Page 79

“Fine,” I hissed, back arching through the pain.

Helion lowered his face until his lips barely grazed mine, the touch no more than a whisper. Even that was enough for warmth to seep beneath my skin, tiny grains of stolen power trickling back into an hourglass perilously close to empty.

His dimple appeared.

“Beg.”

The deep timbre of his voice dragged over me, drowning the pain beneath a sudden, vicious surge of rage.

“I’d rather fucking burn,” I murmured against his lips.

The amusement in his eyes faltered, and the corner of his smirk twitched as if it were struggling to mask whatever emotion he didn’t want me to see.

I drove my forehead straight into his nose.

Bone crunched.

“Fuck!”

His head snapped backwards, hands flying to his face as blood poured between his fingers.

I hissed at the pain, clutching my face as the bond delivered the consequences of my own stupidity.

But I dove my hand into the hair at the nape of his neck and tugged down towards me.

I wouldn’t beg, but I would take what I needed to stop from burning out.

My lips crashed against his, and he became impossibly still. Surprise stole the certainty from his mouth, leaving him frozen against me as though he'd spent a thousand years imagining this moment and still hadn't believed it would ever come.

I moved my lips against his, and slowly, he melted like snow under the warm embrace of the sun.

He kissed me back with a reverence that made my heart ache. I could feel every ounce of longing and regret that he had held for an eternity.

Power trickled beneath my skin, easing the burnout and the echoes of pain that tormented me from the night before until I sighed against his mouth.

He swallowed the sound like a starving man offered his first taste of salvation, his tongue tracing the seam of my lips in a question rather than a demand.

My lips parted, my fingers tightening in his hair as I pulled him closer.

Helion made a low sound against my mouth, and power flooded through me in a golden rush, pouring into that hollow well inside my soul until it brimmed deliciously full.

The fire in my veins softened. The ache in my bones faded.

More.

Gods, I wanted more.

I shifted in his lap and swung my legs over him, straddling his hips without letting our lips break contact. My fingers tightened in his hair, pulling him closer as though I could drink the power straight from his lips.

He pulled away and I tried to follow, but his hand pushed against me gently, keeping me in place.

His forehead fell against mine, both of us breathing too heavily into the narrow space between us.

For once, there was no smirk, no amusement, no masks.

Just him.

His gaze searched mine as though he were trying to understand what had just happened. But I had no answers.