I was gifted with darkness.
Please,Merrick echoed in what was now my mind, distant enough I could barely hear him.She saw it happen! Don’t ruin this. Be kind. Be…me.
There was no chance of that, not unless…
Only now did I hear my sly, calculating, and exceedingly clever wildfire who, like on the ship, had chosen to arrive by unconventional means. No storming the door for this woman. In every situation, she blazed a new path.
It was all I could do to keep the feral smile off my face, to act natural, to pretend that I didn’t know she was watching, seeing what we needed her to discover.
But then scrapes and shuffles drifted from the open window as she retreated.
Surely she wasn’t leaving already? Not when she’d finally learned what we’d been desperate to share but could not tell her.
How I longed for release from this relentless grip of tension squeezing the last wisps of sanity from my mind. I hovered on restraint's edge, subject to the whims of one woman.
One exquisite, perfect wildfire of a woman.
Ah, there she was again, creeping up and through the window. I should’ve known Reyla would not run, not even from this. She challenged everything with all she was and would ever be, and she would not turn away from this—fromus.
I turned to face the mirror, giving the impression I was staring at my reflection while, instead, I watched her every move in the glass.
The pad of her footsteps rippled toward me.
Nearly time.
Never time.
Now.
I spun to face her.
As she shrieked and gouged her blade toward my heart, Isnapped out my hand and bound my fingers around her wrist, bringing her plunge to a halt.
The sharp tip poked my chest, drawing one droplet of blood. A growl ripped up my throat.
While she snarled and kicked, trying to knock me off my feet, I wrangled the blade from her hand. I flung it aside and stole the other, shooting it out of her reach as fast as I had the first.
She smacked me, tried to bite me.
This woman was very good—and equally bad.
I lifted her and flung her onto my bed, following her down, caging her with my arms and legs and my naked body.
With one hand pinning hers above her head, I disarmed her, one lethal knife at a time, grinning ferally while I did it.
“Wanted to kill me, did you?” I drawled against her throat. “Not tonight.”
“Fuck you!” She shrieked and flailed, her response dragging grim satisfaction from my soul.
Merrick was right. Love could bloom from hatred’s ashes.
I savored how sweet and flustered and…arousedshe looked lying beneath me on my bed.
She speared me with a glare, the only remaining weapon in her arsenal.
I slid my nose from her chin to her ear, savoring the scent of her sweaty rage, her heat, and the realization that she would always battle for control. This woman was a queen unlike any other.
“You’ll win no match with me, Wildfire,” I rasped.
