My hands burned with the urge to run my fingers through her hair, coil my fingers through it at the base of her neck and draw her head back. Kiss her until she forgot the weight of the world pressing down on her.
Fuck.
The ale, however minimal, was messing with my judgment.
I can’t get involved with her.
She was fucking forbidden fruit in every way, and right now, the only thing I wanted was a taste.
I dragged my gaze from her, my fingers curling around my biceps as my arms tightened closer to my chest, as if that would keep me from reaching for her.
When I didn’t respond, her expression shifted, and she looked away. “I get it. Your life is in shambles, too. I’m sorry.”
Shambles was one word for it.
The exchange was enough to break the trance I’d fallen into, and I went to the edge of the bed and sat. “You’re right. We have to start trusting each other more,” I said, almost as much to myself as to her. “It’s the only way either of us is going to survive what’s happened to us, and what’s coming.” Even if I couldn’t tell her the whole truth.
I removed the boots as she turned, her face drained of color.
“I never should have saved you,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “I j-just couldn’t … I wasn’t strong enough to l-let you die. And now it doesn’t matter because we both know I won’t survive the Skorn.”
Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. She was blaming herself—for saving me, for not being ruthless enough to follow the Viori way.
Standing, I gently pulled her into my arms. She didn’t resist. She sank against me instead, like she belonged there. “You are strong, Seren.” I rested my chin atop her head. “Stronger than anyone I’ve ever known. You didn’t let me live out of weakness, you did it because you’re better than they are.”
Her arms slid around my neck and she stood on her tiptoes, her lips skimming my throat. I closed my eyes, tormented by the feel of her pressed up against me—the quiet, warm tremor of her breath.
She clung to me like I was the only solid thing in a world that kept shifting beneath her feet.
I tightened my grip, not knowing how else to steady her when everything else seemed to be falling apart.
As her lips crept up my neck, feather-soft, drawing closer to my jawline, the tension between us shifted into something else, more instinctive, more necessary.
It would be so fucking easy to slide my hands beneath her shirt, to palm the curves that had distracted me more than once over the last few days.
But she was vulnerable and had downed her ale as fast as I had.
Still, with her body pressed tight against mine, her mouth grazing my jaw, want took over rational thought. My cock hardened at the feel of her pushed up against my hips, my mouth aching to consume hers with the type of kiss that chaste peck in the wagon had stirred in my imagination.
My body was primed for something I shouldn’t take.
Fuck. Me.
A taste wouldn’t hurt. Just one small taste of those fucking full, luscious lips. One sip of her tongue …
Fire consumed me as her lips inched closer to my mouth, heat flooding my body.
“We shouldn’t,” I managed, even as my fingers skimmed the lacing of her vest, sliding onto her bare waist.
She let out a throaty laugh, her breath hot against my skin. “Really, Rykr?”
Well, fuck, I sound like a prude.
“If you don’t want it, we can stop,” she whispered in my ear as her hand slipped down over the bulge in my pants. “But your cock is telling me otherwise.” Her tongue darted against my ear. “And I like a man who takes what he wants.”
A guttural groan tore from my throat. My mind was spinning.
“Want has nothing to do with it,” I said in a low growl.
