“I lied,” he said against my lips, wrapped his hand around the back of my head again, and kissed me.
So confusing.
So many emotions. You’d think it would be difficult to sort through them, tobein the moment, to choose the rightthing to do, which was very obviously tostop-push him back-run away—but it wasn’t.
It wasn’t difficult at all because our lips crashed and suddenly the confusion just…wasn’t there anymore. It disappeared into thin air like it had never even existed in the first place because there was no room here for the kind of emotions that weren’t made of fire and weren’t powerful enough to melt every inch of skin on my body.
A kiss, but it was different.
It wasexactly the same.
My lip between his teeth. His moan in my mouth. I wondered if there were ways to merge bodies together because I wanted to be under his skin. As if he’d read my mind, his arm wrapped around my waisttightly,but I didn’t feel like I needed air much at the moment. My tongue was in his mouth, tasting, searching, finding so much more than I’d hoped. The taste of him was something else, something that hadn’t been discovered yet or there would surely be a name for it.
There would be a name for the way he slipped his tongue under my upper lip and pulled it in his mouth and sucked and bit with exactly the right pressure. The way he fisted my hair, pulling it just right, and crushed me to his chest with his arm more each second. The way he’d wrapped himself around me, like his being revolved around me—and I was no better.
My arms were around his neck, so tight you’d think I wanted to suffocate him, but no. I just didn’t want him to even consider moving away. My fingers were in his hair, and it washis hair,exactly as it should be, thick and silky smooth andmine, mine, mine.
Such a strange thing to feel so strongly abouthair,but it wasn’t just that. It was all of him, every breath and every moan, every time he explored my mouth with his hungrytongue so thoroughly that I feltunderstood,fully picked apart.
This wasit,whateveritwas supposed to be. This was the right to end all wrongs.
His hands were everywhere on me, igniting the rest of me on fire with such ease. He gripped my ass and slammed me against him, his cock hard against my stomach.Wild,I tell you. I was wild, and I didn’t plan to ever go back to taming. My own hands had found their way under the collar of his shirt, his skin silky smooth, the heat of him matching my own.
It didn’t matter where we were or what went on around us, if we were living backward or forward, in one world or the other—it all fell apart at once, and I didn’t even feel it.
Right until he stopped.
March stopped kissing me.
His hand that had been in my hair again, and the one tightly around my hip, let go.
I was still against his chest because how was I supposed to stand on my own afterthat? We were both breathing like we’d run a Club marathon, and our skins were flushed and our eyes were open wide. His had fireworks in them, too—yet March suddenly looked terrified.
Such a cruel, cold wakeup call, albeit necessary.
What in Time’s Temper are you doing, Ora?!
I’d lost myself and it had taken so little. I’d completely lost myself to him and I hadn’t even hesitated.
My blood was suddenly cold. I stepped back and my legs carried me. He was afraid, and I thought for sure he was disgusted when he turned to the side and ran his hand through his hair and clenched his jaws so hard I heard his teeth pop.
Regretwas spelled all over him, and whatever it did to me, I was bleeding because of it.
“Don’t…don’t you dare kiss me again.” My voice was low, hoarse, breathless.
I stepped back and March turned to me again, his eyes wide, the fireworks gone. His lips were raw red, bleeding in the left corner—hadIdone that? Because I’d bitten, had wanted toeathim whole.
Then that same corner curled up into that wicked smile, and he said, “Oh, I’m not going anywhere near you again.”
The view in front of me swam so hard I thought I’d fall on my face when I leaned to grab my backpack off the ground. My cheeks felt so hot as I walked away that I feared they’d be completely melted off by the time I cooled down. My blood rushed and my heart had holes in it and my mind would not stop replaying the taste of his breath in my mouth, of his tongue on mine, or the sound of his moans.
When I made it to the other side of the trees, birds suddenly took flight all at once, and there had been a lot of them in those trees that I hadn’t noticed. Whatever had spooked them, they flew so fast they were out of my sight within seconds, but I didn’t stop to look. I didn’t stop at all until I made it to the other side of the garden that wasn’t a garden, and all the way inside the palace again.
More people around me, yet none seemed to pay me any attention. The sky was dark, the lanterns on, and I felt like I was walking on clouds still, until I saw movement in the hall where the giant grandfather clock stood.
Mimi was there, dressed in an orange nightgown, barefoot, walking around it by herself.
I stopped near a pillar, confused for a moment, which was a relief. She didn’t even look at me, didn’t raise her head at all, only continued to walk around the clock at a slower pace, watching her steps on the marble floor. Which could only mean that she hadn’t heard me.
