THE LUNA THEY’LL NEVER LOVE

38: COME HERE.

PHEEONA

I stared at Nashyn like he’d grown a second head.

“A kiss?” The words came out sharper than I meant them to. “Are you serious?”

He didn’t even blink. Just lifted one shoulder in that lazy way of his and tapped his index finger right against his lower lip. “Just one. Right here.” His mouth curved into something too smug for my liking. “And you may go with a battalion of guards behind you, but not smothering you. They’ll keep their distance. You’ll barely notice them.”

My face got hot.

Really hot.

I could feel the flush crawling up my neck and into my cheeks, turning me redder by the second. My mouth opened, then closed again. No words came out.

I hated this—being caught off guard by them, left stupefied like some wide-eyed girl who’d never been kissed before.

I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

He watched me struggle, that easy expression never slipping. Then he pulled me out of my spinning thoughts with a casual, “See it this way, will you? I don’t have to entertain your petty wants. And you don’t have to entertain mine. We’re both doing each other a favor here.”

That snapped me back. I gathered what was left of my dignity and bit out, “We’ve already kissed. What more do you want from me?”

Nashyn’s smile widened, slow and dangerous. “Another kiss.” He said it so easily, like we were discussing the weather. “Was it not specific on what I wanted?”

I didn’t understand this.

Any of it.

I stepped forward without thinking, trying to keep hold of the conversation before it slipped away from me completely. “I kiss you, and you let me go uninterrupted. Not heavily guarded. Not forced to return early.”

He tilted his head, studying me like I was some puzzle he was enjoying too much. “Lay out your stipulations as I’ve laid out mine.”

I watched him. The jovialness in him right now, the way he seemed almost playful. Out of all three of them, Nashyn confused me the most.

He could be cold as hell one minute—cutting, distant, cruel even—and then turn around and create this kind of atmosphere. Light. Teasing. Like he was daring me to play along.

The others didn’t do that.

Crowen was all heavy silence and raw power.

Vizellan seemed like sharp edges and careful control. But Nashyn… he made me feel more relaxed around him than the others, even while scaring the hell out of me at the same time.

“Why?” The question slipped out before I could stop it.

His smile dimmed, just a fraction. He blinked at me without responding.

“I mean, why do you want to—”

“Offer being rescinded in five,” he cut in suddenly, voice still light but with steel rising underneath it. “Four… three…”

“Fine,” I said, frantic, the word tumbling out way too fast. “One kiss.”

Nashyn held my gaze for a long beat. Then his voice dropped, low and commanding in a way that shifted everything in the room. “Come here.”

My body heated instantly. The change in his tone, in his eyes, in the air around him was so sudden it hit me like a wave.

Two words. That was all it took.

I hated how much it affected me, how the bond seemed to light up and pull me toward him whether I wanted it to or not.

I lifted my chin, refusing to make this easy for him. “Why don’t you come to me?”

It was supposed to be bait. Supposed to put some control back in my hands.

It didn’t work the way I hoped.

In the next breath, Nashyn pushed off the table and closed the distance between us. He moved like he had all the time in the world and none of it at the same time. When he reached me, he leaned down, one hand sliding to the back of my neck, and kissed me.

It wasn’t soft.

It wasn’t teasing like the conversation had been.

It was hungry. Passionate. His mouth claimed mine with a heat that made my knees feel unsteady. I gasped against him and he took the opening, deepening the kiss until I was gripping the front of his shirt like it was the only thing keeping me upright. My fingers twisted in the fabric, needing something to hold onto, then slipped underneath, nails grazing his skin. He made a low sound in his throat that sent sparks straight down my spine.

He backed me up until my thighs hit the edge of the heavy table behind me, then lifted me onto it in one smooth motion like I weighed nothing. Papers scattered and I didn’t care. My legs parted without thinking, letting him step between them as the kiss grew more intense, more desperate. His hands were everywhere—on my waist, sliding up my back, pulling me closer until there was no space left between us.

I was lost in it. In the taste of whiskey on his tongue, the heat of his body, the way he kissed like he’d been waiting to do exactly this.

My hands clawed at his shoulders, then down his chest, gripping and pulling like I couldn’t get enough. The bond was roaring between us now, hot and demanding, drowning out every reason I had for being angry with him.

For a minute, nothing else existed.

Just Nashyn and the way he was kissing me like he wanted to devour me whole.

Right until a deep voice cut through the haze. “Am I interrupting something?”

I ripped my mouth away from Nashyn’s, breathing hard, my lips swollen.

My head snapped toward the doorway.

Crowen leaned against the frame, arms crossed over his broad chest, watching us with an expression of absolute boredom.