His lips crushed against hers, hard and unyielding. His tongue soon followed, demanding entrance. When she didn’t immediately yield, sharp teeth found her bottom lip. She thought she tasted blood after the bite, but for some reason that only made her desire burn hotter. She swayed with the weight of that desire, and his hand was against her hip in the next instant, holding her with a strong grip, guiding her back against the wall.
Her eyes fluttered shut. Pinpricks of light swam in the darkness before her. This felt different from the gentle, slow kiss they’d shared by the river. It felt darker. Hungrier. As if his day had been full of dangerous, poisonous things, and he thought that kissing her deeply enough might cure him of those poisons—or at least help him endure it.
She was dizzy by the time he finally pulled back.
She reached up and pressed a hand against his cheek. Partly to brace herself. Partly because she wanted to feel the rough stubble of his jaw, the strong, sharp lines of his face.
Hewantedher, he’d said.
And though he’d claimed he didn’t need to prove this, it had certainly felt like that last kiss was trying to prove something.
She wanted him to do it again. To prove it over and over, until she believed in it completely. Until she was confident enough that they couldn’t,wouldn’tbe shattered by that ugly truth she needed to tell.
“No more running off to take care of any other businesstonight,” she said.
“I’m a busy man,” he countered. “If you intend to keep me here, I will need to do somethingproductive, at least.” His eyes danced with wicked intent. “So whatbusinessshall we tend to?”
She ran her tongue across her suddenly dry lips. “Take off your coat.”
He did as he was told, tossing it onto a nearby chair. And he didn’t stop with the coat. His eyes stayed locked with hers as he slowly, deliberately unbuttoned his shirt and then shrugged it away, revealing hard ridges of muscle that she longed to touch.
He could see that longing in her gaze, judging by the smirk that played across his lips.
He didn’t tease her any further.
He stepped forward and claimed her lips with his own once more, and while his tongue explored the soft shape of her mouth, her hands explored the firm lines of his stomach. Her fingertips traced lower and lower. He moaned into the kiss, deepened it as he found the ribbon at the nape of her neck, the flimsy tie that was holding her shirt in place.
He untied it.
The shirt slipped down, the soft material pooling at her breasts. His mouth moved to the newly-exposed skin, kissing a trail along her shoulder, up the curve of her neck, pausing to nibble on her earlobe.
She was braced against the wall, but even so, she felt as if she might crumple to the ground if he kept moving his lips across her ear like that.
He lifted her off her feet before she could.
He carried her to the bed. Laid her down and then hesitated at the edge of the mattress, worshipping her with his eyes rather than his lips and tongue for a moment. Giving her a chance to reject him, maybe.
She should have rejected him.
She didn’t.
That raging storm inside of her…it was back again. It kept her moving. Searching. Seeking shelter within his embrace. It made her reach for him, and then pull him closer when he took her hand. His pine forest scent enveloped her, and the weight of him settling, sinking her deeper into the mattress made her feel safe. Protected.Wanted.
He kissed her again, and what little bit of space existed between them sparked with sudden, magical heat.
Sun magic is life-sustaining, protective, warming…
She inhaled sharply at the memory of his words, at the unwelcome reminder of this magic that was so incompatible with her own.
He stopped kissing her. Braced his hands on the sheets beside her and drew back—though he didn’t go far. His mouth hovered just inches above her own as he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I just…”
I just need to tell you the truth.
She exhaled a slow, shuddering breath. She meant to exhale more words with it. But she was a coward in the end, and she said nothing.
He leaned a little farther back. Studied her for a moment. “You don’t have to rush into this,” he said. “I know the whispers and stares of our court have bothered you, but they make no difference to me. We can wait. On this, on the wedding—on all of it.”
