Page 37 of A Kiss of Embers
But he wouldn’t step over a line she didn’t want to cross. Which was why he asked permission with his eyes alone.
Seraphina’s gaze flitted from his eyes to his lips, and when she leaned into him, it was all the permission he needed.
He dipped his head and softly captured her lips, wanting to be as gentle with her as possible. She’d mentioned her desire to be touched with a gentle hand. He would not squander the hesitant trust she gifted him, the willingness to let him touch her.
Her hands lifted from her sides as she placed them on his hips. An unnatural heat sparked from her fingertips, from her lips. Her kiss was hot. But pleasantly so. He relished the burn.
A sigh escaped him as she slid her hands upward until they rested against his chest. More than anything, he wanted to catch fire beneath her sparks, but he forced himself to move leisurely like damp wood smoking instead of bursting into flame.
He kissed her softly. Slowly. And he only removed one of his hands from her face to wrap his arm around her waist. But he didn’t pull her closer. He simply held her, suspended in a moment of time too precious to burst with hurried passion.
When his careful control reached its threshold, he broke the kiss and only then pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her shoulders while avoiding touching her wings. Some species of winged creatures often couldn’t fly again when someone touched their wings. He didn’t want to find out if that were the case for Ember Fae, too.
“I am going to get killed for this,” he murmured into her hair.
“Me too.” Her voice barely registered when smothered by his shirt. “Though, preferably you first.”
He chuckled and breathed in deeply before releasing the scent of sweet flora and autumn winds from his nostrils. “Do you remember the night you captured me?”
“Mmmhmm.”
“You were downright terrifying. I think I almost shat myself.”
She laughed against him, inspiring a smile to his own face.
He continued, “Why does that feel like a lifetime ago?”
“Because it was.”
Silence fell between them at her declaration. Only days had passed, but he didn’t feel like quite the same person anymore. And he suspected she felt the same way. Well,of courseshe felt the same way. They were enemies holding each other close. Bastien didn’t know what to do next. Although he craved her touch, her kiss, her whispered words… That didn’t change the fact that there was no future for them. Ever.
At the revelation, he didn’t know whether to hold her tighter or put distance between them.
“Have nothing to say?” Seraphina asked, breaking the silence with a layer of uncertainty in her voice. “That’s so unlike you.”
He ran his fingers over her hair, and foreign excitement jolted through his stomach at the simple but intimate touch. “Oh, I have plenty to say. But my thoughts are jumbled.”
“Why?” she whispered, fingers trailing up his arm and resting lightly over his shoulder.
He closed his eyes and focused on breathing deeply. “Because I shouldn’t want this.”
“Yet you do.”
“So do you.” He waited for a reply, but none came, as if she, too, were experiencing jumbled thoughts. “We should find Pri.”
Her wings drooped at the mere mention of Pri’s name. “It’s too dark to search for her, especially when we don’t know where she is. We have to wait for the morning.” She paused before continuing. “How competent is Ashryn?” Seraphina bit her lip, distress in her eyes as she stared over his shoulder to the darkness behind the forest.
He slipped his hands down her arms and lightly squeezed. “Ash is resourceful. She’s likely got the village in an uproar by now.” But when she gave him a look that suggested she didn’t appreciate his jesting tone, he spoke the truth. “Ash and I have very similar ways of thinking.” He winced. “If it were me, I would have staged anattack. The council knew you were in the forest. I would have created a rather fiery diversion and made it look like your doing before stealing Pri away from the prison while everyone’s attention was occupied elsewhere.”
“And then what?” she asked quietly. “If you managed to get Pri out of the village, what next?”
Bastien ran a hand over his face as he followed her gaze to the forest behind him, trying to envision what she might be imagining. “The patrol guard would be the first on our tail, and it wouldn’t take long. I’d give them an hour at most before they realized Pri was gone.” When the skin between her eyes crinkled with worry, he tried to reassure her. “The first thing I would do is hide my tracks to make pursuit difficult. Similar to how you did it when you first captured me.”
“And if you ran into the guards? What then?”
He swallowed and dropped his hands from her arms. “I would have to choose where my loyalties lie.”
“And what would you choose?” She finally met his eye, a burning intensity within.
