Page 56

Her eyes alight.A challenge?

She feels the effects of the liquor spread through her limbs, making them buoyant.

The warnings in her mind dull in contrast to the sudden desire that blooms. She knows his fingers flex because he imagines them clutching her waist. She knows his eyes never drop to her breasts, because if he lets them he’ll recall the shape of her body. She knows that his pulse jumps along with hers at her touch. He finds reasons to touch her, whether he realizes it or not, and she finds reasons to let him. It is stupid.

She shouldn’t ignite it, but her hands itch as much as his and she is already moving before she can decide otherwise.

She half-falls from her stool on top of him and Ryon’s hands catch her, clutching the dips of her waist in the exact way she knew he would. Her hands go around his neck of their own volition and without thinking, her fingers automatically tangle in the thick hair at the nape of his neck. Never has she been quite so senseless, but his warmth begs her closer and she cannot bring herself to decline.

“I assume nothing,” she tells him quietly, the words passing from her lips to his.

He swallows, affected by her proximity. It seems he cannot meet her eye. “You will not seduce me,” he says evenly, but he is already there. The skin of his neck rises where her fingers slide over it, and he shifts uncomfortably on his stool, growing perceptibly nearer.

She stands between his thighs, and even though he sits, she still needs to look upward to meet his eye.

“Sit back in your seat.” He does not let her go, does not push her away.

“That isn’t what you want though, is it?”

He swears beneath his breath. “You are not what I expected.”

“And what was that?”

“A quiet girl. One with morals. A woman who wouldn’t try to goad me into taking her atop a bar table.”

Dawsyn laughs darkly. “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh? And now, you trust my intentions?” he rumbles.

She leans closer, her lips an inch from his. “I do not trust you, Ryon. But that doesn’t mean I can’t want you.”

She closes the space, her lips crushing against his.

His response is immediate. She feels the groan deep in his chest finding its way through him and into her. His lips taste heady, sinful. They mold to hers perfectly, and when she feels his tongue against her own, she is lost. His hands grip her painfully, lifting her higher, closer to him and she welcomes it. But all too soon – just as his hands begin to move down her body – his lips disappear and he pushes her away.

She opens her eyes to find him hastening backward, his stool now overturned.

“Damned woman,” he curses, his stare accusing.

Dawsyn does not gather the wits to respond, to question his retreat, to tease him. It is suddenly all she can do to stand. She feels the world tilt, feels him return to her before she hits the tavern floor. And before she closes her eyes, she hears him curse her name once more, cradling her body to his broad chest.

Her body sways one way and then the other, her stomach rolling sickeningly. The noise of the tavern fades and the air, cool and unfamiliar, caresses her skin.

She groans and opens her eyes. Ryon’s face hovers above hers, his eyes turned away. Once more, he carries her in his arms, only this time, his mouth is set in anger, his brow is furrowed and cutting words split the quiet around them, breaking from him with each breath.

“Should have left you on a fucking rock somewhere…”

“Put me down.”

“No.”

She grits her teeth against the nausea. “Put me down.”

He ignores her and she cannot find any reserve of strength to fight him. She struggles to stay conscious, but when she blinks, she loses time and the surroundings change. First, they are passing the marketplace, and when next she blinks it is the muddy lanes of the outskirts. They have reached the forest before she comes around long enough to speak, and when she does, her thoughts are disjointed, floating away as quickly as they arrived.

“Are those stars?” she croaks, her head against his shoulder.

He looks up at the gap between trees, to the inky sky unfolding endlessly. “Yes.”