Chapter 26 Forbidden #2
“I wouldn’t have asked you that if I thought it would work,” Lorik said, letting my arm go and stepping back. “When you kiss me, you will do it with all the will of your heart.”
“I will never kiss you, you are a Moonveil. We would…” I said, stopping while realization hit me like a jolt. His command hadn’t worked on me at all, I hadn’t obeyed. I had done the opposite. I had actually tried to punch him for giving an inappropriate order.
“You knew it wouldn’t work? How?” I added, my eyes searched for his with less fury this time.
“You didn’t have your protection heirloom when you walked into Elarion your first day,” he said. “I tried to get into your mind the moment you stepped inside. It was a wall, impenetrable. Then, we confirmed it when the wildweaver bent Rory’s mind but wasn’t able to touch yours.”
I swallowed hard. The wildweaver noticed that. He told me I was strong-minded.
“You knew all this time?” I asked with no judgment, just stating a fact. I would not have believed him if he had told me, or worse, I would not have even listened to him. Lorik just nodded in response.
“You tried to get into my mind? How?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you another secret. I don’t need to touch to bend the mind as most mind-benders.” Lorik said with a smirk. “I know your secret magical trace, you know mine too.”
He had touched me simply because he wanted to. In fact, he still was, his hand resting warm against my neck. His touch tingled where his fingers pressed lightly into my skin.
And then I understood, he had just shared another deep secret with me. One more piece of himself he never gave freely.
And I knew his little potion trick as well, his hidden magic, a secret I had all the intentions of keeping, especially since I owed him my life.
His voice softened. “The Gods give special magical traces only to those who deserve them. If you have this rare, forgotten trace… It’s for a reason. You will have a purpose, an important one, no doubt. And I am sure you will keep discovering more of yourself.”
For a long, suspended heartbeat, neither of us moved.
His fingers were still on my cheek, warm, steady, too intimate for someone who was supposed to be my enemy. His command hadn’t worked, but the echo of it still trembled inside my bones.
Not because of his magic, but because it was him.
And inside me, something unfurled. Something I’d been denying, choking down, burying beneath pride and fear and duty. Something dangerous.
Gods… I wanted him.
My pulse stuttered violently. A war raged under my skin, logic screaming one thing, desire whispering another, louder, louder, louder.
Lorik watched me like he could feel that war, like he could sense every breathless beat of it. His silver eyes were steady, unguarded in a way I had never seen.
“Thea,” he murmured.
My name sounded from his mouth again, like a secret he wasn’t supposed to say.
“Thank you,” I said, stepping back in slow motion, my heart pounding hard. I turned away as gracefully as I could, trying not to make it obvious I was practically fleeing. I tried to look composed, but I would’ve sworn he could hear my accelerating heartbeat from several feet away.
I barely managed a single step before his hand closed over mine, rough, steady and pulled me back toward him. In an instant, I was in his arms, our bodies only inches apart. My heart pounded, and his warm scent hit me with dizzying force.
My whole body trembled, and the only thing keeping me upright was his hands anchoring me in place. He leaned in, silent, breath brushing mine.
My hand slid up his chest, feeling the heat of his skin, the sharp rise of his breath. Then my fingers curled into the back of his mussed hair, thick and warm against my palm, and he inhaled sharply, and I broke
My lips found his, fast, reckless, helpless. Our mouths collided with a heat that stole my breath. He kissed me back, deep, and hungry, as if he had been waiting for this longer than I could imagine.
He gripped my hips, then my waist, then the small of my back, pulling me flush against him until every line of me pressed into every line of him. Heat roared through my veins.
I opened my mouth against his and in the next breath, his tongue met mine. The contact wrecked me.
A soft, desperate sound escaped my throat as our tongues tangled, slow at first, then deeper, hotter, tasting each other like we were starving. His hand slid up my spine, fingers spreading wide as if he needed more of me, needed all of me.
And gods… I wanted more. I wanted everything.
His hands. His mouth. His body. His strength pressed into mine.
I wanted all of him, every forbidden inch, every spark of heat, every secret he never said aloud. The realization terrified me, but it didn’t stop me.
He kissed me harder, deeper, until I was drowning in him.
I fisted my fingers in his hair, pulling him closer as I arched into him, and a broken sound tore from his chest, raw and unrestrained.
When my hips pressed against his, I felt him, all of him, hard for me, and the center of my body lit up like an electric current of anticipation.
A soft, helpless moan slipped out of me.
I kissed him back just as fiercely, desperate to show him how much I wanted this, how much I wanted him.
His lips left mine only long enough to trail heat along my jaw and then, my neck.
My back arched instinctively, exposing more of my throat. His mouth closed over the
sensitive skin there, hot and claiming, and a shudder ripped through me. His hand on my back slid lower, pressing us together, guiding me with an urgency that nearly buckled my knees.
I moaned, an unguarded, needy sound I didn’t recognize as my own.
He breathed against my skin, low and reverent, like he was losing control.
“I want you, Thea Solenhart,” he whispered into my neck, voice shaking. “All of you.”
Then he captured my mouth again, devouring, desperate. Our tongues met once more, the kiss deepening into something molten and overwhelming. My fingers dug into his thick hair, his shoulders, anywhere I could hold on.
For a moment, there was no crown, no bloodlines, no rules, no danger. Just heat.
Just him.
Just the truth of what I felt when I touched him. And I wanted more. More heat. More closeness.
But reality found me like a blade. Cold, Sharp, Unforgiving
I tore myself away.
Our lips parted with a soft, wet gasp. His hands stayed on my back for a heartbeat, refusing the separation, then slowly fell away.
I stumbled back, chest heaving, skin burning, breath shaking.
He looked wrecked, hair mussed from my grip, lips swollen, silver eyes dark with something I couldn’t name.
Gods, that look almost pulled me right back into him.
“We… we can’t do this,” I whispered, the words breaking as they left me, stepping back slowly. “Lorik… stay away from me.”
Pain flickered across his expression, quick, raw, and immediately buried.
But he didn’t move toward me. He didn’t argue.
He didn’t reach for me.
He just stood there, breathing hard, looking at me like I had given him everything and then ripped it right out of his hands.
And gods help me.
I already missed his mouth. His hands.
His body. Him.
But I ran away.