Chapter Fifty-Nine
“ I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Thaddeus’ voice fills the silence. I can’t see him yet, but his words are a promise of pleasure. The trees block out all moonlight, but I turn toward his voice. I feel a rush of air and then before I can even comprehend what’s happened, Thaddeus stands before me, leaning against me once again. My body responds by arching into him before my mind can even catch up.
I smile, thinking that him being one of the Ancients has some perks. I wonder what else he can do at high speeds. My thoughts are interrupted by his thumb lightly tracing my bottom lip while the rest of his hand rests against my jawline.
“Rowandine.” My name on his lips is a breathy whisper. He kisses his way roughly down my neck, across my new scar. My hands twist in his hair, pulling him back up so I can answer his kisses with my own. “I almost lost you today.”
Our lips crash together, my tongue eager to find his, and instead, brushing against those powerful canines he’s been so good at hiding. His carnal desire mixes with his Ancient desire, which somehow makes me hungrier for him.
My hands travel down his muscled chest, lingering in question at the waistband of his pants. I can already feel his hard length pressed against my thigh.
“Is this what you want? Am I what you want?” He pulls back suddenly, his question taking me off guard. My hands quickly pull back from the tie of his pants as if it burns me. I pull back just enough to look at his face, but I can only see the outlines in the darkness that presses in against us.
“Yes. You’re exactly what I want. What we have is so—” My fingers graze the stubble across his cheeks, unsure if they’re trying to read his features in the dark or comfort him. Even as the words leave my lips, I try to place his hesitation. Trying and failing to pinpoint the strain in his voice. Suddenly, I can’t finish my sentence.
“That’s what I was afraid of.” With those few words, the strain in his voice turns from unsure and searching to smug and relaxed, a tone I’ve never heard from him before. In one beat, his demeanor changes.
I no longer feel safe with him here. He looms over me, and it feels as if he’s suddenly taking up all the space and all the air around us. I try to shrink into the tree at my back, but I’m only met with rough, scratchy bark pokes through my heavy cloak and digs into my back.
He breaks my frantic thoughts with a cold, low laugh that turns my blood to ice. I stiffen as I realize I’m cornered. I look up at him, unsure how we got here.