Page 173 of Brimstone

He had to lean back and duck down before he could find my eyes. “Why not? Why are you hiding from me?”

“I’m not hiding. I’mprocessing.” I groaned, pushing away from his chest and flopping back into the grass, throwing my hands up over my head. I was still technically sitting in Fisher’s lap.Kindof. My legs were definitely still wrapped around his waist.

Fisher raised both eyebrows, looking down at me, amusement playing over his features. My shirt had ridden up. His gaze trailed over my lower stomach, over the patch of bare skin I was now showing, a tiny smile lifting the corners of his mouth. He moved casually, resting his hands there, right where he was looking, his calloused palms rough against my skin, and I couldn’t resist.

“What’s thatlookon your face, Kingfisher?”

His eyebrows inched higher. “Look? There’s alook?”

I nodded, the grass rustling around my ears. “There’s a look.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” He shrugged, looking off toward the river. “My mate’s ass is rubbing up against my cock, and she’s stretched out in front of me, her hip bones showing—”

“You like my hip bones?”

He trailed his fingers over them without looking, then moved quickly, wrapping his hands around my waist and digging his fingers firmly into my skin. “Iloveyour hip bones,” he corrected. “I love the way your breasts look right now, straining against your shirt like that. If there’s alook, it’s because I’m horriblydistracted by you, and I’m trying to talk about very serious things.”

Horribly distracted? I liked the sound of that. Slowly, I wriggled my ass, shimmying so that my shirt rode up a little higher. “I don’t want to talk aboutvery serious things.” I emphasized the words.

His eyes snagged on my stomach again, moving as slow as a glacier as they traveled higher, toward my chest. “I would have thought you’d be excited about the possibility of becoming Fae,” he said.

“I would be. Iam. But . . .” I hooked my thumbs into my pockets and pulled, tugging my pants down a little lower over my hips. They were scandalously low now, bordering on inappropriate.

Fisher gave me an open-mouthed smile, canines on full display, as he slowly shook his head. “You think I don’t know what you’re doing?”

“I’m not doing anything,” I lied.

He scoffed at that. “Do you think . . .” He ran his fingers lightly up my side. “That this is the first time . . .” He caught his bottom lip between his teeth and bit down when I shivered. “A beautiful female . . .” His hand slipped up, inside my shirt and trailed it up my rib cage. “Has tried toseduceme?” He pinched my nipple, rolling it savagely as he leaned into the wordseduce.

I hissed through my teeth, bucking against him at the bright stab of pain that fired down my body and settled between my legs.

Fisher’s eyes flared, the tattoos at his throat swirling as they came to life beneath his skin. “Are you trying to lead me astray?” he asked.

“Only a little.”

“Only a little?”

“Mm.” I arched my hips again, angling my ass down, rolling my hips a little, and Fisher’s eyelids shuttered.

“Okay. Only a little. I’ll let you lead me astrayonly a littleif you answer the question properly.”

“There was a question?” I teased.

“Tell me,” he rumbled. “Why isn’t this good news? Regardless of how much I disapprove of Iseabail’s methods, there are no high bloods in Ammontraíeth anymore.Youdon’t have to be a high blood anymore.”

Gods alive. I wasn’t going to get my way if I didn’t give him what he wanted first, was I? But this topic felt fragile, too delicate to navigate just yet. I breathed deep and gave him the truth, even though it felt like bad luck to do so. “Because what if it doesn’t work on me? I’m not a full vampire, am I? What if itkillsme?”

“It isn’t going to kill you,” Fisher said, squeezing my breast. His other hand worked to unfasten my pants.

I closed my eyes, processing what he was about to do. “What if . . .”

“What if?” he whispered.

“What if Idon’tdie? What if it makes mehumanagain? Whatever is in those vials made Tal and the high bloods revert to their original state. What’s to say it wouldn’t revert me back to mine?”

Fisher’s expression remained steady, as if what I’d said wasn’t terrifying at all. “Then you go back to being human,” he said.

“And what would happen when I get old and die?”