Page 114 of The Prince from a Cruel Summer
Aidan doesn’t love his bride, and the knowledge fills me with a hot, molten heat.
“Or enchanted me. Or cast any kind of spell over me whatsoever?” he adds.
“No. I’m not playing on words, here.”
“I’m not sure what to believe. If you’re even truly Fae.” He curls a hand around my shoulder, slowly raising it to my neck in a meticulous, trial-and-error manner, until his thumb traces the shell of my pointy ear. “I should have you arrested, really.”
If he’s testing my reaction, or his, I wouldn’t know, but my lids flutter at the warm caress. I lean deeper into it, the years I spent fantasizing about his touch nullifying any survival instinct I still possess. No matter what he’s saying, my body can't process that Aidan would ever hurt me, and it’s reacting accordingly.
“The drum of my heart when I’m with you…the tremors of your magic… It’s intoxicating. I’ve never felt anything like it.” His eyes flick to my lips. “Kiss me.” He breathes the words as though he’s afraid to say them out loud.
No.I’m older and wiser now.
I look away, taken aback by his demand. “And what would a kiss accomplish, exactly?” I chuckle darkly.
“You know what fairytales say about true love’s kiss… It might dispel whatever curse or enchantment erased my memories,” he says. His voice remains eerily nonchalant, but his eyes gleam with mischief as he prevents me from widening the gap between us further.
Oh, how I’ve missed this impish side of him.
A smile pierces through my anguish, and I rest a hand over his breastbone. “Silly Faen stories.” My fingers shake as I trace the v-shape of his wedding waistcoat. “But it’s soyouto suggest such a thing.”
“Is it?” he murmurs. “I’ve always thought of myself as a skeptic.”
“Then they’ve altered more than your memories.”
He rests his forehead on mine. “I can’t believe my parents went to such lengths to erase you because they didn’t want me to marry a commoner. It sounds far-fetched, even for them. Especially my mother…” His eyes close for a moment.
A hiccup rakes my throat.Here we go again.“There’s something you should know. Your parents didn’t try to erase me because I was a moth.”
His gaze hardens, a little more calculating than it was before, his hold on my neck a little heavier, but not to the point of becoming uncomfortable. By Thanatos, the way I’m feeling, I’d let him choke me to death if it earned me back his trust.
“I’m part siren. A Sea mutt.” I hold my breath, entirely focussed on his reaction, proud that I mustered the courage to say it without being cornered into it. “That’s why your parents never trusted your feelings for me. That and the fact that it made me completely unsuitable as a potential queen.”
Aidan’s nose wrinkles in the cutest way, but he doesn’t draw back. “But siren songs don’t last more than a day.”
Tears mist in my eyes, his reaction so similar despite the drastically different circumstances. “You said the same thing back then.” I stand on my tip-toes without meaning to, my nails skimming the side of his face.
He angles my lips to his. A flicker of something joyful and fragile—perhaps hope—illuminating his face. If it hadn’t nearly killed me to see him with a ruby dagger in his hands, ready to swear his life and future to another woman, I’d turn him away. But this is my last chance.
There’s nothing quite like a second first kiss.
Aidan presses his mouth to mine with caution, the way he’d approach a wild, untamed beast. It’s not a dive, but a careful exploration. An investigation full of riddles, his tongue serving as a final question mark as it slips past my defenses.
And the answer to all of them is,fuck yes!
He’s no longer the man who broke my heart.
I’m not the stranger who crashed his wedding.
In that kiss, we’re more than just the sum of all parts, more than old lovers separated by space and time and the oh-so-annoying bout of amnesia. We’reus. Aidan’s body apparently remembers details his mind has forgotten as he takes hold of my waist, flattening me to the wall with just the right pressure to set my body ablaze.
I force my eyes open, shying away from him. “Anything?”
His chest rises and falls. “Blessed Flame. Are you sure this isn’t our first kiss? Because I don’t fathom how I could have been made to forgetthat.”
A heavy sigh drags down the elation that had built up in my chest. “Quite sure.”
He caresses the side of my face with his thumb. “I wish I could remember.”
