Page 53 of The Cost of Blood and Bonds

“And you just happen to find the most hidden place in the gardens.”

I take in our surroundings all at once, the way the willow branches curtain us in, hiding us from the world. My pulse spikes.

“I should get back,” I say, standing.

He stiffens.

“Gemma—” Something raw crosses his face. “You can’t tell me that didn’t affect you. Because I’m barely holding myself together.”

His hands find my arms, light and hesitant, in a way that feels like asking.

I don’t look up at him. My heart is pounding, and I feel my resolve fraying with every moment I stay.

“Ryewood, I can’t,” I say, my voice cracking. Fuck.

His fingers lift my chin up gently, tilting my face up until I have no choice but to meet his eyes.

“Can’t what?” Those deep green eyes look at me with such openness and hope, as his thumb brushes along my jaw. “Tell me what you’re so afraid of.”

The words won’t come. What I’m afraid of isn’t something I can tell him. He can never know about her. It’s too big, and it costs too much. I bite it back and just stand there, caught in his gaze with every wall I’ve built crumbling. I want him so badly it terrifies me. I want to close this distance and forget every reason I can’t.

He leans in slowly, giving me every chance to stop him. His lips hover a breath away from mine.

“Ryewood,” I whisper, and I try to tell myself it’s an objection, but deep down I know it’s permission.

He knows it, too. His hand slides from my jaw into my hair, pulling me to his lips. He kisses me so softly, like he’s been holding this back for too long, and the restraint hurts.

The last of my resolve shatters. I melt into him, and my hands find the back of his neck, pulling him closer, as my lips part for him. Warmth floods through me.

The moment I let him in, his control breaks, and he kisses me deeper, hunger flooding through. My knees nearly buckle, and I grip him harder. His arm wraps around my waist, drawing me flush against him, like he’s been starving. Like he’s telling me something he doesn’t know how to put into words.

The world narrows until there’s nothing but this. Nothing but him.

He tastes like red wine, and beneath it, something warm and grounding, like the earth itself is claiming me.

My fingers curl tighter into his hair, and a quiet sound slips from me, barely there, but it undoes him. A low sound rumbles from his chest, and his grip tightens. His kiss deepens, like he’s making a promise he has no intention of breaking, and I let myself drown in him.

Time blurs and loses meaning, becoming soft and unimportant.

When he finally pulls back, it’s slow and reluctant, like he can’t quite bring himself to stop. His hand cradles my head with his arm wrapped around my waist, holding me like I’m something precious.

“Gemma,” he breathes.

“Ryewood.”

Our foreheads meet. We stay there, wrapped in each other, suspended in the quiet.

“Rye.” Grier’s voice cuts through the night like a blade.

Ryewood stiffens. Grier is standing at the edge of the canopy, coiled tight.

“Your father wants you.” His voice is controlled, but I can hear what’s underneath it.

Ryewood doesn’t move. “Tell him I’ll be there in a moment.”

“He was insistent.”

“I think you’re overstepping, Commander,” Ryewood says, and the air goes taut between them.