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I leaned against the bedpost and ripped open the letter. I didn’t know what his angle was or what he was getting at, but I didn’t care to find out. To think I’d almost felt bad for what happened earlier. Thank the stars we hadn’t kissed.
“Wow Talon, you sure know how to make a girl feel special?—”
“That. Right there, that’s exactly the type of shit I’m talking about. I’m tired of your immature, futile human games. We nearly kissed, and you’re acting like a damn child!”
“Me?” My skin blazed as I closed the distance between us, slamming a finger into his hard chest, and he swayed. “You’re the one who just stormed in here with a bone to pick, all because I changed my mind. Now that’s childish!”
“Do you hear yourself? I don’t give a shit that you changed your mind!” He stepped toward me, our chests inches apart, and I retreated, but he kept advancing—one step for every word he spoke until I was flush against the wall, trapped. “I have a problem. You’re too self-consumed with your own bullshit that you can’t pull your head out of your ass far enough to woman up and own the things you do.”
“I’m too consumed with my own bullshit?” I scoffed and met his fixed glare. “Enlighten me, Talon. Because if I remember correctly, the only reason I’m in this predicament in the first place was because I was trying to help my mother. Who are you to judge me anyway, huh? You’re the one with impossibly high walls that refuse to let anyone in. Seems like you’re the one who needs to pull their head out of their ass.”
He huffed a laugh and leaned down, his lips brushing my ear and sending defiant goosebumps down my arms. “Tell me, firefly. Are you deflecting because I’m right or because you’re too cowardly to face the truth?”
Anger thrummed through my veins—that was it—I’d heard enough.
I wasn’t a coward!
He could be an ass all he wanted, but I’d be damned if I stood there and took it. I already had too much on my plate. I didn’t need to deal with this too. Screw it. Screw the trials. And screw him!
Without waiting another second, I craned my arm back and let it fly, hoping to blemish his flawless skin when Talon caught my wrist.
The muscle in his cheek tensed as I fought against his tight grip and struggled to get free, but he pinned it against the wall, foiling my attempt. I sucked in a breath as his body pressed into mine, painfully aware of every single place we connected.
A subtle fervor weighed thickly on Talon’s lashes. “I’ve trained you better than that. I’m almost insulted.”
I bit my cheek and swung my other hand. It was inches closer to meeting his cheekbone this time, but he grabbed it just before it could make contact and held it to the wall beside the other. I bucked from his touch. From the heat radiating off his body—from mine. My breath quickened, our chests rising and falling together.
His features softened. Yet anger danced with desire as his thumb idly caressed the throbbing vein in my wrist. Gentle. How could two vastly different emotions feel almost identical?
He dropped my hands, leaving his on the wall like a cage around my body, but I didn’t try to fly away from his confines. The longer those emerald eyes bore into mine, the less I wanted to run, but rather melt into his touch. Maybe it was the last two days’ worth of emotional turmoil. Or maybe it was a severe lack of judgment.
Whatever the reason, I lifted onto the tips of my toes and kissed him. Hard and deliberate, needing to release this annoying pent-up frustration.
Stars. His lips were like pure silk, and my head buzzed.
As his arms fell to his sides, he pulled me towards him, securing his rough hands around my waist to ensure that I wouldn’t float away. He held my head to his, his fingers entwined in the hair at the back of my neck, and I willingly surrendered, welcoming his tongue greedily as they collided in a nimble rhythm.
We pawed at each other. Touching, feeling, clawing at whatever we could get our hand on like two scavenged animals.
Needing more. I moaned, arching into him. More. Like he was sunshine, and I was the darkest, coldest night in winter.
His hands found their way to the hem of my shirt, his calloused fingers grazing my stomach. The underside of my breast.
I sighed and allowed him access to my neck.
Talon’s tongue lapped and sucked and stroked. His hair tickled my jaw, and my eyes rolled back into their sockets. I held his head to me as he gripped the back of my thigh and wrapped my leg around his waist, pressing his hips into mine until I was flush against the wall.
Selfish. Needy. Yet it wasn’t enough.
My leg tightened around him, eliciting a guttural moan from Talon that made my insides throb, and I bit his earlobe to keep quiet. Then I reached down, slipping my fingers past his waistband, and grazed the trail of hair below his navel.
But then he was gone.
Off me in a flash and across the room like I was infected. Like my ice had started to smother his flames.
I tugged my shirt back into place, my stomach in a hundred knots and face flushed while we stared at one other.
His pupils were wide with disgust? Confusion?
