Page 124 of Caging Darling

That’s not exactly correct. The Nomad was able to kiss me because he threatened Peter’s life, so choosing Peter meantpleasing the Nomad. But I can’t seem to make my mouth form those words.

Astor searches my mouth like he’s expecting an answer. “I’m off, aren’t I?”

I nod.

“But, if someone were to kiss you, you wouldn’t be held accountable for that, according to the terms of this bargain?”

“I’m only accountable for the choices I actively make,” I say.

Astor’s breathing goes heavy again, his eyes scanning my mouth like he’s staring at something he lost and never expected to find again. His hand trembles against my skull, his fingers still tangled in my hair, his thumb still stroking my jaw. His pupils are dilated, decisions spinning out of control in his mind.

“Darling,” he says, his voice the rasp of a nighttime wind.

“Yes?” I breathe.

“Promise you won’t kiss me back.”

I shudder. “I promise.”

And then, Nolan Astor pushes me up against the wall and steals the very breath from my lungs. His warm lips find mine, and they part way for his kiss, though I have to remind myself not to react.

He shakes his head, speaking through kisses. “None of that, Darling. You need to be still.”

Obeying is not all that difficult. I go limp in his arms, the shock of his kiss so profound, the muscles in my legs go weak. He hooks his fingers around my hair, tugging at it slightly. I welcome the pressure, the gentle sting that reminds me of the pull between the two of us.

When he places his hook behind my back and draws me into him, a gentle warmth crawls over my skin.

It’s when he traces my Mark with his lips, finding the crook of my jaw, that I almost let out a sigh.

“None of that, Darling,” he whispers, though there’s a gentle teasing in his tone. A thrill in his voice, just knowing he’s tempting a reaction out of me.

When he presses a kiss to the Mating Mark, a shock barrels through me, one I’m sure by the way his breath hitches that we both feel.

I don’t move. Don’t choose. I wriggle my way through the loopholes of Peter’s bargain and die in the pleasure of Astor’s lips on my skin.

“I have wanted to do this for…so…long,” says Astor.

I want to ask him since when. To tell me the exact moment he first thought me desirable. But I don’t. I stay quiet, relish the feel of him holding me.

A moment later, he stops, and it’s as if the breath has been taken from my lungs, stolen away, and I’m never to feel its comfort again. I panic, grasping for the moment never to end, but of course, I can’t do anything to keep him here with me.

Astor withdraws, still keeping his arms on me, his gaze wild, frantic, though somehow still controlled. Like he’s searching for something.

“You have to choose Peter,” he says.

I nod, breathless.

“What if I tell you I’ll kill Peter?” he says.

“Then I’d have to do whatever you say,” I say back.

While this lights a fire in Astor’s eyes, he doesn’t act on it. He grits his teeth, thinking. “Tell me what you want, what you, Wendy Darling feel, or I’ll kill him.”

“You,” I say, the words rushing out of me faster than any the bargain ever compelled me to say. “I want you.”

His mouth crushes into mine again, this time with all the claiming I would have imagined from a kiss of Astor’s. With every kiss, it’s an exchange. You are mine, but I am just as much yours.

I’m still immobile, in his arms, and Astor, breathless, says, “Kiss me back. Kiss me back, or I’ll kill him.” Then quickly, he jolts backward, a lack of certainty on his face. “But only if you want to.”

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