Chapter Seven
Set Alight
It was stupid.
So stupid.
I was lonely and reckless and stupid, and the impulse moved through me before I had a hope of quelling it.
He didn’t give me the chance to take it back.
One moment my mouth had brushed his, and the next thing I knew, I’d been hoisted onto the shelf’s edge, lips parting on a gasp only for the Captain to swallow the sound like he could live off it.
It was easy to forget that I’d started this; he claimed the kiss with a ferocity that caught me off guard and I melted against him, alarmingly soft and pliant for his barest touch.
One hand flattened on the small of my back, the other threading through my hair and tugging, tilting my head so he could part my lips and slide his tongue between my teeth.
And just like that, I didn’t feel stupid at all, or afraid.
I felt electric, alive, the magic in my blood singing in my veins and heating my skin even as goosebumps prickled my arms. My Flame seemed to sigh as it moved, and for the first time I realised that this is what it had wanted all along.
His skin on mine, for reasons I could neither understand nor even hazard a guess at. In this moment, I didn’t care.
Because the Captain made a rough, satisfied noise, so low in his chest it was more vibration than sound, and when he drew closer my knees parted all too eagerly at just the slightest nudge of his hips, skirt riding up around my thighs as he moved.
I leaned into him and caught his bottom lip between my teeth, sucking, relishing the sound he made and the heat of his hand smoothing down my back, down the curve of my waist, squeezing at my hip.
“Rosie,” he groaned.
For once, I didn’t correct him. I wanted my name rolling off his tongue just like that — wanted to hear it again.
I nipped at his lip once more, but this time all it got me was another bone melting groan.
He shifted me closer, using his grip on my hips to roll my core against him and gods he was so hard, the friction between our bodies so exquisitely rough I could hardly stand it.
Heat was spiralling from my chest, building at the base of my spine, and I knew I needed to stop this now, stop while I still had a shred of control to spare.
I am going to stop.
I’m going to push him away.
I am not going to fuck this dangerous man, in my cleaning cupboard, in the middle of my family’s tavern.
But then he buried his face in my neck and one by one, the thoughts went up in smoke at the delicious groans that spilled out of him.
His tongue traced my throat, beard scraping my skin, lips and teeth sucking hard enough that when my head fell back and hit the shelf above me, the pain barely registered.
I just clung harder to him, urged him closer, met the pressure of his hips with my own until we were both panting.
His hand had found its way beneath my skirt, curling around my thigh, his callouses catching on my stocking, fingers on the back of my knee making me shiver despite the blaze that consumed me from the inside out.
Wait.
It took me a beat to realise I hadn’t said it aloud; couldn’t, with my brain so fractured, my tongue so heavy in my mouth. Every word I tried to speak came out in a broken, panting moan.
“I– Caelan –”
His lips were melded to the slope of my throat, tongue laving at a pulse point so that his wordless groan of response vibrated right through me into my blood.
It was too much, the hum from his lips racing along my veins with my pulse, the song of my magic swelling until there was no room for it all, until something had to give and I–
“Oh gods, stop.”
He froze at the panic in my voice, but it was too late.
A violent burst of light erupted between us.
Flame roared past the barrier of my skin to flood the tight space in a formidable, fiery orange that pulsed with every painful beat of my blood.
The Captain’s face was briefly contoured in shadows and gold, the tense rounding of his eyes and mouth alight and shimmering in the cast of my magic before it dimmed to a soft glow in my chest.
I shoved him back, and he went without complaint.
Without a word in fact, the only sounds my own blood in my ears and the sawing of his breath as he stared at me, chest heaving.
I didn’t know what to say, what to do. My brain had disconnected from my body somewhere between his lips on my throat and my Flame erupting, and I couldn’t get it back.
Couldn’t reel my magic back in, couldn’t form words, couldn’t move, although I’d have nowhere to go even if I could.
He was watching me as one watched a dangerous predator happened upon in a dark, abandoned forest. Something in that look, lit to its most vivid green under the untethered light of my Flame, sparked a narrow path between my tongue and my mind.
He knew.
“I guess you’ve finally caught me out.”
“Rosie, don’t.”
That path blazed and suddenly the words were bursting forth with the same raging heat as the magic spilling from my chest.
“Don’t?” I spat. “I haven’t done anything. I’ve done nothing wrong, nothing to hurt you or anyone else, and I never would!”
“I know.”
I couldn’t hear him, barely registered that he was speaking. My voice trembled even as it rose, and I knew I was ranting but I couldn’t stop. Not when every frantic word was the barest relief, blessedly drowning out the rushing in my ears and the roar in my chest.
“It’s not illegal, to be what I am–”
“I know.”
“–so you can stop watching me like I’m going to melt the marrow from your bones–”
“It’s alright.”
“–stop following me around like you’re going to catch me in some heinous act. I’m not the monster you’re supposed to be hunting, so if you think you can–”
“Rosie.”
He moved, reaching for me, and when I flinched back, light flaring again, something unreadable passed over his features. He paused with his hands held up, and spoke slowly, calm and steady, eyes firm on my own.
“I don’t think you’re a monster. I know you haven’t done anything wrong.
I don’t suspect you of anything, or even of having the capability to–” He broke off with a sigh and dragged one of those raised hands wearily down his face.
I could only stare until he fixed his gaze on mine again, almost sternly now.
“This is what I wanted to talk to you about. I had a feeling you might have been… wary of me. I just wanted you to know you don’t have to be.
That’s why I’ve been trying to get you alone. That’s all.”
I thought back on all he’d said, and understanding sank through me, all the more cold and sobering for the contrast of the dizzying heat in my chest.
I just want to talk to you.
Maybe not something we should discuss here.
You’re afraid of me. A lot of people are.
“Oh.”
The rapid flicker of my Flame calmed to a pulsing lull as my heart rate slowed.
My magic was docile now, more manageable with my steady pulse and some distance between us.
I tugged at it out of habit, faintly surprised when it came easily and I began to reel it in.
Caelan’s eyes dropped to my chest, catching the shift in the light. His throat bobbed.
“Wait.”
His hoarse voice made my stomach flip and I paused, the barest glow still throbbing dimly between my ribs.
“Don’t hide it away. I want to see it. I want to see your face in the light when I tell you that – that – shit.”
He took a long, steadying breath, then chanced another step toward me. I didn’t flinch away this time, but my body tightened all over, skin tingling as though my Flame was readying to ignite me from head to toe.
“I lied. That’s not all. That’s very obviously not all, and I imagine you’ve figured this out by now but I’m going to say it anyway. I can’t stop thinking about you, Rosie.”
The glow intensified; for some reason I felt the heat of it rise all the way to the roots of my hair. The Captain gave a low laugh.
“See, I’m glad I asked. How could I live with myself if I’d missed that blush?”
“I am not blushing,” I lied. “I’m burning from the inside out.”
A smirk and another step. He lifted a hand in the warm and glowing air between us and turned it slowly from side to side, both of us watching the light dance between his fingers, ribbons of Flame licking eagerly at his skin like a needy kitten.
“I didn’t expect it to be so gentle,” he said, wonder softening the corners of his smile. “I can feel the heat, but it doesn’t burn.”
“It can, if I will it.”
Gods, why had I said that? To a Kingsman no less, moments after he’d assured me he didn’t believe my magic a threat? But the Captain just lifted his gaze from the faint fire weaving his fingers, something like amusement glinting in his eyes.
“I’ll take care not to cross you, then.”
His wicked grin tugged at my magic, and the flames gathered tighter around his hand, circling his wrist as though they might drag him closer. And maybe they had more force than I imagined, because his hand did draw closer, pausing just short of touching me.
“Can I – ?”
I nodded even before the unspoken Yes echoed inside my head.
His palm came to rest just above my heart, and it took every withered scrap of self control I had remaining not to sigh at his touch.
It hardly mattered though, with the way my Flame brightened, the orange and gold cast of it flaring merrily and giving me away.
“Gods, you’re beautiful,” he said, so faintly I wondered if he’d meant to say it at all. “You’re always beautiful, but right now, like this – it’s blinding.”
Then he sighed, and the building heat washed over me like flame made fluid.
Though I tried to hold my breath, my magic wasn’t having it.
Beams of light flared between his fingers and cast his face in a warm, flickering glow.
Gold lined the thin scar across his face and lit the vibrant green of his eyes until they gleamed like emeralds.
I could admit it now, with my Flame at the fore.
He was beautiful, too.
“You have nothing to fear from me. I swear it.”