I put my arms around his neck and pulled him even closer. “Actually, I have a pretty good idea,” I said, just before I met his lips in a crushing kiss.
There was an urgency in him that answered my own, and all the tightly wound tension I’d carried today exploded between us. He ran his hands over my body and then caught hold of one of my legs and hiked it up beside his hip. My blood burned within me, and I no longer felt even the least bit tired.
As sexy as an against-the-wall make-out session was, we eventually retired to my bed, which gave us both easier access to clothes, skin . . .
I sat beside him on the bed and helped him take off my sweater. “Who knew that escape plan number seventy-one would end up being ‘Vacation at Moroi Court.’”
He laughed and then brought his lips to the nape of my neck, making me shiver. “Well, why not? No Zoe . . . no Alchemists . . . no time constraints.” He trailed his lips to my shoulder and gently pushed the bra strap down. “We have a lot of freedom, Sage, and a lot of privacy.”
I couldn’t help a small gasp as his skilled lips continued their exploration. I closed my eyes and sank down into the bed, drawing him to me. This could be it, I realized. What I’d been preparing for. We finally had a very real chance to have sex without detection or interruption. It was heady. When were we going to get a chance to do this again?
And yet, as his touch continued to drive me wild, some old, frightened instinct held me back. What was I waiting for? Why was I still afraid? I wanted him, and I loved him, yet some part of me still kept hesitating. It was maddening, especially since my body was screaming for Adrian to rip my clothes off. I opened my eyes and found him looking at me.
“It’s okay,” he said, guessing my thoughts.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
He placed a kiss on the tip of my nose. “Nothing’s wrong with you.”
“I want this. I really do. I just feel like I’m waiting for something.”
“Then wait.” The kindness and patience in his green eyes—mingled with unquestionable desire—made my heart ache.
“I just hate to waste this room and this night,” I admitted.
He pulled off his shirt and tossed it on the floor. “Who said we’re wasting anything?” He stretched his body out alongside mine and leaned in for another kiss. “Maybe we’re not doing it, but believe me, Sage, there are plenty of other ways to pass the time.”
CHAPTER 15
ADRIAN
I SLEPT WITH SYDNEY THAT NIGHT—in the literal sense, not the sexual one.
And it was glorious. I hadn’t thought I could feel such joy over something so simple. For so long, I’d wished we could have more time together, that I could just drink her in and not be pressured by everything conspiring against us. Here it was.
It was also a little torturous at times. It made yesterday’s travel tension seem downright easy. Even in a T-shirt and flannel pajama pants, she was agonizingly sexy. As she lay wrapped in my arms, sleeping with her head against my chest, I found myself thinking a lot about the thin fabric of her shirt and how there was nothing on underneath it. I thought a lot about what it’d be like to remove those clothes. I thought a lot about what I’d do after that. I loved her for her beautiful soul and desired her for her beautiful body. There was nothing sordid about it. It was nature.
As a result, sleep didn’t come easy for me. My earlier nap probably didn’t help matters. When I wasn’t fantasizing about Sydney, my mind wandered to our mission here and the potentially crackpot idea of using Olive’s blood to make an Alchemist-like tattoo for Neil. Everyone was looking to Sydney and me to pull it off. I was pretty sure the spirit-infused blood wouldn’t hurt Neil, so, much like Sydney’s own experimental tattoo, there’d probably be no harm done in trying. After all, we were out of options for the blood. It was as good an idea as any and really didn’t bother me.
What did bother me was my rapidly decreasing grasp of spirit. When Sonya had asked me about sensing what was in the vial, I’d had to lie. She was one of the best spirit users at reading truth but had thankfully been too distracted to notice. Because the thing was, I hadn’t been able to read anything off of it. I knew there had to be spirit in the blood, based on her and Lissa’s observations, but I could no longer sense it. I could no longer see auras either, and although I’d made no healing attempts, I could guess those results too.
Jill’s revelation about the bond had been a slap in the face. Spirit’s disappearance had always hovered as a real possibility, but I’d never thought too much about the consequences with her. She’d explained that although she still sensed we were connected, it felt as though there was a curtain between us that blocked my mind coming through to her. That wasn’t exactly a bad thing. It meant my life was private again and that she would be protected from any of spirit’s darkness seeping into her.
And I couldn’t deny the most obvious truth: I now appeared to be protected from spirit too. I felt . . . good. My world was calm. I didn’t have that frantic need to paint a whole gallery in one night, but I was still full of ideas, ideas that I could actually develop because my focus was stronger. Brooding about Pink Floyd didn’t lead to outright depression. My love for Sydney burned just as strongly.
Life was good.
Waking up with her drove that home. I’d finally fallen asleep but came to when I felt her stirring. We’d both changed positions throughout the night but had never lost our hold on each other. With her sleepy eyes and tousled hair, I was pretty sure she’d never been more adorable. I leaned in to kiss her, and she turned her face away.
“I need to brush my teeth,” she grumbled.
“Practical as soon as you wake up. I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“That’s just common sense.” She rolled to her side, and I pressed up to her back, wrapping my arms around her waist.
“You want to get breakfast?” I asked.
“We can’t go out together. It’s going to be bad enough if someone sees you leaving my room.”
I glanced at a clock. “Nah. They’re all going to bed right around now.”
“Then how are we going to get breakfast?”
“There are a couple of twenty-four-hour places since there are always some people coming in and out from human schedules.” I kissed her neck. “I’ll lift your coffee restriction since this is a special occasion.”
“Hey, I’m sticking to my word.”
“We’ll see what you say if it’s a late Moroi work night.”
She was quiet for several moments. “You haven’t had a drop of alcohol in a while, have you? Not even your daily one.”
“Easier that way. No point dancing on the line.”
Her response was simple and perfect: “I love you.”
She eventually sent me on my way so that we could both get ready on our own, despite my well-thought-out argument for why sharing a shower would be effective. I kept my shower uncharacteristically brief so that I could run over to the building next door for a quick visit with the feeders. Sydney and I met up a half hour later in the lobby of guest housing, just like any proper Moroi and Alchemist would do. The guy working the desk didn’t pay much attention to us, but we still put on an Oscar-worthy show of formal greetings and safe distance.
Outside, the watery sunlight did little to warm the winter morning. Sydney looked snug and cute in her furry coat, and I cursed the idiocy that had driven me to wear my thin one. No way would I complain, though. I had to stand by my fashion choice.
The grounds were as deserted as I expected, the only people out being occasional guardians still on diligent patrol, despite the wards that protected Court from Strigoi. Of course, these days, with people still opposed to Lissa’s rule, we faced as much danger from our own kind. One of the restaurants I remembered was still in business, and Sydney chuckled as we entered.