Page 78 of Fanged Embrace
Her cheeks burned a deeper shade in the faint light and she looked away, studying a tapestry on the wall. “Kissing, I mean. And, uh, definitely not with another… another woman. I didn’t even know that I…” She trailed off, biting down on her bottom lip.
A tiny thrill skated along my ribs and I stepped closer, closing another inch of distance between us. I cleared my throat, words coming out hoarse and hungry despite my best efforts to sound casual. “Do you regret it?”
“I don’t… think so.” She chewed her lip, looked at the floor. Her aura rippled outward in tiny waves of indecisive agitation. “Maybe?No.” She shook her head, then pressed her palms to her eyes. “I just… It’s just—new. And… not a good idea.”
We stood there for a while longer, tense auras ricocheting across the hallway. I edged closer and Laurie did the same, until we were standing only a meter apart. That short distance felt like miles. I still couldn’t get a read on her emotions, couldn’t decipher the pained look on her face.
“So it was… okay?” I asked carefully.
“It was… dizzying. And nice. And terrifying. Which is also nice?” She ran rough hands through her hair, pushing it into choppy spikes that stuck out over her forehead. “I’m rambling.”
“It’s okay,” I murmured, running hands up my forearms for no reason other than needing to do something with my hands. Because I wanted to hold her again. I wanted to reach for her, to press my forehead to hers and let her kiss me as she pleased. Instead, I folded my arms. “What are you feeling right now?”
“Honestly?” Her voice dropped to a whisper, her hands dropping slack at her sides. The look she gave me was pained, laced with that reserved melancholy I’d seen in her eyes before. When she first told me her plan to end her life. “This complicates things.Youcomplicateme. It’s infuriating, and it’s terrifying and I—” She cut herself off, gaze sliding to the side.
I stepped closer, approaching cautiously, carefully. My whole body was hesitant but I couldn’t simply leave her standing there alone, looking so fragile. Her shoulders slumped forward and she wrapped her arms around herself. She looked tiny, delicate, like the slightest breeze could blow her away.
I reached for her, and then paused, hand outstretched but not quite touching. “You what?”
“I just—I keep turning it over in my head and I…” She took a breath. Lifted her head. Her eyes were rife with terror but her voice was steady. “I want to do it again.”
Hot breath stilled in my lungs and my pulse shot up. My heart pounded rough and wild against my ribcage, a caged animal desperate to get out.
I closed the last inch between us without thinking, sliding my arms around her waist and then up her back—crushing her to my chest. I held her like she could slip through my fingers at any moment. I held on for dear life.
Laurie’s body went taut—one quick tremor of ingrained skittish instincts—then softened against me. She melted in my arms, melding her body to mine. Tension drained out of her along with her breath, and she tipped her face up. Moonlight spilled through the windows, illuminating the faint freckles scattered across her nose.
I bent over her, lips grazing the shell of her ear, hands fisting in the fabric at her lower back.
“Then do it,” I murmured, voice rough with wanting. I poured every emotion I was feeling into that single request and it came out gravelly, pleading. I could have fallen to my knees then and there—I was ready to beg at her feet. “Kiss me.”
She was silent for a beat, save for her breath, which came out hot and heady against my neck. When I pulled back ever so slightly to assess her expression, Laurie was staring at me, pupils blown wide. Her lips were parted slightly, her hands curling tight into the collar of my gown.
She looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time. Like she’d peeled back the layers that made me who I was and found something precious underneath. She looked at me, and I didn’t deserve the shock and awe in her eyes—like I hung the moon.
I felt her fear melting, her resolve trickling away. I felt it in the slight tightening of her fingers, the whitening of her knuckles where they tugged at my robe. I saw it in the tremor of her bottom lip, and the sheen in her eye.
I leaned forward, touching my forehead to hers, breathing her breath. My voice came out quiet—a final, aching truth laid bare. “Kiss me.” I brushed my lips against hers, the slightestflutter, and her sharp intake of breath had me throwing all caution to the wind—heedless of the consequences of my whispered promise.
“Kiss me. I’m yours.”
38
Laurie
That small admission was all it took to open the floodgates. I didn’t think about the consequences, or what this would change between us. I didn’t think about anything past those ochre eyes. I fell right into those dark irises, gasping in one final breath before taking the dive.
Mine.
I gripped River’s face in both hands, every single one of my synapses firing off like lightning, and surged into her, crushing my lips to hers. The taste of her was everything I craved and more, and I chased it with a feral, desperate hunger.
River’s arms locked around my waist, pulling me flush. She kissed back, kissed me breathless—until my lungs burned and I gasped for air between the punishing press of her lips on mine. Even then, I couldn’t stop; my fingers threaded through her hair, I went weak in the knees, my whole body trembling with adrenaline.
I was lost to it, drowning in the sensation of her tongue sliding along mine. That distinct scent of hers—old books andfresh rain—wrapped around me, and I gripped her tighter. River’s mouth was ravishing, hungry like she wanted all of me in one bite.
Then she broke the kiss abruptly and I whined my complaint—only for her to whisper, “Hold on. We need something more comfortable than these musty carpets.”
A sly, fanged smile broke out on her face, and I was too steeped in euphoria to feel frightened by it. A surprised, strangled noise escaped my throat as she scooped me up bridal-style. We were down the hall before I could blink, and her room swallowed us whole. I caught the briefest glimpse of a vaulted ceiling, deep red drapes, a bed sized for a minor royal court.
