“Because I needed you!” I cry. “I needed you and you weren’t there!”
Notus goes still.
My gasps ricochet in the enclosed space. I don’t know how we arrived here, with our knives locked and our past tinging the air in sour memories, but as our eyes catch and hold, the South Wind shoves me back. My spine hits the shelves. Something rattles loose as his hot, hungry tongue parts my mouth.
I moan, loud and long and full of want. Here, now, the transgressions of our past matter not. We are two bodies colliding in darkness, two pairs of fumbling hands, two mouths and two hearts fused. I despise him and ache for him, scorn him and fear him and hunger for him, hunger for this: the South Wind’s anchoring presence, the security of his arms, the gentle pressure of his touch.
But there is no gentleness now. The darkness breeds hunger, cravings so acute I feel my very bones bend beneath its force. The South Windhas plastered himself fully against me, hands framing my face to stabilize my head as he steals every sharp-edged word from my mouth, every pointed insult, every scathing remark and daggered affront. He seeks to conquer me, but I will not go willingly. I eat at his mouth as he eats at mine, with thrusting tongues and vicious teeth, every pained groan drawn from his throat a spoil of war.
In this moment, Notus is mine, his body my realm. It has been long since I’ve explored its topography, but my hands remember, mapping the taut muscles and brute strength, the long line of his thighs leading to his abdomen, chest, shoulders, neck. Then down, sliding along his lower back, the taut globes of his backside gripped firmly in hand.
The wooden shelving at my back creaks as Notus rocks his hips forward. The length of his erection presses between my thighs, and I shudder, widening my stance so his cock nestles against the part of me that aches. The pleasure is mind-numbing, drenched in delirium. How could I have forgotten what it felt like to burn on a fuse before him?
A delicious sigh vibrates in my throat as I grind slowly against him. It’s not fair that he should feel so irresistible when I have done everything in my power to maintain distance. Too easily, I have been dragged into the South Wind’s undertow. I do not fight the pull.
With a pained groan, Notus rips his mouth free, stumbling back into the opposite wall. A stack of sheets falls onto his shoulders.
I can’t catch my breath. My knees wobble, and I fear they will collapse beneath me, unable to bear my weight.
“I apologize,” he whispers. “That was out of line. I—” Yet his voice dies. He hasn’t the words.
The glitter of Notus’ black eyes holds me in thrall. In the gloom, my gaze slips to the soft smudge of his parted mouth, the tongue that I have often dreamed of, despite my best attempts to push it from my mind.
Here is what I know. Desire is an animal. For years, it paced its cage. I did not feed it, not at first. Hungrier the beast grew. It crowded its pen. It knocked against the walls, the door, until it at last tore free.
Reaching out, I snag the front of his robe, haul him back, chestto chest and groin to groin. “Stop talking,” I murmur, then crush my mouth to his.
He tugs my hair loose of its binding. The tresses fall free, and he slides the locks between his fingers, grazing my scalp with a delicious roughness that draws my nipples to peaks beneath my gown. I whimper. My spine curves, pushing me flush against his frame. The air dampens with the rising perspiration of two shadows entwined.
A low, throaty purr cascades out of me. I claw at his clothes, eager for his long, hardened shaft to enter my core. One of my legs curls around the back of his thigh in an attempt to drag him closer. He relents, hitching me into his arms. My legs wrap his waist as he braces me against the shelves. Something tumbles from overhead and shatters.
Arms wrapped around his neck, I tuck my face beneath his jaw and suck the heated skin there. The South Wind is pure, untapped power. It charges the surrounding air into static. His hips roll with leashed aggression, rutting against me as tension coils white-hot beneath my skin.
“Sarai…” Notus pushes harder against me, and I spread my legs wider. Delicious friction, unbearable heat. They twine into the tightest of knots.
And that has always been the problem, he and I. Our bodies fall into sync, into melody and countermelody. It is easy to forget what came before, his sudden departure. But that is what I fear most: that I will forget. That I will let him in. And then he’ll leave. Maybe not now, but someday. Ammara is not his home. What reason has he to stay?
I break the kiss, my breathing ragged. “Put me down. Please.”
He does so immediately.
I angle away from him, clutching the shelving with all the strength I possess. Collapsing into a puddle of emotion simply will not do.
“Are you all right?” Notus asks quietly.
“I’m fine.”
“Clearly.”
I cut him a glare. When Notus steps closer, my palm flies up, halting him. “This was a mistake,” I say.
He stares at me. His lips are swollen, color reddening his cheeks. “The engagement?”
I grit my teeth. He is being willfully obtuse. “The kiss.”
“I see.” His unhurried response rolls forth with aggravating contemplation. “Because you desire me.”
I practically choke on my own tongue. “Because you took advantage of me.”
