His hands hovered just above mine. “May I?”
I’d forgotten his healing powers. Probably ones he only had because he was an alpha. Something that still blew my mind.
I nodded.
He took my hands gently, one at a time. Histhumbs barely brushed over the shredded, raw skin of my palms, but the moment his magic touched me, golden and cool, I gasped.
“Hold still,” he murmured.
I did.
He worked slowly, reverently. His magic stitched the torn flesh back together with the kind of care no one had ever given me. Not for something like this.
“You didn’t give up today,” he said after a long moment. “Not once. Not even when it got hard. I admire you, Brynn.”
“Ididgive up,” I corrected. He had to carry me across like a baby.
He shook his head. “Your body gave out on you, but your spirit never gave up.”
His assessment of me had pride filling my chest. “Well, you didn’t give up either.”
His lips twitched. “I almost did. Once. When you cried.”
“I wasn’t crying,” I said quickly, though it was a lie. Those endless monkey bars had broken me.
“You were.” He leaned forward so that his face was inches from mine. “I wanted to sprout wings and fly you away so that no more tears would ever leave those beautiful eyes.”
My breath caught.
It was the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me.
His gaze fell to my lips, and everything inside me went still.
He leaned closer, slowly, watching me the entire time, like I might bolt. Like he’d stop if I told him to.
I didn’t.
“Brynn?” he breathed against my mouth.
“Yes?” I panted, praying to the Creator himself that Kaelric was about to kiss me.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you from the moment I laid eyes on you,” he said.
It was a confession, one I hadn’t realized I’d been dying to hear.
When his lips touched mine, it wasn’t soft. It wasn’t shy. It was claiming.
Like he’d been holding back for days. Weeks.
My heart shattered open in my chest as I kissed him back, body aching, mouth desperate.
He tasted like fire and sweetness and every impossible thing I wasn’t supposed to want.
His hand slid to the back of my neck as I pressed closer to him, my heart already shattered wide open. My hands gripped the front of his shirt, dragging him closer across the bench as his body caged mine in, careful but relentless.
His tongue slid across mine, and I moaned,feeling something in my very soul click together. There was a rightness to this kiss, to us being together like this. I felt like I’d waited my whole life to be kissed like this.
When we finally pulled apart, we were both panting, his forehead resting against mine.
