He didn’t push her away or even freeze, instead meeting her with the same fervent force. His hand slid up her back, supporting her as she stood on tiptoes, her fingers fisting the rough material of his shirt. When she lowered her hands and slid them beneath the hem, feeling the hard muscles of his torso flexing beneath her fingers, he groaned against her mouth,parting her lips with his tongue. She gasped, liquid fire pooling low in her belly at the taste of him.
She nipped at his bottom lip, and he muttered, “Fuck,” before hooking his hands beneath her thighs, lifting her to a natural ledge in the stone.
He paused, standing between her parted legs, his fingertips brushing bare skin where the material of her dress had ridden up. Their shared breaths were heavy, the roar of the waterfall fading to the background. The air was buzzing, and so was her blood, crackling with tangible energy.
“Do you want me to stop?” His voice was just loud enough for her to hear, and he looked her directly in the eye.
Her lips parted, and she forced herself to look away. She should say yes. Run. Scream in terror and tell the world what he was, because she couldn’t deny the presence of Kronos’ embers in his eyes any longer.
“Nya,” he pushed, fingers tightening against the soft flesh of her inner thigh. “Look me in the eye and tell me you wantmeto touch you.”
He thought she was going to say no. She was sure of it. The words were supposed to be a warning, and they should have listened. Instead, she shook her head. “Don’t stop.”
His pupils flared, dark desire drowning out the gold of the embers.You’re not thinking straight.
I don’t care?—
You’re going to regret this.
She was. Of course, she was. But she didn’t say that. Instead, she reached for him, threading her hand in his hair and pressing her brow to his. This way, she didn’t have to see his eyes. She could pretend being with him wasn’t a betrayal and ask for the one thing she wanted.
I want you. Please.
His breath caught, and he shuddered against her. “Nya?—”
“Please.”
She didn’t want to say the word aloud, but some part of her knew it was important to him that she did. He had grown up where consent didn’t matter, where women had been dragged past his door screaming and had never come back, so she understood why he needed to hear her ask clearly and without coercion.
He was nothing like that, but still, she hated herself more than she ever had for wanting him in the first place. There were too many red flags, too many people she was betraying by doing this.
She shoved the shame away to deal with later.
Slowly, he slid his fingers higher, the touch featherlight, making her shiver with every drag of his callouses against her skin. When he brushed against her undergarments, they both inhaled sharply. He paused for a second, giving her one more chance to reconsider. She only tugged him closer, kissing him hard, relishing the low sound that rumbled from his chest. He shoved aside the undergarment, swearing low and then biting her lip when he dragged his fingers through the mess already there.
He figured out quickly where exactly to touch her, paying attention to every time her breath hitched or her back arched against the stone behind her. Too soon, she felt the pleasure and ache grow to a near-blinding point, pushing her close to an edge she knew she would never recover from. This couldn’t mean nothing, not with him, even if she wanted it to.
Slowly, almost carefully, he slid one finger inside her, and all the breath emptied from her lungs, her eyes widening.
“Nya,” he breathed, pupils spread wide and cheeks flushed.
Then, he curled his finger, and it was over for her. Light flashed in her vision, and she saw colors she hadn’t known existed as pleasure raced up her spine, so potent, she wasn’t sureher body could take it. Her hands clawed blindly at Morgen’s skin, seeking some semblance of an anchor as she lost all sense of what it meant to have two feet on the ground.
When she finally began to float back to reality, he was panting against her shoulder, one hand pressed to the wall next to her, the other gripping her thigh. She felt hazy, still shuddering with tiny aftershocks, but what scared her the most was that she still wanted more. She wantedallof him, and she knew if they did that, there would truly be no going back.
He lifted his head, something dulled now in his expression as he said, without question, “You want to leave.”
She didn’t say anything, wanting to agree but unable to make herself believe it enough to say it aloud. But he must have misread her expression, because he nodded and gently lifted her off the ledge before stepping back.
Her breath shook, and before she could stop herself, she asked, “Was that… Did you do that because you really wanted to, or because you thought it would scare me enough to leave?”
His brows lifted. “Are you serious?”
“It’s just… Every time before, you never let things between us?—”
“Yeah.” He laughed hollowly, shaking his head. “I neverletmyself go there with you, Nya. That doesn’t mean I didn’t want to. I thought that much was made clear today.”
“Why?”
