But her legs tighten around my hips, her hand flexes against my heart, and she jolts forward.
My eyes widen when her lips halt a mere breath away from mine.
Her left hand slides up my chest, and around the back of my neck, muted touches, mere sensations of pressure beneath my armor, but then her fingers slide up into my hair.
My breath leaves my chest at the heated sensations running the length of my spine, the barest stroke of her fingertips against my scalp triggering sharp pleasure.
Her voice is low, her lips close to mine. “If I want to kiss you,monster…will you let me?”
I want to. More than anything.
I need to know how she would choose to kiss me, if she would be cautious, soft, or maybe…hungry. If her mouth would travel the length of my body and finally give me the release I’ve been craving.
My reply leaves my lips. Instinctive. Final. “No.”
I can’t let her. I can’t surrender control.
I expect her to rebuke me. After all, how is it that I think I’m allowed to kiss her, but I won’t accept the reverse?
I expect her to call me out. Rage at me. As she should.
Instead, she’s quiet, only her ragged breathing betraying the quick beat of her heart.
Her lips press together, a movement that causes thevery edges of her mouth to brush against mine, sending another shot of heat through my body that nearly drives me wild.
Before I can give in to it and crash into her, her whisper stops me cold.
“I will ask you again soon enough.”
It’s the same thing she said when we first flew to the Iron Kingdom. She wanted to know what she should call me, and I told herAntony, immediately regretting it.
Regret floods me now, too. Fucking,fuckingregret. And now I have too many reasons for feeling it.
“Library,” I snarl, needing to move.
Abandoning any prospect of putting her back on her feet, I pull her away from the wall, only now remembering I need to retrieve my helmet.
Fucking helmet.
“Bend,” she commands me, and for some reason, my knees obey.
She leans left and scoops up the helmet from the floor, where it was lying next to me. It must have bounced off the opposite wall and right back to my feet.
She pulls it over my head, but she takes her time, first brushing the unruly strands of my hair away from my eyes, trailing her fingertips around my ears, before dragging the metal slowly down over my head.
I don’t wait for her to finish before I lurch forward, don’t care that the metal rams the final inch because of the way I jolt.
Her hands land on my shoulders, and she holds on as I stride along the corridor and carry her to the staircase at its end.
While locked cells sit at the other end of the corridor, this end contains multiple arched doorways that lead to other corridors, each tunnel providing entry into every tower in the Constellation.
There’s even a door into Galla’s quarters. Of course, sheboarded it up on her side long ago, lining the inside of the boards with iron for good measure. I suspect she worried someone might push her through it more than she fears I’ll kill her in her sleep.
But Galla is farthest from my mind right now.
The faster I walk, the more strongly I inhale the scent of Thyra’s hair, the elusive scent of roses.
I hurry to the top of the stairs as quickly as I can.
