I nodded, not sure how he knew that.
"I could see it on your face," he answered my unasked question. "Could practically feel the longing coming from you as you stared out the window.”
“What does this have to do with anything?"
He scowled in frustration an my non-understanding. "This, Rose." He spread his arms towards the sky. "The Kings take what we want. Without question, without asking for permission. And we don't answer to anyone. You want the rain, you fucking do what it takes to get the rain, even if means you have to rip it from someone else's hands in the process. If you want it, it belongs to you."
His eyes were harsh in the darkness, and they pierced through my emotional shield like bullets banging into me. My guard was lowering, all my inhibitions disappearing at the sight blazing before me.
This is what I’d been missing this whole time.
This was the true Bourbon. Fire and fury. Passion and emotion.
"You asked me what I'd sacrificed for Coulter." He stepped towards me, his gaze fierce. He gripped my top, pulling me towards him to growl in my face. "This, Rose, this is what I sacrificed for my brother. All those years I longed for Lily, I stood aside, letting Coulter steal her first kisses and long nights staring up at the stars. Every time I wanted to touch her, to kiss her, to fuck her, I asked myself, what would Coulter do? What would Coulter want? And even though I did take my kisses from her, I also held back from claiming her as mine, because I knew that’s what Coulter wanted, too."
He pointed into my chest, his eyes on fire, blazing heat into me even though it was freezing out here. "Don't ever question my loyalty or my love for Coulter ever again."
He let me go, stepping away from me, putting distance between us that I didn't want. I heaved, sucking in deep breaths as we stared each other down. My fingers tingled with the need to touch him, to feel his chest under my fingers, to taste his lips on mine. To remember what he felt like wrapped around me.
To own everything of Bourbon, just like that one night he'd given it to me before it was ripped from my grasp.
I wanted what he described.
To take what I wanted without permission.
To become a King, if not in name but by the very act of demanding what I wanted and taking it fucking all.
And I was going to start right now.
Stepping forward, I grabbed Bourbon's tie and yanked him to me, pressing my lips to his and kissing him with all the passion I felt inside.