Too much loss...
“We’ll stop by once we’ve returned from Brimstone.” Uncle Wen prepared to pull away.
“Good, good.” Stepping back from the car, Shouxin bowed at Lucien. “The villagers in these mountains wouldn’t have survived without your company employing so many of us, Master Luxin. We will always be grateful to the Yunhuis for bringing prosperity to us. Please do come. We’d love to give our respects.”
“Of course.” Lucien forced a smile, his gaze going past the old man to the rice paddies twinkling in the sun, carved into the hillside like a giant’s staircase.
The dogs moved and Uncle Wen resumed driving. Dillon followed—our convoy snaking its way slowly toward the outskirts of the village.
Lucien didn’t speak but I could feel him.
Feel him thinking, burning.
The bond flickered each time we slowed for a child or paused for another roadblock—his impatience growing hotter.
I tried to imagine how I’d feel heading back to Snowflake Corp after so much time away...but he’d only been a child when he’d inherited Brimstone. Marcus had snatched it off him before he’d even ruled and...I had no idea what we were driving into.
“Are you alright?” I asked quietly.
His hands flexed into fists on his thighs. “No.”
At least he was honest.
A waft of heat bled off him, making Uncle Wen look out the window. “Strange weather we’re having. I swear it’s getting warmer by the second.”
Reaching behind Whisper, I placed my hand on Lucien’s hot arm. “You’re okay. I’m right here.”
He shot me a grateful look, then placed his other hand over mine. “Promise me you’ll stay close when we get to Brimstone. Like the old man said, my parents hired as many locals as possible to run the geothermal sites throughout these mountains. They’re completely innocent and I don’t want to hurt them.”
“I’ll be beside you every step of the way.”
“If Marcus is there—”
“I’ll take Whisper and Uncle Wen, and you can burn him into a piece of overdone jerky.”
He chuckled, his temperature cooling a little. Leaning close, he whispered, “I can smell you—that intoxicating scent that corrupts all my senses. It’s taking everything I have not to take you right here.”
My pulse skipped.
The jeep became far too small and far too hot as his breath brushed the shell of my ear. “Fuck, I want you, Rook.”
Desire shot between my legs.
“I guess you’re going to have to be patient.” I hid behind Whisper as I blushed. “However, you’ve now made meveryeager to get home.”
His eyes darkened instantly. “Home? You’re calling Ashfall Cliff your home?”
“You’remy home.”
Whisper huffed as Lucien’s hand slid from mine and gripped my thigh, his fingers curling possessively. Lust heated the backseat as his thumb traced slow circles, making my breath hitch. “If you keep saying things like that, I’m going to snap before we even reach the village gates.”
Frost webbed over the back of my knuckles, looking as if I wore a pair of ice gloves. He groaned as he linked our fingers together, palm to palm, pulse to pulse.
Electricity fed through the link, tight and tingly. I shivered as he ran his thumb over the delicate veins of my wrists.
“You have no idea what that does to me...feeling you. Knowing you need me as much as I need you.” Leaning closer, he breathed, “That damn bond isn’t helping either...it’s taking an axe to my self-control and I’m hanging on by a thread.” His mouth hovered over mine. “Kiss me.”
My eyelashes fluttered; my lips grazed—
