Page 127 of Obsidian Throne

“Der’mo, Lemmikki,” he growled in my ear. “I missed you every second of every day.”

His capable hands roamed my body as he, in detail, expounded on each part of me that he had missed. Awareness coursed through me, stealing my response.

Evander nipped at my shoulder, and I let out a gasp.

“And I missed that little sound you just made,” he murmured against my skin.

His fingers moved in a tantalizing pattern up and down my thighs, and I arched into him.

“Evander.” It was more of a demand than a plea, and he let out a low chuckle that undid me entirely.

I realized in that moment that if he had deprived me of this, of us, forever, with his stubbornaaliomentality, I would have killed him myself.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

ROWAN

Ihad fallen asleep to Evander’s kisses, and I woke up that way, too.

He was doing a valiant job of making up for lost time, and I had no real complaints about that. Except…

“We should go start training,” I said halfheartedly.

“No.” It was one clipped word, and I let out a small laugh.

But I didn’t argue. There wasn’t much to be done on the warfront while all of the things we set in motion were going forward, and there was no part of me that wanted to leave our bed.

So, we spent the day there, talking and laughing and focusing wholly on one another. I wondered if this was Evander’s way of making sure I didn’t think back to when I had woken up without him, but I was more than ready to put that behind us.

We had each of our meals delivered to our room, along with a small side of maple bacon for Boris, who seemed uncharacteristically pleased that we were all back in our room.

He lay at the foot of our bed, soaking up the rays of sunshine that streamed in from the window, purring whenever I offered him another bite of food.

I had just sat back against the pillows when Evander’s voice sounded over Boris’ gentle murmurings. “At the risk of bringing this up...how did you get away from Korhonan?”

“I...drugged him,” I said nonchalantly. “And his guard. After tricking them into playing a card game with me and lacing my flask.”

Evander threw his head back and laughed, a rich sound that warmed every part of me. “Storms, Lemmikki. You are savage when you want to be.”

I shrugged. “A fact you would do well to keep in mind.”

“Oh, I do,” he assured me. “Though, for the record, I never would have fallen for that.”

“No,” I agreed, running my hand along the powerful ridges of his arm and shoulder. “I would have had to seduce you instead.”

“Now that...that, I would have been powerless against.” He pressed his lips against mine in another lazy kiss.

Then he wanted to know all about how I got the Unclanned, so I told him about meeting Andrei, about traveling to the villages and asking for help from the women behind the blacksmiths, and about the clans falling to their knees when they were offered a second chance.

He listened patiently, something like awe taking over his expression.

“You are truly remarkable, Lemmikki. What you did that day, for Bear--”

I put a finger on his soft, full lips, silencing him.

“Let me be clear about something,” I began. “I love Bear. I love our people. But I don’t know that I could have done what I did for them.”

His brow furrowed, and I shook my head, looking for a way to put into words what I wanted to say.