He pushed it toward her. “Just take it.”
She reached out and took the bundle, glancing up at him as she did. As soon as he noticed that she was looking at him, the shutters came down and his face blanked, but what she’d seen in the moment before rocked her.
Just for a second, he had looked so much younger. Almost his old self. His eyes filled with a deep, complicated expression. Need. And uncertainty. And something like yearning.
But whatever it was, he hadn’t wanted her to see it.
“Why are you doing this, Tris?” she asked him carefully.
“Jos said you’d like fresh clothes.”
“No, not the clothes.” She waved her arm around the hut, indicating herself. “This. Bringing me here, helping me with Val.”
He looked confused for a moment, as if he didn’t understand the question, before replying, “It’s the right thing to do.”
“No,” she said, “it’s not. You are obliged to follow orders. That would be the right thing for you to do. Not this.”
She realized that she was clutching his shirt as if it could somehow save her from the dark look on his face and loosened her fingers.
She squared her shoulders and said what she had to. “You can leave me here. I don’t mind. I thank you, genuinely thank you, for bringing me all this way. I understand that this is against your orders and that it would be better for you to go.”
He strode into the hut and pushed the door closed behind him with an irritated click. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
She stayed exactly where she was, determined not to be intimidated. “I’m not that little girl anymore, Tris, the one that annoyed you so much. I don’t need another big brother bossing me around, and I’m very tired of you looking at me like you wish you’d never found me. I understand that you don’t want to be here with me, so just go.”
He stared at her for a moment before replying, his voice rough, “You’re right.”
“Okay.” She took a breath and let it out slowly, determined not to show how much that hurt.
“But not how you think.”
He stepped closer, and that time she did step back. He stepped closer again, and she tried to step back again, but realized she had her back to the stone wall of the hut.
He pressed one hand upon the wall behind her and leaned down, hard masculine body towering over her, lips against her ear, hot breath on her skin. “You’re right. You’re not a little girl anymore.”
He pushed himself a few inches away. Just enough that he could watch her, his eyes clear and completely focused on her. She felt herself flush, her breath coming quicker as a deep longing pooled inside her.
His eyes flicked to the open neck of her blouse, and he lifted a huge hand and ran the back of his knuckles ever so slowly just under the cotton, along the top of her breasts as he whispered, “And the last thing I feel toward you is brotherly.”
She couldn’t help it, she arched her back. He turned his hand in response, cupping her breast as his thumb ran maddening circles around her nipple. The fabric of her blouse caught and tugged against the tightening bud, heat pulsing through her belly, and she let out a soft whimper as he lowered his head and sealed his lips over hers.
It was everything she had ever dreamed of and so much more. His lips were firm and smooth, his mouth hot and demanding. He was still thrumming her nipple through the cotton of her blouse as his other hand fisted her hair and angled her head so that he could take complete ownership of her mouth.
She went up on her toes, pushing into him, completely lost in the heady intensity of their kiss, the hot feeling of his body pressed against hers, the aching pull low in her core as he ran his tongue along hers and nibbled at her lower lip.
She forgot how angry she was with him. How frustrated his surly mood changes made her. She finally had what she’d wanted all her life. And Tristan. Gods. Tristan wanted it too.
She tugged his shirt up and ran her hands up the taut muscles of his abdomen, losing herself in the onslaught of sensations. Warm skin, hot mouth, her breasts heavy and aching. The heated wetness between her legs as she pushed herself into his body, desperate for more.
They were both panting by the time he pulled away and leaned his forehead down on hers, still caging her against the wall.
This was the moment. Now he would finally see her.
The hand that had been on her breast moved up to cradle her face as he closed his eyes and spoke in a gruff voice. “I want you. You’re a beautiful woman. I want you more than I’ve wanted anything for years. Maybe in my whole life. But I don’t want… this. It’s too much, and I can’t….”
He gave a harsh shake of his head, then opened his eyes and looked right at her. “You’re right, I do wish we’d never found you. It would have been better for everyone. But that doesn’t change anything. I will not send you out into danger on your own. Don’t ask me to.”
Nim leaned back against the wall, flustered and cold as he let her go. Her body still ached for him, while her heart wept with confusion. And hurt. A deeper hurt than she could have imagined.
