gathered with a serious look on their faces, and they’re all standing. That doesn’t bode well.
All the excitement drains out of me in an instant, my smile vanishing as we step into the room.
“What’s wrong?” Slade asks, his gaze falling to his Wrath.
Ryatt passes Slade a rolled scroll.
“It seems Queen Kaila has grown tired of waiting for a written reply, so she’s sent her advisor to Fourth Kingdom,” Ryatt says, a grim look on his face. “Her brother Manu will arrive in two days’ time.”
CHAPTER 42
AUREN
We’re out of time.
I know it, and everyone else in this room knows it too.
I’ve held us up. The only reason we’ve stayed here for so long is because they’ve been patient with me. Slade’s been supporting me, letting me work through things at my own pace, even at the detriment of his own kingdom.