They turned his insides into an inferno.
“I don’t know that I should, Minder.”
It washerthat guided his hand to her face.Her,that requested he touch her again. “I don’t know that I care,” she whispered.
They leaned in at the same time.
And his world changed when their lips met. When they chose each other, such claiming in their first kiss. It was slow, gentle, at first.
He held himself back because he hadneverkissed anyone before. Because he hadneverfelt such a wave of desire such as this. She wanted him. Oh, gods, shewantedhim, in a way on one ever had before.
Her lips parted for him, and his tongue slid across hers.
He was floating. He was falling. He was flying.
He would devour her if she let him, and he’d let her devour him, too, as they dove headfirst together into the unknown.
“Ezer,” he groaned, unable to keep her name from his lips as he tasted her, and drank her in, and there was nothing forbidden or unwanted about the way his body shifted for her, how he turned to stone when he pulled her into his lap. Her fingertips dug into his back, so hard he gasped against her as she took up space as if she’d been made for him, as if they were solderedtogether.
The kiss became a dance, a pulse, and she moved against him, and there was suddenly too much space between them, too much heat, too much need...and it could not be satisfied.
Not until they?—
A growl sounded from Six.
And then a voice, like nails scraping against his senses as Kinlear spoke aloud...shattering the moment.
“Well. This is certainly an interesting sight.”
19
He had her.
And then he lost her, just like that.
He’d lied to her.
And now he would spend the rest of his life on his knees before her if he had to...begging her to forgive him, if it gave him even an inkling of a chance to get her back.
The speaking stone had gone cold, despite how many times Arawn clutched it close to his chest.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the look in her eyes. The betrayal.
The brokenness...
Because he felt, for the first time in his life...likehewas Soraya.
Like hewas the enemy.
Likehewas the one holding the blade, and it was pointed at Ezer’s chest.
He waited as long as he could. He waited until it became painful, and then he’d taken to the sword again, until Indriya came to fetch him, shouting that he’d decimate their entire force ofnomagerecruits if he continued “training” them to death.
So now... Arawn found himself pacing in the halls of the Eagle’s Nest, going over the words he wanted to say.
Ezer, my love.
Gods, it sounded ridiculous. She’d hate him for it even more than she already did.
