He could try.
“How about a deal, then? I’ll try if you try. I know things look bad right now—I want nothing more than to drop everything and help Sárait, but there’s little we can do for her. We have a job ahead of us. She would want you to keep pushing foryour goals, to protect our kingdoms. Not to mention, if she ever found out that you did something that could risk your safety because of her, she would wake up if only to kick your ass. This will work out; we just need to be patient. Play the long game. Okay?”
He let his hands tighten around hers.
Clía nodded, and her hazel eyes were steel as they met his. “Fine.” Her strength—the very core of her being—radiated from her stance. He found himself caught in her net.
“You amaze me,” he whispered, the words escaping into the night air before he could swallow them back.
Clía froze, and he knew they were treading a dangerous line.
They’d both agreed to forget those kisses and the feelings between them. It was for the best. But in the moonlight, he couldn’t stop himself from saying all the words he’d held back. “Your resolve, your strength, your loyalty. Sometimes I feel as if you could will the stars into the sky.”
“I can only do half of what I can because you’re a great teacher.” She smiled, demure as a princess. A lie. He wanted to wipe it off her face.
“I don’t know. I like to think you would have found a different route to get here. I’m only glad I was blessed to witness the creation of a goddess.”
Her cheeks flushed, and Ronan found himself pleased at the sight of the pink flooding under her skin. His hand traced the path it burned.
“You—” she began but shook her head.
He inched his face closer. He didn’t know what he was doing. Only that he couldn’t stop. Her lips were a breath from his—and all he could think of.
“I know I shouldn’t, but Clíodhna...” He let his voice trail off.
Silence. For a moment, he worried he had done something wrong. He leaned back, giving her space, but was stopped by her hand curling around his neck. She nodded again, eyes drifting shut as she closed those last remaining inches between them.
Her lips met his like a sunlit touch. She wrapped her other arm around his neck, and his automatically went to her back, pulling her closer. Needing more. Her mouth parted, tasting of mint and cocoa. Electricity sparked with every brush of her silken lips against his. Each touch between them was inevitable. He was a wave crashing against the shore. The softness of her skin against the calluses on his hands lit fires as he traced her jawline, her face, before twirling his fingers in her hair. He never let go of his hold on her, not letting her slip away from him into the shadows of the night. This might be the last chance he had to touch her like this; he wouldn’t waste it.
Ronan moved his lips to her forehead, letting them catch their breath. His arms fell to her waist. Lightning seemed to spread from where his fingertips rested over her shirt, until he was aching to be even closer to her. He let his mouth linger as he trailed kisses from her hairline to her nose and cheeks, eventually finding the corner of her jaw. He would never get tired of this. The taste of her skin, the scent of her hair in the wind.
“You’re magnificent,” he whispered.
“So are you,” she breathed back.
Her hand curled around his chin, tilting his face so his lips were within her reach. Her eyes were closed, but he let himself admire her in the dim light of the lanterns. And he knew, without a doubt, that she was here with him. That it wasn’t justhisworld that seemed to be changing with every touch. Before long, she stopped his vigil, using her other hand to free his hair from where it was tied back and dragging him down to her once more. He groaned as he fell into her embrace.
They stood together against the night. But when the chill of the winter air made Clía shiver in his arms, Ronan pulled back just enough to speak.
“We should head back.” He said it reluctantly, wanting nothing more than to stay out there with her under the stars.
An anxious fear began to seep into him that she would use this moment to withdraw and leave him alone again, as she had both times before. However, she stayed still in his arms. Her head nodded, lips brushing his with the movement, and he struggled to keep himself from falling back into her.
He stepped away, needing some distance if they were ever going to make it back into the castle. Yet as they retrieved the lanterns and swords discarded on the ground, their hands found each other.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When they finally arrived at her door, the hall was empty. Quiet. Everyone had already gone to bed.
She turned to Ronan, his long hair mussed from where she’d run her hands through it; dirt from the arena stained his leather training armor. In the flickering light, he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She’d had to fight the urge to pull him to her the entire walk back to her room.
Now, standing here, her mind screamed at her to have caution. But instead, she whispered a soft question. “Do you... want to come in?”
In his amber eyes, she saw the logical side of him fight to be heard. The side that constantly analyzed and moved only when he was sure of the correct choice. But she also saw the desire.
He nodded, reaching his arm behind her to rest on the door handle. For a moment, she was pinned by him. She bit her lip, thrilling at the closeness.
The door opened, and she stumbled back, saved from falling only by his hand coming to her waist.
