“It is time for a fresh start. Here, you could be at my feet. My treasured pet. A queen of her kind. You’d fill the role so perfectly…”
She could still hear the teasing in his voice, marveled at the blasé way he spoke about killing akingand taking the power for himself. She wondered how much of it was true, if any. How much of it was him dreaming. Despite the myths, fae could lie, even to themselves.
He chuckled darkly. “True enough,” he said in answer to her thoughts, his hot breath dusting her as helowered his head to beside her neck. “We all dream, do we not? Me of getting out of this suffocating, demeaning position, and you of one day fitting in. Of one day not having to constantly look over your shoulder, worried that someone stronger, more powerful—which is everyone in your life—will finally cast you out of this life in which you do not belong. I see your struggles. I feel your pain. I am not the only one lying to myself, am I?”
Something dark and raw opened up inside her. She had never before voiced those thoughts. Never before given light to them. Hated that Zorn might hear them through the comms now. There was no point in thinking like that. Her family was magical. It didn’t matter that she was not. Despite her situation, she would always stay with them, danger or no. Looking over her shoulder all the time or not. Their love was worth any price.
But yes, she had to admit, it was exhausting constantly being vigilant. Never really belonging, even within her home. Always being different.
“I know,” he whispered, and in that heartbeat, she believed him. Truly. Heard his own pain. His heartfelt understanding. She felt heard even though she’d never uttered a word. She feltseen.
He laid a hot kiss at the base of her neck, and her body exploded in pleasure. She struck forward with the knife without meaning to. The blade dug into hisside about an inch. He groaned as though it were foreplay.
“Equilas, help me,” he breathed. “You taste…divine.”
He kissed her again, dragging his lips up her neck. His tongue left a trail of heat that seared her flesh until his lips were looming over hers, until he shared her breath. Heat and magic pulsed around them. Desire and attraction, and that new understanding, that new parallel between them, hung heavy in the air.
Her breath came in shallow pants, and she couldn’t hold herself back. She leaned forward, needing those lips. Wanting his kiss. Just this once. Just right now. She could collect herself later and reassemble her thick steel walls, but in this moment, she needed to give in to this incredible ache.
He angled at the last instant, though, and she connected with his jaw. The knife tinkled as it hit the floor, and she fisted his lapels to drag him closer. He complied, and it was her turn to kiss the scorching skin on his neck. To taste his fevered flesh, like daffodils and sunshine, spun honey and morning dew. Her groan was every bit as tortured as his had been. His mind was probably every bit as confused, as delirious, as unapologetic as she reveled in the unquenchable pleasure.
“You should stop,” he panted, his hands braced against the wall, his chest heaving.
“Why?” She ran her palms upward, one stoppingat his collarbone and the other tangling into his hair. Time slowed. Their lips aligned.
“This craving… It is almost unbearable,” he murmured. A little louder: “If I take this kiss, I will own it. No one else will taste your lips, or delight in the gratification of your kiss, without being killed for the pleasure. These”—his nose brushed against hers as he cut the distance between their lips in half—“will forever”—her eyes closed—“be mine.”
She pulled him to her. She needed this. Craved it. Couldn’t live without it. Existing without the feel of his lipswasunbearable. Unimaginable. She needed it like she needed air to breathe. Food to nourish. She needed it as though it were life.
His lips crashed into hers. She moaned as his magnificent body pushed her hard against the wall. His head tilted, and his lips slotted into hers like a puzzle piece. Electricity and adrenaline surged, pounding between them. It crackled against her skin, like his magic had done to the air not long before. Seeped in through her pores and electrified her blood.
His large hands cupped the edges of her jaw delicately, his thumbs rubbing gently. He pulled back slightly, and his eyes roamed her face once more. “You are so fucking beautiful. The pleasure is so sharp that it almost pains me to look upon your face.”
He sucked in her bottom lip again before switching to her top lip playfully. He ran his tongue against theseam of her mouth, asking for deeper admittance. She opened to him eagerly. Desperately.
Emotions overwhelmed her—desire, longing, the feeling of belonging in a way that had been completely foreign to her until now. It felt as if time stood still. They existed in a bubble of intimacy that excluded the outside world.
His hands started to shake where they held her. The kiss deepened until she was lost within it. His tongue swept through and tangled with hers, a dance of erotic tension. Of soul-clenching passion. Her body ached for him to fill it. To become one with her.
“Enough,” he murmured against her lips.
She felt glued to him, afraid to let him go. This feelinghadto be magic. But whose?
He ripped his hands away and pressed them against the wall on either side of her head. “Daisy, we must stop. I’m losing what’s left of my shaky control.”
He didn’t listen to himself, capturing her lips and thrusting his tongue in. She lifted her knee to hook around his hip. He ground his hardness against her. She moaned at how good it felt. This small moment, clothes intact, none of their secret places explored, felt ten times better than anything she’d yet experienced.
“A kiss is enough,” he said, as though begging for forgiveness. “I cannot take more from you. I will not. Not now.”
“Take it all,” she begged, past reason.
He wavered, pushing against her again, dragging another moan from deep in her throat.
“No.” He yanked his head back, sucking in a deep breath. Rivers of liquid gold sped around his pupils, nearly covering all the vivid green. The point of his ear peeked through his tousled hair, and for some reason, the “otherness” of that fanned the flame. His body was tense, as though he were in great pain. “No.” He pushed himself farther away, his eyes squeezed tight. Fighting the desire, she knew.
She watched him, breathless, her chest heaving and her lips tingling and swollen from his fervor. Her back pressed against the wall behind her as if that alone were holding her up. She’d never received a kiss like that, had never felt like this, and wasn’t sure what to do with it. With him, her enemy. The danger of the realm.
His eyes leisurely came back to hers, the passion within them burning. His gaze stamped her parted lips.
