“See?” she squeaked, her eyes locking onto the ribbons of smoke. “Itoldyou it wasn’t a good idea to start this conversation while we’re trapped on this infernal plane.”
“Rook!” I roared, rolling my shoulders and trying to lock everything down. “Tell me before I crawl out of my skin. What the fuck do you mean—?!”
A polite knock sounded on the door, followed by a faint panther growl.
“Mr. and Mrs. Ashfall?” a careful voice said from the other side.
Fucking great. The timing was almost laughable.
“We’re beginning our descent,” the airhostess called. “If you wish to freshen up, the shower is stocked, the wardrobe has complimentary clothes, and I’ll have a meal ready for you before landing. I’ve also taken the initiative to feed your, eh...cat again.”
Mr. and Mrs.
My heart kicked with fire at the thought of ever marrying this woman. Of making her mine in law...a little thief who’d stolen my heart all while hiding everything.
My eyes never left Rook’s as I snarled at the door, “Go.Away.”
“Yes, sir.”
Rook didn’t say a word as we waited for the click of pointy heels to get the hell out of listening distance. She clutched her raindrop pendant as if it could ease the agony building behind her eyes—the agony I could feel.
Pressure coiled in my chest as if my ribs were a fire grate barely holding the inferno at bay. I despised that we were linked in some confounded, unexplainable way. That I’d been such a fool—
Whisper let out a low, distressed whine from the other side of the door.
She opened her mouth to annihilate me further and—
I snapped.
Launching off the bed, I stormed into her, wrapped my fingers around her throat, and marched her backward until she slammed against the leather-padded wall.
I wanted to know what she was hiding, yet I was suddenly petrified.
I was burning. Aching. Losing control.
And the only thing that could help me washer.
Rook gasped as I kissed her.
I bit and devoured, stealing her breath, her cold, her calm—ripping it out of her like it was mine by right. Her lips parted and I drank her in, chasing the ice that flooded my veins the second we touched.
Fuck.
Her coolness hit me like a sedative. The raging fire that’d built recoiled then snuffed out, leashed and smothered by whatever power she had over me.
I groaned, pinning her against the wall, feeding off her, taking everything I needed to stay sane.
She moaned as I plunged my tongue into her mouth.
Her hands came up instinctively, gripping my shirt as if she knew how close I was to killing her, even though it would fucking kill me to do it.
My thumb pressed against her leaping pulse. I read every frantic heartbeat, felt her fluttery fear, and...had just enough strength to pull back.
Breaking the kiss, I rested my forehead against hers. My thumb strayed from her pulse to beneath her chin, pushing her head back and bringing her gaze to mine.
She didn’t speak as I studied her—watching for the smallest flicker of deceit. “You know I don’t have a good track record when it comes to being threatened.” My thumb dug into the soft hollow of her jaw. “I’m fighting with the truth that you’ve always been good to me. Doing my best to remember that you’ve helped me, defended me, and have never given any reason for me to doubt you but...I can’t change what I’ve become. I can’t stop my instinctual need to protect myself—especially from those who are closest to me because those are the ones who end up hurting me the most.”
“I know,” she breathed, trembling a little as I skated my thumb back to her pulse and squeezed just a little. “And I’m an absoluteidiotfor using that word. I-I was just being dramatic. Nothing more. I just meant that Snowflake Corp is—”
