Page 79 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

He opened his mouth to speak, but she wasn’t finished. He would understand—she would make him understand. Even if it broke him.

“Go ahead. Yell and scream and turn into the High Prince to order me around. Punish me. But I’m not afraid. There isnothingyou can do to change the way I see you.” Teeth bared in a snarl, she sternly stepped again. Digging her boot into the dirt in a firm foothold. “Do your worst …I dare you.”

Garrik’s eyes darkened entirely.

Alora’s burst with flames.

“Be careful what you ask, Alora. You will not like what you receive.” Fuming through clenched teeth, as vicious as the blood boiling in her veins.

She dared to lean closer and growled through hers, “I know what I’m asking. You think you’re a monster? Prove it. Show me the monster you claim to be. Not who they Made you to be. Show meyou,mighty prince. Show methatmonster.”

The silence that followed was unnerving.

He didn’t move.

Nothing but his panting chest and the flutter of his breath mixing with hers.

They stood, ready for war in that valley.

Stood there until the swirls of ink in his eyes recoiled and his jaw unclenched. Garrik dropped his shoulders with a deep exhale, and she knew she’d won without throwing a single blow.

“That’s what I thought,” Alora snapped. He could think himself a monster all he wanted, but they both knew who he truly was. What he wouldn’t do. There wasn’t a bone in his body that desired to hurt anyone—not anyone that didn’t deserve his wrath.

Scoffing, Alora twisted on her heel and threw her hand in the air like a queen dismissing her court, dryly calling back to him, “When you want to talk, come find me.” Sapphires didn’t so much as glimpse over her shoulder as she took a step toward the hill to camp?—

Something captured the hand at her side. It whipped her around until her palms flattened against his racing chest.

And she saw the look in his eyes. Saw the way his jaw tightened. How his chest rose.

Garrik stormed, “How is it that every time I am with you, I can hardly think straight? You drive me to madness. I allow no one to speak to me this way.But you—” he cut himself off. The grip on her tightened as Garrik cursed under his breath. “You…”

His lips crashed against hers. Melting her body into his.

The anger and unease and urge to unleash her starfire on his ass flooded away with a claiming sweep of his tongue. His kiss was demanding. Like the burst of a dam—a crashing wave—utterly reckless and consuming.

Alora couldn’t contain the whimper when his hand dove into her hair. Claiming her in a vital way. Her palms and burning fingers gripped into his collar.

Garrik’s hand roamed down her, the teal sweater wrinkling under demanding exploration. Every firm claim of his fingers had her legs weakening, so she enclosed her arms around his neck and swore she’d never let go.

She felt light. Like a swift breeze had swept her away.

Because she had been.

Carved muscles rippled beneath his tunic. Smokeshadows stormed around them in a new darkness. A darkness that only the forest lining the valley offered. It was then she realized he’d dawned them from sight, away from the hill. Away from camp.

Garrik’s palms rubbed down her waist to her hips, where he offered a quick squeeze. Sinking his fingers into her upper thighs, he effortlessly lifted her and pulled her legs around his waist. The bark of a tree scratched against her sweater when he pressed his hips against her.

A guttural moan from deep in his chest vibrated against her lips the moment hardened steel pressed against her core.

That sound. Nothing in Elysian compared to it.Nothing.

He pulled away as panic narrowed on her body, her hair, the sapphire glow. Then a familiar fierceness stole his gaze and replaced panic with burning desire. Every muscle in his body trembled as he released a hand on her thigh and plunged his fingers into her hair again.

Garrik roughly pressed his lips to hers.

She hadn’t mistaken that panic in his eyes or his body’s short reaction to it. Knowing exactly what it meant. Who he must have thought, for only a moment, he was with.

“We don’t have to do this,” she mewled between breaths. Between the force and his lips.

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