Page 107 of The Path of Blood and Betrayals

Her body shakes, skin still chilled in the suffocating heat.

Licking my lips, I rub her arms. “You’re cold.”

“I’m always cold.” She shrugs.

Half of me is excited, the other side terrified as I suggest, “You should strip and use a blanket to sit by the fire. That way you can warm up.”

Soft eyes look to the thing she fears most, then to me, as if pleading for me. “Will you sit with me?”

Fuck me.

The air rushes from my lips. I need to keep my head. My entire goal was to charm her and bring her back to my father but when she looks at me like that? She rips my soul in two.

I can’t give her to him.

It feels wrong in my heart.

My mouth dries as she strips, first her boots, then her leather pants. Red twin puncture wounds on her thigh catch my attention and my cock jerks in response.

My marks. Did I bite her there? I was lost to passion, to desire that I don’t remember. But fuck, they look good on her.

Her cloak and vest drop to the floor, and she gestures to the fur blanket behind me. “Can you…?”

Jerkily, I grab it, wrapping it around her. Keeping it on her shoulders, she slips the tunic downher arms, puddling at the floor.

On Azure’s might, if this is a dream, please don’t let me wake.

“What about you?”

My body stills and breath lodges in my throat. She knows what she’s doing. She knows the pull she has over me—shehasto.

I’ve had Fae, Humans, Witches in my bed. I had peasants and royalty. Never before has anyone struck me mute until this woman, standing in her bindings and panties, a gift from the Gods above.

I shuck off my leathers, completely naked, as she holds open the blanket for me to wrap around us both.

My cock juts out, uncaring of the precarious position. From the weeks spent trying to get under her skin, inside her heart, I’ve learned that Max is a difficult person to gain access to. She’s been hurt one too many ways from those she cares about, and with Taylay’s dismissal, her heart is shrouded behind a hard wall.

What she’s doing now, is offering me a small spot behind that wall, pass her defenses.

This is what I needed to win her over.

How could I be such a bastard to use this against her?

Tucking a strand behind her ear, I marvel at the rounded end, feeling her heart pounding into my chest.

I can’t. Because I need her. She is the air in my lungs, and has been since I laid eyes on her in Griffin’s throne room when my entire world shifted.

I step closer, engulfing her body with mine, the blanket barely covering us.

Her eyes stare at my lips and it breaks all resolve.

“Do you trust me, Max?” Because I trust her and I need her to trust me.I need her.

Timidly, she nods. “Yes. I think I have since the cliffs.”

“When I almost killed you?” I smirk, but it’s fleeting.

She smiles that gorgeous grin and I’m lost. “I knew you wouldn’t hurt me. Even as your beast tried to get me, you still hadsome kind of control. You didn’t want to hurt me.”