Her usual fire stoked to life, and she turned with a glare. “Hardly, this is just—it’s nothing.” Her chin lifted as she looked away, refusing to look at his beautiful face.
Aidan’s hand brushed over her chest, teasing her nipple, while the other traced light, careless shapes on the warmth between her thighs. “Is this what you think platonic co-rulers do?”
He was using that voice again.
“If they want to,” she gritted out, doing her best to ignore the tantalizing sensations of his gods-cursed hands.
“Mmm,” the sound rumbled against her bare back. “So you’re not impatient then, and this is strictly platonic?”
A single finger swept lower, dipping into her liquid heat, sliding right where she wanted him for the briefest of touches before his palm pressed firmly against her, and a soft mewl slipped out against her best efforts to contain it.
“Yes.” Her hands gripped against his thighs now as she leaned back into him. “Very platonic. Has to be.”
The sweet pressure of his palm paused, both hands gliding up her ribs to cup her breasts. His fingers expertly grazed and pinched until her chest was heaving and she was biting against the muscle of his arm, wishing he would give her what she wanted.But then he stopped, leaving her writhing as his strokes became silky over her stomach.
“Tell me why it has to be.” His voice was practically guttural, the sound reaching inside her and making her pant.
Ankle long forgotten, she made to turn, but she was immediately held in place with one arm banded around her waist and the other collaring the edge of her throat.
“Answer me.” His mouth moved like fire down her neck, his other hand finally hovering over where she wanted it again.
Frustration built within her. “Why won’t you touch me?” she rasped, unused to not being able to control a situation such as this.
He put the barest pressure on her throat, and she melted, her head fuzzing with pleasure. “Iamtouching you, Thorn. Now tell me why I can’t love you while I fuck you. Tell me why I can’t love you while you rule beside me. Tell me why the idea of my devotion makes you want to run.”
Her eyes flew open, stomach clenching. “Because—” Her words cut off as she choked on them.
“Tell me,” he demanded.
Worked to a frenzy, her emotions eluded her usual guard. “Because you’re the one man I should never touch while somehow also being too good for me. What does it say if I allow this? You’re the god who ruined my life.” Her face burned now, but not for the same pleasant reasons as only moments ago.
She was smart. She was cunning and even brave. But she had also been selfish and the reason for so many horrible deaths. She had been born cursed and treated as such for over twenty years. A few weeks of Aidan’s stable presence wasn’t going to unearth and heal all the beliefs buried in her. She’d barely started to believe she deserved to be alive—something like love wasn’t for her.
And worst of all, shedidwant him. She wanted to bathe in what he was pouring out. She was terrible enough to want the person who had caused destruction to sweep through her home.Destruction that was about to steal the life of her sister and possibly reach its hands out through her whole world.
His arms wrapped around her, holding her body tight against him, voice rich and deep. “I’ve watched you for years, and I sawnothingthat would change how I feel now. Hard lives make for hard decisions, and you never once made yours without bearing the cost. You carry every life lost somewhere within you as if it will pay penance, but there is no penance. There’s only now, andnowI see a woman doing her best to grow and change after a lifetime of being hunted and coerced without anyone showing her the way.”
His fingers tightened and then slowly released as he loosened his hold on her. “I can only swear to spend the rest of my immortal life atoning for what I’ve done if you’ll let me, but I understand why that isn’t enough.”
The promise crashed against her, bold and blunt and terribly unashamed in its honesty. Her hands gripped his thighs again before uselessly wiping at the lone tears leaking free.
“You can’t possibly love someone just like that, Aidan. It’s too fast, and you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
The soothing, melodic tone she’d once been so enraptured with returned to his voice. “I will decide who I love and what promises I am capable of keeping. I only ask that you keep letting me in.”
The hot water lapped up over her. “I think I have been,” she whispered, afraid to say it aloud.
“And you’ve been doing it so well,” he returned, moving her wet hair away from her shoulder with a kiss.
She hiccuped a laugh. “No, I haven’t. I left you a note and could have died.”
He buried his face in the crook of her neck, smothering a rough, pained laugh. “Not wise to remind me of your bad behavior right now.” His teeth sank into her skin in reprimand, and the slow simmer of want and need surged within her all too easily.
Her breath hitched as he sent his hands down to the creases of her hips. “Tell me again.”
She closed her eyes as his fingers squeezed her thighs, and she ground against him. “Tell you what?” Breathless, her voice floated.
“Tell me yes,” he growled.
