Page 136 of Untamed

And maybe that’s what scares me the most, that even when I know I should run, I stay. “Even when you tell me that you’re chaos, I crave the stillness I find in you. Even when you’ve torn the world open at the seams, I can’t stop wanting you. That’s what scares me.”

Ares doesn’t say anything, not right away.

His thumb that brushes the tears away stills against my cheek. His chest rises, slow and uneven, like he’s holding a thousandwords in his throat and doesn’t know how to let any of them out without breaking.

The air between us vibrates with tension, thick, unspoken and sacred.

Then, slowly, he lowers his head until our foreheads are touching, and I feel it. The barest tremble in his breath. The storm pulling at his seams.

“You’re not supposed to want someone like me,” he whispers. “And I’m not supposed to let you.”

I close my eyes again. My hand lifts on instinct, pressing to his chest, right over where his heart beats like a war drum.

“Then don’t let me,” I murmur, my voice barely a breath. “Walk away. Go and marryGianna.”

Silence.

Suffocating silence that feels like it’s siphoning every drop of oxygen from my lungs. But he doesn’t move. Makes no move to walk away.

I don’t know what I expect, that he’ll recoil, that he’ll flinch, that he’ll take a step back and give me the out we both know I won’t bloody take.

But he doesn’t do any of that.

A breath shudders through him, sharp and uneven. And then, he speaks, low but lethal.

“Don’t say her name like that.”

My eyes snap open, and his are already on me, burning, black, and deadly still.

“Don’t speak her name like she matters, because she doesn’t.” He takes a step closer, until the heat of him is all I can feel against me.

“You think I’ll marry her?” His voice is a threat now, quiet and deliberate. “You think I’ll let my father use me like a pawn while the only person I fucking want is standing right in front of me?”

My lips part, but he cuts me off, one hand rising to cup my face, not gentle, butcareful, as though he’s terrified of breaking open something already cracked.

“You’re the only thing in this world I’ve ever wanted that wasn’t handed to me, soaked in blood.” His thumb brushes over my cheekbone. “And I swear to you, Jordyn…I won’t let them take you, too.”

Christ, I feel it again, that ache in my chest. That pull to him that defies every shred of logic I have left.

And God help me…I don’t want to fight it anymore.

The room still crackles with everything we didn’t say.

My breath is tangled with his, lips still tingling from words that cut deeper than kisses ever could. His thumb is at my cheekbone. My fingers are curled into his shirt. We’re holding onto each other like this is the last quiet before a raging storm.

And then,Bang. Bang. Bang.A sharp knock slices the moment in two. I jump out of my skin, but Ares doesn’t even flinch. Only lets out a peeved sigh.

The door swings open, too fast and urgently.

“Ares—” Dante again. His voice is clipped, serious. His eyes flick to me, then back to Ares. “You’re gonna want to see this.”

Ares doesn’t move at first.

His hand slips from my face slowly, as if the release costs him something, as if in letting go, he’s leaving a piece of himself behind

Then he turns, the softness gone, replaced by cold precision.

“What is it?”

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