I try to pull away from him, but his grip, although still gentle, firmly holds me in place. I bite my lip. “I know. It is just—a lot.” Giving up for now, I lean into his palm slightly, the feel of it against my face causing longing to bubble up inside me. I have always found it so difficult to stay upset with Sorin. Whenever he touches me, my body seems to short-circuit the heat of the room racking up a thousand degrees warmer, making it hard for me to focus on whatever I was upset about in the first place.
Truthfully, I prefer not to be upset with him, especially after everything he has done for me, but I just hate being so fucking confused about everything: my next move, my purpose now we are fuck knows where, Sorin, Sam, the prince. Everything that I have ever known or will know is out of my hands or hidden behind some riddle. I just want to be able to control one thing. Sorin’s eyes flick to my lips and a spark lights within me. My nipples are hard, and the adrenaline is making my head rush, twisting my anger into forbidden thoughts. I chew my lip a little harder trying to distract myself.
Completely oblivious to my inner struggle, Sorin softens, speaking to me in a tone full of reverence. “Lace, if it is the last thing I do, I will get us through this and make it up to you. I swear.” His eyes catch on my bitten lip, and he pulls it free from my teeth. A soft noise escapes me, and I watch his eyes dilate and as he rubs a finger over my swollen lip. We sit, staring at each other as time seems to still, the air in the space seeming to become alight with some foreign energy. I feel myself slowly start to close the space between us, until we are a hair away, breathing in the other's next breath.
"Lace?" Sorin whispers, his lips barely brushing against mine.
I glance up at him and then back down to his lips, one of my hands finding its place on his thigh. Energy crackles through my palm. Maybe it is the stress of the situation, maybe it is being stuffed in a tiny cave, but either way, I am not letting this opportunity go— not this time. “Fuck it.” I whisper, more to myself than to him.
Before I could over think the action, I press my lips to Sorin’s, a move he meets with the same force, and I am lost. Drowning in the feeling of his lips moving on mine, I thread my fingers into his hair, pulling him in. He responds by lifting me onto his lap, our breaths filling the quiet of the enclosed space, his hands roughly grabbing my hips. Breathless and dizzy, my body aches for more. I grind myself into Sorin’s leg, trying to soothe the growing need inside me.
With a tortured groan, Sorin lets go with one hand to entangle his fingers in my hair, using the leverage to tilt my head deepening the kiss. My skin heats further as my arms continue to trace the planes of Sorin’s chest before vines weave themselves over my body, encircling my waist and arms like a harness. Gasping I pull away for a moment. The greenery sprouted from behind Sorin, its tendrils feel like a soft rope against my skin, holding me firmly in place. Sorin pulls me backinto him and I moan as the vines start to squeeze and massage my body with a gentle force hitching my desire and turning my thoughts to mush. My newly shortened dress allows Sorin more intimate access to my thighs, which he takes advantage of his hands wandering to squeeze them, while his vines do their work massaging my breasts. Overwhelmed, I pull away from Sorin’s lips for air. He starts trailing kisses down my neck and I whimper, opening my eyes to watch him. Something flickers in the corner of my vision, and I freeze.
The entire cave is alight, the rocks around us glowing molten red. I blink rapidly.Not only red but on fire.The rocks are on fucking fire.Are we under attack?I jump from Sorin’s lap and pick up the sharp rock we used earlier, glancing around the corner to watch the entrance of the cave. Sorin still has yet to move from his seated position but worry coats his expression. “Lace? Everything alright?” His voice is breathy, and he clears it before slowly standing. His gaze turns watchful, but more towards me than any intruder. Even in my alarm, my body is screaming at me to go back to him and finish what we started. I will it to calm down, but it chooses to do the opposite, my heart racing as the flames start to grow.
“The- the cave?” I splutter. My mouth refuses to form the words to tell him the obvious so instead I just stare at him dumbfounded. My panic is making way for confusion as he does not seem to notice the roaring flames surrounding us.Does he not see what I see?
“What about it?”
I start to move towards the cave entrance, but pause at his question, my eyes connecting with his.
As we continue this stare down, I start to calm and strangely so does the fire licking the cave walls. “Oh fuck.” I jump, startled by the sudden extinguishing of the flames around us. Looking around at the cave walls I see no evidence it was even there in thefirst place. I walk over to the wall and touch its smooth surface. No scorch marks, no heat, nothing. I shake my head in disbelief.Did kissing Sorin cause me to hallucinate or was this wall not on fucking fire two seconds ago?Sorin’s head is now tilted, a smirk of amusement plastered to his face as he watches me. For some reason this makes me feel insanely embarrassed about the whole thing and out of instinct I do the thing drilled into me from birth, I start to apologize.
“Sorry I do not know what came over me I—”
Sorin barks out an amazed laugh, which causes me to jump. “Sorry Lace, I—that was…wow.” He is looking at me with a weird expression now I cannot place.
I close my eyes.Shit, I am totally about to cry, am I not?The last few minutes have been a roller coaster of emotions I would like to depart from.Please keep your cool, you do not want to prolong this cluster fuck by sobbing in front of the man you just lost your first kiss to!
Sorin sees my face drop and straightens. “No no no, Lace. You misunderstand.” He walks over to my position near the entrance of the cave and coaxes me to the back of it, urging me to sit. I do and he starts to stroke my hand slowly pulling me back towards him. His pull is gentle, like I am a fragile treasure he does not want to break. The carefulness of this maneuver frustrates me, especially after the primal heat of earlier, but I relent, if only so I can hide my face in his chest.
Sorin has always felt safe to me. No matter what the situation, if he is around things just get better. No matter what adventure we went on, or situation we ended up in, he has always been consistently there for me. Consistently in a great mood. Consistently my rock. He allowed me to roam free and enjoy Tikilium despite my father's wishes. He was the shoulder I could cry on whenever things went to shit. I have always adored the care he has for me. His gentleness and dependability havealways been my guiding light, but what if I have depended on him too much? Or worse, what if these feelings I have for him, feelings I have now acted upon, ruin any chance of friendship we may have in the future? My capture along with the fact that I would have no idea what to do should we have actually been in any danger has me nervous.If something were to happen to him, would I be able to survive it? Survive life without him in it? I do not think so.
“In all the lands of Ptheryeth I never thought I would get an opportunity to kiss you. That was amazing, Lace.” His face fills with that expression again bringing me back to the present. “You’re amazing, Lace.” He tucks a tendril of escaped hair behind my ear. “But…” he scratches the back of his head. He is definitely fidgeting. “I apologize if I went too far with it. I didn’t mean to freak you out.” He whispers this, seemingly worried and continues stroking the top of my head.
I release a small laugh into Sorin’s chest.
“What?” he asks, laughter tinging the edges of his voice.
“You did not go too far, if anything I—”
He lets out a huge burst of laughter. “You did not have huge vines shoot out of the ground to hold me down, although…” he chuckles. “What I am saying is, I should have eased us into it. I apologize if I overwhelmed you.”
“You are fine. Truly… maybe… maybe we can do it again sometime?”
His hand stills on my hair, and he glances down at me, his eyes hooded with desire. “Yeah?”
“Yes.” I try and stamp down the blush starting on my cheeks but finding that impossible I once again bury my face in his chest. Chuckling warmly, he continues stroking my hair softly.
In the peaceful silence, I think back to the firelit cave and decide to chalk it up to a crazy hallucination, at least for now. Sorin does his best to maneuver his big body and mine to thefloor of the cave, snuggling me into the crevice of his arm and half on top of him. The position looks more awkward than comfortable for him, but he does not seem to mind too much. He lets out a content breath. I snuggle deeper into him, taking this moment to enjoy some peace and privacy.
“The cave should be safe for now. Rest. I will wake us early next morning to start the search for Sam.”
I nod my head into him, and he throws an arm around me. The noises of the night filter through the cave.This was probably the craziest day of my entire lifeI think to myself before I am lulled into a deep sleep.
Chapter twenty-one
Sleeping Beauty
