“Did you mean it?”
The garden was quiet, but my heartbeat was loud. It was a yes or no question, but I felt like I needed better words than a single syllable. I tripped over all the long-winded explanations for how I’d arrived at that moment. My conviction that it would end in goodbye like always, thatmy heart was full of bubbles and wouldn’t survive the kiln if the flame of my affection burned too hot.
Kessian’s grip on me loosened. My silence had gone on too long, and he was interpreting it the wrong way.
I didn’t let him go. When he met the resistance of my arms, he looked into my eyes again, and this time I didn’t fumble for my words or overthink them.
“Yes,” I said. “I meant it.”
His lips parted in shock, and I leaned in to kiss them.
Chapter 21
Kessian briefly startled like a spooked cat, going rigid against me, one hand poised on my arm as if to push me away. Then he softened into the kiss, melted inch by inch closer, until he was flush with my body from hip to shoulder, arching and opening his mouth and taking that wrist he held to loop back around him.
With my fingers knotted in his hair and my tongue parting his lips, I couldn’t conceive of why I’d held back before. Why I’d run away rather than risk this entanglement. We were already enmeshed. I could feel it in the way his current of wild magic emulsified with mine, in the slide of his wet tongue like a glaze of slip to glue us both together.
I’d wanted him so badly, and now that I had him rubbing against my hip and gasping against my mouth, I couldn’t let go. I swallowed every little sound he made. The shortened breaths, the heady little “mm” when I pushed his legs apart with mine, both so he could take more weight off his leg and so he could grind against my thigh.
“Inside,” I said.
“You’re sure?”
“You’re asking me?”
“In the past you seemed uncertain about round two.”
A hidden insecurity undercut the words. “You thought I didn’t want you back?”
“The signals were mixed, you must admit.”
“I didn’t think I could let myself have you.” I swallowed thickly around all the explanations I didn’t know how to voice. “But I have driven myself half mad with how badly I want you.”
He kissed me viciously and tried to claw my shirt off at the same time. We had to part to get it off, which he didn’t like, grumbling as I wadded it up and tossed it. He was back in my arms at once. I toed the door shut behind us and bumped the kitchen table on our way past. He was still limping a bit.
“You’ll tell me if something hurts, right?” I ran my hand up his leg. “Or if we need to switch positions?”
“I’ve been trying not to jump you this entire time. I’m not fragile. I’ll make it work.”
“So you’ll tell me?”
“Yes, I’ll tell you,” he huffed. “Are you going to take me to bed now or keep teasing me?”
In answer, I turned him by the hips against the counter so his back was facing me, the bulge in my trousers fitted firmly against his arse. I held the nape of his neck with one hand and reached around to start unbuttoning his shirt with the other.
“Do we need the bed or can I have you right here?”
“I love how much more confident you are with your clothes off.”
“So here’s good?”
“You can have me wherever you want me, darling.”
He braced against the counter so he could arch his back. The way his body fit flush against mine, the way his hair smelled, it all made me dizzy. All his clothes were made of thin, flowy material. A few buttons down, and his shirt slipped to bare one shoulder. I kissed along that slope, up the column of his neck, nuzzling behind his ear.
He was so responsive to my every touch. Where my lips went, a trail of goose bumps followed. As I slipped a hand into his half-unbuttoned shirt and brushed over a nipple, it hardened to a firm bud. When I finished with the buttons and instead flirted with the hem of his trousers, he didn’t seem to know whether to arch his hips forward or back.
I made it so he didn’t have to choose, pulling him tight against me. I softly played my fingers through the hair on his belly before ripping off his belt.
