His attention flicked to my cheek, and before I could demand more answers, his lips ghosted over the shallow cut, showering me in tingles. With kiss after kiss, he followed the vertical line he’d carved himself.
Which was also how I’d recognized him back in Ilasall. He’d marked me the same as I’d done him. Minutes before I’d accidentally stabbed him, I’d also sliced his cheek.
“Did you hurt your knuckles?” Taking my hand, he inspected the redness above my bones. In some spots, cartilage peeked out.
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
His mouth set in a thin line. “Do not lie.”
Resignation permeated my whisper. “They’re not what hurts.”
“I know.” He rained feather-light kisses on each joint, warm and tender.
Prickles slithered inside me and gathered in my core, my body responding in a way I wasn’t certain I agreed with.
Finished, Gedeon pressed my palm between his pectorals. “But feel this.” His hammering heart. “It doesn’t beat for just anybody.”
Thud by thud, the rapid pace rattling his rib cage placated my spiraling thoughts. Warily, I reached for the hem of his soldier’s shirt and pulled the fabric all the way to his armpits, exposing the puckered scar on his abdomen.
An inch-and-a-half of raised skin was all that remained of my mistake. As I traced the rough contour of the healed stab wound, even the wind seemed to pause, the stillness surrounding us in a bubble. The clouds stole the moon once more, and I suspected the forest itself awaited my next move.
Gedeon shivered, his muscles rippling under my touch, blurring the demarcation line between reality and nightmares. In the sleeping realm, too many times blood had poured out of him as he collapsed at my feet, leaving me to dig a grave for him.
A shudder raced down my spine. “You survived.” I voiced my doubts.
“I have told you this before.” He cupped my neck. “You cannot get rid of me, especially so easily as with a blade.”
“I never wanted to?—”
He crashed his mouth to mine, consuming my protest. I relished how the pain from my hair catching on the tree bark joined his nibbles on my bottom lip.
Clutching his shirt, I lost myself in the sensation of his tongue dancing with mine, the sear of his claim as hot as a blaze, as brutal as a storm, as soft as my fluffy duvet.
My toes curled as the thirst formorestirred awake. I lunged, attacking his lips, nipping until they flushed and his grip on my waist turned punishing.
“You remind me what it means to live,” he murmured, his hand snaking under my shirt and dragging my bra down for my breasts to spill free.
He pinched my nipple, but the ache morphed into a bloom of heat, and I cursed my pussy for rejoicing the way it knew best—by soaking my panties.
Unbuckling his belt, I snarled, “I hate you.”
“Anything you feel for me, I will take it.” Dropping to his knees on the muddy grass before me, he frantically yanked my pants and panties down and over my left boot. Not bothering with the other leg, he positioned my bare thigh to rest on his shoulder.
“I will conquer the cities for you.” His hot exhales branded my exposed flesh. “Bring the head of your enemies—anything,anythingto have you feel for me, hatred included.”
“I don’t think this is rig?—”
He descended on my pussy, silencing my hesitation. I grabbed his hair to keep my balance as he licked along my slit, gathering my wetness and swirling his tongue around my clit.
Loathing, detestation, abhorrence—none could describe the emotion clinging to me identically to how the night’s humidity coated my skin. The need to sob and embrace Gedeon warred with the compulsion to beat the crap out of him and scream until my vocal cords gave out.
With my bottom lip quivering, I shoved the traitorous feelings deep down, into the bottomless crevices, and focused on that building sensation of?—
He sucked on my clit, and my hips bucked of their own accord. Continuing his assault, he grunted his approval at my gasps and tugs on his locks, the strands as black as his darkened eyes drinking me in.
Yet it wasn’t enough, not by far.
“Ge-deon,” I moaned, earning another grunt from him, and yanked his head back.
