Chest rising and falling with her heavy breaths, her grin widened as her eyes flicked to the throwing knife in his hand.
She sheathed Night Carver and took a step closer.
He let her.
“Intriguing. Invigorating,” she panted.
Another step. Two.
Cason tucked the knife behind his back, but her eyes didn’t follow the blade. They followed her hands as she lifted them. Rested them on his heaving chest as her fingers began tracing his inkperfectly, even hidden under his shirt.
“Ineffable. Incomparable,” she whispered, hands trailing up toward his neck as they continued to run over the ink.
It was like she was in a trance, until her eyes lifted to his. Glittering and clear.
Brela’s chest pressed against his, fingers curling around his collar as she lifted on her toes. Leaned toward his ear.
“Utterlyintoxicating.”
The words nearly undid him. Or maybe it was her nose teasing his neck. The tongue that followed. The small nip of his ear.
He breathed in slowly. “You called me Case.”
She pressed her lips just under his ear, one hand trailing down his forearm. “You called me Bre.”
She swiped for the blade.
Cason reacted quickly, pinning one of her arms between them and the other behind her back, crushing her into his body. He held the knife at a distance as she wriggled in his grip, too tired to put up a real fight.
“Having a little trouble, shadow wolf?” he teased.
She growled, trying to free her arms to lunge for the blade. “Just you wait until this hellthorn is out of my system. I’ll show you shadow wolf.”
Cason grinned. “You should be careful with teasing me, Brela. You have no idea how much I would enjoy…sparringwith you again.”
Brela’s eyes widened as she looked at him, her body immediately falling limp against his.
She blinked once, then pressed her lips into his. Passionate, deep, and over before that fluttering feeling reached his toes. Then, a soft brush of her kiss over each corner of his mouth before she slipped out of his arms.
He stared down at her. “What was that for?”
Brela shrugged. “Despite all of the shit happening around us, you should smile more. It’s…” Her non-bruised cheek flushed. “It’s absolutelyirresistible.”
Cason couldn’t help himself either. His hand fisted in her shirt as he yanked her back into his kiss. Her chin tilted, mouth opened as her tongue met his.
He could have lit the entire hill on fire at the moan that left her throat.
His hand plunged into her hair as she wrapped her arms around his back, fingers digging into muscle as her lips moved to his cheek, jaw, neck.
He groaned as she thrust against him, desperate for more as he tugged her lips back to his.
Skin. He needed to touch her skin. To feel her alive, to remember that they had survived. The shadow temple, Lyle, the Anfroy camp, and now this odd band of raiders. They hadsurvived.
His hands trailed over her neck, down her arms, over her hips. He felt each nick and cut along her skin, both magic and blade inflicted. Felt her hands find the same cuts on his body that he’d barely noticed before.
Cason tugged her shirt free, fingers sliding to the laces of her pants when she gripped his wrists and stopped him. Leaving one last kiss on his mouth, dragging her teeth over his lower lip, she lifted away.
“Dragon,” Brela whispered, her face grimacing. Not in pain, but restraint. “You have no idea how desperately I want very many parts of you between my legs right now, but we have an audience.”
