Chapter 28
TARIAN
S omehow, some way, that one kiss made everything that had happened to him bearable.
His lips touched hers. His tongue pressed in.
She allowed it. And then—he melted. Centuries of resistance and fear fell away as he tilted her to fit him better.
He kissed her with the kind of longing only one’s mate could possess, and he knew she felt it too, because she leaned forward like she was falling into him at the same time as she rose up to come nearer, right before both her hips and her tongue were pushing down.
He could feel the connection between them, reeling them together, closer than he had ever been, since— since Seris —and he was assaulted by memories.
And he felt like a traitor though he was certain he was not.
He pulled himself away, staring at her, half in shadows, half in firelight, watching her pulse thunder at her throat.
“Are you all right?” she asked him, running a hand behind his neck, into his hair.
“Yes. It...is just like when a starving man eats too much at once.”
Kenna lightly sighed. “And you know I’m not her?”
“I do. But—I still feel all the same feelings, swirling inside.”
She twirled a lock of his hair at the nape of his neck and teased, “Maybe you’re just fickle,” making him sorrowfully shake his head.
“I do not know how to be untrue.”
She took his face between her hands, and made him look up at her. “I know that, Tarian.”
“How? You yourself said we just met?—”
“Because with any other man in the world we’d already be fucking.” She reached down and took his hands from where they’d slipped away from her in panic, bringing them to her waist above her dress. “I don’t want this if you don’t. I do have some pride.”
He let his hands settle on her, right above where her hips flared. “And what if I want it too much? What if one night’s not enough?”
She brought a fingertip up to rest it on his lips before trailing it in a long line down his chin, and neck. “Stop pressing—and take what you’ve been given.”
And it made absolute sense—because of course, his mate, in whatever form she took, in whatever life she lived, was wise. He reached up for her face again, brought her down to kiss, then wrapped an arm around her, to make her rock against him.