“Who do you fight for?”
“You.” A hoarseness lined his voice, the familiar lilt turned tired and raspy.
Butterflies whirled behind my ribs. “I’m sure Leif isn’t too thrilled about that.”
“I don’t care.” His minty breath danced over my cheeks. Heady, inviting.
I didn’t want to lose him, lose us, not when I’d just gotten him back, but this was so much bigger than that—this was an act of war. “You’ll be putting a target on your back.”
His eyes flashed black. “I’ll draw it myself.”
Pushing off his chest, I tore out of his grasp, away from the darkness, the evil that seemed to be fully part of him now. “You’d turn on your family?”
He snatched my hand and placed it over his heart, his stare electric green again, burning. “River Harlow, I will go against everything I am, everything I know, to be with you.”
His pulse thundered beneath my palm. Thump, thump, thump. You’re the only reason it hasn’t stopped completely. “Why?”
Slowly, Ryder dropped to his knees. Curious glances drifted in our direction. He ignored them, not daring to stray from my face. “There’s a… hold on me… It’s more powerful than the blood oath, more potent than my instincts. And definitely a hell of a lot more important than my duty.”
“What’s that?” My legs worked to hold me steady. His grip latched around my thighs.
“Love,” he said, but it was unnecessary. It was written in the bat of his lashes, in the flush of his cheeks, in the glassiness of his eyes—all over his face.
I wrung my fingers in the empty space between us. God, there was nothing I wanted more than him right now.
But the shadows behind his stare, that demon clawing inside him—would it stay there forever, or would he one day fully transform?
I tugged on his hands, wrenching him off the floor. “How do I know this isn’t another one of your ploys?”
“Maybe it is.”
“To kill me?”
“To kiss you,” he said at the same time.
My heart might have actually stopped. “What?”
Tucking a finger beneath my chin, he tilted it up. “I want to kiss you. Will you stop me?”
“No,” I breathed, damning myself.
“Good.”
Dropping his forehead against mine, he leaned in. Noses grazing, lips brushing, savoring this moment, breathing it in as if we’d been starved of oxygen.
Mouths coming together, his chest caved against mine, warm and surrendering.
The firm press of him, the way his tongue slipped past my teeth, the way he caressed me as if he never wanted to let go… I lost myself in him, in his touch, in the way our hearts seemed to sync.
His lips were soft but greedy, and I gave and gave. Falling deeper into the kiss, into each other, we grasped at fabric and collars as if no one was watching, as if we had all the time in the world.
“Never again.” The pledge vibrated through me. He sealed it with another kiss, electric and longing.
I stared up at him, admiring all the secret features I loved: the two freckles on his cheeks, the ever-present furrow of his brow, the hidden dimples, the cutest little crooked bottom tooth.
He tucked a loose curl behind my ear, fingertips grazing my jaw, my neck, my collar. “Never again,” he repeated. “Never again do I want to live in a world where this”—a ragged whine of a breath—“doesn’t exist.”
“Maybe don’t try so hard to get rid of it this time?”
