Page 101 of Beneath the Flames
“You’ve done something to me, Maren,” he admitted.“Something I’m helpless to stop.”
This time, his fingers intertwined with mine without hesitation.
“And I don’t want to.”
He waited for a moment longer, as though he were giving me the opportunity to step away, to refuse whatever was happening, but I didn’t want it to stop.I wanted him.
Then his lips were on mine.
Fire.It wholly encompassed me, the most exquisite heat I’d ever felt.
Rhydian’s arms wrapped around my waist, tugging me even closer, deepening the kiss.
I had kissed before, a few times back home during summer flings when I was a teenager and needed to escape for a while from my home.But they all paled and disappeared in the wake ofthiskiss.
Rhydian was confident, his movements sure.His fingers tightened on my back.
If this was heaven, I never wanted to leave.My mind descended into a fog of pleasure and delight, and it was so easy to lose myself in it, to forget everything else and just live in Rhydian’s arms, his lips against mine.
There wasn’t even a second of confusion.If I had had time to think, I might have questioned what was happening.Rhydian hated me, hated humans.Up until recently, he always acted as if he couldn’t stand me.And yet, now, in his arms, it feltright.It felt like this was where I was supposed to be all along.
I was human, and he was Fae.We didn’t belong together.
And yet I was helpless to stop these quickly growing feelings, and it didn’t seem like Rhydian was interested in stopping them either.
I had no idea if it was minutes or hours later when he finally pulled away, resting his forehead against mine with his eyes shut.
I wanted to say something, but no words would come.
“I’ve been dreaming of this for a while,” he said softly.
“You have?”I asked, surprised.
He nodded, his nose grazing mine again.
“I thought you hated me,” I admitted.
“Oh, I did.”That smirk was back, but it didn’t have any of the earlier disdain in it.
“Then what happened?”
“Youhappened.”He shrugged.
I hated the shudder in my breath as I exhaled.“What does this mean?”
Rhydian stiffened, his body going rigid beneath my palms before he pulled back.There was a war playing out in his eyes, only I didn’t know exactly what he was at war with.
Finally, he said, “It means whatever you want it to mean.”
“That was very cryptic.”
He released me, putting far too much space between us and shoving his hands into his pockets.I fought the urge to beg them to return, my skin cold in their absence.
“You can decide what you want, Maren.I won’t force anything on you.”The words sounded breathless, like he could barely get them out.“If you want to explore”—he gestured between us—“this, then I’m amenable to the idea.But if you want nothing more from me than to break the curse and go home, then so be it.”Something flitted across his face with those words, but it was too quick to decipher, though I got the distinct impression that he hated those words as much as I did.
Amenable to the idea?Not exactly a confession of feelings though.
Ever since my conversation with Nico, my thoughts had spun over Rhydian and what I truly felt.I may not have been ready to say it aloud, to tell him the way my heart raced whenhe touched me, or that I saw the kind heart he kept hidden away behind his grumpy, rude exterior.But I would never forgive myself if I didn’t pursue this.Him.
