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“Love?”

“Hmm?” she murmured, getting lost in the shadows swirling around her fingertips.

“I am finding there is a necessity arising.”

Scarlett stilled at the change of his voice. It was low and intense and rough. She kept her eyes on her shadows as her heart rate jumped. “Really?”

“Yes, but I am afraid you will not view it as such,” he answered.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“The thing is, it is your fault.”

“What?” Her head swung to him where her eyes met golden ones burning with, well,need. “How is your need my fault?”

“Because you kissed me,” he answered, pushing off his hands and sitting up, leaning closer to her. “Then you told me you did not want to kiss me again that badly.”

“Because I don’t.” But her stomach dipped as he brought his hand up. His fingers brushed down her check and then her neck, sliding around to cup her nape.

“See, Love, I feel like this is the problem. Either you are lying to me, or I need you so much more than you appear to need me.”

Scarlett bit her lip, and Sorin’s eyes shot to the movement. That lush, smokey spice mixed with his ash and cedar scent, and a light ache began throbbing between her legs. “Sounds to me like your plan backfired when you tried to use a kiss to get me to access my magic again,” she purred with a smirk.

“That it did,” Sorin said softly, as his hand fisted gently in her hair and tilted her head back and up to him.

“Sorin?” she whispered.

“Yeah, Love?” His eyes were fixed on her mouth. His other hand was braced on the rock beside her hip.

“I want you to kiss me again.”

“Thank fuck,” he answered, his voice near guttural. His lips were instantly on hers, and she was kissing him back without any hesitation. Her own hand came up to his chest while his other came to her hip. She let herself get lost in all of him as he kissed her deeply, thoroughly. And when he gently began guiding her onto her back on that rock, she let him. He held her head in his hand, not letting it touch the hard stone as his other hand explored her torso, her hip, her backside.

She let her own hands explore a little of their own, sliding over his broad chest, his shoulders, down his arms. He growled against her mouth when she slid them down his back, and the sound rumbled through her. All she wanted was to feelhim.She slipped her hands under his tunic, and when she lightly dragged her fingers up his spine, he shuddered against her.

“Gods,” he swore, breaking their kiss. “You are…”

“What?” Scarlett whispered. She kissed one corner of his mouth, then the other.

“There are not words, Love. I do not think there are words to adequately describe you,” he answered, his hand sliding down her hip to her thigh once more.

She gave him a slight frown. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.”

He huffed a laugh. “Has anyone ever told you that you overthink things?”

“I was trained to kill very prominent people. I was taught to overthink all the things.”

Sorin pulled back to look into her eyes. “But you do not have to be that here. You can just…enjoy being.”

“Being what?”

“Just being, Scarlett. Just enjoy living,” he answered, brushing a light kiss to her lips.

She’d never had such a luxury. She’d never been allowed to just be.

So she brought her lips back to his and kissed him in the courtyard, enjoying every swipe of his tongue against hers and every brush of his fingers and feel of his skin beneath her own. They kissed and kissed until Sorin pulled back, his lips swollen and eyes wild with predatory hunger. His voice was gruff and low. “We should go. We are expected at dinner later.”

“You’re the prince. No one can really scold you if you’re not at dinner,” Scarlett pointed out, nipping at his lower lip.