Page 133 of A Bond so Fierce and Fragile

Raine still didn’t say anything, and embarrassment washed over her.

What had she been thinking? Was she that desperate to make sure he didn’t lose it?

Or… that desperate for company herself?

She laughed weakly as she began rising, releasing his face, but Raine’s grip tightened, and he dragged her down again, boring his eyes into hers.

“Little Rantzier,” he whispered, his voice gravelly. “You sure?”

Something warm—and not from the shame still tinting her cheeks—ignited in her core.

She nodded.

Raine watched her for a moment, and the air crackled in the room. “You’re really sure? You want this? You want… me?”

She nodded again, allowing him to see her mind—to know that she meant every word. See that she didn’t want to be alone. See the things she wanted to feel—to know—before she died.

Raine blinked.

Then one of his hands moved to her chin and slid down her throat until he’d tilted her head back.

“I won’t be gentle,” Raine warned. “That’s not who I am. That’s not what I can offer you. This isn’t love, little Rantzier. This is?—”

“Good,” Frelina interrupted, that heat within her spreading. “That’s what I was counting on.”

His lips were on hers in the next moment.

He hadn’t lied.

It wasn’t gentle. It was desperate. It was salty.

It was need, it was fear, it was shared loneliness.

It was teeth clashing, lips crashing together so harshly that iron filled her mouth.

It was a tightening hand around her neck, restricting her air, as he shifted her head even farther back, devouring her mouth.

It was a hard nip that had her gasp, and a tongue finding its way into her mouth to play.

Frelina loved every moment of it.

She was alive.

She felt… wild. Free.

She had no idea if her response was good, but she savored each groan that shook his body as he roughly shifted her so she was pressed fully against him, and when he left her mouth to nip at her chin, then moved down to suck and bite at her throat…

A sound she’d never made before echoed around the room, filling the air with want and need and desire.

“Good to know,” Raine rasped as he continued down, biting into her collarbone as she began rocking back and forth in his lap. “Good. To. Know.”

She moaned again as he returned to her mouth, but as she began pulling at his tunic, Raine stopped her, his eyes finally fully focused again.

Panting, she stared at him, glad when she realized his chest was moving up and down as wildly as her own.

“Not yet.” Raine kissed her again, so hard she sucked his bottom lip into her mouth and sank her teeth into it.

It only made him laugh, and another piece of hope settled within Frelina’s chest.