The night is still and humid around us. All the other guests seem to have fled in the direction of the orangery.
We’re alone. In the dark.
Alone and somehow, I’ve never felt more vulnerable.
Rain glides down the glass ceiling above us. A Will O’ the Wisp drifts past Keir’s shoulder, highlighting the stark planes of his cheekbones and those hungry eyes. His black lashes are clumped together with the wet, and the effect only makes those amber pupils more hypnotic.
Hunger darkens his eyes.
He traces the glyphs marked into my arm with his magic, and as his finger strokes down my clammy skin I shiver. Each rune is the promise of a single day that I owe him. A year and a day of service. Every morning I wake there’s one less rune.
And maybe I’m a fool, because there’s a little part of me that mourns their loss.
Once they’re gone, he’ll be out of my life.
A complication I never wanted.
A dream I don’t dare dream.
As though it has a mind of its own, my hand lifts to his cheek, palm scraping over the roughened stubble of his jaw. His hyphen mouth rarely shows softness, but as his lips part I’m caught in the yearning that fills his gaze.
Neither of us dares exhale.
“Tell me what you’re hiding from.” His voice roughens. “Tell me why you won’t give yourself to me fully. I know you want me. I can feel it in every breath you take, in every look you give me…. But something holds you back. Who? What?”
The words shatter the spell he wove.
Here I was, thinking about how that mouth would taste and his entire focus is upon unearthing my secret.
You’re such a fucking fool for him….
I turn away, scraping the wet hair from my temples. “I told you….”
“Nothing,” he grates out, stalking after me. “You’ve told me nothing. All I know is that you were working for the Wraith King, and you’re still working for him.” His face darkens. “You have no intention of leaving his court, do you?”
It’s not as simple as that. My soul…. “I’m not fae, Keir.” I hold up my hands, letting the faint illumination spill through me. Suddenly I’m a firefly in the night, a pearlescent glow. It’s getting easier and easier to let my inner light shine through. “I don’t belong here. I’ll never belong here and you—”
“You belong with me.” There’s a dangerous edge to his expression as he steps closer. Every inch of his shirt clings to his skin, lovingly caressing the hard muscles of his chest. “You are mine, Mira. You said you were mine.”
Those words…. They do their own sort of damage. And the worst thing is, for a second I want it. I want to lean into him, let him claim me.
But if I do that, then I’m nothing more than another pawn.
He will own me, the same way my father does.
“It was just one night,” I whisper.
“It was more than that.” His glare is furious. “Mine. You said you were mine.”
“Did you ever think that maybe I want to belong to myself?” I snap, shoving at his chest. He doesn’t move an inch, and it feels like slamming up against a stone wall. Inexorable. I push against his chest again. Again. Until he captures my wrists and shackles them there, forcing my fingers wide over his pectorals. A shiver runs through me. “I’ve never had true freedom.” I look up, into shockingly bright eyes. “Even now, I can’t escape you until you allow me to.”
A hand locks around my nape and then he’s hauling me toward him. I spin into his arms as his mouth locks over mine.
Claimed.
A gasp escapes me.
It’s a kiss forged of desperation and fury. A kiss designed to punish. I can taste his anger and his unspoken demand in the heated lash of his tongue, in the bruising crush of his mouth. Mine. The sheer possession inherent in the way he cups my skull speaks its own language, and for a second, just one second, every inch of me yearns to submit to him. All I want is bare skin under my hands, even if it will cost me. Even if this one night of bliss will only chew me up and spit me back out into a world where I’m fighting to find my feet again.
Because it will.
This doesn’t exist beyond tomorrow. Soraya’s setting everything in place. She and I have been over the plan so many fucking times that it’s imprinted into my brain.
There’s just this one last fucking obstacle—and that’s the stupid, wretched weakness in my chest. The way my heart skips a beat when his palms skate up my flanks.
Once more, I promise myself. Just one more time. He’ll never forgive me, but maybe I can give him this. Maybe I can steal just a moment of happiness for myself. No pros. No cons. Just pleasure.
The moment his tongue strokes against mine, all the defiance melts out of me.
Fuck the gods. Fuck my father. Fuck this entire bloody situation.
I just want him.
“Mira.” It’s a breath. A curse. A plea. And I can’t help thinking that maybe he’s as trapped in this moment as I am. “Mira, what do you want?”
“You.” I kiss him hard. “Everything.” And then I’m laughing against his mouth. A bitter, wretched sound that cleaves my heart in two. “Everything that I can’t have.”
The silk of my dress tears beneath his hands. A gasp escapes me, but his hot mouth closes over my breast in that instant, and suddenly I don’t want this to end.
I capture fistfuls of his wet hair, yanking his face up to mine. Our mouths meet again. Clash. Keir slides both hands over my ass and then hauls me into the air, my thighs closing around
