Page 84 of Our Radiant Embers

I tipped up my chin. “But it’s your birthday.”

“Exactly.” Adam’s eyes narrowed, a stubborn tilt to his head. “So I make the rules.”

“Dream on, love.”

“Don’t call me love if it’s only to belittle me.”

I grinned at him, my pulse steadying because this? This was familiar territory. “But you are so very little.”

“Lies.” Adam’s lips hitched up at the corners, the lingering air of intensity dissipating. “Seems like a reminder is in order.”

I lifted one shoulder and aimed for an unimpressed tone. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“Who said anything about sleep?” he asked, low and sweet, the upwards curve to his mouth persisting. Briefly, my attention tripped over the curve of his jaw before I met his eyes again.

“Bill. Now.”

“I love it when you speak Tarzan to me.” The light words clashed with how his gaze clung to me. God, we must be so obvious to anyone who cared to look closely—but no one did, people around us busy with their own plates and lives. Adam fingered the bracelet before he clasped it around his wrist in a deliberate move designed to draw my eye.

“Thank you for this,” he said, voice quiet. “I’m paying for dinner.”

I considered arguing, then leaned back in my chair, bumping our feet together under the table. “As you wish.”

His smile felt like a promise.

16

ADAM

I wasn’t brave.

I was the guy who ticked boxes, who strove to follow a script written by family expectations. In that sense, Liam was my opposite—out and proud in a society that pretended there was no spectrum, redefining magic as we knew it. If people didn’t like him, he considered it their problem.

London seemed so far away here. Walking along the darkening beach beside him, the sky cast in dramatic streaks of orange and purple where the sun cut through a layer of clouds, it was easy to pretend that I got to be this person.

We weren’t alone, the beach far from deserted. Houses lined the road to our right until we reached the part where grassy slopes made civilisation recede further. In the dimming light, I let our hands bump as if by accident, my gaze on where sea melted into sky. A thin, cautious thread of my magic reached for Liam. It brushed the hollow of his throat and skimmed down his chest, danced over his stomach and teased along the waistband of his jeans.

He sucked in a breath. “Jesus, Adam.”

I shot him an innocent look as I sent another tendril out to caress the side of his throat. “Something the matter?”

“You’re cheating.” It came out thick, an edge of breathlessness to the words. I was painfully aware that he had far more experience than me—but if I could make him sound like that? Maybe it didn’t matter quite so much.

‘I wouldn’t get bored with you.’

Or would he?

Stop.

“Cheating?” I asked primly. “I have no idea what you mean.”

Our eyes met, the open want on Liam’s face enough to make my breath dry up for a moment. He smiled as though he could tell. “You know I don’t back down from a challenge.”

“What challenge?” I let another thread of magic run down the length of his spine, and he bit his lip and exhaled before he started moving again. An explosion of colours in the sky guided our steps.

I wasn’t prepared for Liam to suddenly draw me away from the water with a firm grip on my elbow, into the gap between two wooden beach huts. I came easily. My back bumped against a wall but I barely noticed, angling myself into a kiss that was rough and open, Liam pressing into me as though he intended to make a statement. Shadows twined around us. Waves and the taste of salt on his lips, fingertips sliding over my wrist, tugging on the leather bracelet. I clung to him. One of his hands gripped my waist, then cupped my arse to pull me in. I tilted my hips to get closer, and his harsh exhalation, lips skidding over my cheek, filled me up with bright courage.

“Just so you know…” I parted my legs so he could get a thigh between them, lost my train of thought, and found it again. “Just so you know, this isn’t casual for me.”

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