“It’s not wrong unless we say so.”
Our lips are less than an inch apart. All I have to do is tip up my head, cross the space of one breath, and I’ll taste him.
“God, I wish that were true.” His voice cracks, eyes locked with mine. A primal beat passes between us—like a vibration I can’t hear, but I feel it in every cell of my body.
Doubt swirls around his pupils. And something else, like restraint.
My hand comes up too fast, gripping his beard, pulling him into me. The moment I touch him, something so powerful, so violent quakes through me that my breath catches in my throat, chest expanding on its own.
“W-whatisthat?” I ask, panting.
“Sin,” he growls, pulling back. “I can’t, Miss Wakefield. Never.”
“Why?” It comes out desperate, hungry. The way a drowning person gasps for air. My chest tightens, heart racing. “If you’re worried about being my employee.”
“No,” he grunts.
“Or… if you’re not thinking what I’m thinking.”
“Not that.” It comes out hard and sharp.
“Then, what is it?”
“Can’t stay.”
He steps back, gripping his arm. His face is pale, pained.
“What’s wrong, Kael?”
“Must stop doing this with you.”
“Why? Are you already committed? Is there somebody else?”
“That’s the problem.”
My heart sinks. “It is?”
His eyes sear into mine for one breathless moment. “There’sno onelike you. That’s why I have to go.”
Chapter
Eleven
KAEL
Abed of dirt and a blanket of stars. Heavy air presses down on me. Wet and weighted with something I can’t name. But I can taste it.
Cricket choruses throb, frantic for mates.
That’s how nature made it. Two become one.
The look on Eliza’s face when I told her pierces my heart again. The ache behind my sternum doubles, throbbing and violent.
Without the dampener, I’m too dangerous to stay.
Maybe it’s the pull of the mountain… orher.
She asked me what this is. But I can’t say the word out loud. It’s a death sentence to those like me. And even more so for her.
