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My slightly unimpressed gaze slides back to him. I nearly flinch at the way he’s looking at me. His dark eyes are set ablaze. An intense forest fire, with the reflection of the waterfall they are a soft shade of hickory with a warm splash of caramel. He anchors his left hand against the stone behind me, and his right hand glides around the small of my back, pulling me close to his body.
That same forest fire takes root under my skin, under the space where his fingertips rest. I swallow down the satisfied sigh that wants to slip from my lips. The automatic response to melt into his arms.
“Honey…” He utters that one word. One term of endearment. And I’m a little disappointed in myself for not guessing it was him when we ducked under the waterfall. I didn’t even notice his slow dissociation from the world.
“Kane,” I rasp, swallowing down the nerves his presence has caused me. “What’s happening to us? Can you feel it too?”
He exhales something inexplicable. Maybe all of the thoughts he wishes he could say. But can’t.
“Please give me something. Anything.” I’m begging for mere scraps at this point. A dog whining at his feet.
Pity flashes over his shadowed gaze. “Have you ever wondered why you are the only person that can control someone as dangerous as me? As dangerous as us?”
In the half a second my lips part, Kane’s left hand slips around the back of my neck, holding me steady. Holding me close.
I don’t answer. Of course I’ve wondered. There is no keeping count of the questions that have poured over me like an endless rain. I’m drowning in his mystery.
“You ran away with me, Skylenna. Do you know why?” I hear his question. But my mind is only focused on his warm skin against mine. The hot flesh on his hand burning bliss into my neck, my veins, my spinal cord. Please don’t ever take this hand away.
I shake my head, forgetting my words. “I—I care about you.”
He nods. He knows this.
“You think there is something between us.” A cool breeze sprinkles water over his back and I can’t help watching the raindrops tumble over his lips.
“Don’t you?”
He shakes his head. “It’s more than that, but you won’t let yourself understand.” That firm right hand grips my waist in desperation.
“Then help me understand,” I beg.
“I have always cared about you, honey. Even through Dessin,” he explains. “And hearing you confess what you want…”
“I want it from all of you. Not just one. I know that’s selfish! It is. But I want your heart. And I want Dessin’s. And I’ll probably want anyone else inside that beautiful mind.”
“You will understand one day. But only if you promise to remember this.” He surrenders his desperate gaze down to my lips, then drifts back to my eyes once more. “Promise me you’ll remember… in the moment you think you might give up.”
“Remember what? You’ll drive me mad with these questions!”
Kane lifts his chin in understanding. “As hard as this might be for you, to be left in the dark, to have an endless stream of questions. I promise it’s harder for me. It’s ripping my heart out. It’s,”—he takes a steadying breath—“burning me alive, honey. I want to tell you everything. But I can’t. Not until this is all over.”
He waits for me to argue, to chase him down with more questions. But that’s the look of a broken man. The look of suffering. It renders me still. Completely silent.
My eyes fill with tears. Because the words I know I must say sift through my thoughts, the sweet woodsmoke of a beautiful memory.
“I won’t let you burn alone.”
Suddenly his eyes obliterate. A mushroom cloud of raging desire. An all-consuming, impatient need. His brow rises in sweet agony as though he is preparing himself for battle. His large hand tightens around my neck, luring my forehead to his, and he exhales lightly against my lips. I let a tear slip, rolling soundlessly down my cheek.
The world holds its breath.
He gazes one last time into my eyes, as if to ask for permission. Then he kisses me. It’s enough to send my soul toppling into the arms of the universe.
It’s soft, painfully cautious, as if he’s waiting for me to give myself to him. To remove the restraints from my heart and hand them over.
So, I do.
My hands find his soaking tunic, tugging it gently to me, and I part my lips.
