Page 93 of A Cruel Kindness

Soren’s mother looked extremely displeased, but Soren was grinning like a fool.

We weren’t even able to talk before we were swept into another conversation. Then pulled apart again, then finding each other, then separated.

That pattern was how I’d ended up, pacing back and forth in my room, wondering if I should sneak down the tunnels, checking every single room for him.

Twenty minutes of pacing and the Bond’s insistent pleading later, I decided to do so.

I opened the secret door in my room, only to find Soren had a similar idea.

Chapter 22

Bellamy

I came up short, watching as Soren froze in his tracks. The dim light in the tunnels highlighted the strength and size of his body, while the light from my room softly lit his face.

I was heaving, staring at him with a slack jaw and wild eyes. I’d been apart from him for too long, resisted too much.

I couldn’t do it anymore. I dropped all pretenses, stopped hiding the way I wanted to look at him and resisting admitting to any feeling.

Soren saw it happen, his expression darkening to a threatening degree.

I shook my head, feeling emotion swell in my chest. This was too much, impossible even.

Soren snapped, launching towards with me a near-feral look on his face, managing to cover the distance in just a few strides of his long legs.

His hand wrapped around the back of my head and he pulled me to him, seizing my lips in a possessive kiss.

There was no slow build up, no soft, exploring kisses that got you used to someone.

He knew me better than that, able to go straight into the burning passion, knowing exactly what my mouth felt like on his.

Soren’s other hand gripped my jaw, holding me to him tightly as he swept his tongue against the seam of my lips, begging for entrance. When our tongues met in a slow, hot glide, I almost started crying from the weight of relief pressing into my chest.

This was right. This was how it was supposed to be.

I don’t know why I’d resisted it for so long.

I threw my arms around Soren’s neck, no longer shocked and careful.

He sensed my surrender, reaching down under my ass to lift me off the ground. My legs wrapped around his hips immediately, drawing us together.

When our hips connected, my core positioned over him, Soren pushed us into the weathered, wooden wall of the tunnels, holding me there as he kissed me so thoroughly he took my breath away with every move.

A whimper broke off in the back of my throat from sheer exhaustion of resisting this for so long. I melted into the kiss even further, all my senses channeling into the feeling of Soren’s lips sliding against mine, on the soft dusting of hair under my fingers.

Of the strong weight of his pelvis tipped up to support me.

Soren broke from my lips, drawing a protesting sound from my throat. He smiled against my neck before placing an open-mouthed kiss on the skin, pressing his tongue into my pulse point.

My back arched up as a lightning flash of heat whipped down my body, landing in my core.

The Bond had reduced itself to a buzzing, euphoric hum that made my entire body feel blissfully warm. The heat spurned on a feeling of urgency low in my stomach, needing this to last longer, for us to be closer, for Soren to press me into the wall harder.

I grappled for him, adjusting my grip to pull him impossibly closer.

Soren smiled again, his face rolling an inch to either side. The only break from the heat was the small pulses of coolness from the ring in his nose. “Greedy, are you?” he asked against my throat. “Did I leave you wanting for too long?”

Oh, he had me and he knew it. Might as well lean into it. “Mhm,” I hummed in agreement, nodding furiously. I was mad at myself for it, too.