Page 142 of A Tribute of Fire

I didn’t care. I liked how it felt.

Now his fingertips had replaced his lips and he was tracing the outline of my face, creating little pools of fire everywhere he touched.

“You are so soft.” It sounded as if he hadn’t meant to say the words aloud. “What do you bathe in that makes your skin so soft?”

“Water,” I responded without thinking and was rewarded with his grin.

“Soft, and so, so sweet.”

“I am not sweet.”

“You are. The sweetest thing I have ever tasted.”

He kissed along the column of my throat and I felt the tip of his tongue flicker out to taste my skin. I arched against him in response and he made a sound at the back of his throat at my movement.

I realized then that he wasn’t going to kiss me. I was the one who had lost the bet. He had asked for a kiss as his reward—he hadn’t offered one.

He pulled his head back so that he could look down at me, our gazes locked. He was waiting.

“You want me to kiss you.” It was a statement, not a question.

A smile hovered just above his lips. “That’s very bold of you. You didn’t even ask my permission.”

“I didn’t think I needed to.”

“You don’t.”

Satisfied, I wrapped my arms around his neck. We had done this before but it still felt like the very first time, like it was all fresh and new. I was equal parts anxious and eager.

Not to mention that during our last kiss he had been the one kissing me. I let my fingers drift up into his hair, and the dark, silken strands caressed my hand. I wasn’t the only one who was soft.

But his hair was the only part of him that I was touching that felt soft. His broad body was pure muscle. Firm. Hard. I brought my hand around so that I could explore the stubble along his jaw, the texture rough against my fingertips. He expelled a sharp breath and let his eyes drift shut.

I trailed my fingers down over his jaw and then farther south. I touched where my xiphos had pressed into his neck hours ago. He swallowed.

“I’m sorry I cut you,” I said. And I was. I had committed a crime by marring such beauty.

“It was worth it.” His words were rough, full of longing.

Perhaps it was my turn to kiss him better. I pushed forward so that my lips pressed against his throat. I was rewarded with the sound of his breath catching.

Not as indifferent as he’d pretended earlier.

Although that act might have been nothing more than a ploy to trick me.

He’d said I would know when he was luring me. And it seemed that was exactly what he’d been doing.

Luring me in.

I didn’t mind being trapped, though.

“Lia.” My name on his lips was both a whisper and a warning that I didn’t quite understand. Perhaps he was telling me that if I wanted to change my mind, now was the time to do so.

My stomach tightened in anticipation. I didn’t want to stop.

My pulse beat slow and thick as I brought my mouth up to his and carefully, oh so carefully, fitted our lips together. I let out a moan of pleasure. It was everything that I’d remembered, everything that I’d wanted, everything that I’d been dreaming of for the past month.

Glorious.

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