Page 46 of Ember and Eclipse
She gasped at the touch of his lips, the sound stifled by their mouths. Rel had been kissed before. She had been kissed byhimbefore. And yet, this one…
He kissed her like a dying man—seizing the opportunity for life in the confines of her mouth.
His hold loosened from her hair to find purchase around her jaw, his thumb tilting her chin up so he could more thoroughly taste her.
He didn’t ask permission, he took. But more surprisingly, she gave. Because whatever this moment was, both divine and cursed, it existed in a separate realm. It existed somewhere outside of them—a witch and a witch hunter in a rocky outcrop.
His tongue in her mouth was all masterful persuasion, calling her to respond. She clutched at his bicep with her free hand, unable to anchor herself, unable to ground herself in a reality where she was allowing this to occur.
When Devdan broke the kiss, they breathed against each other’s mouths like air was a sacred thing shared in that singular space.
“Stop me,” he murmured. “Slit my throat, here and now.”
“I hate you,” she said breathily, but the blade came away from his neck. She let it fall to the stones, replacing the steel with her hand, her nails digging into the soft flesh there as her thumb smeared his blood.
A breathy groan reverberated through her palm. “How much?” He lifted her chin to leave a blazing trail from her jaw to her throat.
Dazed, a soft sound of want left her.
Butwhatshe wanted, she couldn’t call by name. She barely allowed herself a glimpse of it. It couldn’t exist, even here in the sanctuary of their bodies pressed together.
“How much do you hate me, Venefica?” His hips pinned hers to the rocky ground, their cores separated by layers, yet she could feel his desire between them.
The question wasn’t as simple to answer as it should have been. Hatred and desire, desperation and passion. They all felt like fire and destruction as his hand wrapped around her ribs, his thumb brushing the underside of her breast. When she arched into his touch, he ran his tongue hungrily over her collarbone.
“Why?” she finally managed to ask through a breathy gasp.
Why wouldn’t he let her go? Why was he fighting her? Why was hekissingher?
“Because I am a selfish man.” This time when he brought his lips to hers, they were less demanding but more exacting in their conquest.
They were burning stars falling, and she knew the crash was imminent. Their destinies were already woven—their collision inevitable. But that didn’t stop her from matching his need with her own.
When he broke the kiss, his breath was ragged. This close in the pale light, he seemed sad. She had seen his eyes as raging storms over violent seas, infinite tempests, silver contemplation pools. But now they just looked as forlorn as the moon did on a starless night.
As he rubbed a thumb over her freckled cheek, she opened her mouth to rage. But the words died in her lungs when she saw the expressions rippling across his face.
Revelation. Confusion. Surprise. Unease. The emotions that shifted his features seemed to be borne from something much greater than a stolen kiss. “My—” He cut himself off, his brow furrowed in some unspoken dilemma.
Before she could make sense of what was happening, he conquered the emotions just as fast.
Then he was rising, easily picking her up and setting her on her feet in a motion that temporarily jarred her.
“Fucking Fates,” he cursed.
“What?” she asked, but he was already shifting like smoke into shadow and bounding into the night.
Chapter XXVI
Thenight’scoldaireventually numbed her hands. It wasn’t until she had to cup them to her mouth, blowing hot air into them, that she moved from where Devdan had left her.
But now he’d been gone for over an hour. He was never gone for that long. Had he sensed something she couldn’t? Did he find Monsos and get into a fight with them?
More softly, she wondered if he was injured or dead somewhere. She would wait another hour or two before she…
Before she what?
Went looking for him? Assumed he was dead or dying?
