“I will,” I say softly.
I think about you every hour of the day.
How can I ever forget that?
His hand cups my cheek; his palm is warm against my skin.
“So beautiful,” he whispers. “Your eyes are so expressive.”
His thumb traces my mouth, and I inhale sharply when it dips in the slightest bit.
“Say my name.”
“Vale.”
He shakes his head. “My first name.”
I hesitate just for a heartbeat.
“Ender.”
His name slips past my tongue. It feels strange not to call him by his surname. For so long, he was just ‘Vale,’ an extension of his father, and I never saw him as anything more than what he was.
Something dark and raw flashes across his eyes.
His hand drops, but I catch his wrist before he can pull away. His touch is warm and steady. I know what Mercy said. My sister’s warning is fresh in my mind, but right now it’s hard to cling to my hatred. It floats away on a dense cloud, drifting far from my reach with each passing moment.
“Warrick,” he warns. “Don’t look at me like that.”
I ignore him and climb over the console instead, settling firmly on his lap. He goes rigid beneath me, breath hitching as my thighs bracket his hip.
“We can’t do this,” he says, but his hand immediately slips into my hair.
He tilts my head back and presses his mouth to my throat, hungry and unrestrained. His teeth graze my skin, making me shiver.
“Make me stop,” he murmurs against my skin. “I have no control when it comes to you.”
“Don’t,” I whisper, fingers tightening in his hair.
His kisses turn rough, desperate, his stubble scraping my skin as his hand slides along my thigh.
I don’t care if this is a mistake.
I don’t care about tomorrow.
All I care about is the way Ender Vale sounds like he’s already lost.
I don’t have that voice in my head telling me that this is a foolish idea. Or that I’ll hate myself when it’s over, because he’s going to push me away again, when it should bemerejecting him.
There is no future for us. At least not one that has a happy ending.
But it all pales at the terrifying realization that I think about Ender Vale just as much as he does me.
chapter
forty-two
Ender
