Bleeding Ink

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The time Cleo got with Kav was shorter than she would have liked, but one message from Malik asking him to come home had him changing his plans. So, the morning he was supposed to leave, she woke up half an hour earlier than he did just so she could lay beside him, watching as he slept and questioning herself on what she was doing with him, mates or not.

They'd been doing this for how long now? Three, almost four years? Four years of hiding their relationship, of having him playing up the part of the annoying Krahzaran prince pursuing the Arloerin queen on his mother's orders to try and work his way into her court. No one would have guess Cleo realized the nine-year-old boy who had come with his elder brother was her mate the second she saw him.

At that time, there was just an overwhelming feeling of protectiveness over him that grew over the years he'd visited with Malik. Then, when he was twenty and came without Malik at his side, that was when the flirting started. And at twenty-four when he came to Arloerin again, this time with Malik, and Cleo saw him fully-grown...

Gods, she knew she was done for.

She'd thought a day of sightseeing around the vineyards would do them some good. She'd planned on confronting him, on using her dark magic and her dragons to scare him away, though she liked toying with him just as much as he did with her. They were going to get out of the city, get away from prying eyes. She even sent the few Elite Guard back home for the evening off. Malik had stayed behind to go over plans with Urell while Janan and Shamira stayed since she wasn't feeling well. Of course, this was a lie on her part, having seen the looks between Cleo and Kav.

And Kav knew it, too. Knew how to make her crave every touch of his fingers as they brushed against her, how he managed to get so close to her she could feel his warm breath tickle her skin.

Her plans, of course, backfired in the best possible way when she stopped them in the Cagny Forest at the sparkling pool Kalla used to take her and her sister to as a child.

Because Ollyn and Odanth completely adored the prince, just as they always had, and her both her dark and light magic...they were drawn to him completely, just as she was.

Prince Kaveh, a male who was almost a hundred years younger than her, wasn't scared of her in the slightest, no matter how much of her darkness she'd shown him. And since they were finally alone, Cleo decided she could finally have her way with him, just to get him out of her system.

That first kiss was nothing she was expecting. Having kissed and shared a bed with many males before, something about Kav made her feel like this was her first ever, especially when her hands started shaking as they stripped off their clothes and he'd seen absolutely every part of her and she him. And...well, the mating bond that had always been there between them was completed that night.

Hours after, as they laid beneath a blanket of stars wrapped around one another, was the first time Kav had asked her to marry him, the first time she'd told him no. At first, he was obviously upset, but the look in her eyes, the laugh that bubbled out of her...he then knew she wanted nothing more than to say yes. She couldn't, though, not yet.

From there, there was no looking back for both of them. Those last four years, they'd snuck around both Arloerin and Krahzara just to see each other, even staying in Searis for a few weeks just so they could get away from both of their kingdoms. Still, their faces were recognizable, so they hardly left their room, which was just fine with them.

Now, brushing his hair back from where it had fallen across his forehead, Cleo leaned in to kiss Kav's cheek, making him inhale sharply through his nose as he started to wake up. One arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her into his side as he buried his face in her hair.