“I’m a human. You’re fae.”
“As if such cohabitation hasn’t happened before? They are more common than you think. Our people have been mingling for centuries.”
“They have also been at war for just as long,” she counters. “Attacking us. Stealing us away. Killing us.”
My jaw clenches. The past is rising between us like a wall. “Princess…”
“I can’t, Valen.” Her hands spasm against my cheeks. “I can’t.”
Bitterness wells in my throat. “Are you happy here? Tell me. I want to hear you say it.”
She frowns, her mouth tightening, but she can’t lie to me. “I will be.”
“Will you?” I release her hands to slide my palms over her shoulders and to the back of her neck, where silky strands have escaped her upswept do. Leaning in, I draw in her delicate, sweet scent. “I was made for you. You were made for me. It’s fate.”
“I don’t believe in fate,” she says, and when I draw back, needing to see the look in her eyes, she rises on tiptoe, throws her arms around my neck and kisses me.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
ROSAMUND
I kiss him.
I’ve tried so hard to stay away from him. Every time I see him, I want to leave, run away with him and abandon this place and its cold-hearted owner.
But he hasn’t exactly asked me to be with him. “Run away” he says, but he doesn’t say “with me,” and I don’t know what exactly he means.
And leaving now feels like giving up too easily, like giving in to a physical and emotional urge, instead of using my mind to make decisions about my life. My choices have often been taken away from me. I won’t let my body or heart dictate what I do. It’s a moment of passion, an impulse, and then what? What if I hate being in the mountains with Valen? What if it isn’t any better than this?
But Valen isn’t like Lord Eorl,that smug voice whispers in my mind.You want him.You like him.
Gods help me, I do. Teeth and ears and tail and all. Animal form, grunts and growls, and flashing fangs.
All of him.
So I kiss him, and after a moment when I think I got it all wrong, he kisses me back, hauling me against his body. Hecaptures my lips, and plunges his tongue into my mouth when I gasp. He twines his tongue with mine, that stud stroking the inside of my mouth.
It starts a flame in my middle, an urgent throb and a sweet ache only he can soothe. His taste… Gods, his taste. It fits the way he looks, the way he smells, all man, all strength and power, clean and wild like the mountains and forests he loves.
He’s the forest, the crisp air, the warm earth, darkness and life. He’s the mystery and the beginning of everything, and I want him.
Gods, I want him.
“I want to touch you,” I breathe. “Please, Valen, I need to touch you.”
“Or I could touch you the way you touched me,” he growls against my lips. “Show you what pleasure is. How a man can pleasure you.”
This is where I should say no. But I’m lost in him, his presence, his scent, his voice… His existence. And his offer.
I’ve been dreaming about him touching me. Pleasuring me. I want him.
What’s the harm in letting him touch you?the small voice whispers sweetly at the back of my mind.Only touching. That’s not the same as lying with him.
And it feels so good to be near him. He makes me feel beautiful. He makes me feelwhole.
One last time. One last pleasure. I’m getting married in a week. Once that is done, I’ll be the lady of this manor and will have to start on a new path.
Without Valen. Because once I’m married, he’ll go, and the thought of him leaving surges to the surface, spearing me through the chest.
