Page 114 of The Nightmare Bride
“It’s not,” he growled, his anger rising. “No more than that face you wear, which, if I’m not mistaken, you weren’t born with, either. At least if Lunk is to be believed.”
I gaped up at him, wildfire sparking in my breast. “How dare you?”
“How dareyou? You of all people should understand what it means to define yourself. Because you and I are the same, lioness. How can you not see that? We’re people life tried to sweep under the carpet, only we stood up and refused. We reinvented ourselves and didn’t waste a moment on apology. I didn’t then, and I won’t now.”
“No, apology is obviously completely beyond you.”
“I’msorry,” he said. Despite the fury tightening his words, he sounded like he actually meant it. “But only for telling you I was Kyven. I’m not sorry for coming here. Or for marrying you. Or for falling half in love with you. Or for convincing you to fall half in love with me.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I shrieked. “I’m not half in love with you.”
“Nowthat,” he said, leaning closer, “is a bald-faced lie. As far as I’m concerned, that makes us even.”
“I should slap you.”
“Go ahead.” Kai stared down, his mouth tight. His eyes were licks of blue fire, scorching away the air in the room until nothing remained but the stillness before a lightning strike. “But slapping me won’t stop me from wanting you, and it certainly won’t stop you from wanting me.”
I stared, too stunned and angry to answer.
“So do it.” His gaze dropped to my mouth. “Slap me as hard as you can. Ibegyou. So long as you kiss me, afterward.”
My breathing grew harsh and frantic. Oh, goddess. Something was happening inside me, some unquenchable thirst rising up, transforming every heartbeat into a fresh ache that cried his name. Ky. Kai. It was the same, wasn’t it? And so was he. Because when I looked at him now, I saw the same man who’d held me in the darkness and winked at me over the dining table. Who’d guided me through the nightmares and painted fire across my throat with his tongue.
Not only that, but he was the only one who could do this to me. Who could steal my breath and feed it back to me in the form of knowing looks and heated words. Who could take my heart and reshape it in his hands. Who could soak up the candlelight like some fiery, avenging angel—one who’d marked me for capture and now held my eyes with the focus of an archer sighting down the shaft of an arrow.
His fingers tightened around my hand. Gravity bent me closer, threatening to suck me into his orbit. I wanted...
Seven hells, I wantedhim. So very, very badly.
My nostrils flared. If I didn’t escape him right this second, I was going to do something incredibly fucking stupid.
So I shoved him away and stalked off in the only direction available—the bathroom. I stomped into the candlelit circle of mirrors, my reflection breaking into a hundred shimmering shards. Kai followed and stopped behind me. In the mirrors, shadows honed his face to a collection of blades—sharp eyes, sharp cheekbones, sharp fury that demanded some kind of response.
“You were supposed to be a prince,” I accused his reflection. “Who was supposed to marry a seneschal’s daughter. And instead, you’re just...nobody, married to some other nobody. It’s actually kind of hilarious, if you think about it.”
A warning flashed in his eyes. “I amfarfrom nobody. And you couldn’t be less of a nobody if you tried.”
His response carved out a hollow space within me. And...shit. I couldn’t stop myself.
I whirled around and slapped him.Hard. Fire lashed my palm as his head snapped to the side. The crack of flesh reverberated from tile and marble and glass.
He straightened slowly, his breathing turbulent. When he swept his hair back from his face, embers smoldered in those chilled-fire eyes.
As if he’dlikedthat.
I flexed my stinging palm. “That’s for not being Kyven Windermere.”
He ran his tongue along his teeth and smiled, predatory, and I could no more squelch the need surging up in me than I could stem the gush of a burst dam with bare hands. Because my anger had multiplied, sharpening into a double-edged blade that sliced at me with such savagery that I couldn’t distinguish anger from desire.
Fuck, I didn’t care where he’d come from. I just wanted to inhale him. Punish him. Tear him into pieces and consume each one. If only this once.
I stepped in and yanked his face to mine. Our mouths collided in what amounted to the fiercest kiss of my life.
It was like breathing lightning. Like drinking an inferno. His mouth was hot and demanding, his tongue a delirious force that obliterated all reason. His hands captured my ribs and crushed me close.
My body went molten, and I broke away, dazed. He tilted his forehead against mine, my ribcage still folded in his vise grip.
“And that?” he breathed. “What was that for?”
