Shutting her door behind me, I charge toward her, panic flooding my system as her name falls from my lips.
“Ivy?” I rasp, and her wet eyes find mine as she shakes her head. Fear burns through me as my gaze narrows. “What's wrong? Tell me, what's wrong! Let me help,” I insist, earning a whimper from her lips.
“I feel like I'm burning alive,” she rasps, her fingers twisting into her thin spaghetti-strap tank top as tears spill down her cheeks. “It’s so hot, so freaking hot,” she rambles, rubbing her thighs together as a low grumble rattles from her throat.
“I don't understand,” I admit, raking my hands through my hair as I take her in, desperate to alleviate her pain, but I don’t know where to begin.
“I’m fine. Just go,” she says with a gasp, but I’m done taking her commands.
Inching closer, I press my knee against her sheets as I lean over her to hold my palm against her forehead. I hiss as I jerk my hand back, twisting my wrist to reveal where we made contact. I expect to see a burn mark on my skin. She's so warm, but there’s nothing there.
“How can I help you?” I rasp, frustration biting through my words as I internally lecture myself.
Fucking think, Archer. Think.
She presses her lips into a thin line as she stares up at me, her eyes crinkling with uncertainty before she exhales. “It's like when we were in the cave, like when we were in the Rejuvenating Ceremony. It's like that. It's like I can't breathe.”
My body stills as my eyes land on hers.
Like the Rejuvenating Ceremony?
Understanding washes over me, while surprise widens my eyes.
The Rejuvenating Ceremony was… intense. Itisintense, but that one was on another level.
Even so, during the Rejuvenating Ceremony, our bodies overheat because of all the magic inside of us as we're trying to replenish the earth. What I can’t wrap my head around is the fact that she’s feeling that all alone in the bed by herself.
How much magic is in there?
Running my tongue along my bottom lip, I clear my throat. “Maybe you need to do what we did in the Rejuvenating Ceremony, Ivy,” I whisper, my cock stirring to life at the mere thought of it as she stills.
“I can’t,” she cries, and my eyebrows gather.
“You can. I was there, you know,” I remind her, and she snarls.
“Archer, I can't do it on my own,” she snaps, and I shake my head.
“I’m sure you?—”
“I’ve tried, okay? I've fucking tried, and I just can’t,” she interjects, her fingers curling even tighter into the fabric of her top as her knuckles whiten. “I’ve tried in my bed, in the shower, with one hand, two, but I can’t make the heat dissipate. Apart from the Rejuvenating Ceremony with you, and the night with Teddy, I. Just. Can’t.”
All I can do is gape at her as her usually bright blue eyes shimmer with an undertone of heat.
“Ivy.”
“Help me, please. Please help me!”
Fuck.
My cock pulses with desire as I shake my head. “I don't want you to be mad at me tomorrow,” I admit, and she scoffs.
“I’m going to be madder if you leave me here to burn to death.”
I shake my head. “You want me to be intimate with you, Ivy. As much as you might think I'm an asshole, that means something to me. And as much as I don't want you to burn to death, I also don't want you to think I'm taking advantage of you either.”
As discreetly as I can, I adjust the waistband on my boxer shorts, but her eyes track the movement with hunger burning more fiercely in her eyes as she huffs.
“How nice of you to have morals now, when I don't really fucking need them.”
