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She chuckled. “How the hell would I not remember you? It only took me three months to work up the courage to talk to you.”

“And me another two to figure out that a pretty girl was trying to get my attention.”

Aimee cleared her throat. “Taly?” she said, looking far too pleased with herself. “Care to introduce me?”

“Sorry.” Taly stepped away. “Aimee, this is Ren.” The man in question smiled. “He’s the son of one of the local butchers.”

“My Lady.” Ren took Aimee’s hand, giving it a quick kiss. “I believe you’ve met my cousin.” He gestured to Swift, who nodded.

“I’m only here for moral support. Feel free to ignore me,” Swift said and held up a finger, ordering another round.

“Ren and I,” Taly said, sliding back onto her stool, “courted? If you could call it that. For about two weeks until—”

“Until my small-minded shithead of an uncle ruined the moment when I finally tried to kiss this beautiful girl.” Ren’s head dropped. “I still haven’t forgiven him for what he did. He’s never been allowed back into our home. I want you to know that.”

Taly’s heart squeezed.Oh, Ren. There was a reason she’d fallen so hard for him. He was handsome, funny, a little self-deprecating. And he always said exactly what he meant. At 17, she was utterly smitten. That is until his uncle, visiting from the mainland, caught them just about to kiss in the alley behind his parents’ butcher shop and proceeded to throw pig’s blood on her new tunic.

As she ran away, he’d screamed something along the lines of,“I’d rather see my nephew fuck a pig than a Shardless.”

And that had been the beginning and end of Taly’s pitiful excuse for a love life. Until recently, she supposed…

“Swift,” Aimee said and stood, gesturing to their table’s drink order, finally filled and organized neatly on a tray. “Would you help me carry this back to my friends?”

The man nodded, giving Ren a firm clap on the shoulder before he and Aimee began pushing their way back through the crowd.

As soon as they were gone, Ren stepped closer, leaning against the bar. “You look good.”

Taly smiled. She’d lost countless hours daydreaming about this man. It was muscle memory. “And I don’t think you’ve cut your hair since the last time I saw you.” Reaching for him, she tugged on an errant blond lock curling around his shoulder.

“You never told anyone about my uncle, did you?” he asked, getting right to the heart of it, because that’s how he’d always been. “My parents looked over their shoulders for months, waiting for the Marquess to come banging down their door.”

Taly shrugged. “I didn’t see the point.”

True, she’d been embarrassed and hurt, and she hadn’t tried to pursue anything with anyone since. But she’d known even then that his parents would bear the brunt of the consequences, and they didn’t deserve that. Not when they’d never been anything but kind to her.

“Besides,” she said, sipping from her drink, “Ivain would’ve stopped ordering from your parents’ shop if I did, and everyone knows your family makes the best pork sausage on the island. Why would I sabotage my own breakfast just because one asshole decided to have a tantrum?”

Ren laughed, leaning closer and smiling in a way that Taly recognized. Her and Ren—that door closed a long time ago. But now that the world was going to hell and those things you always said you were going to do suddenly became more urgent, he was trying to nudge it back open.

Before Ebondrift, it might’ve worked. Before the library. Before Skye.

“Ren, I—”

She didn’t get a chance to finish. Fingers brushed the back of her neck—warm, sure—just before they tightened.

And thenpulled.

Not hard. Not rushed. Justdecisive.

The world shifted as Skye turned her, drawing her away from Ren and into him in one seamless motion. Before she could so much as gasp, his lips were on hers—slow at first, then deepening.

Taly’s pulse kicked as his other hand found her waist, pressing just enough to keep her against him. His touch dragged lower, catching on the laces of her bodice—then tugging, firm enough that the corset’s tension shifted.

Her breath hitched. He felt it—of course he did—and his lips curved against hers, satisfied.

Then, as smoothly as he’d taken, he pulled back.

But he didn’t let go.