“If I don’t stop now, I won’t stop at all.”
My lips were swollen. My heart? Gone. Lightning hummed under my skin like it had a heartbeat.
“Then don’t stop.”
But he did.
He leaned in, pressed his forehead to mine, and exhaled like I was his religion.
“Soon, not here. I want you, on my bed. On my silk sheet,” he promised.
Then kissed my hand.
Like a gentleman. Like a man in love. Like someone planning to sin again.
Under the tree where I forgot everything else— My name. My title. My past life.
I remembered only him.
And the way he made me feel like lightning wasn’t something I summoned—
It was something we became.
The air between us still burned.
Even after Alaric stepped away—just far enough not to ruin both our lives—I could feel him everywhere. On my lips. In the pulse betwee
