Page 33 of A Match Made in Error

That was the most haunting part.

He wasn’t being cruel.

He was being efficient.

So when he jokes now about making the shadows do his bidding, fingers warm in my hair, holding my face tilted up to his…I know he’s not bluffing.

And Fate help me, but the part of me that remembers that alley doesn’t feel afraid.

It feels…very aware that I’m in the arms of someone who could unravel minds and chooses, instead, to ask me nicely.

“Poppy,” he says lightly, and his fingers slip from my hair like nothing terrifying just happened. “I only unleash my shadows on pretty women for pleasure, not pain.”

I blink, dragged back into the moment whether I want to be or not.

“Oh, please,” I mutter, shifting my weight instead of rolling my eyes for once. “You’d flirt with a cursed mirror if it reflected you well enough. At this point, I just think you like the sound of your own rakish voice.”

He grins, unrepentant. “And still, here you are. Listening.” I know he is just being Riven. A flirt. A rake. But between the glowing around us and the air thick with magic and heat and pretense, my brain is struggling to register the difference between his usual nonsense and the way he’s looking at me now—less performance, more intent. Or so I think.

Same Riven.

Different feeling.

And it is deeply unsettling.

My mouth opens, desperate for a distraction. “If not mind control, how would your shadows force answers from me?”

“I was going to make the shadows tickle you.” He shrugs, and a shadowed hand appears behind him, wiggling its disembodied fingers like it was about to tickle-attack. “Come on, Poppy, just tell me.” The shadow-hand moves, though not with irritating intent. It slides delicately up my arm, moving slowly like the fingers of a lover, caressing my skin and sending a shiver through my body.

I answer to stop the blissful torment. “It’s the stupid heart rate thing!” I blurt. “Mine flared dramatically, and yours stayed steady as a drum.”

“I think the bracelet was excited,” he says lightly. “It gets to be wrapped around you, on a floating rock next to me. We’re a stimulating duo, especially dripping wet.”

“Riven,” I groan and rock my head back, sending my bracelet flaring to life once more. This time, with the increased heart rate of annoyance.

“Poppy,” he mocks me, rocking his hips and brushing his manhood against the seam of my swimsuit. Cue racing heart part three. Fate, it’s been so long since I’ve been intentionally touched there that an errant brushing of clothes gets me all hot and bothered.

“Yours didn’t race,” I choke out, ignoring the heat in my core.

At these words, he glances at his wrist and smirks. “Yeah, well, some people have expressive hearts, and some of us are emotionally repressed works of art.”

My back teeth grind together. “I’m sick of being me.” This halts his foolish words and wipes his cocky grin away.

“I like you being you,” he replies quietly. “Why would you say something like that? You’re amazing.” The sincerity of his words nearly cracks my heart in half, especially since I’m once more hearing this from someone who only sees me as a friend.

“I don’t have that kind of effect on anyone.” I swallow back the emotion in my throat. “I’m half naked, dripping wet, and clinging to you in a way that I’m pretty sure is a sex position and⁠—”

“The upstanding citizen,” Riven interrupts matter-of-factly.

“What?” I can feel my face pinching with annoyed confusion.

“This position, it’s called the upstanding citizen, and it takes a hells lot of core strength once you start thrusting, I mean, one time, I⁠—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” I groan, face unbearably hot with a combination of heat, exhaustion, and embarrassment. “What I’m trying to say is, I’m sick of feeling utterly unappealing to everyone.”

Riven stiffens, eyes lifting to mine—sharper than I’ve ever seen them.

“Poppy,” he says, voice low and steady as stone. “I’m a trained soldier. I learned to control my breathing in foxholes, so I didn’t panic and die.” His thumb grazes my back, slow and deliberate. My pulse spikes so high the monitor glows like wildfire, and I swallow hard, ignoring the snickers of the remaining contestants around us. “Just because my heart didn’t spike doesn’t mean I wasn’t affected.”