Page 192 of Feralheart

His body went rigid.

He already knew. I could see it in the way he’d stopped breathing. In how his hands had curled around his knees. He was physically restraining himself from reaching for me.

“I want—” My voice fractured. I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t admit that I wanted him to look at me the way he was looking at me right now. Like I was the only real thing in a world made of lies.

“Eradin.” My name in his mouth sounded wrecked. “Tell me.”

“I want you. Just you. Exactly like this.”

His hand lifted. Slowly. Giving me every chance to pull back.

I didn’t.

His palm found my jaw, and the touch was so careful that my breath came out in a single, undone rush. His skin was rough with calluses and all of it landed at once. The warmth. The tremor. The fact that Fen was holding my face like I was something he was afraid would break.

“This is a terrible idea,” he whispered.

“It is.”

“We shouldn’t⁠—”

“No.”

Neither of us moved for one long, exquisite second. His thumb traced my cheekbone. Once. The touch landed somewhere too close to my heart.

I leaned forward half an inch. He did the same.

His gaze dropped to my mouth, and the air between us combusted.

“Eradin.” My name came out broken. “If we do this, I won’t be able to pretend anymore. That you’re just—That this is⁠—”

“I’m already past pretending.”

The confession hit the air between us.

His breath ghosted across my mouth.

Our first kiss was barely a question, his mouth brushing mine, waiting to see what I’d do with it. I answered by fisting his tunic and pulling him closer. The sound he made against my mouth went straight through me like heat through a crack in stone.

The second kiss was nothing like the first.

His mouth opened above mine, demanding all I had to give. I tasted his want and need, everything he’d been holding back, and I’d felt and learned while nearly drowning bleeding through in the way he kissed me.

I slid my hands up to his neck, sliding them into his hair.

He groaned into my mouth, the sound vibrating through my chest.

His hands tightened in my hair, angling my head to deepen the kiss. I opened for him, and his tongue swept in, claiming me in a way that made heat pool low in my belly.

His hand slid down to my waist, pulling me closer until I was nearly in his lap. The angle forced him to lean back, taking me with him. My weight pressed against his chest, and his heart thundered through mine.

“Eradin,” he breathed against my mouth.

I kissed him again before he could say anything else. I didn’t want reality to intrude and remind us why this was impossible.

His good arm wrapped around my back, holding me against him. The other hand stayed tangled in my hair, gentle despite the desperate way he was kissing me.

I’d never wanted anyone this badly. Never felt hunger this raw before.