Song of Blood and Reign

Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Lyv's rooms hadn't changed since the last time they were in Escarral, of course. She didn't know why she expected it to either. Standing in the archway in between the sitting room and her bedroom, she looked between both spaces as her hands balled into fists at her sides. Those pesky memories came to mind from years before with a male whose face at blurred and was replaced with another, especially when she caught sight of fur blanket stretched out on the end of bed.

She could feel it then, the whisper of kisses and fingertips along her skin, making goosebumps rise along her arms at the memory. At least this time when it happened, it didn't make her upset at the past. Quite the opposite, actually.

What didn't help was the door opening behind her and that very same male striding. Jai wasn't even looking at her as he placed their bags on the sofa in the sitting room and began digging through his own, looking for something. He'd left the door slightly ajar, allowing for voices from down the hallway to creep in, possibly with the intent of heading out again afterward.

That wasn't going to happen, though.

"All of the kids were saying goodnight to Roshan and Erly when I went to check on them with Thia," he was saying, pulling out a pair of loose-fitting pants he wore to bed. "They wanted you to come read them a story and make the pictures move, but your sisters said you were probably asleep already since all of us had been traveling for so long. They made me promise to ask you do it tomorrow night. I'm actually surprised you're not asleep yet, especially since you were nodding off during dinner..."

With a flicker of magic, Lyv closed and locked the door behind him, making Jai pause as he looked back. Another flicker...and a soundproof ward encompassed her rooms and wouldn't let anyone in until she lifted it.

"I'm not tired anymore," she told him, and then looked him up and down in his leather. "You need some help taking that off?"

A slow smile stretched across his face, the pants he'd taken out completely forgotten about on the sofa. "It's not hard to get out of leather, you know. The armor's the only thing I really have to have help me with."

"But there's so many laces to undo."

"There's two, princess."

"And you're going to need help with them."

"I am?"

"Are you ever going to stop questioning my intentions?"

"Maybe. I'd rather you show me your intentions, though."

Lyv started walking toward him, one brow raised. Slowly and silently, she got him out of his jacket with no help from him. She wouldn't let him, slapping his hand away whenever he tried. That just made him smile as she then pulled off his tunic, leaving his broad chest and shoulders bare.

"So," she began in a breathy whisper as her fingers started playing with the laces of his pants. "About your own intentions, which you'd sent to me earlier...were those just empty promises or are you going to uphold them?"

By that point, Jai had started helping her out of her own leather, though much quicker than she had. Her jacket was already slung over the back of the sofa with his and he was untucking her tunic from her pants, lifting it off her. She wasn't bare to him yet, though, not with the bindings around her chest.

Even with all of the teasing earlier that afternoon...well, Jai hadn't been wrong about Lyv not being able to keep her hands off of him. He brought it on himself, though, sending those images of what he'd do to her whenever they were alone.