Page 87 of Wild Fury (Fallen Royals 6)

She’s watching me with a mix of fear and excitement. I can practically taste it on my tongue. I hold out my hands, palms up, and she accepts them. I stand and pull her up with me. My heart is going berserk, pounding against my ribcage. Just a simple movement, a simple…

“Time’s ticking,” she whispers.

I cup her face gently, tipping her head back. Her breath catches.

We’ve been in this position before, me and her. But before, anger swirled between us. And now, its absence is almost startling. It’s absent because I willed it away, shoved it back behind mental barriers. Maybe not so much gone as… hidden.

“Are you going to say it?” she asks.

“No.” I steel myself and lean down. Our lips are centimeters apart, close enough that my stomach knots. Last time, she kissed me and all I felt was ice. I don’t want that again. I want…

I kiss her gently, like I might if I were in love. That’s the goal, after all. To pretend that I can do sweet and gentle and kind. To fumble my way through the next minute and thirty seconds.

She presses up on her toes, and our lips slide against each other. Heat rolls through me, and my illusion of ice shatters. God, that feeling of being able to breathe magnifies. Like I’ve never taken a true inhale before. My body wakes up.

My hands find her hips, then her ass. I lift her, our kiss never breaking. Her tongue sweeps at the seam of my mouth, and I open. Our tongues tangle. Her hands run into my hair.

My own hands are greedy, slipping up her back, cupping the back of her head. The wildness inside me takes control, angling her head. My erection tents my jeans.

She does this to me.

She tears her lips from mine and stares into my eyes, then nods to herself. I don’t know what she sees—all I want is to kiss her again. Every mean word, every action, seems to have dissolved between us.

Because she’s not just playing along with me.

Lux runs the show. Her hips roll against me, and I groan into her mouth. I cup her breast over her shirt and bra, pinching her nipple through the fabric. I’m met with her own moan. It vibrates in her chest.

We’re not at war.

I lower her to the couch, staying with her. We’re connected from our lips to our hips, but it isn’t enough. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, to have never wanted this before. To have never particularly cared about sex before Lux.

She pops the button of my jeans, then her hand is on my dick. I tear my lips away from hers and meet her eyes.

Her expression is open.

Vulnerable.

I think mine might be the same.

“Theo, we should—”

The timer goes off, silencing her.

We both freeze.

“Ignore it,” she whispers. “Turn it off and keep—”

Reality descends. The ice wasn’t the illusion—the warmth of us was. And the heat floods away, leaving me cold.

She reaches out and just barely reaches my phone, hitting the stop button.

“Stay with me.” She grabs my face with both hands—I didn’t even realize she had released my cock.

That’s how fucked up I am.

The timer goes off, and everything just halts.

“Don’t go,” she begs. “Theo. You weren’t pretending. That wasn’t pretending. That was actually trying—”

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