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She clung to him. It felt like her soul had been cracked open. “I hate that you have this much power over me.” To her surprise, he laughed. “What’s so funny?” His grin only widened. “Of the two of us, I am not the one with the power, Tem.”
“That doesn’t make you right about everything,” he hissed. “Just the important things.”
“I want to taste you.” Primal hunger bloomed in Caspen’s eyes. “As you wish,” he said quietly, his finger slipping down the expanse of her throat. “On your knees.” Was worshipping one god really so different from worshipping another? Tem knelt for Caspen the same way she knelt for Kora, looking up at him as he untied his trousers and slipped them down his hips.
How long have you been there? Not long. Tem frowned. She didn’t like that he’d listened to her thoughts without her consent. I meant no harm, Tem. You are…hard to ignore.
Her body was a drug, and he was an addict getting his fix. Tem was no better—she couldn’t get enough of him.
“I mean that I never should have let this happen.” She yanked herself from his grasp. “Then why did you let it happen?” “Because I am weak.” Caspen practically yelled it. Tem stepped back in shock. He stepped closer. “I am weak when it comes to you, Tem. I cannot control my actions. I cannot follow logic or reason. All I think about is you. I wonder what you are doing and who you are doing it with. I obsess over every moment you are with the human prince, and I want to rip his head from his shoulders every time he touches you. It is not rational. It is not acceptable. But it is my reality, and
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I am the one who gave in to temptation. That is what I mean when I say I am weak.” “Temptation? Is that what I am?” His grip tightened on her shoulders. “Temptation, salvation, heaven, hell—you are everything, Tem. You are my undoing. You are beyond comprehension. There are no sufficient words to describe you, either in my language or yours.” His hands moved to her face, cupping her jaw. “My compass points to you. I could not change direction even if I wanted to.”
Her compass pointed to him too. It always had. They were drawn together by something bigger than themselves—something neither of them could control or reverse. Tem knew the future would not be easy for them. But she also knew there was nobody else she wanted a future with. It was the easiest thing in the world to lean in and kiss him again.
Kora herself could not sway me as you do.
“Tell me,” she gasped. “Tell me how you feel about me.” She needed to hear him say it. Now, while they were joined together. Caspen didn’t hesitate. “I am undone by you,” he said. “I crave your scent, your skin, your voice. I think about you all the time, to the point of destruction. You are unbearably overwhelming. I cannot resist you no matter how hard I try.”
“And I understand,” he said, cutting her off, leaning even closer, “that your loyalty lies elsewhere. Contrary to what you may think, it is not my intention to make that more difficult for you. I know what it is to have an occupied heart. But I cannot help how I feel. And you’ve made it very clear that I am not entitled to any part of you—that your heart as well as your body are to be earned. I ask only for the chance to do so.”
His words were not enough anymore. Tem knew how Caspen felt one day and not the next. He was the one thing she truly couldn’t handle: inconsistent.
“I proposed to you because a life without you is not a life I care to live.”
