A nervous seed roots in my chest, delving between the fractures of my heart …
He’s talking like he’s planning tostealthem before the ceremony has even had a chance to take place.But if he swipes them from under Cainon’s nose, war will spark.
With Bahari.
If the ships are secured byme …Rhordyn will be utterly blameless, and I don’t care about the kickback I’ll receive.
Not anymore.
“Just don’t do anything rash. Cainon and I will be coupled by the full moon,” I say, trying to hide the trepidation in my voice—stare still traveling the lines of the map, etching them deeper into my mind. “Then I’ll get you all the ships you need. Free of charge.”
Free of war.
It takes me a second to realize it’s silent.
Toosilent.
He turns, and I drop my stare, landing in the pits of two black eyes.
“Free of charge?”
There’s menace in his tone, and I swallow, edging away from the windowsill, taking sharp steps backward as he rises from his seat—a tower of seething brawn.
“Free … ofcharge?” He growls, louder now, and there’s a shake to the words, like they’re battling their confines.
The back of my knees collide with the bed, and I tip, landing with anoomphupon the mattress as he stalks across the room. He looms over me, and I swear he’s bigger than normal, his muscles so pumped full of rage that I can feel it ricocheting against my skin.
He steps between my opened thighs, pins his hands either side of my head, and lowers himself slower than a setting moon—teeth bared, breath a cold assault against my fervid skin.
I hate that his mere closeness makes me throb again. That I picture him tearing at my buttons, ripping my pants down, widening my thighs. Picture him settling between them and shoving deep—stretching me.
Claiming me.
Destroying me from the inside.
My spine curls, breaths sharpen.
His lips skim the shell of my ear, casting a shiver down the side of my neck that pinches my nipples into painful peaks. “You think so little of yourself …”
I gasp as the words carve beneath my skin, dragging their delicate undertow across my blackened heart, making it ache from the assault.
Stop digging,I want to scream.
“What I think of myself is none of your business.”
“Wrong,” he growls—not giving my words time to breathe before he smothers them in his own. “Your pain calls to me. You can tuck it down deep and cover it up all you want, but I can still see it clear as day.”
“You can’t seeshit.”
He digs his face into the crook of my neck, inhaling, nuzzling my head to the side and making my skin tighten with delicious anticipation. He could pop it in a heartbeat. Burst my flesh and bleed my carotid.
What would I do if he did? Fight him?
Maybe.
Or maybe I’d wrap my arms around his neck andpull—keeping him locked on until he’d drained every drop.
“I can see your self-hatred,” he whispers, the word a violent patter against my ear. Every bone in my body locks, the backs of my eyes stinging so much I’m afraid to blink for fear of what it will send dashing down my cheeks. “You didn’t just roll into my spot when I left the bed, Orlaith.” His crumbled words gallop across my skin. “You clung to me all night like I was the only thing tethering you to the world.”
