Still no answer. I wasn’t finished.
“At the market today, you just stormed into my booth, and it was like…”
Like you wanted to kiss me.
I couldn’t say it. The words trembled behind my teeth. To speak them would be to cross a line I couldn’t return from.
“What’s your problem with me?” I whispered again, the plea breaking through my anger. Tears stung my eyes, thick in my throat.
He moved toward me until my back met the wall once more. Kael towered over me, shadow and storm in equal measure.
And finally, he spoke. “My problem isyou.”
The words cut cold and clean. A tear slipped down my cheek. I couldn’t trust my voice not to shatter. His eyes darkened, thunder gathering behind them, and for a single breath he only stared at me.
“My problem is that look in your doe eyes,” he finally said, voicelow, dark, threaded with something perilous. “The way your lips part when you look at me. The way your heartbeat stumbles when I’m close, too close.” His breath, warm and sharp with mint, brushed my skin. “I see every small betrayal your body makes in my presence, and it drives me insane.Youdrive me insane, Evangelina. One look at you, and?—”
I caught him by surprise, wrapping my arms around his neck. Whatever had seized me could only be called a leap of faith. I rose to my toes and pulled him in.
Instinct. Nothing more, nothing less.
He did not resist. I closed my eyes, and my lips were on his.
The shock of the kiss ran through me like lightning, setting every nerve alight. His lips were warm, impossibly so, like sunlight breaking through after centuries of darkness.
He drew a deep breath against me, as if he’d been starved of air, then leaned into the wall and into me, his presence swallowing every thought.
One of his hands found the small of my back, drawing me sharply against him. He traced the length of my spine, rising to the nape of my neck, fingers threading through my hair before he tugged, hard, to open me up to him.
His tongue, too soft and sweet for a man like him, pushed through my lips to find mine, a touch that stole the breath from my chest. Kael kissed like someone who’d mastered the language of love—measured, consuming, and dangerously precise. The rhythm deepened until it felt like the pull and crash of tides, and I was no longer steering it. He commanded the moment, and I could only yield, surrender to the hands that explored parts of my body that hadn’t been touched like that in years.
He squeezed my breast in one hand, his grip tightening until pleasure blurred with pain. The kiss turned fierce, the tenderness burned away to something raw and primal. His teeth caught my lip, and the sharp sting drew a gasp from me. The faint taste of copper mingled with the cool trace of mint.
The world tilted as he lifted me with one arm, and my fingers clung to him, holding on for dear life. My legs wound around his waist. He marked my skin with tongue and teeth, tracing down my neck, across my collarbone, then upward again over the curves of my breasts, each brand carrying me further from reason.
His free hand pushed the lavatorium door open in a rush, and he carried me inside, pressing me against the cold, polished stone before releasing me. The door closed behind us with a final click.
I found my footing again, still caught in his embrace, his chest heaving against me like a violent tide about to break.
I could feel him, his hardness and the size, pressing against my stomach.
Desire pooled between my thighs. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anyone. His scent—cedars and morning dew—wrapped around me as I lost my grip on reason beneath his kiss.
His teeth grazed the skin of my neck, tracing downward before sinking into my flesh again, harder this time, as though confessing his own undoing. And I liked it.Gods help me, I liked it, and that confirmed all my suspicions that something wasn’t quite right with me.
Or maybe it was exactly right.
He leaned forward, his hand sliding through the slit of my gown, my skin burning beneath his touch. The fabric whispered apart under his fingers, tracing the length of my thighs with a hunger barely contained.
He no longer held me; he possessed me, one strong arm anchoring me against him while the other drew fire along my skin.
And I let him. I surrendered completely, parting my legs as a sinful invitation.
A low sound rumbled from his chest, rough and primal, vibrating through me until I trembled. The world narrowed to heat and shadow as he tore my undergarments with a single flick of his hand and touched me where it burned themost.
His lips broke from mine only long enough for a ragged breath, his voice dark with strain. “Fuck, you’re so wet for me…”
His words were enough to unravel me.
