“Then we fall together,” he murmured, pressing his thumb into my pulse as he brought his lips to mine.
I gasped against his mouth and instantly parted for him, bringing my hands around his upper arms to pull him in. I pushed onto my toes until my chest met his, and I could feel his thundering heart. His tongue slid along mine as his hand weaved to the base of my skull and his fingers tangled in my hair with bruising, desperate force.
He tasted like every kind of desire I wasn’t supposed to have. Sweet and fresh and free with a jagged edge begging for me to cut myself on, to bleed out the reasons this would never work until all that was left was us.
Rissa and Thorne.
For a moment, I let myselftake.
I trailed my fingers down the drenched fabric of his shirt, feeling corded muscle flex at my touch. My hands made their way to his hard chest where the ridges of four claw marks strained against his shirt. I sucked in a breath and broke the kiss. My fingers trembled as I took in the faint outline of the scars beneath the wet material.
“It’s my fault,” I whispered.
He gripped my wrists. “I will gladly bear your mark, Clarissa. It’s a part of me, as you always will be.”
I swallowed and slowly rested my palms on the top of his chest, looking back up at him. His other hand fell to the small of my back while he angled my face and brought my lips to meet his again, moving urgently against me. Feverishly. As if he knew this dream would have to come to an end soon.
He was everywhere. His hands, his fingers, his scent. He clung to me the way our wet clothes clung to our skin until I couldn’t tell where I stopped and he began.
Breaking away, he traced a path of fire with his lips on my neck, his rough beard biting into the sensitive skin. A moan slipped from my throat as my head fell back to the rock wall.
“I’ve been dreaming of this since the day I met you,” he said, lips fluttering against me with every word.
“Then we’ve come full circle,” I said with a breathless laugh. “What did you call me? A wet, feral cat?”
He pulled back slightly to gaze down at me, my hands still pinned between us. “You are the most stunning creature I’ve ever seen, Clarissa.” Kissing my forehead, he then lowered his face to brush his nose against mine, his words pouring over me like hot oil.
“It doesn’t matter where you are. Soaking wet and spitting fire, running through a field as your fox, or hugging my daughter with flowers in your hair.” His fingers swept a strand of hair behind my ear, and unexpected tears burned the backs of my eyes. “Because it’syou. And all of it is beautiful. All of it is powerful and captivating andgood.”
A tear fell down my cheek, my heart swelling with so many strong emotions I typically tried to hide. But that was his point, wasn’t it? I didn’t have to hide them from him. I didn’t have to pretend to be the perfectly poised empress, always in control, always calm and collected. As if there wasn’t a wild, untamed fox usually bursting beneath my skin. He’d seen that side of me, the side that made people turn away in horror or disgust, and he thought it was beautiful.
He thought it wasgood.
“Please don’t cry,” he whispered, kissing away the tear rolling toward my chin.
I raised myself up to burrow my face in his neck, unable to bear the thoughts and feelings swirling like a storm inside me with no outlet, no way to shift and let them be free.
“It’s not fair,” I said quietly. I closed my eyes and inhaled him, the scent of sweet grass and leather and river water and warmth.
Would he ever hold me like this again?
Wouldanyone?
“To find you, to findthis, and have it ripped away. It’s not fair,” I repeated.
His heart beat beneath my palms, and I could feel how much he wanted this. How much it pained him too. With every heavy breath, every wave of heat rolling between us, my hopelessness morphed into frantic need. My entire body ached to be closer to him. To make up for all those hours I’d spent keeping my distance, forcing my gaze away and clenching my fingers to my side.
I turned my neck until my lips grazed his skin. When I pressed a kiss below his ear and let my tongue flick against him, he let out a low hiss, gripping my waist tighter.
“Lie to me, Empress,” he rasped. “Tell me none of this is real.” His thumb brushed right above my hip, making my breath hitch. “Tell me you haven’t thought of me every night as I have you. Tell me it won’t hurt to watch you walk back tohim.”
“This isn’t real,” I breathed into him as I wound my arms around his neck, kissing the column of his throat. “I never think of you.” I skimmed my lips up the other side of his jaw. “And if this is pain…then let it come. I’d rather feel this than nothing at all.”
He silenced me with another punishing kiss, his lips and tongue and teeth devouring me like a starved man. When he tugged on my thighs, I jumped to wrap my legs around his waist and slid my fingers into his hair, exploring every inch of him I could reach.
“I loathe you,” I said into his kiss, pulse pounding and fire spreading down my spine.
“And I loathe you,” he repeated back to me in a growl.
