He frowns, and I realize how intently I’m staring. “What?” he says.
Heat floods my cheeks, and my embarrassment shifts into a wicked impulse. Before I can think better of it, I reach from under my cloak and press my icy fingertips to his cheek. I expect him to flinch back, to hiss at my cold touch, but he doesn’t. He freezes and then…
His lashes flutter shut.
A soft sound of contentment rumbles deep in his throat.
I snatch my hand back just as fast, my heart racing.
As he opens his eyes, a wry grin forms on his lips. He looks at me sidelong. “What? I thought you were warming your hands.”
“I was…trying to bother you.”
“You’ll have to try harder than that, sinner.”
I suppose the one benefit to my mortification is that I’m suddenly hot all over.
He angles his head, exposing his neck. “Go on. Warm yourself up.”
I hate how tempted I am. He was warm indeed, in the brief moment I touched him. So, gingerly, I press my fingers to the crook of his neck, delighting in his warmth. I can’t help wondering how much warmer his skin might be beneath his jerkin. How hard his muscles might feel under my palm. How far he’d let my hands roam beneath his shirt, over his abdomen, beneath his waistband—
Biting the inside of my cheek, I banish my imaginings and pull my hand away. Before I can get far, Dominic grabs my wrist. I don’t know what he’s about to do. Probably chastise me for having touched him, even though he’s the one who told me to. But he doesn’t. Instead, he gently tugs me closer until my hand is back where it was, palm splayed over the side of his throat, my fingertips tucked against his nape. It’s how I’d hold someone while kissing them. How I’d pull a lover closer to deepen said kiss.
Dominic meets my gaze, his lids heavy with something that looks like want.
Like the way he looked at me on the roof.
“What are you doing?” I ask in a breathy whisper.
“Cooling myself down,” he says. “Neither of us would like it if I got too hot.”
My breath hitches and I get the feeling his words hold double meaning. Not just the warmth of his skin but also the fire that has sparked between us.
A dangerous fire.
One neither of us should touch.
Because he’s a fucking Shadowbane. Loyal to the Sinless I hate, and one day fully one of them. And I am merely his servant.
Even after reminding myself of this, the heat between us doesn’tcool. It only rises until a sizzling ember shapes my bold reply. “Is that so? What would happen if you…got too hot?”
His voice is thick as he answers. “We’d both catch fire.”
My breaths turn shallow. I let my thumb drift over his neck, a subtle motion that has his skin prickling into gooseflesh beneath my touch. I watch with satisfaction as his throat bobs, and I get the sharpest urge to grab him by the collar and pull him into a kiss. A kiss of hatred and desire. We’d both be set aflame, just like he said. I’d be helpless to the burn, aching beneath those rising flames until I couldn’t take it anymore. Until Ineededmore. Then I would throw one leg over his lap, straddling him, riding him until the need between my legs was finally sated—
A sound nearly escapes my lips. Whether a sigh or a moan I don’t find out, instead shifting it into a cough. I clear the lust from my throat and the fantasies from my mind. When I remove my hand, he makes no move to pull me back to him. “You’re right,” I say. “Neither of us would want that.”
“Neither of us,” he agrees, and shifts his eyes back to the road. I dare not look at him, afraid of what I’ll see; disappointment or relief would be equally unwelcome.
My hands feel chilly after the heat of Dominic’s skin, so I tuck them beneath my cloak.
“I’ll keep you warm,” Sloth says, his head once again in my lap, shadowy tail wagging off the edge of the footrest. He’s a welcome distraction while I gather my composure.
“I can too, love,” Lust says as a phantom arm drapes over my shoulder. His form coalesces between me and Dominic, a seductive grin on his lips. His likeness to the Shadowbane is so convincing it compromises all my efforts to regain my senses.
“I’m fine right where I am,” says a grumpier voice. Pride appears on Dominic’s other side, arms folded over his semitransparent chest. I’m grateful for his grounding presence, as haughty and aloof as he is. I can always count on him to keep his distance. “Though I’ll consider keeping you company if you ask nicely.”
I huff a laugh, then realize my mistake as Dominic’s eyes shoot to mine.
