“No,” I agreed, my voice unrecognizable. My body trembled with restraint, her kiss having unbound something in me. “You shouldn’t have.”
I couldn’t think of a single reason why not as I kissed her back—deeper, harder—erasing the nauseating sight of Baron Ionis’s disrespecting hands on her and replacing it with the fantasy that had stalked me since meeting her.
No one should touch her. Not even me. And yet we collided in a tangle of lips and limbs, all rational thought obliterated as her tongue swept into my mouth.
Fucking stars.
I was in over my head as my body ignited into a blaze of unfamiliar, endless want. I grasped her hips, palms burning.I tugged her into me as the wordsforbiddenandtreasonouseddied from my mind. Beyond caring, I was drowning in her, and she was the only thing still tethering me to this world.
And then… our teeth clanked together.
I froze, certainthatwasn’t supposed to happen. I tore my mouth from hers. “Fuck, I’m not?—”
Rahzlyn ran her thumb over my mouth, biting her own. The bones in my body threatened to combust as she murmured, “Don’t think. Feel.” She leveraged her hands around my neck to hoist herself higher out of the water, writhing against my chest. Her parted lips ghosted mine tauntingly.
“Feel,” I repeated, my hips rolling back into hers of their own accord. Water lapped from the force of my body as my arousal pushed into her pelvis, seeking contact. Friction.Flesh.
She hiked her legs around me, eyes half-lidded. “How does it feel, Raithe?”
Nothing had ever felt so good. Soright.
I backed her against the pool’s edge. She moaned from the impact, her upper back pushed to the wall and my groin pressing even harder righttherewhere everything burned so pleasurably. She arched into me. I wound one hand up her spine, fisting the ends of her hair, while the other cupped her smooth thigh. I shuddered, squeezing once, twice—my instincts taking over.
She gasped, the sound caroming my bones. I tilted my head to kiss her jaw. “You feel… fucking incredible. Mind-altering. Sky-shattering. Star-bursting.”
She bared her neck to my exploring mouth. “Are you mocking me?”
“Depends,” I crooned against her wet skin. I wanted to sink my teeth there. “Does this mean you forgive me?”
“Keep kissing me and I’ll let you know.” Her fingers threaded through my hair and tugged me closer. My tongue slipped intoher mouth. She greeted mine with a playful flick that sent me over the edge.
“Fucking stars,” I groaned into her, devouring her. I drank in the lingering tartness of red berries from her wine, breathed in the sweet warmth woven into her marrow, and clung to her curves as the water enveloped us.
“Rahzlyn,” I groaned again. Our bodies ground together, both of us seeking more. My free hand slipped beneath her dress, searching?—
She pulled away, chest heaving. I sought her lips, but her resistance had me stilling immediately. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, you’re just…” Her eyes lowered. I lifted her chin, worried I’d gone too far. “It’s so silly. You’re the only one who has ever called me by my name.”
“Rahzlyn?”
“Why not Roselyn or Novah or Princess?”
My answer was honest and simple. “Because that’s what you asked to be called. That night I took you from Gemini. You said your name is Rahzlyn, so that is who you are to me.”
Tears welled in her eyes.
I smoothed her hair back. “What’s wrong?”
Her face brightened. “My name—Rahzlyn—was a way for me to bemein a world that wanted the opposite. Besides my brother, you are the only one who has ever listened. Everyone else dismissed it, dismissed me. And I realize now that the only respect that truly matters… is my own. It’s not my fault if someone else doesn’t respect me or my wishes. Because those who do are the ones who matter.” She shook her head. “It’s so simple, but I’ve had that power all along. I’ve just given it to the wrong people, when it's mine to claim.”
Her eyes shone with such conviction it made me want to kiss her again, and again, and again. I wanted to pummel anyone who had ever tried to dim her brilliance. She was capable of farmore than she believed herself to be, but she was enough just as she was.
I was beginning to think the same for myself, thanks to her.
I sought her mouth again.
“Wait.” Rahzlyn planted a hand against my chest and craned her neck. “Do you hear that?”
