He unclenched his fists and his hands rose to caress my neck and then my face, making me shiver under his touch.
"What I should have told you before was that I want to do this. You are everything to me, and this way I can show you that as well as be closer to you."
I leaned into him, letting my hands drift over his shoulders. "I know another way that we can be closer, but it requires Zach leaving."
Adrian laughed, low, knowing and oh-so enticing. "We'll do that afterward, I promise."
In my peripheral vision, I saw Zach roll his eyes with barely contained irritation, and it was all I could do not to laugh. If double entendres irritated Zach, I'd make it a point to talk sexy to Adrian every time the Archon was near. Payback for all of Zach's infuriating evasiveness in the past.
"Okay," I said, smiling. "So, what do you want Zach to do?"
His gaze never wavered as he stared at me. "In simplest terms, a soul tethering. Zach ties mine to yours, and after that, I couldn't betray you even if I wanted to because doing so would subject me to the same consequences. We'd be linked in a way that nothing on earth, under it or over it could alter."
My mouth opened, but for a few moments, I couldn't form words. I don't know what I'd thought it would be. Whatever my musings, nothing had come close to this.
"You're serious?" I finally got out.
His fingers tightened around my face, yet his touch remained achingly gentle. "I've never been more serious about anything in my life."
"But that's so, so-"
"Permanent?" Zach supplied drily.
I barely glanced at him. "Yes, permanent," I breathed. "Eternally permanent."
A smile flittered over Adrian's lips. "That's my favorite part. I love you, Ivy, and that more than anything else is why I want this. But my destiny has also been hanging over me my entire life, and since I'm breaking that destiny, I want the proof of it to be written all over my soul."
"Adrian..." I was so overwhelmed, I didn't know what to say.
He dropped his hands and stepped back, concern washing over his features. "This is a one-way tethering, if that's what you're worried about. You wouldn't be linking your soul to mine. Everything about you would still stay the same-"
"Why would you think I'd want a one-way-only tethering?" I interrupted.
His expression cleared, becoming completely blank, and he took another step back. "If you don't want me to do it, that's fine," he said in a very controlled tone.
"Adrian!" I grabbed him, almost shaking him for how badly he'd misunderstood me. "I meant, why would you think that I wouldn't want to do the same thing with you?"
He started to smile, and seeing it caused something bright and beautiful to bubble up inside me, making my answering grin wide and almost witless with joy.
"You do?" he asked, the question coming out almost breathy.
I tangled my arms around his neck, feeling a tear start to slip from the corner of my eye. "Of course I do."
He kissed me, and I didn't care about the Archon watching us. All I cared about was how his arms molded me to him, the searing passion that built as his mouth moved over mine and the happiness I felt, which rivaled everything else.
A cough sounded, and then Adrian and I were wrenched apart by invisible arms. Zach approached us, a regally haughty expression on his face.
"I agreed to perform a soul-tethering ceremony, not to oversee its celebratory consummation, so if you're still interested in the former, you need to stop the latter. Now."
"Sorry," Adrian said, but his grin made it clear that he wasn't sorry in the least.
Neither was I. "I'm sure it's nothing you haven't seen a billion times before," I teased Zach.
His glare was priceless. "That assumes that I have never had anything better to do, which is patently untrue."
Adrian went over and clapped him on the back. "Whatever you say, secret voyeur. Now, you said you had to do this right away or not at all, but exactly how long do we have?"
Zach thought for a moment. "Two hours."
"All right," Adrian said, giving Zach another back slap and ignoring the scowl he got in response. "Ivy, you have to hurry and get ready. I know the perfect place to do the ritual in."
I cast a disbelieving look around at our lavish surroundings. "This isn't nice enough for you?"
His gaze glinted with determination. "We've had so few chances to make good memories with everything that's happened since we met. Since we can only do this once, I want to make sure it's something you'll never forget." Then his mouth curled as humor mixed in with his usual arrogance. "Besides, a hotel room? I do have my pride as a former prince, you know."