Page 147 of Bone Year

But he’s looking at me. His face is so close I can see little flecks of red and amber within the gold of his irises. I should look away but I can’t.

I follow the line of his jaw, the short manicured beard he keeps trimmed close. The small scar at his temple I’ve never noticed before. My eyes trail down to his lips, and they part slightly, like he’s about to say something but hasn’t committed to it yet.

I think about my dream.

I think about crawling into his lap and making it a reality and how incredibly reckless that would be.

“Draven,” I breathe.

“Freckles.”

“You’re looking at me.”

“I am.”

“You should stop.”

“Probably.”

Outside, the wind has dropped to a steady moan against the walls of the blind. Inside, I can’t hear anything except my own pulse in my ears, and the slow steady thrum of his under my hand, where it has somehow ended up against his chest. I don’t remember moving it there.

“Rose.”

“Yes.”

“If you don’t move in the next three seconds, I’m going to do something that is going to make this entire walk back to Ashwell very awkward.”

I don’t move.

He breathes out, slow and unsteady. I have never heard him be unsteady about anything, and the sound of it goes through me like something hot.

His hand comes up between us, like he’s giving me time to stop him, and then his fingers brush along my cheek, and his thumb settles at the corner of my mouth. I swallow, pulling my bottom lip between my teeth.

His face is very, very close.

If I tilt my head up the last fraction of an inch, his mouth will touch mine.

I dart my tongue out, wetting my lips, and stare into those gorgeous, mesmerizing eyes.

I tilt.

Something slams against the door.

Chapter Thirty

“Power is not measured in what one can do. It is measured in what one does when the doing costs something.”

— Professor Clementine, Endurance of Pain

I jerk back so hard the blanket slides off my shoulders.

Noctis is on his feet before I’ve registered the movement, a low, dangerous growl rolling out of his chest, vibrating through the floorboards beneath me. My pulse is still in my throat. My lips are still warm where Draven’s thumb was. Whatever was about to happen between us a second ago has been ripped out of the room.

“Miss Rose, Mister Alucard.”

The voice on the other side of the door is muffled, but I’d know it anywhere.

“If the two of you are alive in there, I would prefer to find out before I freeze to death looking for you.”