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The memory of his tattoo—half sun and half snowflake—popped into my mind. Then I remembered how, after it had appeared, Kieran had placed his hand over it, and I’d felt a warm magical buzz. “You glamoured our marks. Didn’t you?”
He winced, sliding his hand down my face to my neck while placing his other hand on his own. The coolness pulsed between us, mixing with the warmth that resided inside me. The sensation was delectable, similar to a warm brownie with ice cream on top. When the glamour slid away, my eyes widened as the white tattoo I remembered reappeared.
My breath caught as I reached out and touched it. The mark flashed a bright pink that reminded me of a sunrise.
His eyes closed, and he moaned. “You don’t know how many times I’ve imagined what that would feel like.”
That sound had me wanting to press myself against him, but I had come to my senses enough to keep my distance and remain firm. I couldn’t let him come and go as he pleased.
That was one thing I’d learned during this second life. You taught people how to treat you. If you let them walk all over you, they would. If I wanted Kieran’s respect and, more importantly, my own, I would set boundaries and stick with them. “Maybe if you stopped pushing me away and then deciding you can’t stand to see me with someone else, you’d have experienced it sooner.”
“It’s not wise for us to be like this.” Kieran wrapped his free arm around me as his eyes stayed locked on the hand over my mark. He pulled me close, and my own hand put more pressure on his mark. The pink sparked brighter, lighting up the room, and an icy blue light that matched Kieran’s eyes glowed from my neck. The pink and blue collided and swirled together like cotton candy.
“If you kiss me again, you don’t get to walk away.” I let the words hang between us, setting those damn boundaries. “For the next sun cycle, I want to be with you, future consequences be damned.”
His brows pulled together. “You’re making this very hard for me.”
“Then leave.” I lifted my chin, meeting his gaze. “You’ve been good at that in both my lives.”
He groaned like I’d kicked him in the stomach. “Fine, but I need you to answer two things.”
He removed his hand from my neck, and I whimpered in protest. He grinned and fisted my hair, tipping my head upward to him. He growled, “Do you have feelings for him?”
“He was my best friend in my first life, so yes, I care about him.” If he was trying to make me feel bad for having Dallas as a friend, it wouldn’t work. I’d had to see Kieran talk to Quinley more than enough times to know they had some sort of friendship and respect for one another, which meant a lot in this world. “We grew up together, and he always supported my dreams even when he didn’t agree with them.”
Yanking my hair harder, he frowned. “Wrong answer.”
“Maybe for you.” I arched a brow, ignoring the knot of need twisting inside me. “But I’m being honest and not burying the truth. I’d like the same respect from you as well, so don’t ask anything you don’t want an answer to.”
“Did you have sex with him?” he snarled, his fingers on the back of my dress pressing into my skin.
Dread pooled inside me as I answered the question the best way I knew how. “Not in this lifetime.”
Gray shadows flashed through his eyes as he bent down and lifted me to his hips. My legs wrapped around him before I thought it through, and his hardness pressed against me through my dress.
In a moment, he had me laid out on the bed as he hovered over me. He nipped at the bottom of my earlobe, causing me to gasp, and murmured, “Wrong answer.” He sucked on my earlobe, and my body shuddered. Then he rasped, “Now I have no choice but to make love to you so you can forget about all the lovers before me in both your lives and yearn only for me until the day you die.”
“You don’t have to worry about this life … only my last.”
He stilled.
Okay, I’d meant that as encouragement, not to make him stop.
“How many men do I have to kill?” He raised himself, staring at me. “I’ll make sure they die even if it can’t be by my hands.”
I grew light-headed. I loved that the thought of me with someone else made him want to hurt them.
Whoa. Whatever was brewing between us couldn’t be healthy. “Then you’ll have to return the favor with a list of names. I’m sure you haven’t been abstaining all these sun cycles.”
“During the first visit you ever made to my kingdom to handle the trades, we touched, marking one another. I haven’t touched anyone since. To list everyone before then, I’ll need some pen and paper, but I’ll gladly provide it.” He grinned wickedly, probably enjoying that I wanted to hurt anyone who’d ever touched him.
Instead of finding him paper, I shoved him so he fell onto the bed, and I straddled him. Unfortunately, my dress was way too long and bunched up, ruining the moment.
“This is a problem.” He glanced at the fluff of material piled on his chest up to his chin. “We need to fix that.” He rose and pulled me against him, pressing my breasts to his chest. He ripped my dress down the back and growled, “That was in the way.”
I nodded, not wanting to talk. “Kiss me.”
His lips were on mine, his tongue demanding entrance.
