All that inner turmoil crashed around us as we wreaked havoc on the armory. In the hazy light shining through the small windows, glass screamed at our feet, wood splintered, and metal groaned against the floor.
Ryker growled with each axe he tore from the walls.
I heard myself giggle at one point.
Perhaps our enemies had won and we were on the brink of going bad.
But I would rather destroy objects than let this emotional storm destroy us.
For an hour–or maybe five minutes–a cacophony of metal, glass, and wood surrounded us.
And godsdamn, it felt good to do something reckless after so much control and composure.
For me, it was only a release.
For Ryker, a heaviness resonated from his energy. This was the place where he’d used to train Geryll and Nadya. He wanted to splinter those memories, not the racks of weapons–but they’d do.
By the time the last axe smashed against the wall and fell to the ground with an unceremonious clink, both of our chests were heaving.
We stood in the middle of a destroyed armory, ears ringing in the silence.
But we were standing.
My pulse hadn’t slowed, though. It roared through my veins, ecstatic for the first time in weeks now that I had unleashed myself. It demanded more audacity.
Judging by the way Ryker’s nostrils flared, he was still on the edge, too.
Across the shattered armory, he ran a hand through his short hair, breaths coming out hard, all of his control vanished.
Now he looked barely contained.
He nodded my way. “You done?”
I licked my lips, the ghost of a laugh on them. “Not even close.”
His mouth twitched in a jagged grin. “My thoughts exactly.”
More metal hissed on the stones as we kicked the strewn weapons from our path. All that energy that still crackled under our skin made us move faster.
For the second time that day, we abandoned ourselves, this time in each other’s arms as his mouth finally, mercifully, claimed mine.
Chapter 74
Allie
My back hit the closest stone column, breath catching. His hand cradled my head to protect it while his lips did wonderful things to mine.
He caught my waist, trapping me between his strong body and the stone; there was no other place in all of Malhaven I would have rather been than here.
The kiss continued as it had appeared.
Hard.
Fast.
Like neither of us had the patience left to build toward it after weeks of not tasting the other.
My hands raced all over his shoulders and neck, gripping, pulling, trying to burn through all that pent-up energy that blazed through me.
