“How long was I gone?” My words are muffled against his shirt.
“Three seconds.”
“What?” I pull back to stare at him. “That’s impossible. I was there for hours.”
“Time moves differently in the Underworld.” His hands rub my arms through the jacket, and I can feel him channeling fire magic through his palms, generating warmth that seeps into my frozen bones. “Three seconds here. An eternity there.”
That’s some bullshit timeline math, but I’m too exhausted to really complain. Especially because as I study him, it hits me how much worse he looks compared to when I left. Exhausted in a way that goes beyond physical tiredness.
Like something vital was drained from him in those three seconds that felt like forever to me.
JADE
“You knew every single detail.”I study Logan’s face, noting the deeper shadows under his eyes and the gray tinge to his skin. “Every move the Harpy would make. Exactly where the rose would be.How?”
“Maybe you’re exceptionally good at following instructions.” He tries for lightness, but it falls flat.
“Don’t deflect.” The shivers are subsiding, replaced by frustration. “I trusted you completely down there. Every insane instruction. And it saved my life. But?—”
He cuts me off by kissing me, desperate and hungry, like he’s been drowning and I’m air, like he’s starving and I’m the only thing that can save him.
My hands forget about demanding answers, because all that exists is this—him, us, and the heat between us that has nothing to do with warming me up. It’s chaos, it’s surrender, it’s every fantasy I’ve had of him igniting at once.
He kisses me like he thought he’d lost me in those three seconds, like he’s still making sure I’m real and here and alive. His mouth moves against mine with bruising intensity, andwhen his tongue slides past my lips, I can’t stop the soft moan that escapes my throat.
The sound unleashes something primal in him, because his hands are sliding from my hair to my waist, pulling me flush against him until I can feel every hard line of his body. The evidence of his desire presses hot and insistent against my hip, and I arch into him, gasping at the contact.
“Jade.” My name falls from his lips like a prayer, rough and desperate, but I pull his mouth back to mine, kissing him with all the pent-up desire that’s been building between us for weeks. When his hands slide lower, gripping my thighs and lifting me until I’m perched on the edge of the altar, I wrap my legs around his waist and pull him closer, even though it isn’t anywhere near to being close enough.
He fits perfectly between my thighs, and when he rocks against me, the friction makes stars explode behind my eyelids. I gasp, clutching his shoulders, as sparks arc off my fingertips and scatter across the altar stone.
I try to pull the electricity back, but it’s already crackling across the stone in wild patterns.
“Don’t fight it,” he murmurs against my neck. “Let it flow through you, not from you.”
“That doesn’t even make sense—“ The protest dies on my lips as his mouth finds that spot below my ear, and suddenly the electricity isn’t escaping anymore. It’s flowing down through my body like he’s become my ground, channeling the storm inside me into something else entirely. Something that makes me feel powerful instead of out of control.
“How are you doing that?” I gasp, my fingers tangling in his hair.
“Don’t question it,” he says against my throat, and there’s something in his voice that makes my heart race even faster. “Just enjoy it.”
His mouth trails fire down my neck, his tongue pressing against collarbone in a way that makes more electricity dance beneath my skin. Then he lifts his head, gray eyes nearly black with desire, pupils blown so wide they’ve swallowed the storm.
For a heartbeat that stretches like eternity, I think he’s going to stop. That he’ll pull away with some noble excuse about propriety, timing, or all the reasons we shouldn’t.
So, I take matters into my own hands, hooking my leg around his waist and drawing him against me until I can feel every inch of how much he wants this.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he murmurs against my throat, but his hands are already moving, one sliding up my ribs while the other grips my hip.
My fingers tangle in his hair, holding him against me as pleasure spirals outward from every point where our skin meets. I want to burn with him until nothing exists but fire and electricity and this. But just as his hand moves to the button of my jeans, his body goes rigid, every muscle locking like he’s been struck by lightning.
“Logan?” I move back slightly, confusion cutting through the haze of desire.
But just as suddenly as he stopped, he’s sliding to his knees between my legs, strong hands spreading them wider as he pulls me to the edge of the altar. His thumbs hook in the waistband of my jeans, and he looks up at me through dark lashes, question swirling in his eyes.
“Yes,” I breathe, lifting my hips to help as he tugs the denim down my legs. The scrape of the fabric leaves my skin hypersensitive, every nerve lit like a live wire.
I want this. Ineedthis.
