“Thatwon’thappen.” His brows pull in.
“You don’t know that.” I hold his gaze. “I’ve spent all night being dragged, lifted, carried, told where to go, told what to do. I watched Neeve die and I couldn’t stop it. I don’t know if Ahriawill come back, and I can’t make her. I can’t make the bond seal. I can’t make any of it stop.” My fingers curl around his. “But I can choose this. I can choose you.”
“That doesn’t mean you wantthis.”
“This.” I roll my hips into his, tearing a groan from his lips. “Is exactly what I want. I want you. You’re the only thing that feels good right now, and I have waited too long. Other than Ahria, Blood Moon, for weeks you’re all I’ve been able to think about.” I search his eyes. “Haven’t you been thinking about me?”
“Oh, Bloom, you don’t want to know what I’ve been thinking about.”
With his hands still holding mine firmly above my head, I lean up on my tiptoes and suck down on his bottom lip. “Yes, I do.” I stress every word. “Tell me.”
“Fuck,” he hisses as his gaze drop to my mouth. “When do you want to know about? When I first wake up? When I’m eating? When I’m on patrol?” His jaw stiffens. “Or when I’m alone in my chambers, hard and aching, stroking myself."
Air catches in my throat. “All of it.”
“You. It's always you. Only you.”
Slamming his eyes shut, he shakes his head, and when he opens them again, there is nothing innocent about the hunger that flashes through them, or the way my body responds—knees drawing in, breath snagging, every sensible thought shattering and turning needy and dark.
God, I forgot how devastating he is to look at. How goddamn perfect he is.
“At first, it was Ravenscross,” he adds, “my head between your beautiful thighs, fucking you with my mouth until you screamed my name.” Heat radiates off him, soaking through my layers as he leans back in, pinning me more firmly to the tree. “I’ve barely kept myself sane for nine weeks. Can’t think. Can’t sleep. Can’t get the taste of you out of my head. And then Reyahad to go and tell me about that goddamn dream. I nearly lost my shit at first—the thought of someone else touching you.” The gold in his eyes flares as a muscle ticks in his cheek. “But once that burned through, there was something worse underneath. This need. This fucking need to know...”
My next inhale stalls as he removes one of his hands from mine and trails his fingers down the front of my sweater, over the thin nightdress beneath, stopping at the very edge of the hem, where fabric ends and bare skin begins.
“To know what?” I whimper.
His lips curl, hooking left in a dangerous invitation. “That you liked it. That you wanted more, that when she touched you...” The first brush of his rough palm against my thigh is so gentle it’s almost cruel, setting my nerves alight with anticipation, already desperate for more. “That you were thinking of me. Of my hands. My mouth.” Hot breath skims my cheek, and when his teeth graze my earlobe, my body bows into him before I can stop it. “My cock.”
Desire pulses through me, brutal and punishing, every thought narrowing as I feel the hard length of him push up against me.
I want my hands on him. I want my fingers buried in his beautiful hair, I want to drag him in and close the last inch of space that is stopping my mouth from being on his. But his grip stays locked around my wrists, holding them above my head, denying me even that, while our chests start to move together, heavy and in sync.
Leaves rip loose from the branches above as a hard gust punches down through the dark. My head snaps up, heart jumping into my throat, just as a wide set of wings cuts across the night sky.
“Don’t worry,” Talen murmurs, his fingers gathering the hem of my nightdress in his fist. “Cal is holding the veils up now.We’re safe out here. But this is your last warning. If you want to leave, you need to leavenow.” His knuckles flex against the fabric. “Are you sure you want this?”
Fuck, my pulse is pounding so hard it feels like it might punch straight through my ribs, and as I stare into his eyes—burning bright, more gold than ever—an unsettling thought drifts in at the back of my mind but I shove it back before it can take root.
I’m done waiting. Done denying myself this beautiful, impossible man when I don’t even know if I’m going to survive the next twenty-four hours.
I nod.
And before the movement even lands, Talen’s hands are beneath my thighs, lifting me hard against him. My legs lock around his waist, his full weight presses me back into the tree, and then finally his mouth is on mine.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Stubble scrapes across my jaw as Talen’s mouth devours mine. There’s nothing careful about it, nothing precise, just raw hunger and desperate need.
“Thorn,” he growls when my fingers finally find his hair, soft waves slipping through my hands while his hold me up, keeping me anchored against him. His arm has to hurt, but he gives no sign of it as he lifts me closer, the slow, delicious friction between our bodies drawing a broken sound from my lips.
“Are you okay?” Breaking the kiss, his breath uneven, he rests his forehead against mine. “Your back?”
“It's fine.” I pull at him, already missing his taste. Smoke and something bittersweet, something that feels dangerously like home. “Your leather jacket is thick enough.”
“Mmmm.” His mouth curves against mine as his body leans back in, pressing me harder against the tree. “Fuck, I love seeing you in my jacket.” The words drag across my lips. “Knowing everyone can see it. Knowing they know you’re mine.” A rough exhale. “God, you have no idea what that does to me.”
There’s a possessiveness in his tone I haven’t heard before. It slips straight under my skin and settles there, hot and intoxicating, only making my legs tighten around him more.
