Page 109 of The Heir's Bargain

I chewed on my bottom lip, and Fynn's attention dropped to the movement.

"Truth only," he said, his voice low and heavy and sinking straight to my core. "Do not make me beg to be inside your mind, Ferrios."

A hunger I hadn't anticipated darkened his eyes, but he wasn't the only one starving.

"You, Fynn. I want you."

"That's all you had to say," he said before grabbing my hand and guiding me down the path lit only by the partial moon.

Chapter 26

FYNN

In the twenty years I had spent studying the maps of Pontia, I had never once thought that knowing the location of every storefront and hidden entrance would serve any purpose.

Until today.

I pried the door open of a nearby storage room and slammed it shut. Inside the small space, the moon’s rays leaked in from a skylight, providing just enough light to make out Dani's features.

Dani leaned against the shelves, causing the glass bottles stored on it to clink together. "What are we doing in here, Fynn?" she asked.

I leaned back against the door. "That depends."

"On?" The single syllable on her lips was a whisper, yet it sent my insides turning.

I dug my hands into my pockets and held onto whatever restraint I had left.

"On you," I said.

"On me?"

I nodded.

I could have run to her then. By the gods, I wanted to press her against the shelves and claim those lips as mine. But I held my ground. This was not about my needs or what I wanted.

"If it is me you want," I said, "then why are you over there?"

At those words, something snapped within her. Her previous anxiety melted away as she drank me in with a burning gaze. When she stepped forward, the beam of moonlight flashed across her eyes, catching the golden flecks in her irises and a mischievous glint lit within them.

"Tell me one thing first, Fynn," she said, challenging my control more and more with each step as her hips swayed languidly back and forth.

"For you? Anything." I was awestruck, a puddle on the streets, as she trailed a finger over the edge of one of the shelves.

I had known Dani was a huntress since we were children, but I had never seen her gift appear in this way. I hadseen countless times how she used her surroundings to her advantage, how she found the trail that led her straight to her prey.

But I had never been the prey.

And to experience firsthand how she stalked her prey, how she moved with careful yet predatory steps—by the gods, it was spellbinding.

Dani tilted her head. "What is it that you want?"

My gaze trailed down her body, from her collarbone to the bottom of her corset, where it outlined her wide hips. She was laying the trap, and I was falling for the bait like a fox in a rabbit hole.

"Because unlike you, Fynn," Dani continued, "I am no mind reader. If you want something, you have to say it." When she was a foot away, she tipped my chin up. "Out loud."

"I want whatever you'll give me, Ferrios."

She dragged her finger beneath my chin, scraping it across the unshaven scruff. "Oh, come on now. You’ll have to do better than that, Your Highness."

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