Page 50 of All's Fair in Love and Magic

“You’re as far away from me as you can be right now.”

He stood and crossed the distance between us, kneeling in front of me and taking my face in his hands. “Clove, I want you so badly I can hardly breathe. I’m trying to be patient. I’m trying to stay in control. I’m trying to give you your fucking space.” He dragged my mouth down to his, kissing me roughly.

The sudden lip lock caught me off guard. When his tongue parted my mouth, I opened for him.

I’d never kissed anyone before.

It was… soft.

Warm.

Wet.

Blissful, honestly.

I forgot to breathe when I kissed him back, and had to pull away to suck in a few deep breaths. Liam’s hands were on my face, his eyes scorching.

“You want me,” I said.

“Hell yes.”

“I don’t know where we go from there,” I admitted.

“I don’t either.”

I bit one of my lips to fight a smile. “You should’ve picked someone with experience.”

“I don’t give a fuck about experience, Clove. Just you.”

He kissed me again. It lasted longer, because I forced myself to breathe through my nose while our tongues got to know each other.

I hadn’t realized how intimate it would feel. Kissing. It had always been one of those romantic movie things, but I’d never actually considered how it would affect me.

I’d never expected to be kissed at all.

It wasn’t a bad surprise, though. Not at all.

Maybe I liked it.

Hell, maybe Ilovedit.

My fingers buried in his hair as I pulled Liam closer. He dragged me to the edge of the couch cushion, tugging me to his chest and holding me fiercely as we made out.

When I pulled away again, I had to suck in deep breaths. His chest was rising and falling rapidly too, which made me feel better about my own lack of air.

“We should probably make some kind of a plan,” I said.

“We’re going to be lost in each other for at least a few days when we seal the bond, so it would be better to do that sooner rather than later. Dragons barely come up for air for two weeks.”

“I have a few days’ worth of work on the wards to really make them solid. They’re healthy now, but they’ll be much stronger when I add runes to them.”

“Are runed spells harder to break through?”

“Much. They should become impenetrable. I can add some more runes in other places to lock the island down even better afterward.”

“So we’ll take the next few days to work on the wards. I’ll work on the dates when there’s time,” Liam said.

“You don’twork ondates.”

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