I scratch at my dress until the tie at my neck loosens so I can slip it off. Suddenly, even the light weight of the fabric is too much. I can barely handle these thoughts, creeping around inside me. Wilder was right, by the time I reached my room, the haelmarrow cleared and so did my head. But the problem is, it didn’t change this fire in my belly that’s burning for him.
I dig around the room for a sleep dress and slide into the first one I find.
Wilder is the one with the quips and the suggestive comments.
He’s the one who won’t stop following me around.
And yet, he’s so disgusted by me being a human that he so quickly turned me down.
I storm to the mirror, and my freckles are glowing bright. Three flecks of starlight shine against my skin. It matches the shimmers in the sheer white fabric of my nightdress.
My hair glows in the moonlight, and I brush it back, accidentally tangling my fingers in one of the braids. But nothing stops this ache. This pure, fiery tide ripping through my belly.
Storming across my bedroom, I decide to give Wilder a piece of my mind. Maybe I’m simply in the mood to pick a fight. At least this is something I can win when every other battle feels too great lately.
The hallway is silent as I pad across it. The polished stonefloor is cool on my feet. Lifting my fist to Wilder’s door, I pause, letting my knuckles hover. Anger bubbles inside, but I hold myself back from knocking.
What am I doing?
Lowering my hand, I spin toward my door. But before I reach it, I feel him behind me. My eyes close as Wilder presses his bare chest to my back. I didn’t even hear his door open, but of course, he sensed me out here. Like he said, he always knows where I am.
Wilder’s knuckles graze the side of my arm, and my skin prickles. “What are you doing out here, Starfire?”
“I don’t know.” It’s the truth when I can’t act on this blizzard of emotion.
I want to hate him. I want to fight with him. I want to wish I never resurrected him. But when he turns me around, and I look up into his golden eyes, I just want him.
The one thing I can never have, even if he doesn’t feel the same.
“I do.” Wilder reaches up, cupping my cheek in his palm. His thumb grazes my freckles.
“Then why did you reject me on the balcony?”
“You weren’t in your right mind.”
“And that matters?”
“Yes.”His eyes glow. “You matter, Elorie. What you want matters.”
“It doesn’t.”My swallow is thick.“What I want is irrelevant now. I have to choose him. I have to choose my people. And even if I want to save them, that’s not a choice. Not really. If I could choose, I’d do more. I’d choose?—”
I stop myself short of saying I’d choose him because that won’t happen. No matter the guilt I’m carrying around.
Wilder’s thumb brushes over the freckles on my cheek.“You don’t have to choose me, Elorie Vale. But I will always choose you.”
He could be saying that because I’m the key to his plan todestroy the realm. Or it could be lust making our decisions murky tonight.
Wilder’s lips lower to mine, and it doesn’t matter. For this moment, we choose each other.
My arms wrap around his shoulders, and I surrender to his touch. To his lips—softly caressing mine until I open for him. The gentle welcome turns ravenous as his hands find my hips, and he lifts me into his arms.
Wrapping my legs at his hips, he carries me backward into my room, kicking the door closed and slamming my back against it. His tongue tangles with mine, and I taste haelmarrow and mint.
Emotional decimation that I’ll never survive.
His fingers dig into my sides as he rocks his hips between my legs.
“You’re so beautiful,”he whispers through the thread, not breaking the kiss.
