Dawn Walker - Chapter 273: The Quiet Vow IX
Chapter 273: 273: The Quiet Vow IX
And Lily, who had been brave in too many rooms and steady through too many impossible conversations, let herself be quiet inside his arms.
Not dramatically. But deeply.
Mine, some dark and dangerous part of him thought.
The words were far too satisfying.
“I am checking whether it’s real or not.”
“And?”
She leaned back just enough to look up at him, and because they were already too close and because the room was too quiet and because he had spent all evening behaving correctly in front of other people, the sight of her face there beneath his was enough to strip the last of his patience with distance.
Lily’s eyes widened just slightly.
“You keep giving me reasons.”
“It is admiration.”
He liked her like this too. Warm. A little breathless. Still trying to hold onto wit while her heart gave itself away more quickly than her mouth.
Sekhmet’s gaze darkened faintly. “You noticed.”
He leaned down a little, slowly enough that she knew what was coming before it happened.
Then he kissed her. Not tentative. Not the uncertain brush of two people still asking permission from the air around them.
His hand remained at her jaw, his thumb just beneath her ear, while the other kept her close at the waist. Lily made the smallest sound against him, more surprise than protest, and then the surprise vanished because she kissed him back immediately and with far less hesitation than her earlier blushes would have suggested.
He deepened the kiss once, carefully, and felt the exact moment her fingers tightened in the fabric at his side. That nearly broke his self-control all by itself.
Lily looked dazed.
Her voice came out soft and uneven. “That was…”
She blinked once, then gave up on language entirely and leaned into him again instead.
He kissed her a second time.
No less possessive, only less urgent at the edges, as though he had already proven what he meant to prove and now wanted to feel her rather than startle her.
When they broke apart again, her forehead rested briefly against his.
The silence now was warmer than the silence before. Less full of tension. More full of choice.
Lily laughed under her breath, still trying to recover enough dignity to speak. “You really are bold today.”
“It will not.”
She lifted her face again. “Good.”
“Warning again?”
“I still like them.”
Lily’s cheeks warmed even more. “You notice too much.”
“How.”
That made her laugh again, it was softer this time.
Another kiss nearly followed right then.
Sekhmet drew her back into his arms again, this time without hunger at the front of it. Just closeness.
The quiet did not break for a long time. But it deepened.
It felt alive and close.
Sekhmet’s hand rested at the middle of her back, broad and warm and certain. The other remained near her shoulder, fingers lightly curved as if he had no intention of letting her drift farther than this tonight. His breathing had slowed again, but not fully. Not enough to fool her. She could feel too much now. The strength in him. The restraint. The hunger that was not only blood.
“You are thinking too much,” she murmured.
She smiled at him. “Then I was right.”
Lily leaned back enough to look up at him.
He raised an eyebrow.
