Page 264 of The Nightmare Bride
A flutter rolled through me. “Is that a threat?”
“Do you want it to be?”
I lifted my chin. “Maybe.”
“Fine.” He chuffed a soft exhale. “Then yes. But you’ll have to tell me where the line is.”
Something twinged beneath my ribs. “There isn’t one. Not tonight. You can do whatever you want to me.”
“Anything?”
“Well, within reason. I’ll tell you if it’s too much.”
His expression darkened into something diabolical, and my pulse gathered speed like a stone bouncing downhill. I might regret this in the morning. Goddess, I hoped I would regret this in the morning.
“What about you?” I whispered. “Any hard lines I should know about?”
His blue stare skewered me to the bed. “Yes. There is one thing. Something I absolutely, unequivocally refuse to do with you tonight.”
“What’s that?”
“Sleep,” he said.
I squeaked, then caught myself and glowered. “Fine. I guess I can live with that. If I absolutely have to.”
28.
Ilost track of the many times and ways in which Kai dismantled me, only to piece me back together and do it all over again.
Some things, I committed to permanent memory, like the way his every muscle contracted when I sucked on his birthmark, or how his neck arched when I wrapped my hands around it and rode him like it was my only purpose in life.
Eventually, a dull yellow glow brightened the windowpane, and Kai brought me over the edge one final time. I knew this was the end because he didn’t join me, just slowed to a stop while the blissful ripples ebbed from my limbs. He hovered, smiling like a cat who’d just nabbed a whole coal-mine’s worth of canaries.
Once my vision stopped wobbling, I oriented myself to the north star of those blue, blue eyes. Goddess, but he was magnificent. So much that a flood of tenderness broke loose inside me. I tucked a lock of damp hair back from his forehead, my heart fracturing.
“Well?” he murmured.
“Well what?”
“Are you willing to admit you’re half in love with menow?”
Sharpness bristled beneath my ribs. “No. Just because you fucked me stupid doesn’t mean I don’t still hate you.”
“Hmm. But youarewilling to admit I fucked you stupid?”
I paused. “I’ll admit that inexhaustible energy is a lot more useful than I ever realized. And that trench-diggingisn’tactually your greatest talent.”
He laughed and kissed me, so much differently this time, with a softness that made my eyes prickle, and a familiarity that made me feel as if we’d condensed years of mapping each other’s bodies into a single night. I swore we somehow had, especially with him still sheathed in me like this, our tongues tangled as he bound our bodies together in two places at once.
I gave myself over to it, etching the moment into memory, tattooing the perfection of it onto my heart. Because this was the beginning and the end, both.
When he pulled back, a tear slipped from between my lashes, which I hurried to wipe away.
“Lioness.” A crinkled formed between his eyes. “Are you crying?”
“No.” I sniffled. “Why would I be crying?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
