Page 79 of Scorched Earth

“Perhaps I should enlist Agrippa,” she said. “Seems to come naturally to him. Either that or he’s not willing to allow his golden goose to come to harm.”

Against his will, Killian’s jealousy flared. “Malahi suffered because of my commitment to you.”

“Malahi did her level best to get me killed, and I’ve not forgotten that. Though to her credit, she was probably smart to try to put me down.”

“Stop.”

“No.”

She strained against him, and he tightened his grip, then used his teeth to pull down the fabric covering her face. “My point for bringing up the tunnels is that I remember how you recovered your strength from the life that was all around us. From those in the shelters.”

“The only thing living near me isyou.”

“Not true. Our companions are nearby.”

“Perhaps they’re dead.”

Agrippa was too clever to be killed by a storm. “Even if that’s the case, it only means that there are nine more corpses above us, many of which were marked. All that life spilled out into the world, and I know that you can take it into yourself. You don’t need to kill me to recover your strength.”

“Quite right,” she breathed. “I don’t.”

His instincts roared a second before she broke free of his grip. Killian flung himself sideways, but she was on him in a flash, gloved hands pinning his wrists to the rock, her knees to either side of him.

“Do it, then,” he said. “If this is what you want, then take it.”

He could feel her breath against his throat, smell the scent of her hair as it fell against his face. Knew that there was no escaping her grip unless he killed her, which he refused to do.

Yet Lydia hesitated.

It was the voice that whispered in his dreams that said, “I’m tired of wanting what I can’t have. Tired of giving my heart nothing so that it is consumed with want for everything.”

“What have I ever refused to give you?” he asked, not knowing exactly what it was he was offering, only that he’d give up his soul for the sake of her, so what was his life?

But as she lowered her face, Lydia didn’t take anything, only brushed her lips against his. “This.”

She hadn’t pushed back the darkness, he knew that. Knew that the woman kissing him stood on the edge of a blade, but maybe that was all right. Maybe that was who she was, and to be with her, he neededto accept that every kiss was a risk. Every touch was a gamble. Maybe there was no better woman for him.

“Yours,” he murmured. “Until my last breath.”

Lydia’s lips found his again. Not a brush but a kiss so fierce it hurt. Her tongue was in his mouth, the taste of her making him want more even as his heart throbbed with fear that his last breath was coming.

Except she wasn’t taking.

Her gloved fingers flexed around his wrists, grip strong enough to bruise, but her lips kissed lines of fire down his jaw, then his throat, his pulse no longer roaring with fear but with want.

Gods help him, but he needed this. Needed her. Because what they’d had so far wasn’t enough. Not for Lydia and not for him, and Killian would risk everything to have it.

She let go of his wrists, and he rolled her over, ripping off his coat, shirt, and gloves, casting them into the darkness. He kissed her, then bit her bottom lip, the moan that pulled from her mouth unleashing something primal in him.

He jerked open the buckles on the leather corselette she wore. Lydia lifted her shoulders to allow him to pull off the garment, and though he could see nothing in the blackness, his memory delivered him what his eyes could not. Pale skin and long lines, pert breasts that peaked in the chill of the air.

“Touch me,” she breathed. “I need to feel you.”

Because her gloves were still on.

He debated removing them, then abandoned the thought as her leather-clad fingers trailed down his arms, his chest, his back, every part of him wanting to strip her naked and take her in a way he’d thought of more times than he’d ever admit.

“I love you.” He traced a finger down her sternum, over her flat stomach to the belt of her leather trousers. As he unfastened it, he lowered his lips to her breast, hearing the intake of her breath as he kissed the tip of it. “And you are mine. Every part of you, light and dark.”