Page 148 of Fearless

We are inevitable. We are tragedy.

“Pae.”

I follow the plea in his voice and stride slowly toward that alluring sound. Rain pelts the canopy of leaves, slipping between the occasional branch to sprinkle my skin. It grows steadily darker beneath the willow’s solace, but the shadows refuse to hide his face from me as I lower myself down onto the blanket.

Kai sits up. Reaches for my face. Thinks better of it. “It’s the eve of your wedding. I’ve hardly seen you in days, so I certainly wasn’t expecting your company tonight.”

It’s a blatant statement, one he’s wrung all emotion from. I swallow, letting my eyes trace up the strong column of his neck. “I know.” There is a pause. It is filled with a flurry of thoughts and fluttering of my heart. With the intensity of conviction and impulsiveness of longing. But I made my choice the day I stole those coins from him so long ago—passion. Thrill. Something all-consuming.

“Tomorrow is my wedding day,” I finally murmur. “I think that is why I’m here.”

“Paedyn, I won’t watch you marry him.” His voice is little more than a growl. “I can’t bear to lose you.”

“So have me.” The tips of my fingers trace his knuckles. “One last time.”

He stills beneath my touch, eyes flicking up to meet mine. They aresearching, surprised by the boldness of those words. “I don’t want a last time,” he breathes. “I want a first and forever.”

My hand is steady as it reaches for his face. Kai leans into the touch, pressing his cheek against my palm with an eagerness that makes my heart pound. “Just pretend with me tonight.” I touch my forehead to his, brush his nose with my own. “Pretend we have a forever after this.”

The deep breath he draws in is the very sound of restraint. “But Kitt—”

“Is not my husband yet,” I finish instead of his protest. “And starting tomorrow, I will give him the rest of my life. But to you, I give my heart. Myself.”

A deep sound hums in the back of his throat. It makes me shiver. Rain splatters his hair, sticking dark waves to his forehead as he greedily wraps an arm around my waist, tugging me closer. I can’t help but gasp when his head dips, lips grazing the side of my neck.

My head falls back as he kisses a dizzyingly slow path down the sensitive column of my throat. His lips drag across my flushed skin, mouth mingling with the cool rain that drips from my jaw. My hands wrap around his neck and claw at his hair in a futile attempt to tug him closer.

I need him closer.

Kai’s breath is warm against my throat, his voice quivering with restraint. It’s a murmur of his lips against my skin. A plea. A demand. “Tell me what it is you want, Pae.”

My whole body ignites beneath his touch, something unleashing within me at the sound of his desperation. I lean back to cup his face in my hands and whisper a promise onto his lips. “You,” I breathe. “You, always.”

His mouth crashes into mine.

I melt against him, letting this wave of wanting consume me. He kisses me deeply, and I have never tasted something so alluring. I’mquickly pulled onto his lap, one hand in my hair and the other gripping my hip like this is a dream he’s terrified to wake from.

His lips claim me, more than they ever have before and ever will again. My mouth parts for him, our tongues meeting greedily. Thunder rattles the sky; rain pelts the canopy of leaves. But I am lost beneath this willow, knowing nothing but him and this moment.

My lips move against his, even as I grab the hand he has wrapped around my waist and guide it toward the laces at my back. He pulls away, chest heaving against mine. The corset is gripped tightly in his fist, as though to hold himself back from tearing it off me.

“I promised that if I had you”—his thumb traces the curve of my lips—“it would only be because you let me.”

“So have me.” It’s a desperate demand from lips that already miss his.

“You don’t want me to beg for you first?” he drawls.

My fingers catch his chin. “Is that not what you’ve done since the moment we met?”

He chuckles, and the sound snakes its way down my spine. The tie at my back grows loose as Kai toys with the knot. “And it is what I will do until the moment I meet my end.”

A response is ready to roll off my tongue when air suddenly floods into my lungs. With one precise tug, Kai has freed me from the corset’s confines. I gasp, staring at him in shock while a breathy laugh surprises me.

He tilts his head, wearing a dimple-framed grin. “I’m quite good with corsets.”

I laugh again, the sound cut off by the press of my lips against his. My teeth nip at his lip playfully, so unlike that night atop the roof in Dor. He breathes me in, kissing me like I’ve commanded it of him. I sigh into his mouth, and the sound has something snapping within him.

Swiftly, he flips me from his lap to the blanket beneath us. I lie there,panting up at him. My back is bare beneath the arm he has wrapped around it, the blanket cold and wet.

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