She sucked in a sharp breath, her dark pupils flaring.
I put a hand to the side of her face, rubbing my thumb across her soft skin. “Even if we were not lovers before, every kiss has proved to me that we should be.”
I ran my fingers through her hair, cupping the back of her head in my palm and tilting her face to mine. “There are many more things about the Vandar that make us notorious, Skye. Many more reasons we are called marauders.”
A breathy moan escaped her lips as I pulled her mouth to mine and proceeded to show her.
Chapter
Thirty-Two
Skye
There was no doubt that the Vandar could kiss.
He's not who he thinks he is, Skye.My conscience made one last-ditch attempt from somewhere at the back of my skull.He doesn't have his memories. He doesn't know what he thought of you before all this.
His thumb traced the line of my jaw as his tongue tangled with mine, and I lost the thread entirely.
He used to barely tolerate you.My inner voice was getting quieter by the second.The real Kolt made it pretty clear that humans weren't exactly his favorite species.
He pulled back just enough to look at me, dark eyes tracking my face with an expression so far from barely tolerating me that I almost forgot how to breathe.
And then I thought about our current reality.
What if this is it?some reckless part of me thought.What if there is no later?
The rational part of me argued that I couldn’t think that way. We would escape. What then?
It doesn't have to mean anything,I told myself.People have fun. You are allowed to do something just for fun.
"You’re quiet," Kolt said.
"I was thinking."
"About?"
I gave him a wicked smile. “About how I'm done thinking."
Something shifted in his expression. He tucked a curl behind my ear, his fingers trailing the line of my jaw. I told myself it meant nothing. I told myself he was confused, displaced, half the man he used to be. Then he looked at me like I was the thing he'd been trying to remember, and I ran out of things to tell myself.
When he kissed me again, I kissed him back with considerably more intent, and I felt the low sound he made against my mouth more than I heard it. My hands found his chest, the skin warm under my palms, and I felt the steady hammer of his heartbeat, though not quite as steady as he was pretending. I took small satisfaction in that.
He drew back, and his voice dropped to a velvet purr as he stood and motioned for me to do the same. "Take off the jacket."
I went very still. Was he giving me an order? My heart tripped in my chest. Did I like it?
I stood and shrugged the jacket off my shoulders and let it drop behind me.
Kolt's eyes tracked the movement, and the already-warm air felt instantly thicker. “Now the shirt.”
My fingers found the clasps. I undid them one by one, holding his gaze and almost challenging him to look away.
The look on his face made my cheeks warm. He wasn’t just watching me, his gaze hot. He was committing the sight of me to memory, detail by careful detail.
"You're surprisingly good at following instructions," he said.
"Don't get used to it."
