My nails lightly grazed his scalp, and he leaned into it like a cat. I moved up and down his neck, tracing the thick ropes of muscle, the faint patterns of runes that sparked.
He sucked in his bottom lip, and suddenly I wanted to do more than touch. I needed to get closer. To press my mouth to his and taste the danger I shouldn’t want. The kiss in the forest had made me desperate and wild, and I’d never experienced anything like it.
I wanted to feel it again and understand what this was. Why his touch made my skin hum. Why being close to him felt dangerous and irresistible. What would happen if I kissed him now? Would that devastating heat crash through me again?
I had to know.
Kairos’s eyes were still closed.
My heart hammered as I leaned in. The space between us narrowed, and then my lips brushed his clumsily, catching the corner of his mouth. His eyes flew open, the pupils blown wide.
I pulled back, breathless. “Sorry.”
“Do it again.”
His command roared inside me like a fever.
This time I didn’t miss. His lips were warm and salty. When I tugged him closer, a sound broke in his throat. Then his mouth opened against mine and everything shattered.
A delirious excitement spread through me, tightening my nipples into raw points. His tongue. It pushed at the seam of my lips, forcing inside my mouth, the possession making me whimper. He grabbed my waist, yanking me against his chest.
I couldn’t get close enough. Couldn’t think past the taste of him, the press of his firm mouth.
I caught his tongue and sucked on it. A growl built inside him, rumbling through his chest, into my body until it vibrated between my legs. My mouth slammed into his, and I savored every stroke of his tongue, shaking like I hadn’t eaten in days and his kisses were small bites.
More.
I ripped open his shirt. My hand found bare skin—hot, solid muscle—and I groped his chest. His mouth was everywhere, wet and demanding, and when I grazed his runes, sparks crackled.
I winced. “Oh gods. Did I hurt you?”
Kairos shoved me down. His weight crushed me to the floor, and his eyes were completely black. His mouth moved to my throat, his teeth scraping me.
“You think your little hands could hurt me?”
I tried to reach for him, to feel the strength of him under my palms, but his mist circled my wrists and bound them tight above my head. The more I pulled, the tighter it held.
“Stay still.”
His command rippled through me like dark honey. I nodded, my breaths coming in shallow gasps. The mist binding me loosened slightly. When I didn’t move, his mouth curved.
“Good girl.”
Heat pooled low in my belly, and I bit back a whimper.
His fingers traced the column of my throat, feather-light, maddeningly slow. “I want to learn every place that makes you tremble.” He wandered lower, skimming my collarbone. “Every sound you make when I touch you.”
I whimpered.
He grinned wickedly. “You make the sweetest sounds when you’re trying to behave.”
My protest died as his hand slid up my calf, finding the hem of my shift. His palm scorched against my bare skin.
He traced lazy, torturous patterns along my inner thigh, laughing. “You’re squirming already, my princess.”
I hadn’t realized I was, but my hips shifted against the stone, thighs pressing together.
“That’s not fair,” I gasped.
