She didn’t care.
Then his hands were on her backside, and he was lifting her against him, her legs wrapped around his waist. He spun her, and in a moment, her back hit something solid — she didn’t care what. His body was pressed against hers, his hard desire rocking against her own. Nothing mattered now. She was with him again. He had found her. The artifact had brought her here. Maybe even he, too, had felt its call. She clung to him; could not have enough of him.
“I missed you,” he murmured against her neck, his breath hot on her skin.
He kissed her softly where jaw met throat, and she arched against him. The ache of her desire deepened, and she rolled her hips against his.
He growled something unintelligible, his body responding. His kisses grew deeper and more desperate. Almost as if he couldn’t stop himself, as if the artifact was stoking his fire as well as Ru’s.
“I missed you,” he said again and again.
There was too much separating them, Ru thought. Too many clothes, too many words. As she began to lose herself completely, as her pleasure grew and sharpened, she found she needed something more.
“Fen,” she murmured, a soft breath of a word.
And like starlight through a midnight cloud, that name cut its way to her heart, and she saw herself clearly in that moment. This wasn’t Fen. This was Taryel, the Destroyer. The artifact had betrayed her. It had brought her straight to him.
As if feeling her stiffen against him, Taryel stopped kissing her. His chest heaved with pent-up want, just as hers did. But she felt it as if separate from herself now, the artifact’s insistent lust, and pushed it away, disgusted.
“Put me down,” she said. Her voice shook.
He paused, unsure.
“Put medown.”
Obediently, he did, setting her gently on her feet. She leaned back against the tree, grateful for its steadiness.
They stared at one another for a long moment, and Ru saw that glazed look in his eyes. The artifact’s influence.
Taryel’s mouth fell open, and Ru knew an apology was on its way. She didn’t want to hear it. Before he could say anything, she drew back her hand and slapped him full across the face.
“Fuckinghell,” he gasped, voice muffled by the hand he pressed to his face where she’d struck him. But the glaze had gone from his expression, his grey eyes clearing.
Her palm stung, and tears pricked her eyes.
“I deserved that,” he said, his words tinged with surprise.
“Where have you been?” Ru spat, both angry and shamefully relieved at being near him again. The artifact’s coursing fire was lessening, but not quickly enough. “How— Who do you— I shouldkillyou, you know.”
A smile pulled at the edges of his mouth. As if he was happy to see her despite her rage, as if… Ru tamped down her traitorous feelings.
“I’m sorry I kissed you,” he said, though he didn't sound it.
“Youmorethan kissed me. You had no right."
“I didn’t mean to. The artifact, when we’re this close to each other, it…” His gaze fell to her mouth for a moment. “You kissed me back.”
He was still close enough that she could see his pulse at the softest part of his throat, evidence that he was alive. That he, like Ru, was made of blood and bone and muscle. And even though he was Taryel, a villain of legend who had lived centuries ago, he was somehow still just a man.
If she had been armed, Ru might have considered attacking him. But even with those thoughts came yearning. She imaginedplunging a knife into his chest at the moment of embrace, of their bodies meeting and moving together, and she bit her lip. The pain cleared her mind, if only slightly.
Ru hated herself for feeling the way she did. Because, more than anything, more than anger or betrayal, one feeling would not relent — the feeling of coming home.
“I didn't mean to kiss you back,” Ru said.
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Did you mean to make thatsound—”
“I still might kill you,” she said, cutting him off. “I’ll call for Lyr.”
