Chapter Seventeen
More Than a Kiss
IMOGEN GALLAGHER
The world dwindles down to Liam and me.
I’m sprawled beneath him on the bed, my eyes riveted to him as he peels off his shirt. Each ripple of muscle that comes into view sends a thrill of anticipation racing down my spine.
His hands, rough and warm, reach for me next. He tugs off my clothes, stripping me bare under his watchful gaze, until all that remains is an aching need.
“You’re so beautiful, Gen,” he whispers. His voice is hoarse, strained by the restraint he’s exercising. It’s an intoxicating sound, wrapping around me, pulling me deeper into the current of our mounting desire.
Our gazes lock. There’s a moment, a heartbeat where everything hangs in the balance. It’s a point of no return, edging toward something profound and dangerous.
Tears escape my eyes, burning trails of dishonor, grief, and anger at my situation.
I need this moment. We both do.
That’s the lie I tell myself so Liam won’t stop.
He takes the rest of his clothes off and crawls over my body, his heat warm and delicious against my skin. My spirit sings with desire. Everything inside me wants to wrap my arms and my legs around him and convince him to take me. Claim me.
We could run. We could leave behind this duty and honor and find another place to be together. Raise a family. Be happy.
More tears.
How did my father manage to raise a child with such a sense of honor and loyalty? I’ve never hated that part of my personality until this moment.
I put my hands on Liam’s shoulders and struggle not to lose myself in the pleasure of his mouth trailing kisses across my breasts. I hug him close, curling my fingers into his taut muscles like claws.
I want this.
I want him.
“We can’t.” The words come out in a desperate broken plea. I can’t tell if I’m begging him to keep going or really to stop. My emotions are so raw, it feels like I’ve impaled myself on a stake.
His body tenses over mine. His mouth stills against my skin.
Then the tension melts away and his weight presses me down into the mattress, our bodies seemingly becoming one. Our heartbeats and breath fall into sync and we lie there a few seconds for what seems like eternity.
“I know.” He slips his hands under my shoulders and rolls, taking me with him.
Now I’m draped over his naked body like a blanket. His hard erection is sandwiched between us and the throb of it against my belly tears my heart to shreds.
He pulls a blanket over us and cups my face with one of his large, calloused hands. His thumb strokes over my cheek, wiping away the salty reminder of my conscience.
“I would’ve stopped before we went too far.”
“I don’t know if I would’ve let you.” Fresh tears paint my cheeks. “I’m marrying your cousin.”
The statement makes him still.
I push up and clamber off him. “We’re doing the right thing. We’re protecting everyone.”
He growls and catches my ankle before I can get off the bed. “What if we’re not? What if us letting each other go is a terrible mistake?”
He pulls me back to his side, grabs my head and slams his lips against mine. It’s like throwing the main breaker to my brain. I can’t think. I can’t breathe. He kisses me like a man starved. He kisses me the way authors describe it in romance novels—all-consuming-mind-altering-bliss.
His passion makes me believe in true love. It makes me wish this could be our path. It makes me sad when I remember it never can.
He must’ve felt when the sadness returned. He rolls us on the bed and presses me down into the mattress, trapping me with his weight. His arms. He’s afraid I’ll run again. I should.
He pulls his mouth from mine and stares down at me, the look in his eyes so priceless. I know I’ll never forget this moment. Never forget how it could have been .
“Fate. Magick. Everything is screaming that you’re mine, Gen.”
Before I can respond, he’s kissing me again. The world spins off its axis completely. It’s Liam and me, entangled again in an intimate dance of tongues and unspoken promises. And I let him take me there. I let the dance continue. I want it so badly.
The softness of his lips grazing against mine sends a shiver cascading through me, igniting every nerve ending in my body. There’s a raw, urgent need in the way he kisses me, as though he’s a man trapped in a desert, drinking me the way he needs life-sustaining water.
His mouth moves with mine in a rhythm that leaves me breathless. His tongue gently explores the curve of my lower lip before he deepens the kiss, and I willingly surrender to the intoxicating swirl of sensation.
Each touch, each taste, sends a thrill of pleasure coursing through me, pulsating in time with the steady drumming rhythm of our shared heartbeats. The world outside our bubble ceases to exist. Reality collapses into this singular point of connection.
The taste of him—wild and heady, like the forest after a storm—is seared onto my senses, an imprint I know will forever be part of me. Our mouths weave silent confessions. The heated whispers our bodies share in this intimate, dangerous dance create a language all our own. Unvoiced desires. Desperate yearning. Each slow, languid stroke of his tongue against mine is a tantalizing promise of the depth of intimacy we could share, if only...
His hands cup my face again, fingers caressing the curve of my cheeks with a reverence and longing that makes my soul weep. We’re teetering on the edge, a precipice so alluring, so dangerously tempting that stepping back seems like the greater sin.
But then our eyes meet. We both freeze, time standing still in the chaos of naked desire and our star-crossed love story. A silent understanding passes between us.
We cannot do this. We can’t. The mate bond would solidify, tethering our physical bodies. Everything would be ruined.
His eyes, deep wells of amber, hold a world of regret and resolve. Gently, he rolls to the side, severing the magnetic pull between our bodies. The sudden absence of his touch is a gaping void.
A void soon filled by the bitter chill of reality.
The sensual fog that had enveloped us gradually lifts, replaced by a painful silence.
A strangled sob escapes my lips and fresh tears trail down my cheeks. Tears for what could have been. Tears for the words I can never say.
“For the pack and the coven.” My words are etched in sorrow. It’s a vow, a pledge that wraps around my heart with the heaviness of sacrifice.
Liam, my fated mate, chosen by magick, the man I’m not destined to be with, merely nods.
“Yes,” he says, a single solitary word echoing with a sea of emotions.
An urgent need to escape claws at me. If I stay any longer, my resolve will crumble under the weight of my own longing. I need to run. I need the solace of the wilderness and the instincts of my wolf.
I bolt upright from the bed.
“No, Gen!” Liam calls out.
But I’m already gone, fleeing from the cabin and the man I yearn for. His shouts die behind me as the porch gives way to grass beneath my feet.
I let out a tormented cry as I shift, welcoming the familiar surge of my wolf taking over. The wolf simplifies everything, reducing the overwhelming storm in my head into a singular focus—instinct.
I’ll hunt tonight.
Seek solace in distraction.
I’m desperate to purge my mind of the lingering taste of his lips and the imprint of his touch on my skin. Desperate to forget about the mate I cannot have and the man I am bound to marry to save everyone from a bloody war.
I run, letting the wind and the falling darkness swallow my anguished howl, surrendering to the heart-wrenching agony of lost love.