Bel clamped her eyes shut but didn’t back away from him. “I’ll ruin it. I know I will. There’s not a scrap of softness in me, Carver. Inside or out.”
He didn’t believe that—or not the way Bel thought. She might not show affection in the usual ways, but shecared. She cared so much she turned her life around and dedicated it to helping others. He was lucky to have a portion of her devotion, and maybe it made him greedy, but he wanted more.
He tilted her head up. “Open your eyes.” She did, slowly lifting a thick sweep of lashes. Her fear-drenched gaze pierced his heart. There wasn’t much Bel was afraid of, and yet the thought of them—him—filled her with dread. “I wantyou.” He finally got it, and now it seemed so clear. His brother Griffin had been destined for Cat—his fated mate. Maybe Konstantina had left him because he was nevermeantto be hers. “I don’t need or expect you to change. I know you. I’m not going into this blind. And I don’t believe for a second we’ll sail on smooth seas. You and I? We’re a storm. We’ll crash against the rocks a thousand times and still come back for more. The only question now is how you feel about me.” True, breath-shaking panic swamped him. “If all you want is friendship, then I’ll stop asking for more. We’ll go back to how it was before.” It would slowly kill him, but he’d respect her choice.
Bel met his steady gaze, her chest rising and falling, her eyes jewel-bright and wide. Hesitantly, she said, “I didn’t burn you on the beach to get you away from me. It was an accident. You startled me. I didn’t understand.”
“I know.” Carver slowly dipped his head, resting his forehead against hers. He briefly closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. Her skin was so warm. She smelled so good. “I took you by surprise. I surprised myself, to be honest. I’m sorry.”
“I was sorrier when you walked away.”
“Did you want me to kiss you?” Hope rose again in his chest.
She nodded, her forehead brushing his. “After I had a second to think about it, yes.”
Heat engulfed him. His mouth watered for her cherry lips. Words thick and gravelly, he confessed, “You’re deep in my soul. You’re the fire that brought me back to life.”
Bel wet her lips. “I think about you all the time. I ache everywhere. There’s this…tension. And heat.”
“That’s desire,” he rasped. “Kiss me, Bel. Kiss me, and I’ll take the edge off your ache.”
Her breath battered his chin as she gradually tipped up her head. Her nose slid against his cheek. The corner of her mouth touched his. Carver kept utterly still even as he went wild inside. His lips parted, their breath mingling. Their mouths hovered in the same space, and time seemed to stop.
Bel waited there for eternity and a day before slowly pressing her lips against his. The best kind of tension whipped through Carver. Relief flooded him. Sparks crackled around Bel, the little fires too quick and sudden to burn. He pressed back against her lips. Her glow intensified, the hot radiance flickering as she fought to rein in her magic. A worried sound hummed against his mouth.
“That’s it,” he praised as she cooled, allowing them to stay close. “Mind over matter.”
Her soft gust of laughter breezed over his lips. “Kissing is easier than I thought.”
Carver chuckled. Bel was exactly what he imagined she’d be—heat and vitality and a little awkward at first. “Oh, darling,thisis a kiss.”
He slid his hands into her spark-scattered hair, gently angling her head and using his mouth to coax open her lips. Bel’s breath hitched. She gripped his shoulders. Her body sank into his, and she instinctively mimicked the way he worked his mouth against hers. The scents of cooked sugar and warm cherries billowed around them, and he devoured the fragrance of her magic along with her mouth.So good. So right.His heart pounded like a thousand oars off island shores, and she softened, opened, naturally giving back. Each press of their lips stripped away caution and clumsiness, and they found a rhythm that would be just theirs, their perfect pace and pressure. Arousal sizzled throughhim like never before, and Bel moaned, leaning against him, hips to hips, chest to chest.
With three quick steps, Carver backed her against the wall. She let out a little grunt of surprise, then her eyes swept up, locking with his. She speared her hands into his hair and pulled his mouth back to hers.
Primal satisfaction roared inside Carver. There was nothing timid about her kiss, and an inferno of passion ignited so fast he reeled. He groaned against her lips. How long had he been craving this? It seemed like forever even though only being in Atlantis had made him understand. He slid his hands down her body to her waist. He tugged her against him, and her breathy sound of arousal caressed his lips as they moved together, slowly rocking their hips. Finally touching her, kissing her, telling her how he felt made him more aware than ever of the half-life he’d been living up until now, just holding his breath and waiting forthis.
Desire pulled tight inside him. His cock grew heavy and stiff. He lifted a hand to her chest and cupped her breast, gently squeezing. Bel broke their kiss with a gasp. She looked at him, magic brightening her face.
“You’re soft anywhere I could want,” he murmured, learning the feel of her modest curves. “Here.” He brushed his thumb across her nipple, and her breath rushed out in a gust. “And your lips.” He flicked his tongue against her lower lip. She swayed, her firelit hair heating up. “And here.” He rolled his hips, the evidence of his desire pressing against her lower abdomen. “You’re exactly what I want. Inside and out.”
Huskily, she said, “You’re using my own words against me.”
That throaty hitch in her voice and the feel of her strong, slim body as she pressed back made him groan out his next words, “There is no against you. We’re one.”
“One.” Bel tipped her head back against the wall, no fear in her eyes now, just desire and trust. “Yes.”
All those years of pining and brooding and faking good humor seemed so far away and unreal to him now. A waste. Or just a filler—until this. “You’re mine now. And you’re right about how I love. It’s great and undying, and I willneverlet you go.”
Green embers blazed to life in her eyes. Her tremendous power seemed to condense in her magic-charged gaze, but her question came out soft and a little hesitant as she asked, “Is this where you claim me?”
She’d always mocked the southern Sintan custom of claiming, saying it was barbaric and hardly a replacement for a traditional marriage ceremony, but now she looked intrigued. “I’ll claim you when I’m inside you,” he said, thrusting against her in a message she couldn’t miss.
Bel’s shimmering eyes turned hooded, need misting over the magic in them. “Claiming is primitive.” Breathless, she met his lips, kiss for kiss. “A tribal ritual.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “I’ll try to find some pretty words, Your Highness.”
Her gaze lifted to his. “Then we’d really be married? Husband and wife?”
