“I love you,” Rorn said, fingertips ghosting down my arms. My damp hair was shifted over my shoulder for his mouth to graze the bare skin of the other. “Stars, I love you so much.” The regret and conviction roughening his voice almost had me falling back into him.

Almost.

I turned, blinking up at this male of whom I’d sworn my life to, and I marveled at what stood before me as I’d done thousands of times before.

Frosted blue eyes held a sheen, following the sweep of my own over his features. His long, thin nose was bruised from battle but already healing, and those soft, supple lips parted with a short burst of breath.

I traced the sharp rise of his cheeks with my thumbs, my wonder dulling as it melded with dismay. My fingers hovered over the thick arches of his brows, the same shade of soot as the hair rustled by the breeze to dance over his shoulders. His long lashes feathered the palm of my hand.

He’d always been majestic. Devastatingly divine.

And from the moment our lips had first touched when I was all of seventeen years, he’d been mine.

Had this female he’d lain with known that?

Had she been aware of just how young I’d been when I’d handed all I was to him? Had she touched him like this? With an appreciation for all that he was while wondering how the stars could possibly think her enough for him?

Had she known she wasn’t merely bedding a king but a soul darkened by deeds that tainted his sleep and constantly robbed the color from his eyes? Had she known he wasn’t just a priceless piece of art—a young god to lust over—but that he was also a useless queen’s entire universe?

Her every reason for who she was?

Whoever this female was, had she known how irrevocably lost she would render me by enjoying the male I’d made my world? By stealing what wasn’t hers to take?

“Bloom, say something,” Rorn rasped and gently took my touch from his face by taking my wrists. “Where have you been?”

The flaring of his nostrils as he studied me with growing fury, the impatience that sparked in his beautiful eyes as he dared to open his mouth to demand anything of me…

It made me smile.

His mouth closed at the sight, and I rose to my toes while sliding my hands up his chest.

“Did it feel good, my king?” I purred to his ear. “Did it feel like one of the biggest rushes you’ve ever experienced in your life?” My fingers slid down his chest.

Rorn’s frame tensed when they stopped atop the waistband of his pants.