Page 134 of Hollow Court
This was nothing like that.
This kiss was slow and exploratory, like we had all the time in the world. Her lips were soft and warm, and she tasted like…everything.
She tasted like home.
She sighed against my mouth, pressing herself in closer, and the sound tugged at every part of me. However I had survived eighteen long months without her, I knew I never wanted to do it again.
“I missed you,” I murmured against her lips. “Every single day after I left,” I added, skating my mouth across her jaw.
She tilted her head back, giving me access to her neck, and I promptly took advantage of it, kissing every bit of exposed skin I could find.Stars, I had missed the way she tasted, the way her soft skin felt against my lips.
“I missed you, too,” she said breathlessly, her fingernails dragging lightly against my scalp. “Storms, I missed your stupid, arrogant face.”
“What else did you miss?” I teased, smiling against her collarbone.
She leaned in, balancing her knees on either side of mine.
“Not your incessant need for praise, that’s for sure,” she joked.
I hummed against her skin, dragging my mouth back up to her jaw.
“Nothing else comes to mind?” I froze, the threat of stopping clear.
“You’re. Insufferable.” Her insult didn’t land as hard when she could barely get the words out.
“That’s not an answer, Love,” I taunted.
Her breath hitched at the endearment, her eyes going wider than before as she settled into my lap a little further.
“Fine,” she breathed. “I missed your lips. Are you happy?”
“Very,” I assured her, continuing my ministrations. “I missed your lips, too. And the rest of you. I did not, however, miss this robe.”
I tugged at the belt of her thick velvet monstrosity, untying it.
“No, no,” she teased. “You love this robe. You insisted I wear it just yesterday.”
She didn’t make a move to stop my hand, though. If anything, she arched closer against me.
I deftly untied it with one hand while I ran the other up and down the lapel, slowly, my knuckles grazing her skin. “Do you want to keep it on?”
She sucked in a breath.
“No,” she admitted, tilting back until the robe fell to the floor.
She was in another of those maddening silk nightgowns, one that left very little to the imagination.
She paused, then, looking down at me with her lips swollen and her pale eyes blazing like the hottest part of the fire.
“I don’t want to have to miss you again,” she said, her tone more serious.
I moved aside her hair to press a kiss to her shoulder.
“You won’t,” I said. “You’re stuck with me now.”
“Good. I can live with that,” she responded, leaning back into me.
Gently, I reached up to pull the ribbon from her braid, letting it flutter to the floor by her robe. Then I ran my fingers through her hair like I had wanted to do every moment since she came to my door in Socair, until it fell in golden waves around her face.