“I don’t know, Hearteater,” I say, my voice rough with restraint and desire. “You seemed pretty willing.”
She swallows again, and her throat ... it’s so close. I have the sudden, blinding urge to bite her, totaste herany and every way she’ll let me.
Her voice is brittle. Her words are very clearly false. “No. I was disgusted.”
This time, I smile. She’s trying so hard to fight it. Almost as hard as I am. She’s trying so hard to hate me. “Is that so?”
She nods, her chin high and proud even as I brace my hands on either side of her on the bed, and lean down, so our faces are level. Her desire flares, I can practically taste it on my tongue. It almost brings me to my knees. Would she like that?
I need her to know. I need her to know thatI know.
“I can feel flashes of emotions.” Yet another secret I’ve shared with her and almost no one else. The blood slowly drains from her face, panic blooming within her, and it pleases me far too much to see her this affected. To see her realize that I have felt every emotion she has had in my presence. “And yours were very,veryclear ...”
She’s stops breathing.
“Just as they are now.”
Spiraling panic. Deepening desire.
Still, her posture never falters. Her eyes are fierce with that endless conviction. “Your powers are wrong.”
I tilt my head, considering. My gaze lingers, shifting from her prickled chest to her delicate collarbones to her captivating neck to her lips. I don’t just want to kiss her. I want to devour her. I want tomark her.
“No,” I say. “I don’t think so.”
Her lips part in the gentlest of gasps that sharpens my senses, sends a chill down my spine. Her eyes drop to my mouth, to my arms, to my chest. Suddenly, her desire surges, merges with my own to create this blinding, pulsing want.
In that moment, I am certain.
This is not one-sided. I’m not the only one watching and wanting. She wants this just as much as I do.
My blood is roaring, pulled toward hers, something unexplainable and unmatched thrumming between us. I didn’t know it was possible for two people to have a gravity between them until I met her. Now all my thoughts and dreams revolve around her, like I am an admiring moon, rotating around the planet that is her.
This will ruin me.Shewill ruin me.
And I might just enjoy it.
If I don’t move, we’re both going to do something that will make it nearly impossible for me to do what I must for my realm.
With every remaining shred of willpower I have, I pull away from her, returning to the chair. “Go to sleep,” I say, knowing I won’t be sleeping a moment tonight.
I watch her crawl back to her place in bed and wonder how we are both possibly going to survive this.
All night, I watch her sleep, remembering how her normally ironclad confidence had wavered when discussing portaling. Remembering how her emotions had hardened when her guardians yelled at her.
My hearteater can be an idiot, but she is not weak. She’s going to learn to bend the starstick to her will. She is going to learn to go wherever she pleases.
I am going to teach her.
The sun has just risen. I shift in the chair, aware of how heavy my limbs feel. This amount of feeling is exhausting.
I almost laugh. Centuries of self-control and this ruler who doesn’t even know she has powers is turning me into an utter fool.
I can’t deny it, I care about her. I need to ensure she’s protected.
It’s ironic, really, her would-be killer trying to keep her safe. It’s wrong, I know.
But none of this is right.
