‘Oh, for fuck’s sake.’ I groan. ‘And will you stop looking at him? He’ll notice.’
‘Too late,’ she mutters. ‘He’s walking over.’
Heat rolls into me at the thought, and when I speak, my voice is a little too high. ‘Gods, Llinos. Seriously?’
My back is currently to Kyor, and I try to keep it that way, continuing to strike at Llinos’s sword. But I don’t need to turn around to know when he’s there. My body can sense him. It’s a prickle on my skin and the clenching of my pulse. It’s like the very air wants me aware of his presence. Slowly, I turn around.
‘I’ll take over here,’ he growls at Llin.
‘She’s all yours,’ Llinos says with a smile. Traitor.
‘You want to fight?’ I ask.
‘You didn’t come this morning,’ he says, voice low. ‘Don’t trust yourself to be alone with me, Thorn?’
I swallow and lift my chin. ‘Of course I do.’
‘Good, then I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m not done making a warrior of you yet. Now, let’s make up for your absence this morning. No holds barred,’ he murmurs silkily. ‘Unless you’re going to turn me down. Again.’
From the sudden coughing fit to my left, it’s fair to assume Llinos has heard every word.
‘Iknewsomething happened,’ she mutters, confirming my suspicion, but I don’t even glance in her direction. My gaze is locked on Kyor. On those blue eyes that have filled my thoughts way more than I want to admit.
No holds barred? Though he’s been training me in movements and stamina, in a true fight with him, he’d kick my arse effortlessly. ‘We both know you’re going to have me on my back in seconds,’ I respond, only for his lips to twist into a wicked grin.
‘Wasn’t that easy last time, was it?’ he replies. ‘Maybe this time I’ll get lucky.’
His every word is deliberate, taunting me, teasing me. I try to act unaffected, but my damn body is betraying the effect he has on me. The hitch in my breath. The tightening around my thighs. I just pray to Etta that his powers don’t allow him to see it.
‘I’ll make it real simple,’ he says. ‘All you have to do is draw blood. And I don’t care what part of your body you use to do it.’
He presses a finger to his bottom lip, instinctively drawing my eyes to it.
Fuck, this is torture. Not just because I’m about to get my arse handed to me, but also because there’s no denying how much part of me wants him to drive into me in a very different manner.
Still, I chuck the sword I was using to the side and unsheathe the daggers in my belt. If he wants to get close to me, then we’ll get close.
‘Your favourites. Good.’ He flashes me that smirk again before taking a few steps back and kicking off his shoes so he’s standing barefoot in the sand.
‘Why do you do that?’ I ask, curiosity getting the better of me. ‘Why fight barefoot? You’re more likely to injure yourself.’
‘No, I’m not.’ He presses his lips together. ‘Conductivity.’ His voice is nearly a whisper. ‘The earth’s charge is much easier to control when I know the terrain. And having control of static lets me do things like this.’ A prickle starts at the top of my neck, small at first, but then it grows, heating up as it slides downwards, tracing across my collarbone before splitting. Dipping. Trailing lines across my breasts before cascadingfurther still. I can’t help but gasp, though the smugly satisfied smirk it elicits from him makes me wish I could have at least pretended to be unaffected.
He bends closer, his breath a hot whisper on the curve of my neck, making me shudder all over again. ‘Just so you know, Thorn, if you liked that, there’s much more to come.’
I swallow hard. We need to start this fight so that it’s over and done with as quickly as possible.
I step away from him, and the minute I move, the static on my skin stops. His eyes take on a whole new glimmer. Speed is possibly the only thing I have on him, but only for very short distances as I’m certain his stamina is better than mine. I wish that thought didn’t evoke an array of distracting dirty images in my mind.
With my dagger in hand, I lunge forward so clumsily he barely has to sidestep.
‘Fuck,’ I mutter. One nick, that’s all I need to make, and his entire bare chest is open to me. But it almost feels sacrilegious to inflict any wound on a body like his, especially when it’s clearly been exposed to enough pain already. No matter how good a shape he’s in, wounds take time to heal.
I keep my distance, sweeping my feet in a constant arc that stops us from getting too close and moving in one direction and then the next. As he takes a step towards me, I move back by an equal distance. It’s like there’s an invisible barrier that won’t let him get any closer to me. Or perhaps that’s just my common sense finally intervening.
‘Are we going to dance like this all day?’ he purrs, his voice sending a quake down into the depths of my bones. ‘You’ll never get rid of me this way.’
‘I’m just biding my time,’ I growl back, my voice almost as low as his in an attempt to disguise the twist in the pit of my stomach.
