Needing him to hear me, I dart forward again, reaching up to wrap both hands around his shoulders, needing to follow my instinct to kiss him and wipe away his fears. Despite understanding the unspoken rule that somehow, kisses are rarities between us.
My fingertips brush his neck and I’m unsettled by how cold his skin suddenly feels, so startlingly icy that I gasp as I run my fingertips to his jaw.
He wrests free of my hands, leaving them raised in the air so I’m holding on to nothing.
“You shouldn’t make impossible promises,” he says, his eyes empty now.
I can’t keep the hurt from my voice. “My promises are only impossible if you’re not by my side.” I reach for him again,prepared for the chill in his skin. “Stay with me. Stand with me. And nothing is impossible.”
His beautiful lips part, his green eyes flooding with pain, and he presses his hand to his chest. “You truly believe that.”
“I know it,” I say, every part of my body thrumming with the need to close the gap between us and make him see that together, we can defy the impossible.
Before I can make contact, he drops to his knees, his arms hanging loosely at his sides.
His face turns up to mine and he whispers, “No matter how badly you want to believe you’ll remain unaffected by that book, it will destroy you, my Veda.” His voice is hollow as he repeats himself. “It will destroy you.”
Looking down at him, drowning in his gentle eyes, trying to see past the dark light flickering around him and the strands of his silver hair that act like a mirror to all that darkness, that’s when I realize…
This is his broken face.
All his anguish, all his fear is bared for me to see. He has no shields and, despite my convictions, that realization brings me sudden dread.
I sway toward him, uncertain if he’ll push me away again, only for his arms to wrap around my hips, tugging me closer.
He buries his head against my stomach, kissing me through the material of my shirt. “Don’t break, my Veda,” he says, his voice muffled as he tugs at the base of the shirt. “Never break. No matter what.”
My voice sticks in my throat as he pushes my tunic up, his mouth working across my bare skin to the base of each breast, his tongue swirling against my skin, his needy groan rumbling through me.
I run my fingers into his hair, closing my eyes with a moan when he pushes my bra up and out of the way to access my breasts, his hands and mouth stroking away all shreds of worry.
He travels a path to the top of my pants, tugging them down a little and kissing along the edge of the waistband, tasting every inch of skin that he reveals and my sigh mingles with his groan.
Sweeping his arms across my back, he rises up and takes me with him into the trees, where the foliage wraps around us and the flowers bend at my back. I can’t tell what’s bough or branch or trunk, only that there’s a solid surface now behind me, and the keeper’s mouth and hands are feeding the ache within my chest.
An ache that ascends into my mind and floods my awareness.
A need that’s all-consuming.
I reach for the waistband of his pants, but he’s already dropping to his knees again, dragging my underwear down, his mouth closing hungrily over my core.
I grip his shoulders, sensing the wetness between my legs—from his mouth or my body, probably both—before his finger slips inside me, easing the ache while his mouth flicks across my clit.
My hands find his neck, his hair, gripping his shoulders again, needing to touch him wherever I can reach, wanting to connect more fully than this.
Needy gasps leave my lips, becoming moans as the pleasure builds, a force between us.
“Let go, my Veda,” he says against my core, his tongue pressing and releasing, a desperation in his voice that I wasn’t expecting. “I need you to let go.”
I give in to my body’s needs, rocking against his hand and mouth, dragging his free hand back to my breast, letting the heat build within me, taking everything from it until the crash breaks across me.
When I open my eyes, his broken face is gone. His eyes are the darkest blue, his hair is as black as the panthers’ fur, his body sleek and deadly as he should be, his smile even darker. And yet his angry face brings me peace, not fear.
I catch my breath, leaning forward to kiss his upturned lips, conscious of the glistening moisture on them, which he licks away before I can reach him.
Wrapping one arm around me, he pushes aside the foliage around us and we sink together onto the carpet of leaves and flowers, still cocooned within the trees.
I leave my pants off and quickly slip off my bra and shirt before we meet the ground.
