Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
She cleared her throat. “And now?”
“It’s going to…it’s going to feel good,” he told her slowly. Their eyes meeting one more time in the distance, heat broiling between them. “A fair warning.”
She swallowed. “Is there another way?”
“If I had another one, I’d offer it, love,” he breathed. “But I wanted you to have the warning.” She nodded her head once. She didn’t know if she could brace for it, but she would try. “Now, a slow draw forward.” His hand lowered to the spot on her chest where she always felt the bond. “Imagine you’re pulling my tie through your fingers.”
She glanced down at his chest and blushed. Fuck the proximity. Fuck the bond.
“Okay,” she said, doing as he said. It was slow work. Nothing compared to the rush from Edinburgh or even when he’d released her powers on the streets of New York.
They were both dry from the amulet, all of it caged up somewhere deep inside themselves that they couldn’t quite access. And her portaling had only made it worse.
After a few seconds, she felt a trickle of magic release into her. She closed her eyes on a sigh. Her entire body relaxed. Just the tiniest bit of magic had taken her tank off empty. She felt all her limbs release their tension, and she sank back into the couch, her face tilting into Lorcan’s embrace.
He wasn’t wrong. It felt…incredible. Like pure bliss. Like if she gave into it, then it would be the easiest thing in the world. And she couldn’t.
“That feels better,” she breathed on a sigh.
Lorcan cleared his throat and shifted his hips. “That’s… Yep. Try that one more time.”
“Are you sure?” she whispered. She looked up into his so blue eyes. “You don’t have much.”
“I have more for you, love,” he said, eyes darting to her lips and back up. “You’re not quite there.”
Kierse reached out again, slow and steady. Using the soft draw on their bond that felt like euphoria. Lorcan’s hand slid into her hair. His other hand ran along her jaw, tipping her head up and sliding his thumb across her bottom lip as if he might kiss her. She shivered and felt the world settle around them like stars sparking to life.
In the bond, she could feel him trying to keep from moving. Trying to respect the boundaries that she had placed between them. She could almost read inside his own mind exactly how hard it was to not act. She could feel it, too, like an unwanted plague on her body.
She pushed him backward, regaining a few more inches of ground. They both panted, breathless in the renewed distance.
“Enough,” she said on a desperate breath. “That’s enough.”
Lorcan’s forehead dropped to her shoulder. “Kierse.” He said her name like a prayer. “I didn’t mean to…”
“What the fuck is this?”
Graves looked between them. The compromising position he saw with his own eyes and not the reality of what had just happened.
Lorcan jerked up at the sound of Graves’s voice. Kierse kept her eyes closed as mortification settled into her bones. She hadn’t wanted any of this with Lorcan, but he had saved her life. And the consequences of that were now dire.
She heard Graves’s heavy steps as he strode across the room and landed a blow across Lorcan’s face. He toppled off the couch at the force of Graves’s punch.
“Stop,” she said, trying to push herself into a sitting position, but it was slow, and she fell backward.
Graves tossed Lorcan away from her body and moved in to help her up. “What happened?”
“I…portaled,” she explained.
Graves shot Lorcan a glare as he steadily came back to his feet, brushing off his suit. “There’s a magic dampener.”
“No shit,” Lorcan snapped. “Amberdash has the Amulet of Hermeria.”
The blood drained from Graves’s face as he looked back at Kierse. “You managed to portal while someone had an active Amulet of Hermeria?”
“She nearly drained us both,” Lorcan said, running a hand back through his hair. “I was keeping her magic steady until she woke up. Then we power shared.” Lorcan mumbled under his breath, “Asshole.”
Graves glanced between them as if he saw more than what Lorcan was saying. “Take mine.”
“What?” Kierse asked.
“Your absorption is down if you’re that drained. So you can pull my magic.” Graves shucked off his gloves and offered her his hand.
“She could only pull mine because of the bond,” Lorcan argued.
But Graves’s eyes were on her, a fiery anger buried deep. A volcano awaiting eruption. “Take mine.”
“Graves, I…”
He took her hand and winced. For a moment, he was distant, his eyes very far away. There were consequences to him being able to read into her mind on contact right now. He could see exactly what had happened between her and Lorcan. Less and more than he wanted to see.
“I see,” he said, dropping her hand.