Page 116 of Kingdom of Chaos
He brushes his lips along my throat, slow and deliberate, until he reaches my ear. When he catches the lobe gently between his teeth and bites down, a rush of heat pulses through me like a live wire snapping beneath my skin.
I drag his mouth back to mine, and when his tongue brushes up against mine, my mind goes hazy.
I can’t think. I can’t stop. I don’t exist beyond this bubble.
As his mouth moves over mine again and again, the world doesn’t tilt to throw me off balance—it settles, like it’s finally fallen into the place it was always meant to be. The thing that’s been trying desperately to grow between us finally bursts to life, bright and beautiful, like an all-consuming fire, impossible to contain.
Suddenly, Talon pulls back and we break apart, both struggling for breath as we stare at each other, wide-eyed and stunned.
“Damn, Freckles,” he murmurs, his voice rough and low, and I feel it all the way to my toes.
“Wh-what’s wrong?” I ask, breathless, confused by the sudden pause.
He lets out a soft laugh, and I feel it rumble in his chest with how close we still are. “Had to stop,” he says, eyes dark and steady. “Because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have.”
Oh.Oh.
“Well. That was, um, a lot,” I say with a nervous laugh, still tingling from the way his kisses lit every nerve in my body. “Honest, yeah. And kind of wrecking me, just a little.”
He brushes a thumb across my cheek, his voice low. “Yeah? That’s kind of how I’ve felt since the day I met you.”
A shaky breath escapes me. “I don’t even know what to do with that,” I whisper. “Except maybe admit that you’ve been under my skin since day one too.”
His brows lift slightly, eyes narrowing. Not with anger, but disbelief.
“Since day one?” he echoes, voice low. “Because the way I remember it you were mooning over a particular dragon heir and treating me like the guy who couldn’t annoy you more.”
He searches my face like he’s trying to find the lie, but all he finds is me.
“Tell me that again,” he says, softer this time. “And mean it.”
I huff out a laugh, my cheeks warming. “I said you were under my skin, not that I was doodling your name in the margins of my notebook and daydreaming about our wedding.” I meet his eyes, trying not to smile. “You were obnoxious. And unfairly hot. It wasveryinconvenient.”
His eyes widen comically, like I’ve shocked him. “You mean to tell me that you weren’t composing love sonnets about my jawline?”
I can’t help but laugh with him at that. “No!” I pause, then mutter, “Though it is a really good jawline.”
He chuckles, and a sudden burst of embarrassment hits me as I realize I’m still latched on to him like a spider monkey.
“You should probably, um, let me go,” I say.
He quirks an eyebrow. “Let you go? Never.”
Butterflies flutter in my stomach, but once I’ve untangled my limbs from around him, he lets me slide down the front of him until my feet touch the ground again.
His gaze travels over my face, like he’s searching for something, and a moment later I know what when he asks, “Any regrets?”
There’s a touch of vulnerability in his gaze I’m not used to seeing.
I draw in a slow breath, eyes dropping for a moment as the question settles between us.
Do I have regrets?
The truth is, I don’t know how to untangle one feeling from another right now. What I feel for Becks, what I thought I knew, what I wanted to believe, it’s all still there, layered and complicated.
But things with Talon have never been simple either.
“I don’t know what this means for everything else,” I say finally, meeting his gaze. “But this moment? You?”
