Page 188 of Entangled

I lower my head, and her breathing falters.

“You have to make it look like you aren’t thinking about anyone but me.” I trace the line of her bodice where it ties over her breasts, barely holding them in. Goosebumps lift under my fingertips, a barely raised texture on her painfully soft skin. “Make it look like he’s the furthest thing from your mind.”

“Um...”

“You need to look like you want to taste me.” I brush a kiss over her chilly cheek, and she shivers. “Like you want me naked.”

Her chest lifts as she breathes in sharply, and color rides her cheekbones. My skin feels tight and too sensitive. I trail my hand up to wrap around her throat, over her frantic heartbeat.

I feel her hot little breaths against my cheek as I move my mouth to whisper in her ear. “Look at me like you love me.”

The words slip out of me too needily, too close to a demand, and I flush with embarrassment. Not waiting to see her reaction, I lean down to her throat and suck her panicky pulse into my mouth. My beard scratches against her skin, and she tips her head back, letting out a sharp, stunned moan.

Eden tastes delicious, like her want for me is dusted on her skin. Her heartbeat throbs against my tongue, and my balls ache in response. Suddenly, I understand vampires. The desire to sink into someone and suck and suck and suck.

I lick the column of her throat, wanting more of her. I remember burying my face between her thighs. How slippery wet she gets. How she soaked my beard, and I ate her until I tasted her all the way down my throat.

Which is sounding like a really good option right now.

Eden’s hands find my shoulders, then slip down over the oil, and she squeaks.

I wrench myself back before I lose it and hike her dress up in front of everyone, my chest heaving harder than it did after my entire fire routine. We stare at each other, and it takes me a second to come back to myself enough to look up at Jayk.

When I do, he’s not on the platform.

Eden, trembling and pink-cheeked, looks over too, and some of the shine in her eyes dies.

It’s a travesty.

Eden’s eyes should always shine.

“He was jealous...” I attempt, and her lips roll in.

“He left. Again.” She shakes her head. “That was stupid of me... and not very kind.”

She suddenly looks small, the fragile hope, the openness I saw in her before closing up like an old wound I want to tend.

“Come on, beautiful.” I lead her the final few steps over the bridge we created for the dry moat, and she follows me into the woods without a word.

There are solar lights throughout the forest, still dusty from storage. The old boxes of Jasper’s mother’s wedding decorations were well and truly raided for this party. I lead Eden a short way away, to a mossy glade that bursts with wildflowers. They’re dizzyingly fragrant, and their scent twists with the gentle smoke of the bonfire. From here, the music is only a dull beat in the distance.

Eden walks around the space, her fingers brushing the petals. She’s moving slowly, a little awkwardly, but she doesn’t seem injured. She might have pushed herself too hard sparring.

She’s been hustling hard—Dom even said, “She’s been doing great.”

So he’s been gushing, obviously.

“You’ve been wearing these in your hair,” she says to herself, examining the yellow flowers.

Every time I think of that half-crushed, wilted thing Jasper pulled from his pocket, my spine turns to liquid.

I rub the back of my neck with a smile. “You noticed that?”

Those large, pretty eyes roll.

“As if anyone can keep their eyes off you.” Then she adds in a wry mutter, “And as tonight’s performance shows, you know it.”

Flirting. She’s flirting. My heart lifts with my smile.

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