My pulse jumped, traitorous, and his grin widened, a predator’s smile dressed up in charm.
“There it is,” he murmured, brushing his thumb along my jaw. “That pulse. You want me to lose control again, don’t you?”
“I want you to stop pretending you don’t need it,” I said. “You’re trembling.”
He laughed quietly, low in his throat. “Oh, sweetie. That’s not me trembling.”
My breath caught, as his fingers traced the side of my neck, slow, deliberate, until his hand rested at the base of my throat. He leaned in, close enough that the edge of his teeth grazed my skin, not biting, just a reminder.
“Maybe I should,” he whispered, tone dropping. “Maybe I should just take what Iwant.”
I froze, half expecting the bite, and he felt it. The stillness, the anticipation, he was savoring it.
“Mm,” he hummed. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? The heat, the sting… the way you always melt after.”
“Malakai—”
“Careful,” he said, his lips brushing my pulse. “Say my name like that, and I might think you’re begging.”
My fingers curled in his shirt. “And if I am?”
He chuckled, dark, low, dangerously amused. “You shouldn’t tease a starving man, kitten.”
“Then eat.”
His teeth pressed just hard enough to make me gasp, a threat without the follow-through. For a second, I thought he’d given in, and then he pulled back, eyes gleaming, victorious.
“See?” he said softly. “You still flinch, still wait for the monster.”
My breath steadied, slowly. “You think that’s what I see?”
He blinked, thrown by the quiet in my voice.
I pressed my palm to his chest, right where his heart hammered beneath the skin. “You call yourself a monster, but you were the only one who didn’t treatmelike one. When my flames burned out of control, when everyone else turned away,youstayed. You didn’t run, even when it got ugly.”
He chuckled, low and lazy. “Stop it. You’re talking as if I’m some kind of hero… Need I remind you what I am?”
“You are my savior,” I said simply.
That wiped the amusement clean off his face. For a heartbeat, he just stared, as if the words had burned through all the clever lines he could have thrown back. His hand rose, fingers tracing the edge of my jaw, almost reverent.
“Don’t say things like that,” he murmured, voice softer now, the teasing turned molten. “It makes me want things I shouldn’t.”
I leaned in, nibbling his collarbone. “I want you to want them.”
His breath hitched, and just like that, the restraints began to shatter. “All I could see before me was a dead end, until you stepped up and showed me the way forward.”
I leaned back enough to catch his gaze, his beautiful, tender eyes locked on my lips, yet he wasn’t moving. No, he was givingmethe control, letting me decide whether to push on or back away.
“Malakai.” I inhaled deeply. “Stop pulling away from me when you’re having a hard time, I don’t want to lose you.”
“Ethalyn,” he breathed out, our eyes locking. “All my life, I’ve been in control, it’s been easy. Keeping the beast locked up tight, only released when on the brink of starvation. Until you came along… You undo me in ways I’ve never imagined and hells… I’m yours. I’ve been yours ever since that day you uncovered my secret, the day we both dropped our masks for one another.”
I kissed him softly, affectionately. He paused briefly, his breath staggering, before he caught my mouth again, rougher this time, the kiss dragging heat through every inch of me. His hand slid into my hair, the other gripping my hip hard enough to make me gasp.
But even as the kiss deepened, hungry and consuming, there was something tender in the way he held me, as if he couldn’t decide whether to devour or worship.
My magic stirred in response, a shimmer of heat beneath my skin, sparks licking the air where our bodiesmet.
