Something inside me clenches, twists painfully. I shake my head, trying to laugh it off. “And yet I’m still here. Freezing my ass off in some cave, two years in, and you’re only saying this now.”
Kael leans in, just enough that his breath ghosts over my skin, sending a fresh wave of warmth through me. “Then let me prove it.”
I stiffen. “How?”
His hands slide slightly, palms smoothing against my stomach with deliberate intent. His voice drops lower. “I will convince you every day as long as my heart beats if I need to.”
My breath catches. The storm howls outside, snow hammering against the cave’s entrance, but all I feel is him. The warmth of his hands. The steady weight of his presence. The undeniable promise in his words.
I wet my lips, my voice quieter now. “That’s a long time.”
His gaze doesn’t waver. “Then I had best start now.”
And before I can think, before I can stop myself, I lean into him just a little more. Just enough that the last sliver of space between us disappears.
Kael exhales, the sound ragged, before he buries his face against my neck. His breath is hot, a stark contrast to the cold still clinging to the edges of the cave. I should push him away, should question this, but I don’t—I won’t. I can’t find the will to move, except to tilt my head, giving him more access.
His lips press against my throat, a slow, lingering kiss that sends a shudder down my spine. My fingers clench in the fabric of his tunic on his arms, gripping him as if he’s the only thing anchoring me in this moment. His breath is uneven as he whispers something in Glowranthian, the deep timbre of his voice rolling over me like a caress. I don’t understand the words, but my body does, reacting with a sharp, visceral need that sets me alight from the inside out.
Another kiss, this time on my jaw. Then one against my cheek, his lips dragging dangerously close to my mouth. My pulse is a frantic, thudding thing, matching the barely restrained tension humming between us.
I know what’s coming next.
And fuck it all to hell, I want it.
I turn into him, meeting his lips with my own. It’s just a brush, a fleeting press, but it sets me ablaze. I barely have time to process the second kiss, deeper now, before Kael moves, flipping me so I’m straddling him, my knees sinking into the cave floor.
I’ve barely opened my eyes when he’s on me.
Kael kisses me like he’s staking a claim, like this moment has been inevitable from the second we met. And maybe it has. Maybe I’ve been fighting a losing battle against something that was always meant to unravel me.
His lips press, part, take, and I let him. I let him consume, let him mould me to him, let him make me forget the cold, the storm, the war brewing outside this cave. Right now, there is only this—us.
His fingers tighten at my waist, his hands so large, they nearly span my back, pressing me flush against him. Heat radiates from his body, seeping into mine, melting every layer of resistance I still might have left. I grip his shoulders, nails digging into the hard muscle beneath his tunic as his lips move with a deliberate, aching slowness that undoes me.
He kisses me like he’s learning me, like he’s memorising every shift, every intake of breath, every tremor that passes through me. And fuck, my body responds to him in ways it never has before.
I’ve been kissed before. I’ve wanted before.
But this?
This is something different.
This is a slow-burning fire licking its way through my veins, a deep, consuming hunger that settles low in my stomach and spreads outwards. It’s not just desire—it’s rightness.
Kael groans low, a rumbling sound that sends a shiver down my spine. His hands slide up my back, pressing me even closer, as if he’s trying to fuse us together. His mouth moves from mine, trailing back to my jaw, down the column of my throat, pressing open-mouthed kisses against the sensitive skin.
I gasp, tilting my head to give him more access, and he takes it without hesitation.
His breath is hot against my skin as he murmurs something else in Glowranthian, his voice rough, reverent. I still don’t understand the words, but my body responds, and I push against him, trying to get closer.
The sound of his words rolls through me like a pulse, like a second heartbeat, a calling I don’t fully comprehend but feel all the same. I fist a hand in his tunic, dragging him back to my mouth, and this time it’s me who takes, me who pushes, me who loses myself in him.
Kael groans again, and fuck, I love that sound. Love the way he reacts to me, like he’s barely holding himself together.
One of his hands slides up my spine, tangling in the back of my hair as he deepens the kiss, his tongue sweeping into my mouth, claiming, teasing, coaxing. He’s heat and strength and something else entirely—something mine.
A sharp, unshakable certainty settles in my chest.
