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“Ren?”

Her voice washed over me, and I stared down at her. My arms were locked around her small waist now. I didn’t remember doing it, but I was holding her tight to me. Let her go. I couldn’t fucking do it; like the last two times, I couldn’t let her go. My gaze dipped to her luscious mouth. So pretty. So fucking inviting.

She blinked up at me and licked her lips. “Ren?”

I swallowed hard. “Yeah?”

“When you thought I was with Rome, that we were seeing each other, you didn’t like it, did you?”

I gritted my teeth. We couldn’t go there. I couldn’t tell her how I was feeling. I didn’t fucking understand it, not really, and nothing could ever happen between us, nothing beyond this. I’d only hurt her, and I’d run off the edge of that fucking cliff before I ever did that. But still, my arms remained locked around her, not letting her get away, holding her to me.

“And when you thought I was dead…”

“I can’t talk about that,” I choked out. “I can’t fucking think about it, not yet—”

She reached up, cupping my jaw, and shook her head like she was shaking something loose. “What you’re feeling, it’s okay. You don’t…you don’t want me. I know it’s the magic.”

No. It was her. It was Jasmine. “Don’t,” I rasped, but at the same time, I leaned into her touch. “Don’t stop.”

“Ren,” she whispered, breathing harder.

Her gaze dipped to my mouth and back up.

She wanted to kiss me too. She wanted me. I could fucking smell it.

I couldn’t make myself release her. I couldn’t turn away. I needed to taste her again. Just one more time. Just once more before this ended, before she left me without her for a whole fucking week.

My fox pricked up his ears and edged closer. I was trapped by her warmth. It radiated from her body, her eyes, her soul. Jasmine was pure warmth, and I was drawn closer like I was in the grip of hypothermia and she was the only thing that could save me.

“Please,” I finally rasped, pleading with her. I wanted to taste her again so badly, but I was in control this time, and I needed her to want it as well. I needed her to kiss me.

“Please what?”

“Kiss me, Jasmine. I need you to kiss me.”

“Ren—”

“Please.”

Trembling, she slid her arms around my neck. She licked her lips, her gaze searching mine, then finally she lifted to her toes, and I dipped my head closer to hers, her lips a mere breath away, waiting, desperate for her to close the distance between us.

Her cheeks were deep scarlet, so sweet and shy and beautiful, then she finally pressed her mouth to mine.

My mind went blank. There was nothing, no one, just her and me and the taste, the feel of her mouth on mine. I tried to stay still, to keep my hands to myself, but I snapped. Every moment I’d spent with her had slowly worn me thin. I was at breaking point, and knowing this was the last time, the last kiss, I broke in half—no, I fucking splintered apart.

My arm hooked her around her waist tighter, the other delving into her long blond hair as I hoisted her higher, the shirt she’d put on slid up, and my hand met hot and slippery bare skin. I groaned against her lips and opened my mouth over hers, kissing her deeper. Her sweet, little tongue tangled with mine, the urgent sounds she made driving me fucking wild. “You taste so fucking good, butterfly,” I rasped against her lips. She hooked her legs around my waist, her bare pussy grinding on my hard cock through my jeans, and I hissed and quickly reached down to adjust my hard-on.

The side of my hand slid across her slippery flesh, and I almost came in my jeans. She ground down harder. “Touch me…please.”

If I touched her pussy, I’d throw her on the couch and fuck her. This felt so fucking right, but it wasn’t right. She was all but naked, and this was moving too fucking fast. Her fingers were in my hair, her mouth so hot and sweet and perfect.

I wanted her so bad I shook, but I couldn’t do this.

Images of blood and gore flashed through my mind, on my hands, hands that were sliding over Jasmine’s body, hands that were tainted and wrong and evil.

Someone knocked on the door, and I pulled away, panting.

Jasmine froze, blinking up at me.