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“I can swim,” I lie. Maybe he won’t try to drown me.

“Come.” He finds my wrist under the surface and pulls me along as he walks deeper and farther out and around a bend, away from the rocky shore and the prying moons overhead.

My clothes drag me down, my boots tiring out my legs. On the other side of the bend, Eli releases me. We enter a circular inlet about ten feet across, surrounded by a steep muddy bank with trees beyond it. Leafy vines invade the trunks, creeping up, wreathing branches and hanging down over the water in curtains of black and white flowers. The rare white petals twinkle against the endless black blooms like a starry night sky.

It’s a perfect place to push my limits with a trigger and test me with the plants right after. With another step forward I hit a dip, and the lake floor drops away beneath me. I slip underwater, kicking my feet in search of solid ground, but I only sink deeper. Seconds pass, so many that it feels like minutes as panic surges through me, bringing me back to the courtyard where the guard held me underwater. Finally, Eli pulls me up by my arm and into a shallower area. He sets me down in front of him, the water now hugging my neck, frigid air on my soaked face.

“Liar,” he says.

My oversized shirt floats up in bunches around me, and I wrestle it back down. “Maybe.”

His body inches away, I fight the urge to look up at him—and lose.

“What do you think?” He fingers his earlobe, his face strangely unguarded with soft lines and wide eyes.

“It’s hideous.” Another lie.

His eyes sharpen. “I find you difficult, Never.”

“Do you expect me to bend to your every whim?”

He tries to hold his face neutral, failing beautifully. A shadow of a smile dusts his lips and pools in his eyes. “I’ll bend you any way I need to.”

“You’ll what?” I mean to sound upset, but it comes out breathy, my mind wandering to all the possible ways he meant that, lingering on ones it shouldn’t. The ones that have me folded in half and him behind me.What’s wrong with me?

The night air stings my skin, and rain trickles past the branches and flowered vines above, striking my face. I wipe it away, and my shirt billows up again.

He stares at me, swallow after nervous swallow.

Are we here for a trigger…or to finish what his hips started earlier? I avoid his eyes, and he locks a hand onto my face. “Look at me.”

I squeeze my lids shut, the urge to disobey too strong to resist.

“I want to know what you see,” he says softly, despite his tight hold, “underneath.”

A loyal friend? An underwear thief? A man with a heart in so many pieces it can’t find its beat?

His fingers sink into my cheeks. “Open those beautiful fucking eyes.”

Well fuck.

I let his infinite gaze find mine, and the worst of thoughts hit me. Thoughts of taking hold of those stupid suspenders and letting our hips meet again. Thoughts of running my hands down his back, exploring every ridge while he fills me. Thoughts of wrapping my legs around him, tighter and tighter, smothering every bit of space between us.

Desire pumps through my core, and I don’t want to fight it anymore. I want to escape—from myself, my thoughts, my past. It’s lust, nothing more. Just for a little while, I want to forget about Caldera and Kelter and elixirs and magic and never going home—and get lost in his arms.

“Tell me what you see,” he demands.

“Just you.”

His expression softens. Letting my face go, he slowly takes the edge of my floating shirt and pulls it underwater. Two slippery fingers tuck it into the waistband of my pants, inches below my belly button, his eyes never leaving mine. Then those fingers dip lower, oh so low. His other hand comes to rest on the bare skin of my hip, then tightens. I groan in pleasure at his firm grasp and fall forward, clutching his arms. Small waves crash between us.

He wiggles down farther, eyes growing round and glossy, mouth open. A forced breath leaves me, and his hand pinches my side, harder with every viciously slow swipe of his fingertips across my mound.

I might die, but I keep our gazes locked—even when he licks his lips.

Kiss me, you idiot.

The burn is unbearable, his touch blazing through me, the strength of his grip, the sensation of his skin on mine. I can’t keep doing nothing. Not escaping, not fighting, not finding answers. I want to make my own choices, to fight against the elixir.