Page 108 of The Heir's Bargain

"It's not you. It's—it's—" I groaned, pressing my palms against the sides of my temples. I leaned my head against the brick, my loose curls snagging on the rough grooves. "Everything is different now. We promised nothing would change."

Fynn peeled my hands from my face, weaving his fingers between mine and tugging them down. "Nothing has changed, Dani."

"You like the taste of ale!" I exclaimed.

"I what?" Fynn's confounded face was enough to make me realize how utterly ridiculous I sounded, yet I continued.

"You hated ale before, but now you drink it as if you don't mind it."

He shook the confusion away and shrugged. "When you have something for a while, you grow to tolerate it."

"Is that what this is then, too? We've been fake courting for so long that now you tolerate it enough to make it real?"

Fynn flinched. "Is that what you think?"

"I—" I swallowed.

In truth, I didn't know what I thought. While I knew I was overreacting, part of me feared what would happen if this didn't work out. Part of me was still in disbelief that we were together because, in the past week, nothing had changed—at least not around me, not on the outside.

On the inside, I was eager. Eager to see Fynn again, yearning to be only inches from the scent of the sea.

Eager to kiss him again.

Fynn smirked. "Eager to kiss me, huh?"

Snatching my hand back, I shoved him in the chest. "Get out of my mind, Fynn!"

"But it's much more fun when you let me in, Ferrios. I mean. . ." His gaze flicked down before crawling up the curves of my body. When our eyes met, a hunger swirled within the flames of his irises. "You have to admit, a part of you likes me being inside you. I know I do."

I gasped.

"Inside your mind," he said with a wink, his hand gripping my waist as he pressed his body against mine. "But I also enjoy being inside you."

I opened my mouth to respond—once, twice. I failed to speak each time, though. The heat pooling beneath my thighs was not helping me either.

This was not the time to be thinking those thoughts. Yet, how could I not when the truth was that those thoughts had been consuming me for days?

Fynn pressed his hand flat against the brick wall above my head. "Did I not say it loud enough, Ferrios?" He leaned in closer, the tips of his hair tickling my cheek. His hand on my waist ventured lower, down my side, then high on my thigh.

My heart was in my lungs. "I heard you," I whispered, the words barely audible. Everywhere he touched, an inextinguishable heat bloomed, and an insatiable hunger stirred at my core.

He leaned down, the tips of his hair brushing my forehead, sending a shiver down my back. "No, I don’t think you did. Because I’ve been thinking a lot about that night and how hasty it was, how I didn't get to take my time with you."

His fingers splayed across my thigh. His thumb moved in small circles along my inner thigh. He was barely even touching me, yet heat filled the pit of my stomach, and my body arched toward him.

A crash sounded. I jumped.

My gaze flicked to the streets, but it was only a storekeeper throwing their trash into a bin.

Fynn grabbed my chin and forced my attention back to him. "I told you I was done pretending, so why do you keep fighting this?"

My chest rose, my breaths coming faster. "We're in public," I mumbled.

"It's pitch dark outside."

"But—"

"But no excuses. Tell me right now, what do you want, Ferrios?"

---