Page 61 of Curse the Fae

I drag his palm over my flesh, the touch searing me with heat, from my outer thigh to the crescent of my hip. Elixir sucks in a ragged breath. He bows his head, his eyes drifting shut. “Cove…”

The shudder of my name on his lips is my undoing. “Elixir…”

“Get out of the fucking way,” he demands, begs, pleads. “Let me pass.”

I inch closer, trampling over his last effort. “You used that bead of sweat as an ingredient. You need a piece of someone to remedy them. Is that why you took the droplet, in the first place? Were you taking precautions for me?”

Still, he doesn’t answer.

My breasts punt against his chest, our rampant hearts pounding into one another. “Tell me why,” I coax. “With no one around, none but me to hear it. Tell me why you healed me.”

Why did he create a salve for an injury that wasn’t fatal, that only caused discomfort and temporary pain? Why did he bother to comfort me that way?

Elixir shakes his head, his gaze leveling with mine. Dipping so low that I almost miss it, he rasps, “I do not like the sound of you hurt.”

This creature admits it as though such a desire is a mystery to him, such an impulse new and confusing. My pulse stutters. I don’t know what’s happening or why, but the hoarse reply surges through me—warm, swift, and unexpected. It’s everything I needed to hear and everything I shouldn’t hear.

But what’s been spoken can’t be taken back. Neither can this…

I lean on my toes, cradle his roughhewn face, and utter, “I can make other sounds for you.”

The invitation pours from my mouth, heady and unrecognizable. I can make deeper, longer sounds for him. I can make themwithhim.

Elixir hisses, the hectic noise barely restrained. “What are you doing to me? Why do thoughts of you consume my every waking moment? From the moment you came here, why? You are playing with fire.”

“You wanted it in The Mer Cascades. You were rather vocal about it.”

“I was battle-wary in the Cascades. And damnation, you were naked.”

“And a virgin like you. But how is that possible for a mighty water lord? So many Faeries must crave you badly. I feel for their anguish.”

“Stop it.”

“Make me.”

His fingers dig into my hip, the caps poking lightly, and his free hand pursues the other side. Those brutish eyes hood, his gaze tracking the sound of my outtakes. He tilts his head, breaching the distance to mine, and I meet him halfway, angling my mouth.

We pant uneven breaths, our parted lips hovering inches from one another. But the Fae doesn’t stop there. His muscled arms encircle me, his palms grinding over the curves and clasping the swells of my backside.

I gasp, the reflex tapping our mouths together. Elixir groans against my lips, the sound disjointed. His jaw locks, all hardness, because that’s how he would kiss—hard, strong, and tireless. If I let him, he will strike quickly.

Our mouths slant and brush, hot and hectic and damp. It doesn’t feel like a tease but a warning, a forbidden line about to be crossed. Any second, I’m going to cry out, or he’s going to roar.

I don’t need to ask. I see it for myself. I seehardin the gleam of his eyes. I see thefastin the quake of his body.

That’s how he would take me. That’s how he would…fuck me.

The word pours into my mind like a stimulant. Where once it held a coarse and vulgar texture, now it’s as smooth and seductive as velvet.

The Fae’s possessive grip on my buttocks incites a frenzy of sensation. The juncture of my limbs sparks to life. An ache throbs inside the cleft between my thighs.

My body’s reaction sets my cheeks aflame. Elixir’s nostrils flare, inhaling the private scent of desire. Quivers rack his frame, every joint on the verge of snapping.

I want that. I want this, and him, and us.

I’m prey trapping a predator. I’m a human ruining a Fae.

Out of nowhere, the notion reminds me of a Fable. It’s one I haven’t thought of in ages, about a snake and a viper.

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