“Something tells me I’m going to accrue more before I can pay it all back.”
“If you take too long, I’ll have to add interest.”
“I’ll have to make an appeal to the Princeps then. There’s no way I could pay interest, too.”
One of his thumbs began to move, a slow glide back and forth. “Fortunately for you, the Princeps is rather understanding of such dilemmas.”
My eyes fell to my hands. To the tanned skin, mounded muscles,and light smattering of hair beneath them. A few white scars were gathered by his heart, evidence that he’d cheated death more than once. Lower, his body was a rugged mixture of ridges and dips, of obvious strength and brawn. He was so incredibly…male.
When I found his eyes, they were smoldering, watching me with singular focus.
Maybe it was the fact that I’d almost just died again, or that he was bare-chested and I was a female. Maybe it was the way he’d been merciless yet fair at the justice hearing, but I said something more daring than I ever thought I’d say. “Is there anything I can do that would help the Princeps to look upon me favorably?” I whispered, no longer feeling the cold stone against my feet, but only heat.
The gold flecks in his eyes only blazed brighter. “Are you trying to bribe me,carella?”
I could hardly breathe. “Is it working?”
All Harthon did in response was dip his head. And then his lips were on mine.
I’d thought the brush of his lips in the woods was a kiss, and only now did I know how wrong I was. That had merely been a touch. A tease. Now, his mouth was soft and coaxing, tugging at my upper and then my bottom lip, sending a wash of tingles throughout my body. I followed his lead, kissing him back, and then his tongue followed his lips. I gasped at the invasion and he pressed his advantage, delving deeper. Slowly exploring. Taking and giving, but not demanding. Patiently allowing me to adjust and learn. My back bowed as his hands pulled me into his length, and I knew then what true helplessness was.
Because I could never, not even if I wanted to, pull away from him. He was an addictive fire, scattering my senses, consuming them.
My body sent my chest into his of its own accord, and his fingers strained against my back before he brought the kiss to a soft end.He rested his forehead on mine as I kept my eyes closed, absorbing the feel of him and trying to collect my thoughts.
The only one I managed to find was that I wanted to get lost in him again, and I would never be able to convince myself that I didn’t want his lips on mine. I hadn’t even managed to convince myself of it the first time, not really. No matter what I’d told myself, I’d been waiting for him to do this ever since that private moment in the midnight woods.
“Your feet are going to freeze. We need to head back,” he said softly, and only then did I register the numbness in my feet.
Without warning, he swept me into his arms and started for the stairs, carrying me as if I were a feather as he smoothly glided down the steps.
“This is completely unnecessary,” I stated, even as I wrapped an arm across his shoulders, the ends of his hair surprisingly soft as they brushed my skin.
“I disagree. What if you make a break for it and fling yourself from the window?” he replied with an air of amusement.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not dreaming anymore. We’re probably safe.”
“I prefer certainty over probabilities, whenever possible.”
I took another angle as we came into the hallway. Even though it was warmer here, he still didn’t release me. “Don’t you think it’ll look odd that you’re carrying themagvisaround?”
“You’re mysterious to them. You could have hurt yourself for all they know.”
“You’re naked from the waist up.”
“What a profound observation.”
He wasn’t getting it. “It’s the middle of the night. You’re half naked. My hair’s messed up. They might…you know…think things.” Not that those things would be very far from the truth. Only minutes ago, his tongue had been in my mouth, evoking responses I didn’t know I could have.
His responding grin was devious. “What kind of things? Do tell.”
I wished to knee him, only holding back because I didn’t want to be dropped on the hard stone. “You know what kind of things.”
“No, actually, I don’t know what kind of things you’re thinking of. You’re rather innocent, Etarla, so I’m not sure how far your imagination expands.”
My face flamed at his response, and then came a prickle of embarrassment. To him and all his experience—and most others my age—a kiss was probably nothing. To me, it’d been earth-shattering.
We reached my door which was still open, and he set me down inside the shadowed space. “And just to be clear, your innocence isn’t something I look down upon. Quite the opposite actually,” he said, and then he closed the door, sealing us both in the room.
