“You were not a mistake,” I say. The words come out rough, too close to a growl. “Nothing about last night was a mistake.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” she whispers.
I’m close enough to count her lashes now. Close enough to see her pupils blow wide, to feel the tremor in the muscles of her stomach where my thumb presses in.
Kael’s warning bangs around in my skull, loud and useless.
Don’t touch her. Don’t—
I do it anyway.
“Just one more,” I hear myself say, like I’m bargaining with a part of me that’s already lost. “Then we stop.”
It’s a lie. We both know it.
Her fingers curl in the front of my shirt. “You’re not as in control as you think you are,” she says, and there’s a wild little smile at the corner of her mouth, like she’s decided that if we’re going to go to hell, she’s the one who’s going to kick the door.
Then she yanks me down.
The first clash of our mouths is messy, all teeth and anger and desperation. I lift my hand and then slam it flat against the wall by her head, the other tightening on her hip as I pin her there, body to body. She arches into me, her flour-smudged hoodie bunching under my fingers.
She tastes like sugar and salt and something that might be victory.
I kiss her like I’m trying to erase every second between last night and now. She kisses me like she’s trying to prove a point—see, this is what you’re walking away from, you idiot.
My self-control doesn’t just slip; it snaps.
Her back hits the wall harder than I intend. I feel the thud in my palm, feel the way she gasps into my mouth, and I have to dragmy hand down from the wall to her jaw to soften the angle, to keep from consuming her completely.
She hooks one leg around my calf, though, dragging me closer. I curve my hand around one ass cheek and squeeze, then do the same with its twin, relishing the feel of supple, giving flesh in my hands. When she squirms against me, I wrap her legs around me and pin her between my body and the wall, pushing my cock against the heat of her pussy.
She makes a needy little sound, pushing back against me. I groan into her mouth, because I’m only human, and she’s made of sharp edges and soft places and every bad idea I’ve ever had.
This is exactly what Kael warned me about. I couldn’t tell you what’s going on behind me. Around us.
This is exactly why I didn’t care until now.
I could stay here forever. Five more seconds. Ten. Just enough to memorize the way she fits against me, the little sound she makes when I angle my mouth over hers and lick into her like I have every right.
That thought is what stops me.
I do not have the right.
I tear my mouth away, pressing my forehead to hers, breathing hard. My hand is still on her hip, fingers digging into her skin beneath the denim of her jeans. I make myself ease up, drop her feet to the floor.
“Bran,” she whispers. It’s not a question. It’s an accusation. A plea.
“This,” I say, voice wrecked. “Is exactly what can’t happen again.”
Her eyes flash. “You say that like you didn’t just do it.”
“I know,” I say. “Believe me, I know.”
“You can’t have it both ways,” she snaps. Her hands shove at my chest—not hard enough to move me, just hard enough to make her point. “You don’t get to kiss me like that and then tell me I’m off-limits. That’s not noble. That’s cruel.”
I flinch. I’ve been called a lot of things. Cruel fits better than noble, most days. Hearing it from her feels different.
“I’m trying to keep you alive,” I say.
