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“I told you that I would not lie to you.”
“Sure. But a man who needs to keep me occupied would say that.”
“What about the past few days has made you distrust me?”
He looks wounded.Good.Because I’ve taken enough emotional beatings to last a lifetime. “You claim you want me—that I drive you crazy—and yet you use the dark magic as some kind of barrier between us. And for what? I don’t belong to anyone. Not Taranus. Not some king. And certainly, not you.” I shove at his chest, trying to push him off of me, and he stumbles back a step.
His chest rises and falls in rapid succession, and his pupils dilate. Until he snakes a hand around the back of my neck and yanks me toward him.
Rafferty’s mouth claims me, his lips scorching my own as he devours me. His tongue slides over the seam of my lips, and I open, gripping his biceps as he reaches down and grips my ass. He lifts me, stepping between my legs as he pins me to the wall.
Large hands slip up my thighs, gripping, kneading the muscles beneath his strong fingertips. I moan and tighten my legs around his waist.
The man invades my senses, overtakes my thoughts, my words. Everything about him calls to me.
I grip him as he turns and carries me across the room. The mattress is soft beneath my back and he grinds into me, his erection pressing against the fabric separating us.
“You drive me mad,” he whispers against my lips. “Make me not want to fucking care about anything else.”
I press my hands to his shoulders and push him up so I can see his eyes. They’re rimmed with black, a band that is thicker now. Visual representation of the fight I’m giving him.
Guilt crushes me.
I’ve been selfish.
And Rafferty is paying the price. “Stop.”
He leans down and runs his tongue along my jaw.
Torture shouldn’t feel so damn good. “Stop, Rafferty.”
“Why?”
“We can’t do this.” I shove at him, and he pulls away, taking steps back until he’s all the way across the room.
“What the hell do you want, Ember? One minute, you’re begging me to forget about everything—tormenting me into setting aside the one thing I have left for you. Then I do just that, and you push me away? Do you get off by tormenting me?”
I shake my head. “You’re right, though. I saw it…the magic. I’m so sorry I pushed you.” I curl my legs up into my chest and stare at him.
“There is no world where I can watch you marry another,” Rafferty says, his voice strained. “Not now.”
“Then don’t. Can’t we still have everything? Can’t we beat Taranus and then be together? Your honor—”
“Niahm was stolen from me. My parents before her. Ridley will never return home permanently, and Taranus has turned his back on me. He stole my wings, my life—Ember, my honor isallI have left. And even that is hanging on by a bloody shred!” he roars it, then gets to his feet and grips the wooden bedpost.
“I’m sorry.”
He shakes his head. “It was my fault.”
“No. I pushed you. I accused you of lying, of manipulating me.”
“And I reacted poorly.” He shakes his head and moves toward the other side of the room. “Please, get some sleep, Ember.”
“I—”
But he’s already settling against the far wall.
Not wanting to make things worse, I slip beneath the blankets and pull them up to my chest. Tears stain my cheeks as I reach up and touch lips still tender from his kiss.
There is no world where I can watch you marry another.Truthfully, there’s no world where I can watch him and not have him. Where I can spend every moment reminded of the first man who’d treated me like a woman.
Like I was worth something.
I’d rather die.
“I want to go home,” I choke out.
He sighs. “Then I shall take you there.”
