“I could show you, but I think we’d both be in trouble if I took your innocence.” I backed her up a pace, so she had nowhere to go.
“My what—ohhhh.—” She scowled and I knew I had her.
“We can’t,” I barely breathed.
“But you want to?”
“Have you seen yourself? You’re the most beautiful creature in the Twelve Kingdoms. Of course I want to, but we can’t.” Maybe the drink made me bold, but every word was true.
She reached for me but stopped before her fingers brushed my skin. “Then why is it so easy to stay away from me?”
“You think this is fucking easy?” I stepped in close to her until she was pressed to the wall. It was closer than I’d allowed myself before, and closer than was comfortable, considering all I was battling within myself.
“You make it look easy.” She sucked in a breath, closing her eyes so her long, delicate lashes laid against her cheek. She must have felt the thread binding us to each other pull tight. Like it was reeling us in. This was not the ryder bond. It was the pull to my mate. A primal need that I’d be fighting for the rest of my life,but close to her like this, I could hardly remember why I would fight it at all.
“It’s impossible. Every time, I’m near you it’s harder.” My words were laced with need, and I was sure she could feel it. Our bodies were a breath apart. If either one of us moved, we’d rub up against the other.
She giggled, and I groaned, but I didn’t dare move. “Harder you say…”
“How you test me…” I leaned closer, until I could feel her breath on my face, until we shared air.
Why was this wrong again?
Her breathing hitched, and I glanced down at her lips.
It was a mistake. I closed the distance, brushing my lips over hers.
We were both breathing harder than normal. She tilted her face up to mine, granting me better access, wanting me to take it.
I parted my lips and lowered them to hers, the soft skin feeling as if it sparked against mine at their touch. Her labored breathing was all I could hear, those freckles were all I could see. Like she drew her very breath from my lungs, stealing it from me.
I wanted her like I’d never wanted anything in my life.
But she didn’t belong to me.
She could never be mine.
I ripped myself away, gasping for air and scrubbing my hands over my face. I bumped up against the opposite wall and stared at her. She had her hand pressed to her chest. She slowly lifted her fingers and traced them over where my lips had ghosted.
“We can’t,” I whispered, then turned and went back to the bar. I didn’t look back. Couldn’t. It took the last of my willpower to leave her there.
I took my seat, still reeling from that literal brush with what would be my end. I grabbed a random empty glass and drained the last of the absinthe, calling the server for more.
“Yes, we definitely need more!” added Caly, sitting back down beside me, not showing any signs of our encounter or how life changing it was. Other than the fact that she was ready for a lot more alcohol.
The spirits flowed, and we laughed. I hadn’t laughed so much in I didn’t know how long. For such an unlikely group of fae, we found much entertainment in each other, and the absinthe let me enjoy it when really I should have been running away.
I had this feeling that things would come crashing down around me if I didn’t get back my distance, but I couldn’t make myself try. I needed a bucket of cold water thrown over me.
“Oh, shit,” Kol said under his breath. That got my attention, and I followed his eye line, turning slowly until I was face to chest with… Oh, shit.
My bucket of water had arrived.
My eyes rose over huge, folded arms and a broad chest to meet the cold glare of night.
The dragon was right there, just under the surface. His eyes had even changed, and his voice was a barely restrained growl. “What. The. Fuck. Do you all think you are doing?”
“Well—“
