Page 64 of Wake the Dream

Another line he’d crossed, from good-looking and vaguely annoying to something else. Deeper, richer.

“I can’t think of a better time, to be honest,” she murmured. She moved to him and her fingertips trailed over his face and up to his hair. “I want you, Kieran. Not for the reasons you think. You make me feel safe, and I want to wake up in the morning next to you. I want us to enjoy the time we have together because you never know when it might end. Even for someone like me.”

An immortal. Even when Kieran would grow old, begin to decay, she would still look young.

He couldn’t stop himself from reaching for her, touching her, his hands on her waist. “You need your rest,” he repeated.

“And I’ll get my rest. After we’re done.” Her heart began to pound and she bit her lower lip, his dark eyes searching hers and holding her gaze. “This isn’t a game for me.”

He seemed so quiet on the surface, yet she saw a different story in his body. The tranquil façade held an intensity, a simmering fire beneath the surface.

What would she unleash once they started down this path?

In his eyes she saw the same terrible hunger mirrored. Alive and raw. A desperate need that had nothing to do with their shared emotional issues and everything to do with how far they’d come together.

“I don’t want you to end up with regrets afterward,” he told her on an exhale, his fingers tightening. “Because once we start, I’m not sure I’ll be able to let you go. And it will be too late for you to back out. Do you understand me?”

How odd that he questioned her when she was the one who should have reservations.

Illaria knew she should say something before she succumbed to the desire. But it was too late for her. Had been, she realized, since the first day she met him. The feelings had been simmering for longer than she cared to admit, longer than she wanted to examine within herself.

Her arms were crawling their way toward his neck, her face tilted up toward his mouth.

“I understand,” she said, drawing him toward her. “I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to let you go.”

Her resolve hardened then. She would never walk away from him. He would be there for her, there to save her life. In return, she gave him her heart. Her soul. Quite a steep price to pay for a being like her.

His lips brushed against hers in a soft touch that singed Illaria to her core.

“If you’re sure,” he whispered. Then reached an arm over her shoulder to brace against the wall, to dominate her, to physically show her his control.

Perfect.

His powerful body pressed against hers as he shifted to place his other hand against the wall, completing the cage around her, her spine to the wall. When he touched her, when his mouth pressed to hers and his fingertips skimmed her skin, nothing else mattered. His kisses had her stomach tightening, her legs shaking, and she sucked in a rough breath.

The man knew what he did to her. She briefly wondered how many other women he’d seduced in the same manner. Then pushed that aside with a violent mental swat. Those thoughts had no business here. Not tonight.

Tonight was for them. No outside world existed when the two of them were together.

Because who knew what would happen tomorrow?

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