Dawn Walker - Chapter 274: The Quiet Vow X

Chapter 274: 274: The Quiet Vow X

His gaze stayed on her face. Serious at first. Then softer. Then something darker and warmer moved into it, something that made her pulse jump all over again.

Lily’s cheeks warmed, but she did not look away. “And you are very difficult for a new husband.”

“It is admiration.”

He lowered his head and brushed his mouth against her forehead first. A smaller kiss. Slower. Intimate in a way that sent a different kind of warmth through her than the deeper kisses before had. It was not less intense. It was more dangerous because of how gentle it was.

Sekhmet felt it.

He always felt everything where she was concerned now. The shifts in her breathing. The tiny pauses before she answered. The way her body moved closer even when her mind was still trying to pretend dignity mattered.

Lily frowned faintly. “No, I am not.”

Then one corner of his mouth moved in that infuriating way that meant he had noticed more than she wanted him to.

She lifted her chin. “Maybe a little.”

That question was too serious to answer carelessly.

“Then what.”

Yet he is teasing her, shaking. He knew exactly what this shaking meant. But yet he asked. He wanted to hear it from her mouth.

Something changed in his face. His face became smug. As if some guarded part of him had heard the answer and decided it was allowed to be pleased. He didn’t imagine Lily would say it out loud.

He drew her in again, slower this time, until there was no distance left between them. The skin touches the skin. Her breath caught. His hand spread at her waist. The room seemed to draw inward around that one point of closeness.

Sekhmet’s eyes lowered for one second at the feel of her hands on him.

That made her heart leap.

“I am not calm.”

“That is years of practice.”

This kiss was unhurried. It was not meant to take her by surprise this time. It was meant to keep her there. To hold her attention completely. To let her feel the intent in him rather than only the heat. His hand moved from her waist to the small of her back and stayed there, firm enough that she could feel the strength in him even through the cloth between them.

Not perfectly.

Better than that.

The way she leaned into him, the way her breath changed, the way her fingers slowly lost their careful uncertainty and began to trust where they rested against him, all of it told him more than words would have.

This time it was Sekhmet who watched her first.

He touched her cheek with the back of his fingers.

That almost undid him.

Her eyes opened again. “What face?”

“That is not helpful.”

Lily’s breath caught in a softer way than before.

Sekhmet stared at her for one long moment. Then answered with too much honesty to be safe.

That sent heat through her so fast she almost stepped back.

Not roughly.

Lily lowered her gaze for a second, then forced it back up. “You do enjoy making me blush.”

“That is worse.”

He kissed the corner of her mouth then, deliberately lighter, and the tenderness of it made her fingers tighten at his shoulders again.

A few hours later… Lily rested her forehead against him once more.

Sekhmet’s hand moved through her hair, careful not to ruin what remained of Elena’s work more than necessary. “You were very determined.”

“It is not.”

He felt the smile against his chest and let the quiet stretch around it.

The nearness changed again in that smaller position. Less charged with immediate urgency. More dangerous in its own way because now they could simply look at each other without needing movement to hide behind.