Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
SELENE
Bren’s whisper hovered in the air, mingling with the sweet scent of honeysuckle as he stared into my eyes, his expression filled with desire instead of his usual restraint. Charged energy sparked between us and left me with no doubt of what would follow if I didn’t step away.
He was seconds away from kissing me again.
My heart slammed against my chest with a ferocity that should have embarrassed me. We stood far too close, with the mist rising in slow ribbons and the waterfall spilling its soft, endless murmur into the dark. I’d fallen under the spell of this place.
Under his spell.
At that moment, I understood with sudden clarity exactly why I’d kissed him that first night. It had been so simple to lose myself in what I thought, or perhaps what I hoped was a dream. He’d been impossible to resist.
But I also knew I couldn’t afford to fall prey to lust again.
The thought arrived like cold water, and I stepped back, putting distance between us before my body could argue the point. A flash of surprise registered in his expression, but it quickly disappeared as a breath of cooler air moved through the gap I’d made.
I reached for something light, something that wouldn’t reveal the trembling going on just beneath my composure. I laughed, soft and a little breathless. “Are any of these plants hallucinogenic? Because I’m fairly certain something in this clearing is affecting my better judgment.”
He tilted his head, the ghost of a smile at the corner of his mouth. “Why would you say such a thing?”
I met his gaze and held it, which was a tactical error I recognized too late to correct.
My insides trembled, and my pulse had taken up residence somewhere in my throat.
I was acutely, painfully aware of the warmth his body had given off when we’d been close, the breadth of his shoulders, and the way he smelled of cool night air and something darker underneath.
I wanted to press my palm flat against his chest, like I’d done before, just to feel if his heart was doing anything similar to mine.
That could not happen. It would not.
I snorted lightly, praying he couldn’t sense my dark desire and that he’d see me as someone who took none of this seriously. “It’s far too romantic here. If we weren’t working together, I might try kissing you again. Just to see what you’d do.”
A small, self-deprecating laugh escaped before I could catch it. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but you really do know how to kiss a girl.”
Something shifted in his expression, and I knew my attempt to joke had been the wrong thing.
His careful composure didn’t break, but it moved, like stone under pressure. His eyes were silver in the moonlight, and they stayed on mine for a long moment before he answered in a low voice. “Maybe the lore is true. Maybe the moonlight has the power to draw two people together.”
I stilled.
He wouldn’t have said that if he weren’t feeling it.
The realization settled over me, slow and warm and entirely unwelcome. It was more dangerous than trembling castle floors. And more dangerous than enchanted groves and mist that bent light into shapes that shouldn’t exist.
He admitted, without quite admitting it, that he wanted me, too.
My better sense grabbed hold of my wayward thoughts and jerked hard.
I offered him a grin that I hoped looked more settled than I felt. “That would have been a convenient excuse for kissing you the first time. But no.”
I glanced around the clearing, at the waterfall and the glimmering pond and the mist still threading its way through the cool air, and I meant every word that followed. “It truly is stunning here. Thank you for bringing me.”
He narrowed his gaze in suspicion, which made no sense. I ignored it and continued my nervous rambling. “The moonlight, the mist, the way this place feels like it exists outside of ordinary time. It will always be a fond memory.”
I paused, allowing my breath to sustain me. “But I’m smart enough to know that if I don’t walk away right now, it will make both of our lives considerably harder. We should go.”
I turned to leave.
His hand closed around my wrist, catching me before I could take a full step.
I was afraid to glance back but couldn’t help myself.
His expression had been stripped of its usual careful distance. “What if it doesn’t?” His voice was low and unhurried. “What if kissing you makes our lives better?”
The words slipped past my defenses and hit me in my most vulnerable spot.
He drew me half a step closer. The moonlight fell across the planes of his face, and his eyes held mine with a steadiness that made it impossible to look away. “Maybe the moonlight enchanted me and not you.”
The faintest trace of warmth moved through his voice, something so rare I nearly didn’t recognize it. “If that’s the case, then it’s not my fault if I kiss you this time.”
I swallowed and lifted my free hand in defense. “We work together. It would be a mistake.”
He paused. “Would it? You’ve already kissed me, and it hasn’t halted our progress. If I kissed you, it would only mean that we’re even.”
My defenses crumbled the way old stone did when it could no longer hold, falling away piece by piece until there was nothing left of the structure.
I slowly shook my head in one lame attempt to stop him, but my words didn’t match the action. “Are you saying that one more kiss won’t hurt anything?”
He shook his head once and wrapped his arm around me in a way that left me no doubt of his intentions. He lifted his other hand and brushed his fingertips along my jaw before tilting my face upward. The warmth of that single point of contact radiated through me like heat from an open flame.
“We’re already navigating the awkwardness of the first one.” His mouth was close enough that I felt the words as much as heard them. “A second can’t make that any worse.”
I gripped his coat before I realized what I’d done. “If we kiss,” I whispered, “it changes nothing? You won’t fire me?”
His lips were an inch from mine. “I won’t fire you, Selene. I need you.”
He kissed me gently at first, as if relearning the shape of my mouth. A soft murmur of need slipped from me, and I said goodbye to the last of my defenses.
When he slid his hand from my jaw and threaded his fingers into my hair, the gentleness gave way to something that had been waiting far longer than either of us had admitted.
He deepened the kiss, and I stopped thinking about professional boundaries and reasonable decisions. I stopped thinking at all. I slid my arms around him and held on, and when he pulled me closer, fitting me against him, I went without hesitation.
This. This was all I wanted, and I no longer cared what came after.
The waterfall continued its soft, endless pour. The mist moved around us, unhurried and indifferent to our previous arrangement.
My pulse pounded wildly as heat moved through me in increasingly powerful waves. I wondered briefly how far we’d take things. I couldn’t say, but I knew I wouldn’t be the one to stop.
I scarcely registered the moonlight brightening a moment later, as if what was happening between us had reached as far as the heavens. Was it possible we could affect this place like I refused to believe we’d affected the castle?
When it continued lighting the edges of my vision so much that it distracted me, I peered through slitted lids at our surroundings as uncertainty built inside me. The glimmer on the water sharpened, and the mist thickened considerably.
Something wasn’t right.
Bren stilled against me, breaking our kiss, though he didn’t pull away. His arm tightened around me, not in passion this time, but something else.
The changes sparked a drop of fear inside me. I couldn’t explain many things in that beautiful clearing hidden within a grove of fairy trees, but my instincts warned this was something different.
I met his gaze to find him staring at me. He tilted his head to the side as though listening for something. Before I could question him, something overhead caught my attention.
Something about the sky looked entirely wrong.