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Emara remembered how he had looked, how he had acted, when she finally started fighting back with some teasing of her own. She had loved every minute of that power.

She always had a choice.

Choosing to stir up a little fight of her own, she closed her eyes and kissed into his fingers, giving them one slow embrace with her lips. She fluttered her eyes open to witness sweet, glorified victory as desire arose in his eyes.

He quickly gathered himself and trailed his long fingers over her throat, feeling it bob underneath his touch. Torin circled a finger over her heart and down to the peak of her feminine curves. She fought back a gasp at the pleasure.

He didn’t take his eyes from hers as he said, “And you like it when I kiss here.”

A spine-tingling ache drove itself into her core. “That’s a lot of places you think I like being kissed.”

“I can think of one more place that you would like.” A tightening in his jaw revealed just how much he wanted to kiss her where he had in mind.

She almost begged him there and then to show her, to kiss the sacred place he had in mind and ease the thick tension that lingered in the room around them, building and building.

“I can show you,” he said. “If you would like to go exploring again.” There was no banter in his tone. He was deadly serious. “All you need to do is give me the signal.”

Him and his damned signals! Before she could agree, before she could say yes and push him down her body, her lips crashed into his. That would silence the wicked taunts that came from them. He pushed back on her, fighting for dominance. Warm lips opened her mouth, opening them only for him. Heat climbed all over her skin as his hands pushed themselves into her hair, his tongue moving against her mouth in easy, fast strokes. A pool of warmth heated between her thighs, and she pulled him closer, not quite getting enough. She needed more.

And he obliged, moving her backwards towards the bed. Instead of reaching the bed, he pivoted, spinning her. A swoosh of air left her lungs and she gasped into his mouth. He pressed her against the wall, one hand against the cold quartz above her and the other pinned below him.

Emara panted in anticipation, in hope that he would bow down and kiss her anywhere.

But instead, he caged her between his arms and said, “Unfortunately, we don’t have the time I would like to take you to bed tonight.” His voice was raspy and full of want. “Not with the things I want to do. With all the things we could explore.”

She didn’t know if it was the comments or the sounds of promise that broke over his lips, but her hips pushed out from the wall, meeting every inch of hardness that he offered. He looked down at her body grazing his own and then he faced her.

A carnal smile engulfed his lips. “Can you feel what you do to me?”

A rush of searing hotness blushed her cheeks and coasted all the way down her spine. She had done that to him—and it wasn’t the first time.

“You should feel what you have done to me.” Her voice came out smaller than she had wanted, but at least it had come out at all.

“Angel,” he breathed, lifting a hand to her cheek, his eyes dazzling with a soulful danger she was enamoured by. “I fully intend to feel how ready you are for me.” He grinned. “Again.”

Her breathing hitched at the promise.

“And the next time I do, I want to take my time with you.” The tamed embers in his eyes ignited into fully fledged flames. They were two untamed, icy fires, full of delight and sin. “I don’t want to be disturbed when I kiss the area I have in mind.” His sensual gaze drifted down to her naval and then lower. “Lorta will be back any second. I didn’t see her in your little gang tonight, so I assume she didn’t get my message for us not to be disturbed,” he said. “And I don’t want her to see what I so wish I was doing to you right now.”

Emara had completely forgotten of Lorta’s anticipated return with the gowns.

Gods, she barely knew her own name right now.

Emara tried her best to control the rise and fall of her chest. She brought her hands down, unpinned from the wall, and rested them on his chest. “That would be very indecent of us.”

“It would be my favourite kind of indecent.” He grinned.

Unable to stop herself, Emara beamed back.

“Anyway, you distracted me,” he said, pulling back ever so slightly, relieving her hair from his hands. “I didn’t come here to have an improper conversation with you, believe it or not.” His brows raised. “I came here because I wanted to give you something.”

“You wanted to give me something?” she echoed.

“Yes.” Gone were his cheeky taunts, replaced with something more genuine and real. “I got you a gift for the winter solstice.”

“A gift?” Her voice was small again, and she hated that she couldn’t stop it as the sound left her lips.

“You know the tradition, right?”