I inhale, and her scent makes me mad with need. Succulent and humid with spice, like summer rain on hot stone. The taste of her earlier kiss still lingers on my tongue, a teasing preview of what awaits me. She looks ripe for my taking, and I want her every way possible.
“Ice…” Sabelle tenses, her voice strangled.
It tells me I’ve come to a line, and if I cross it…there may be no coming back.
Chapter
Twelve
Sabelle hasn’t spoken the Binding words. She isn’t mine. And her tone warns me that, despite the desire flooding her veins, despite the way her body arches toward mine like a flower to the sun, and despite everything between us that feels fated and inevitable…she likely never will be.
The realization is a wound deeper than any blade could inflict.
“Ice…”
The sound of my name on her lips—thick with desire yet tinged with doubt—stops me cold. I look up from between her thighs, my mouth watering with anticipation of tasting her essence. The fear there slams into me like a physical blow.
Pain gashes my chest, and I close my eyes, fighting the instinct screaming at me to claim her, to make her mine now. My muscles lock in place, tendons straining with the effort not to surge forward.
“Princess, don’t. I need—” My voice emerges as a guttural plea, raw and unfamiliar to my own ears.
“Which is why I can’t do this to you,” she says, scrambling out from under me and securing her dressing gown around her again. The silk whispers against her skin, concealing what I just revealed, the heaven I was so close to claiming as mine. “I’m sorry. It was unfair of me to lean on you, to kiss you, when I can’t answer your Call.”
The withdrawal of her heat and softness leaves me cold. I shove away from the table, not giving a damn that my hard cock so obviously tents my robe. The throbbing ache between my legs is nothing compared to the vise crushing my chest.
“Can’t?” The word explodes from my throat, harsh and demanding. Every muscle in my body coils tight, ready to spring. I take a measured step toward her, nostrils flaring as I catch the lingering scent of her arousal mingled with fear. “Or won’t?”
Her eyes, those bottomless blue pools that first drew me in, dart away from mine. She wraps her arms around her middle as if trying to hold herself together. The firelight catches in her golden hair, turning it molten, a crown befitting the princess she truly is.
“I…I’m completely confused.” A tremor runs through her. “Bram will never approve…and yet, I’d be lying if I said you didn’t beguile me.”
Beguile. Such a pretty, privileged word for what burns between us. This isn’t some gentle enchantment—it’s a fucking inferno threatening to consume us both. Still, even that small admission ignites a dangerous flare of hope inside me.
“We are meant to be.” It’s not a plea but a statement of absolute fact, as undeniable as the moon’s pull on the tides. I clench my fists at my sides, fighting the urge to cross the room and haul her against me, to make her feel the rightness of our bodies pressed together.
“I’m not certain we can be!” A tear makes a silvery path down her face and ignites fire in my guts.
That single drop from her eyes undoes me more than her naked body ever could. The proud, fierce princess I’ve watched from afar—always composed, always dignified—is breaking before me. Because of me.
Something dark and primitive rises in my chest, demanding I eliminate whatever causes her pain. Even if that something is the truth. Even if that something is me.
The muscles in my jaw work as I swallow back words that would only wound her further. Pushing her is both pointless and painful—for us both. I need to stop.
“Do what you know you will eventually,” I growl, the words scraping my throat raw. “Renounce me.”
The words hang between us, heavy and final. To hear her speak the Renunciation will shatter me, yet the waiting—this limbo—might be worse. At least with her rejection, I can begin the endless process of learning to live with the gaping wound where my heart once beat.
Slowly, she shakes her head, golden curls catching the firelight. “Please don’t make me. I’m…not ready to let you go.” Her voice breaks, and with it, something inside me cracks open. “I know that sounds terribly selfish but…not yet. I’d like to know you better, see how we can get on together.” She sighs, her small shoulders slumping under an invisible weight. “I want to talk to my brother.”
The mention of Bram sends a surge of black rage coursing through me. My vision darkens at the edges, a feral growl building in my chest. Of course. Her precious brother. The man who would trade her happiness for political advantage without a second thought.
“You know Bram will never approve.” I curse, the word slicing through the air like a blade, and she jumps at the ugly sound. My control slips further with each passing second. I take a step back, putting distance between us before I do something we’ll both regret. “Sabelle, a wizard’s mating instinct doesn’t lie. I’ve never professed undying devotion for anyone. Until you.”
The confession costs me, strips away another layer of armor I’ve built over centuries. I’ve never been this exposed, this vulnerable.
“I’ve never even understood why wizards bothered to mate. Until you.” My voice drops, roughened by emotion I can barely contain. “I can accept the fact you don’t know me well enough yet to trust my instinct. I can’t accept that you’re ignoring your own heart and would bow to Bram’s will instead.”
Sabelle crosses the distance between us, her bare feet silent on the wooden floor. She grabs my hand, and the connection jolts clear through my cock and winds its way to my heart. Her touch sears through me, awakening every nerve ending. For a moment, I allow myself to savor it, to memorize the feel of her fingers against mine.
