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“Tell me, darling, do you think of me often?” His voice is a murmur, as if his lips were pressed against my ear. I shiver, knowing exactly what that feels like. If he knows I’m here then why hasn’t he— “Do I haunt your dreams, plague your thoughts, like you do mine?”
“It’s a good thing you’re not here,” he says softly, a tone I never thought I’d hear from him again. “Because I still haven’t found my courage.”
used to welcome the idea of drowning in those blue eyes of hers. But now, seeing the disdain she stares me down with, I realize that drowning alone wasn’t what I craved, but sinking together.
If she is Shadow, then I am Flame. This girl is the very thing I can’t seem to escape—can’t seem to go anywhere without the remnants of her following. Where I am, she is. Whether it’s in the flesh or in the fragments of my mind. And where there is a flame, there is always a shadow. She is my inevitable.
First, there is nothing. Second, there is everything. There is her.
Because when darkness hides those blazing blue eyes, I can pretend that she is nothing to me. Just a shadowy figure that feels like her, smells like her, talks like her.
“You promised to be my undoing,” I murmur, lowering my head close enough to hear her sharp intake of breath. “So, prove it.” Her face angles up toward mine, our noses brushing. She never lowers her dagger, and the point of her blade still draws blood from my throat. “Prove it,” I repeat, voice quiet. “Hate me enough to make me want you.” I cup her jaw, feeling her eyes burning into mine. “Ruin me.” Our mouths crash together.
hard enough to have her palm opening and the blade clattering onto the uneven roof. With her hand now free, I lift it over my shoulder, guiding it around my neck. Her fingers are buried in my hair while mine dig into her hips.
I see the girl who ruined me. The planes of a face I’ve held in my hands, freckles I’ve counted a dozen times.
eyes staring up into mine, sparkling like an indigo pool I’m all too willing to dive headfirst into.
When his hand pulls down the fabric covering my nose and mouth, I do the classiest thing I can think of. I bite him.
I’m powerless to stop him from ripping the scarf from my head.
“Because,” he answers calmly, “I needed you to need me.”
she’s my property. Mine.
We were inevitably imperfect for each other.
Oh. My. Gosh.
A pain in the ass does not even begin to describe this girl.
Yet, I can’t help but think that in another life, another time, another chance to choose each other—I would be in that bed beside her.
“You ask as though you’d stop if I weren’t.” “You truly know me so well,”
He rips a piece of cloth with ease before tugging my leg toward him to rest atop his own from where he kneels.
“So imagine,” he says casually, “what I would be more than happy to do to you if you ever lay another finger on her.”
Protective?!!!
“If you’d prefer to walk across the desert, be my guest. Otherwise, I’m going to need you to get on a damn horse.”
He cares. He can’t lie.
I roll my eyes at where his hands rest on my thighs.
“Get me an extra blanket.” She doesn’t bother rolling over to mock me to my face. “And I thought chivalry was dead.”
“Wrong with me?” I’m exasperated. “Your feet are freezing.”
She looks at me, shocked. And then she smiles, bright and big like the night sky hanging above us. I fear she could rival the stars.
Kai Azer. That man you are.
No, everything about her is a bold sort of beauty, like a rose proudly displaying its thorns. She’s alluring in the way that most deadly things are. It’s captivating.
When her breath hitches on what sounds to be the beginning of a sob, I know something is very wrong. “Paedyn,” I say softly. The taste of her name is intoxicating on my tongue. “Paedyn, are you listening to me?”
I swallow before lacing her fingers with mine,
She rests her head on my shoulder. Every bit of my being is focused on the way her fingers feel between mine.
“Under different circumstances,” he pants, “I promise you I’m much more fun tied up.”
At my weakest, I wish for him. And at my strongest, I wish I could say it wasn’t the same.
“Paedyn!” My name echoes off the walls, stilling me for a moment. Then his face is beside mine, his cheek wet and cold against my own. “That’s enough.” I hear it then. Hear the defeat in his voice. He’s giving up.
“Your name seems like a good word to die with on my lips.”
Ohhh my gosh Kai
“Pretend,” I whisper against his lips.
“Prove it to me, Gray,” I murmur against her ear. “Hate me enough to use me.”
“Kai,” she whispers, “I never learned how to swim.” “You’re okay,” I murmur, pushing tangled hair from her face. “I’ve got you.”
They were DROWNING and they used their last breath to kiss each other.
I will not let her die like this. I cannot.
My hands find the center of his chest and begin pumping, begin trying to purge him of the water he’s swallowed.
“Don’t be dramatic,” I order. “Open your damn eyes.”
The things Death made us say, the kiss we shared thinking it was our last, can never be undone.
“No”—his fingers trail up my neck to trace my jaw—“the mistake was tasting you now that you likely won’t let me do it again.”
My life is not my own. And, for that reason, she can never be mine.
NO 💔💔
“I’m not proposing, don’t worry,” I murmur. “Step on my leg; I’ll give you a boost.”
“Because I’m not sleeping with you.” He gives me a look, to which I quickly rephrase, “I’m not sleeping in this bed with you.”
She tasted like a privilege, felt like a dream. It was an effort of sheer will to step away, to pry myself from her.
“Not enough freckles.”
“You just pulled us into a gentleman’s club,”
“Jealousy looks good on you, Gray,” I murmur, my fingers still cupping her chin. Her eyes flick between mine, full of a familiar fire. “I’m not jealous.” My gaze lingers on her lips before traveling down the length of her. “Then you just look good.”
“That’s my girl,”
“Am I distracting you?” I ask sweetly. “When are you not?”
