Page 10 of Forbidden

Crap. He was finished eating. There was nothing else to stall with. “Uh. Yeah.”

“And it wasn’t the first time? How long have you been seeing me?”

Might as well get it over with. “Right after I had the vision about Hawk saving that family in Irvine, I started seeing you.” Which was six months ago, but saying the actual number aloud seemed so much worse.

“Seeing me how? Working at the bar? Hanging out withother halflings? Surely you know by now that there’s no grand plan to seduce you all away from the guild.”

Ira heated, looking away. “No, I know. I wasn’t seeing current things. I was seeing things in our future—yourfuture, I mean.” He bit down hard on his lip.Crap, crap, crap.

“Our future,” Wolf repeated, his gaze burning into Ira’s profile. “What’s inourfuture, holy man?”

Ira dared to meet his eyes. “I’m not allowed to share the things I see with outsiders.”

Wolf loomed over him, but Ira didn’t feel afraid. “You’ve already shared the vision you saw today, because you saved me.”

“Yeah.”

“Because you didn’t want to see me get hurt.”

“Yeah.” There was no denying that.

“Why? What am I to you?”

Ira’s mouth was dry. “A possibility I’ve been trying to ignore.”

Wolf’s brow furrowed, but his intense gaze didn’t waver. “What kind of possibility?”

Ira licked his lips. “The kind that would get me killed,” he whispered.

Wolf laid one hand on Ira’s thigh and curled closer. Ira’s breath froze in his lungs. He’d seen this happening so many times, in so many different ways. Part of him was terrified of it, but another part of himyearned. In his visions, Wolf was kind. Careful. Like a gorilla playing with a kitten, he was oh so gentle in every sample of them Ira had seen. Ira couldn’t be afraid of someone he knew would treat him like he was precious.

“Is it worth the risk?” Wolf asked, his lips grazing Ira’s.

“I don’t know,” Ira breathed. “I haven’t seen that far ahead yet.”

Wolf was motionless, as though waiting for Ira to make the first move. For a moment, Ira was rigid with indecision. Taking this step with Wolf would change his life, but he’d already made his choice by saving him, hadn’t he? This, being here with Wolf, felt inevitable. He’d been hurtling toward this all along, and he just hadn’t wanted to admit it.

He closed the space between them, slanting their mouths together. Wolf responded immediately, cradling Ira’s face with both hands and turning their kiss into a crush, like he’d just been waiting for permission to take what he wanted. This felt worlds better than the watered down version he’d seen in his visions. This was huge and all-consuming, hot and slick and sending heat rolling down his spine. He pressed closer, and Wolf obliged him, hooking his hands under Ira’s knees and tugging him to lay flat beneath him.

“You feel good, little prophet,” Wolf murmured, blanketing Ira with his body.

Wolf was huge, at least five inches and probably fifty pounds heavier than him—or more. But he leaned his weight on his elbows on either side of Ira’s head as though mindful of it, slipping one of his legs between Ira’s androcking.

“Oh, no,” Ira groaned. It was exactly as good as he’d always thought it would be, and he wouldn’t know how to go back tonothaving it.

Wolf raised his head at once, stilling. “No?”

“No, not no. I mean ‘oh no’ like… I don’t know.” He shook himself. “Do that again.”

Wolf chuckled, rocking against him again. Ira wasembarrassingly hard, and he whimpered at the perfect friction against his groin.

“So this is what you’ve seen?” Wolf asked. “Us, like this?”

Ira bit down hard on his own lip, tilting his head back and squeezing his eyes shut. How was he supposed tothinklike this? “Among other things, but yeah. I tried… so hard to ignore you,” he said breathlessly. “Tried to be good, to be what they wanted.”

“Shh.” Wolf kissed him quiet, and Ira slipped his hands into the back of Wolf’s jeans, urging him to keep moving. He tucked his nose in the curve of Ira’s neck and inhaled deeply. “You smell so good.”

He’d spent so long denying that he wanted this, denying that it would even be possible to have it. Now that Wolf was finally in his arms, he was helpless to resist. He wanted more. He wanted everything.

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