The warm and lovely glow coating our skin in a shimmer signified this act between us was not merely sex. It would never be just sex. If we continued, if I plunged between her thighs and took her like I wanted to, this act between us would be so much more.
I’d suspected for a while now, ever since I held her in her home and realized she was touch-starved. I was almost certain when I carried her out of Joy Springs and into my Keep. That link had threatened to spring between us several times, but Evie had not been ready. She was still so wounded and hurt from Caelan’s betrayal. There was a part of her that still loved him, maybe always would.
This had happened because she finally ceded control, allowed herself to feel what could happen when she let herself go, and so had I, my usually iron-willed control shattering the second she’d moaned and arched her back into me, the desire I’d wanted from her for so long washing over me.
We couldn’t consummate this. Not when Evie was unaware of what the act could mean.
But what I could do was give her release and try to ease her into something that had the potential to fundamentally alter her life.
If she allowed it to.
“Rowan?” Her eyes fluttered open, heat turning her cheeks pink.
I’d been lost in my thoughts for too long. Godsdammit.
She shifted, closing her thighs, and I knew she wanted to shift away from me, but she couldn’t. Her face stilled into blankness and she cleared her throat.
“Evie, I?—”
She shook her head. “No. It’s fine. We—we shouldn’t have done this anyway.” Evie cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t?—”
“Stop.” My voice was an angry rumble. “We did nothing wrong.” I moved to the side and gathered her against me, her body stiff and unyielding. “Evie.”
“This was a mistake.”
I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against the back of her head, her silky hair sliding over my face. “Do you really believe that or are you just being awkward?”
Evie barked a laugh, making me smile against her hair.
“This does not have to be complicated. You’re attracted to me. I’m attracted to you. We don’t have to make it weird.”
Evie paused, contemplating my words. “Why did you stop?” Her voice sounded small, and I wanted to curl up in the fetalposition and die, knowing I had hurt her. “Was it me? Did I do something wrong?”
Anger flooded me. “No,” I breathed. “Never. It wasn’t you at all. Evie, there’s something?—”
A crack of sound shattered the intimacy, sunlight and freezing air flooding in from above as our shelter collapsed.
I threw my arm over my eyes to shield them from the light, but not before I saw the looming, smirking face of Evie’s father.
“Well, well, well,” The former Fae King drawled. “Look how cozy you two are.”
Chapter
Thirteen
Of all the people to catch me naked and disheveled after a heavy make-out session, it had to be my damned father.
A slight warm breeze rolled over our skin as a heavy blanket appeared from thin air, draping itself over us.
“Thanks,” I muttered. “Did you kill my roses?”
Dad rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. “There. All better.” The damaged cocoon repaired itself, the snapped brambles mending themselves.
“Yes, but you killed them first, and they had to experience it.” I untangled myself from Rowan, sat up and ran my fingers over one of the pale pink roses. “Can I take some of these back to your Keep?” I asked.
“You can take whatever you want,” Rowan rumbled.
My father held the Lord’s eyes longer than necessary, a silent conversation passing between them. Dad’s eyes narrowed for a second before a thoughtful look crossed his face. I don’t think they were speaking mentally, but something had happened, something that made my father watch Rowan in a different way than normal.
