My breath catches, but I shove it away and pull up a sneer. “Men just want to conquer. I’m not playing hard to get so that you work extra hard. I don’t want you, Captain.”
Instead of getting pissed off, he gives me a crooked smile that nearly curls my toes. “You don’t want me?”
I sniff and lift my chin. “That’s right.”
“So then...youdon’tsit awake in your pallet at night, thinking about arguing with me just enough to get our blood heated, and then wrapping those long legs of yours around my hips and fucking me till you see stars?”
My pulse quickens. Everything he said becomes vivid pictures in my head, making my core throb.
I can’t deny it. I can’t, because I’m breathing way too hard and I know I’m blushing, and I realize that all of a sudden, I don’twantto deny it.
How the hell did I crumble so quickly?
Then, I do the stupidest thing I have ever done.
I lean up andkisshim.
I dive into his mouth like it’s holding the nectar of the Divine. He’s so shocked at first that he does nothing, but then his huge hands come to my waist, making it feel smaller than it is. His hairy beard scratches my cheeks, but instead of it being irritating or gross, it scrapes my fevered skin in this primal way that somehow makes me like it even more. I nip his piercing, lick his tongue, kiss him in a way I haven’t ever kissed anyone before.
Because thisisn’tfor my job. Thisisn’tfor coin. I’m not trying to seduce or put on a show. I’m just kissing him because I wanted to know...wanted to see.
I yank away, panting, eyes wide, wondering how the hell I could be so stupid. “That was a mistake,” I sputter out.
He laughs. Doesn’t let go of my waist. Keeps holding me there in a far softer touch than I ever would’ve expected from him. It makes me wonder what kind of lover he really is. If he’s the rough or the gentle.
“That was a damn good mistake. We should do it again sometime.”
Pulling away, I start to stumble over the bucket in my haste, but he easily catches my arm before I can fall.
“Leaving the fire so soon?” he calls, his rough voice somehow teasing.
“I’m hot enough.”
He laughs. I blush harder.
As I scurry away through the snow, inwardly kicking myself, he says, “When you’re ready for another mistake, you know where my tent is. Right next to yours.”
Stupid lout of a man.
Stupidme.
When I rush back to my tent, when I topple onto my own pallet and press my hands to my cheeks, my lips are still tingling. My heart still racing. My core still throbbing.
That was a stupid, horrible, ridiculous mistake.
And yet, all I can think is,we should do it again sometime.
CHAPTER 20
AUREN
The Grotto’s cave holds moresecret crevices than I first realized.
Because here we are, inside of one, in what Judd fondly callsthe Teeth. Judd and I squeezed through a serrated fissure from the main cave’s walls, and after a short, albeit very claustrophobic passage, it opened up into a new room—the place where the Wrath come to train.
It’s not overly large, but it has plenty of space, and the veins of fluorescence that run through the walls and ceiling are so abundant in here that the entire area glows. The ground has been covered with thick layers of half-frozen hay that crunches beneath my shoes, and there are three wooden chests stacked off to the side that Judd told me hold practice weapons.
I’m not allowed to use those yet.
