His calloused palm slid against mine as I laced my fingers through his.
“I would like that very much,” he murmured, attention fixed on where we were intertwined as though it was a sacred thing. As if hypnotized, he brought our joined hands to his mouth. His lips pressed to the tips of my fingers. A low moan quaked in my throat.
Heat pooled between my thighs as he dragged his teeth over the pad of one.
“Tell me something good,” I panted, every muscle tight with want and warning as he joined me on the bed, my fingers still dangerously close to his tongue. Because if I let him keep touching me like this, fear and loathing would become optional.
“From the moment I first saw you, I thought you were the most stunning female I had ever seen.” He kissed my knuckles, then flipped my arm up and brushed another over my wrist.
I hoped he couldn’t feel my heart trip.
“When I chased you, I didn’t want it to end. You made me feel alive for the first time in a long time,” he murmured, his mouth moving higher along my flesh. Even through the fabric of my robe, every place he touched me burned.
Our bond flooded with satisfaction.
“Your scent,” he groaned, his nose brushing against my shoulder. His hard body, mere inches from mine, vibrated with restraint. “One whiff and I was swept away. I guess I knew,somewhere deep down, that you were more than just a Seer I was meant to capture. There was always something about you.”
I forgot how to inhale. I reached up, threading my fingers in Vaeron’s damp hair. Tugged him closer. He planted a kiss on the underside of my jaw. Another on my pulse point. A third at the base of my throat.
His tongue moved up the other side of my neck until it halted just below my ear. “Now I know it was because you are my mate. And the chase hasn’t stopped, not really. I’m still in pursuit of you, Sylaira.”
Vaeron’s intensity bordered on overwhelming. But there was something oddly…comforting about being wanted with such relentlessness. There was no question of where I stood with him. There was no question, either, about what he would do to protect me—even if it violated the very values I clutched to my chest.
So when he slanted his lips against mine, I surrendered. Wrapping my hands around his head, my back arched to meet his torso. His strong, steady arms wrapped around my waist, bringing me closer still as he deepened our kiss.
With surprising control, he eased me onto my back, his hard body aligned with mine. The bulk of him slotted against me, angled in such a way that nothing harmed my left leg.
Breathless, he broke away, but he didn’t stop. Didn’t retreat. Didn’t run. Merely moved his mouth lower, trailing kisses along my collarbone. My nipples were sharp and visible through the silk fabric. He dragged his teeth over the peak of one, eliciting a whimper.
His hands gripped the sides of the robe and tugged. Mine shot out to stop him. “Wait.”
Confusion dipped his brows, and with a tense jaw, he pulled away. “Sorry. I got carried away.”
“No it’s okay,” I explained quickly, not wanting him to thinkI was rejecting him again. We’d just formed this tentative peace…
“What is it then?” he asked me, his tone like running velvet over my skin. It was entirely too hypnotizing.
I sat upright. “I’m…” I trailed off, trying to find the strength to voice the core of my feelings. He deserved that much. “Terrified.”
He cocked his head ever so slightly to the side, iron hair falling with the movement. “Why?”
I unbound the towel from my own head and tossed it to the side, shaking out my locks. “Because of what it might mean. Of what comes after.”
Because I might lose myself in him.
He sighed, a heavy, burdened sound, head dropping. “I am too. Because you make me feel.” His gaze collided with mine, and the depth of torment in his eyes mirrored what was buried in my soul. “And emotions have always been a very dangerous thing for me.”
“I know,” I murmured, reaching up and cupping his cheek. I stroked my fingers on the stubble he hadn’t shaved yet.
He leaned into the touch like a man starved of it for far too long. The thought twisted a knife between my ribs. “I don’t know if I can handle you rejecting me again, Sylaira.”
His vulnerability, his pain, cracked something open inside me.
And after what he’d shared the previous day, I couldn’t even convince myself in the moment that he was the monster I’d always feared.
He was far more complex than that.
So I dropped away from him and slid my fingers down my ribs. He tracked the movement like a predator testing its prey.
