Page 101 of Savage Crown

Rylan doesn’t move or breathe. He doesn’t even dare to blink. His hands come up slowly, curling around my wrists as if trying to decide if I am something he should keep, or something he should destroy.

I feel his breath on my lips when he finally speaks.

Low. Shattered.

“How long?”

I shudder, my heart cracking open inside my chest.

“Since before I knew what love was.”

Something flickers in his eyes.

Something dark. Dangerous. Desperate.

His grip tightens, just slightly.

As if he wants to hold onto me, but doesn’t know if he should.

“You should have told me,” he murmurs.

I let out a breathless, broken laugh.

“You would have killed me.”

He doesn’t deny it.

We both know it’s true.

He closes his eyes, exhaling through his nose, and for a moment, I think he’s going to pull away.

To bury whatever this is before it consumes us both.

But then he kisses me.

It’s a claim. A war. A fire that has burned for too long and finally consumes everything in its path.

I fall into him, into the way his hands grip my face, into the way his lips crush against mine, as if trying to take every piece of me into himself.

He breaks away, breathing hard.

His forehead presses against mine.

“You love me,” he whispers, as if tasting the words, as if testing their weight in his mouth.

I reach for him, dragging my nails down his bare back, feeling the way his muscles tense beneath me.

“Yes,” I whisper back.

The word feels like a curse.

Like a vow I cannot take back.

And I don’t want to.

37

RYLAN

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