Page 80 of The Amber Sunburst

She’s lost almost every round, but he isn’t playing fair.

Because they’re friends. Just friends. So why does my darling make her knees weak? Why does it make her want to beg to hear it again? Why does it make her want to kiss him?

She initiates a left hook, but Zeno quickly dodges, giving her no time to abort. With that momentum, he pushes her to the ground and pins her hands above her head. She rolls her eyes at his victorious smirk and catches him in a hold of her own, wrapping her legs around his waist. A stalemate.

But instead of struggling for control, Zeno slows their fight to a stop. “Are you okay?” he asks, smirk fading fast and brows drawn together in concern.

“What do you mean ‘am I okay’? Of course I’m okay. Why would I not be okay?”

Well, that was a lot more defensive than it needed to be.

“You just seem a little… off,” he says, letting go of one of her hands and putting his own to her cheek.

Everything surrounding her is plunged into darkness and the only thing she can see is him. Zeno. She feels nothing else, hears nothing else, wants nothing else.

“I’m fine. Everything is fine.”

Zeno doesn’t seem convinced. He stays where he is, looking at her—really looking at her—and she feels her free hand find his waist under his shirt in a motion she definitely didn’t tell it to do. His lovely eyes are engineers, taking her apart more and more the longer she lets herself stare at them. It’s as overwhelming as it is addicting.

She darts her gaze quickly to the side before her blush can darken.

“Are you fine?” she asks as his hand moves down to hold her chin and turn her face back to his.

“I’m so fine,” he breathes. “The finest I’ve ever been.”

She can’t stop herself from smiling at that.

“You smell really good,” Zeno says, leaning his forehead on the crook of her neck. “Like honey.”

Her brain is malfunctioning. His breath is hot on her collarbone and she can feel his lips moving on her shoulder.

She grabs the back of his neck to pull him closer and puts her forehead to his temple.

What is she doing, what is she doing, what is she⁠—

“Sun Priestess candy,” she confesses without thinking. She has completely lost control of her mouth and her body, clearly.

He huffs a laugh into her shoulder and all she wants now is to know what it feels like for him to kiss her neck. To muffle a groan in her hair. To lose himself in her arms.

These are not friendly thoughts.

These are thoughts of someone infatuated.

Of someone in lo⁠—

No. No, she is not.

She yanks out of his embrace and can’t help a shiver at the cold of the air around her as she shoots up to standing.

“Xia,” Zeno says, still sitting and in a haze. He shivers too.

Then his brows come together in subdued horror. “Eudoxia,” he says again. Her name spills out of his mouth like he can’t help it. Like he’s savoring every syllable.

He opens his mouth again like he’s going to ask what this means but she takes another step back and interrupts. “Are we going again?” she asks. She’s ripped something away from them, she knows that. But she can’t do this.

Zeno’s face drops for a second before a smile forms that is so far from reaching his eyes it might as well be a grimace.

“Of course we are, silly,” he says.