Page 31 of Blood Marked

Like he didn’t believe her. Like he wanted to—but couldn’t afford to.

Selene’s chest tightened.

“Kael…” Her voice faltered.

She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t know how.

There was too much between them—unspoken, unclaimed, unfinished. Weeks of bitter glances, barbed words, unshed truths. Nights of aching silence where the bond between them whispered things neither dared speak aloud.

And something cracked.

Something old and stubborn and suffocating split wide open.

Kael moved.

One breath, she was speaking. The next, he was there—at the edge of her bed, towering, braced on either side of her body. Not touching. But close enough that theheatof him poured into her like firelight after a long frost.

Her breath caught.

His head dipped, gold-ringed eyes locking onto hers with a hunger he’d never let show until now. A storm kept caged too long.

“Don’t say I didn’t,” he said hoarsely. “Don’t pretend like I’ve done right by you.”

Her gaze didn’t flinch. “Then stop pretending like you don’t care.”

The words came sharp, uninvited.

She wasn’t even sure why she said them so challengingly—maybe it was Nyra’s story echoing in her ears. Maybe it was the way her body still ached not from the blade but from his absence. Maybe it was her own damnneed—a yearning that had been clawing at her since the moment he touched her after the ceremony.

Or maybe she was done letting him carry the weight of their bond like it was some kind of curse.

Maybe shewantedhim to feel it like she did.

The air grew heavy, thick with tension, heat, something wild and real andwrong in all the right ways.

For a heartbeat, neither of them moved.

But she saw it,feltit—in the way his eyes dropped to her lips, then back to her eyes. In the way his fingers flexed against the mattress as if he was fighting himself. As if he was going to say something?—

And then he didn’t.

Because he kissed her.

No warning. No softness.

Justfire.

It was heat and hunger and fury all tangled together, lips crashing against hers like he was trying to swallow the silence between them. His mouth was rough, desperate, tasting of regret and fire. Her hands found the front of his shirt before she realized she’d moved. Clutched him like an anchor.

And for a heartbeat, she kissed him back.

Hard.

Fierce.

The bond flared between them like wildfire.

She felt the thrum of his pulse under her fingers. Felt the quake of his chest when she gasped into his mouth. She could feel how much he hated this—wantedthis—needed it like a man drowning.

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