This male. This beautiful, terrible, fierce male was supposedly hers in every way. He was a blight on the earth, according to the texts. But those texts were nothing more than fabrications. And even if they weren’t, right now, looking at him, did she really care?
Desire roared through her. She couldn’t remember ever wanting someone like this. Was it the bond at work? Was that tether the reason she couldn’t stop imagining what his body would feel like beneath her touch? What sounds she might be able to coax from him with whispered kisses alone?
Arianna rounded the main sofa, the very one Rion must have been lying on. She paused a few feet away, still looking him over. Rion did the same, remaining still as he studied everything about her. He could probably see the flush on her cheeks. Her whole body was flushed at this point.
Rion swallowed hard, his throat bobbing in an enticing way. “Arianna?” he repeated. Gods, what would it be like to hear her name in a breathless whisper? To know that she’d reduced this male to nothing more than want and desire for her and her alone? “You’ve been drinking.”
The shift in his tone interrupted her daydream. She met his unflinching gaze and tilted her head. “Is that judgement?”
“Never.” His gaze flicked toward the door. “I’m just wondering why you’re alone.”
Arianna waved a hand. “The guards followed me to the hall but didn’t seem to think they’d be needed any further.”
“You drank alone, too?”
“No, Talon was with me.”
A slight flex in his hand. “And where is he now?”
“Does it matter?”
Rion looked ready to say more, possibly to scold her, but whatever had been about to come out of his mouth died and was left forgotten when she dared a step closer.
She took another, then lifted one hand, ready to see whether he felt exactly how her fantasies were imagining.
“Careful.” It was a breathless warning. A plea.
Arianna met his emerald gaze, then stared at the frost covering her fingertips. They were alone. Utterly alone. Both were weakened, but everyone else was too busy to intervene should she try to take his life. Again. She supposed she couldn’t blame him for the caution.
Her eyes locked with his again, then the tips of her fingers connected with the hard planes of his chest. A jolt flew down her arm, tingling along the surface of her skin at the same moment he released a sharp exhale.
Her skin prickled, hairs rising. Rion’s fists clenched in a white-knuckled grip.
“I thought I was the only one who could feel it,” she said. Rion’s heart beat wildly beneath her touch and she let her palm fully press against his skin. “You’ve never reacted before.”
“I’m remarkably good at self-control.” She nearly smiled, wondering just how far she could push that self-control. Judging from his breathing and racing heart, it wouldn’t take much. Her hand moved slightly lower and he gasped. She studied the grains of earth dancing at the edges of the room.
“What does it feel like for you?” she asked.
“Like I’m going to lose myself. Like at any moment the dam is going to break.”
“And if it did?”
“I’d take you in my arms and remind your body, if I can’t reach your mind.”
A jolt of pleasure shuddered through her. “What’s holding you back?”
“You haven’t given me permission to touch you.”
Arianna offered a shy smile and stepped to the side, running her hand up to his shoulder, then gently down the top of his arm, frost covering his skin in the wake of her touch.
Rion didn’t pull away.
Her voice lowered. “I thought a gentleman was supposed to talk me out of such things, considering I might not remember what I truly want.” She paused at his side.
His breaths quickened. “I’ll only talk you out of things that might hurt you. And right now, you and I both know exactly what you want.”
She flushed but quirked a brow when he turned his head slightly to look at her. “And you’d just give it to me? Be content with my body for the night?”
