“What are you doing?” she snapped, but couldn’t stop her instinctive counting.
Eight, nine, ten…
He chuckled. “Relax, Princess. I know you can’t sleep without.”
Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen…
Asta had been subconsciously counting his strokes already, but now she was focusing on them, hoping they would help relieve some of the tension in her chest.
Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four…
Four more. Four more strokes and she could breathe. Four more strokes and she would be able to focus on the world around her again.
Twenty-eight.
Twenty-eight. The age my mother was when she died. When I killed her.
The ball in her chest released its grip on her thoughts. She didn’t know why it worked when Kaid did it, but she couldn’t help but let a tear slip from the corner of her eye at the thought. They had just been through something terrible and he still remembered. He remembered her ritual and didn’t tell her toforget about it for a night; to let it go. He didn’t remind her that it wasn’t important in comparison to the current danger they were in. He helped her.
Asta closed her eyes, wishing away the comfort it brought. She shouldn’t feel this way. Not about him.
A strong arm wrapped around her abdomen while another nudged her head to lift off the cave floor. When she set it back down, she realized that Kaid was providing her with a pillow using his own arm.
The emotions were undeniable now. There was no stopping them. At least not tonight.
Asta allowed her courage to take one final stand before it disappeared completely. “Was it all a game? WasIa game?”
Kaid’s body went rigid, his voice unsteady. “You’re the first thing in my life that hasn’t been.”
Asta swallowed loudly and scooted back so her body was pressed against Kaid’s. At first, he didn’t react to her movement and she worried that she had crossed a boundary. But his fingers start brushing against the fabric of her shirt, tracing lazy circles across her torso.
Kaid respectfully avoided any intimate areas within his path. He traced a long line starting at her hip, gliding up her side, breezing past the side of her chest, tracing her collarbone, and running up the corner of her jaw. Asta’s breathing hitched under his touch, all thoughts leaving her mind besides him. He continued to trace the contours of her body, dipping his hand down to outline her thighs.
She backed into Kaid as hard as she could, unable to stop her hips from moving in a circular motion. What did it matter? They may die, anyway.
At first, Kaid paused when he felt her hips rocking, but then his fingers continued their circles with more purpose.
He leaned down, his warm breath coating the skin of Asta’s ear. “You’re safe,” he whispered.
Asta let out a small laugh, her skin mottling with raised bumps. “That simply can’t be true when I’m stuck in a cave with my greatest enemy.”
Her proclamation didn’t stop him from pressing his lips to her neck, each kiss deeper than the last. Asta craned her neck to allow him more access and he chuckled.
Kaid’s teeth grazed Asta’s earlobe before he asked, “Do you still hate me?”
“Yes,” Asta replied breathlessly.
She realized that was the answer he had wanted when Kaid’s lazy circles quickly turned to a grip on her abdomen.
“Tell me why,” he growled.
What was the reason? Because of his reputation? Because of his uncanny ability to show up everywhere she was? Because he matched her challenges and pushed back?
There was only one real answer which summed everything up.
“Because, Kaid, you are… insufferable. You drive me absolutely mad. And Ihatethat I enjoy it.”
Asta concluded that the sentiment was reciprocated when Kaid slipped his hand under her shirt and began palming her breasts. She rolled onto her back and captured his mouth with hers, their kissing feverish and determined, much different than the kissing they had done in her bed.
