Page 8 of Solstice

I licked my lips and sighed, realizing I’d pushed too far too soon. “X?—”

“What I have with Carter? That’s real. I felt it before we went into those woods. Miri, too. You and me?”

Clearing my throat, I braced myself for the worst of her venom.

“We were forced into this,” she continued. “We didn’t have a choice.”

Lie, lie, lie.It hurt to hear and stung even worse because of my gift.

“Does that make it less powerful?” I tilted my head and assessed her, wondering why she railed so hard against the idea of us. Didn’t she feel what I did? Couldn’t she swallow her ego for one goddamn minute and admit I meant something,anything, to her?

“No, it just means that whatever this is will end once we break the curse.”

Ifwe break the curse. It had been two years with nothing but fucking nightmares to show for it. Siobhan hadn’t shown up. Her sister, Ashley, had gone radio silent. Poppy hadn’t heard from anyone, either. We had nothing but rumors and conjecture from ancient books with lost connotations.

“I don’t think that’s true,” I said, using the wordtruespecifically. It had implications, as it usually led to me using my fairy curse. But I hadn’t yet. That, perhaps, was the only limit between us. I didn’t force her to tell me anything she hadn’t already agreed to share.

“Which part?” She gulped down the last of her wine and poured herself another glass.

“Any of it.”

Ivy glared, clenching her jaw, gearing up for the fight. If she wanted to go, I’d fucking take her. At least then I’d get a reaction out of her. Of all the people on this great earth, Ilivedto make Ivy Washington turn red.

“I was the first person you touched after Siobhan kissed you,” I said. “You drank from my chalice and shared your gift with me.”

“So?”

“So.” I grabbed her hand, intertwining her fingers with mine. “Take me up on my offer. Forty-eight hours, that’s all I’m asking. One weekend.”

She still seemed suspicious, her eyes barely slits as all the years we’d spent at each other’s throats danced behind them. “That’s all you want? A weekend of my time?”

“No, Ivy,” I said. “I want you to like it.”

She stared at me like she was trying to find out what trick I planned to play on her. “Why?”

“Do I have to have a reason?”

“You usually have an ulterior motive.”

I licked my lips and answered through our bond.“I want my wife to want me.”

“All you’ve ever done is try to make me hate you.”

“You ever wonder why?”

“If you’re about to say because you liked me, I’m about to drown you in this tub.”

“It’s because you never backed down from me.” I tilted my head and grinned like a cat with a mouse. “And that used to piss me off.”

“Oh, yeah?” Her tone dripped with sarcasm. “And what about now?”

“Now it turns me on.”

She froze and tried to pull away from me, but I wouldn’t let her. Perhaps the alcohol had taken what little restraint I had left because I opened our mental connection more. I made her feel how fast my blood raced around her, how I hung on every word she said, especially if we were arguing. I let the wave of my adoration for her sift through her curse, and when it hit her between the legs, she clamped her thighs shut and let out a small moan.

“Every time you fight with me,” I continued, “it’s a struggle not to bend you over the first piece of furniture I find. If you want it like that, it can be like that.” I didn’t know why I kept talking, why I let it pour out of me. This was probably going to blow up in my face like all the times before it. “But if you want it sweet, I can be sweet.”

She met my gaze, and the night with the photographs echoed behind its ironclad defenses. I watched it play out in her eyes, reflecting in mine—when I’d held her hands while she moaned under me, when I’d kissed her neck and her breasts, when I let her run her fingers over my tattoos. It had been gentle and annoyingly erotic, and I couldn’t get it out of my head, not in all these years.

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