Page 100 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
“You don’t fully understand it, either.” I glanced at the faded Oath tattoo that banded the base of his throat. “And even if you did, you couldn’t tell me.”
He turned his face toward the hearth, giving me a clear view of his strained neck and clenched jaw.
“Noble,” I said, prompting him to meet my eyes again. “I am not afraid. I am not repulsed. I don’t have to know what it means because I knowyou. And you would never hurt me.”
“I’ve hurt you plenty.”
I rested my palm on his pec again. “Circumstances hurt me, not you.”
His gaze dropped to my mouth, and his throat bobbed. “Hattie,” he warned.
“I. Am. Not. Afraid,” I stated. “Do you believe me?”
“Iwantto believe you.”
“But you don’t yet. Is this why you’re still holding back?”
He laughed a little. “You’re a force, you know that?”
I beamed. “I try.” I slid my fingers back up into his hair, curling them at his nape, nails scratching. I felt his skin pebble with goosebumps beneath my fingertips.
One firm hand gripped my waist. “You know what I am and you still…want?”
“I still want,” I confirmed. “I want and want andwant.”
A rough exhale gusted out of him. “There’s still the matter ofyouridentity.”
My hand stilled in his hair. “My identity has stolen so many things from me,” I said. “My home. My relationship with Raina. My autonomy. My dreams of becoming an alchemist.You.” I pressed my lips together. “When I came to the Collegium, I told myself I would no longer letwho I amsteal all the light from my life. I am not letting it get between us—not anymore.”
For a moment, he stared down at me; I expected him to pull away, to argue, to point out all the ways that a relationship between us could lead to our history being uncovered, and declare it too risky. Feeling as if I were standing atop Fate’s Landing all over again, I braced for another rejection, but then—
“Come here,” he rasped. The hand on my waist gripped harder, tugging me closer.
But when our lips were mere inches from touching, I drew back—just a little.
“What?” he asked, sounding amused now.
“I’m just surprised,” I teased. “Seemed like you’d take more convincing.”
The smirk returned, but it was genuine this time. “You’ve been wearing down my willpower for years. And besides, you’ve made it abundantly clear that you aren’t going to let anything stand between us.”
“You’re right,” I replied, lifting my chin. “I’m not.”
“Good,” he whispered, ghosting his lips across mine, “because I’m done trying to talk you out of this.”
35
Want and Want and Want
Hattie
His first kiss was slow, but not chaste. It was a wet, drugging drag of soft lips and tongue. He tasted the same as he had in the gardens: sweet like Hylder and also complexly, indescribably,deliciouslylike himself.
His body was a wall of heat, arms crushing me against his rigid torso. I snaked my arms around him, scraping my nails across the hard planes of his muscular back until he groaned into my mouth. When I did it again, the groan turned into a growl.
“Too good,” he murmured against my mouth.
I smoothed my palms against his sides, resisting the urge to dig inmore—to scrape red trails into his skin and mark him as mine. Instead, I pressed my chest against his, rocking with each sucking kiss and stolen breath. My nipples ached to feel his skin, to have nothing between us.
