Yet, the space felt smaller. Too small.
His eyes were cast outside, arms crossed over his chest. Sera tried to focus on the window, but her gaze kept returning to his profile. To the sharp lines of his face and the points of his ears.
Dread piled onto her shoulders. This was too much pressure. What if she fucked it up?
Sera’s forte was screwing up. It was in her nature. And there was the very real chance that Kieran was actually a decent person. A decent person who, for some reason, was attracted to her despite seeing sides of her she normally managed to hide. But Gideon was right. It was all there. In the feeling of his kiss, in how hard he tried to avoid touching her, in so many little, invisible gestures that all led her to believe that if she wanted it, if she truly went for it, there was a chance for something real with him.
Her heart squeezed, stomach dropping like the floor had given out.
He was gorgeous, decent, and stable. He was way more than a girl like her could ever dream of catching. Her own list of qualifications was rather pathetic by comparison.
Sera closed her eyes. She couldn’t stop thinking about his hands on her skin. About the way his kiss thrilled and enchanted like it was her first. How did she ever top a kiss like that?
Somehow, Sera had started to lift Kieran onto a pedestal that she feared there was no way to reach. None of the potential nonsense about humans and fae bothered her nearly as much as the singular idea that she wasn’t worthy. And even if he decided to overlook that she was inferior in every way, then it was only a matter of time before she fucked it all up anyway.
If Kieran North returned her torment, if Gideon was right and there was true affection starting to grow, then…
Then she was in real fucking trouble.
Chapter Nine
Kieransatinhisoffice. Or, prison, was more apt under recent circumstances. He had never felt trapped by the confines of these walls before. Usually, it was his own studious nature and desire to do his job thoroughly that kept him locked inside his office for most of his workday. Now, it was to avoid what awaited outside the door.
Or, rather, who.
Seraphina.
Fight as he did to resist seeking her out or worse—initiating a round of her Game where he would welcome her defeat if just to hear her moan once more—his control of the situation was crumbling. Yet, he knew the risks of attachment to her. He had only to think of the loss of his siblings to fear the outcome more than he wanted to indulge the desire.
Days passed and Kieran was no closer to ending his torment.
Assuming Harrow delivered the message as promised, then Wraith’s next move would, potentially, be to investigate the claims. Wraith was from a world where loyalty wouldn’t beshifted on the word of strangers. He may need to look into Cole’s intentions himself and then he would have to determine what was to be done. If his reputation was any indication, then Cole was not likely to survive.
The shadow had dissipated yesterday. A sign that Wraith had intervened in Cole's plan? It was hard to say, but that seemed the most likely explanation. The loss of shadow was not the relief he suspected.
It was only through practiced willpower that he could still see it at all, but now he was left wondering, guessing.
He had not slipped in maintaining his distance from Sera in the days since meeting with Harrow. When she had started to panic outside her brother’s home, the restraint that stilled his hand had been physically painful. The urge to soothe her fears, to reach out and brush the hair from her face, had nearly killed him. Thankfully, his words worked well enough to ease her breathing and pull her back to the present.
But it was a close call all the same. Too close. He was well past any inclinations that he could solve this intense longing for her physically by allowing himself to touch her or…
He closed his eyes.Ninety-eight. Ninety-seven.
His subconscious had managed to temper nearly all of the suffocating guilt that surfaced whenever his thoughts returned to their kiss. Each time he relived the moment it was harder to recall why he had fled. Instead, when his mind returned to that room it was not to remind him how wrong he had been, but to plague him with memories of her taste, her warmth, the excitement and pleasure.
What’s done is done, but you can’t deny she liked it.
He refused to listen.
She’s an adult. If she truly felt the victim she would tell you.
No.
Imagine how she would feel intimately, wrapped around you, begging you to taste every inch of almond scented skin.
Enough. It was not that simple. He couldn’t let himself succumb to this weakness, because Sera tempted more than just his body.
Had he merely needed to refrain from pleasuring her senseless, then the task might have been bearable, or at the very least easily attainable. Sera seemed to be shutting him out as well, throwing pointed comments at him at every opportunity. No, if this was only lust then he would not be on the verge of losing all shreds of control.
