Page 143 of A Tribute of Fire

He quickly took control of the kiss, leaving me gasping. One of his large hands cupped the base of my skull, cradling me while he parted my lips and deepened the kiss. His other hand stole around my waist, somehow pulling me even closer.

I’d never craved anything the way I did his mouth. My lips were frantic. I needed more. I demanded it. He made me feel like a ravenous beast.

And he was every bit as hungry and desperate as I was.

His lips meeting mine, his tongue against my own, it felt like a kind of battle. Like swords clanging against one another, caressing as they pulled apart and reengaged.

“Why does kissing you always feel like swordplay?” I asked against his mouth, sighing the words.

“And we haven’t even involved my sword yet.” He grinned back.

Then I was the one plunging us back into battle. It really was like combat—he would thrust, I parried. He advanced and I was there, ready to engage him in return. He retreated and I coaxed him back into the fight.

He had somehow completely disarmed me and I had permitted it.

Everything happening between us was so visceral and intimate. He was devouring me, kissing me into oblivion. The crushing heat of his lips against mine burned through my entire body, consuming me.

It felt like there were massive, flapping geese in my stomach, their wings beating so hard and so quickly that I was going to take flight.

How could everything feel new and surprising but also like something that had happened a million times before? As if we already knew each other’s bodies perfectly?

The way that Jason could tilt his head, or slightly change the pressure of his kiss, or dig his fingers into my back and have me panting against him, practically begging him for more, was beyond my comprehension.

As if he instinctively understood every single way to make me respond, to make me melt, to turn me mindless with need for him.

Only him.

Fire raced up and down my veins, engulfing me. Jason seemed to burn just as brightly, just as hotly. His breathing was harsh, rapid. I clung to him, as if I were out at sea during a wicked storm, my boat destroyed, and all I could do was hold on to a piece of driftwood to keep breathing while the seas and skies raged all around me.

“Jason,” I breathed. It felt as if I would go mad. As if the sensations and feelings he created were too much for any one person to bear. They couldn’t be contained within my mortal and weak body.

He was like magic.

I slowly became aware of something warm and bright. I mistakenly attributed it to the way he was kissing me, but then I opened my eyes to see that the sun was rising over the horizon.

With a gasp I pulled away from him. “I have to go.” It was difficult to form words, my overly sensitized lips aching for him, my body screaming at me to keep kissing him.

“What? Why?” He seemed every bit as disoriented as I was.

“The sun is up.” My brain began to function again and I realized how bad this could be for me. “They’re going to realize that I’m missing.”

It might have already been too late.

I cursed myself for being so intoxicated by him that I had potentially risked my place at the temple. I disentangled myself from him with every part of me protesting.

“Wait, one last kiss,” he said. He reached out to cup my face with his hands and I meant to tell him no, that I was late, but instead I leaned into the kiss, which quickly escalated.

Stupid girl, time to leave!

I had to reluctantly break it off again. “I really have to go.”

“Thank you for repaying your debt. As Simos said, it was a pleasure doing business with you.”

It took every bit of willpower I had to walk away from him. I reached down to get my sword and returned it to its sheath.

“Please remember that if you want to go home to Locris, I can arrange it for you. All you have to do is ask,” he said.

“I wonder what it would cost me if you sailed me across the ocean.”

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