Chapter 22 More Than a Moment
MORE THAN A MOMENT
The moment my lips touched his, the world stopped.
It stopped in that strange suspended way where sound melted, and vision blurred, and everything inside me felt weightless for a single heartbeat.
His mouth was warm against mine, his breath catching as if I had surprised not just him but something deeper.
For the briefest second, I swore he leaned in, swore I felt the tiniest pull toward me.
As if something inside him responded on instinct, something that matched the wild, trembling instinct inside me.
But just as the kiss began, it ended.
Thane pulled away with a sharp, almost violent inhale, his hands falling from my waist as if he had burned himself on my skin.
His eyes snapped shut, his jaw clenched, and he took a single step back that felt like a cut straight through my chest. The air between us shifted, heavy and tense, charged with something I didn’t understand.
He wouldn’t look at me. Wouldn’t even speak.
He just stood there, breathing like he was fighting some unseen battle inside himself.
The rejection hit so fast it knocked the warmth from my face and replaced it with something cold and sinking. Shame rose up my throat like acid, scalding and humiliating. I stared at the floor because looking at him hurt. Looking at him made the foolishness of what I had done feel unbearable.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my voice strangled. “I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know what came over me. It was stupid, and I was scared, and I acted without thinking. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“Alora,” he said, but his voice came out tight, strained, like he could barely force the word through his teeth.
I kept rambling anyway, trying to fill the space between us with anything that could take back what I had done.
“Please just forget it happened, I know you didn’t want that, I know I shouldn’t have, I am so sor…”
“Stop talking.”
The words were low and abrupt, not shouted, not cruel, but sharp enough that my breath caught.
I flinched before I could stop myself. Of course, he noticed, and for the first time since stepping into the alcove, I saw how much pain sat behind his eyes.
Not anger. Not rejection. Something else. Something tortured.
He took one step toward me.
Then another.
And before I could understand what was happening, his hands were on me again, gripping my waist with a firmness that stole my breath.
Especially when he suddenly pushed me back against the shelves.
The books rattled behind me, my breath hitching as his body pressed close.
His large frame was crowding me in a way that should have been frightening, but instead, only made my chest tighten with anticipation.
“Thane,” I whispered, barely more than a breath.
He didn’t answer.
No, instead he…
He kissed me.
Only, unlike mine, this kiss was not a soft meeting of lips, nor was it the hesitant or uncertain attempt I had made.
No, now he was kissing me with a hunger that stole the ground from beneath my feet.
With a heat that unraveled every thought I had ever had about him.
With a desperation that felt like he had been holding himself back for far too long.
His mouth claimed mine in a way that made my knees go weak, and as if he knew, his hand slid up my side to hold me still, as if he was terrified I might vanish any second.
There was nothing hesitant in him now.
No restraint.
No distance.
Only fire.
He kissed me like this was something he had needed, something he had craved, something he had denied himself too many times. And in that moment, everything I feared shattered. Because he was kissing me like he had been waiting for this since the moment he first met me.
My hands tangled in his shirt before I even knew I had moved, pulling him closer, afraid the moment would break if I let it.
His breath mixed with mine, heat and urgency and something achingly sacred.
I felt his heart pounding against my chest, wild and fast, as if he was no longer in control of it.
It was as if his lips were trying to brand the feel of them to my own so that I would never forget this moment.
His addictive taste burst across my tongue as he continued to explore me.
The rumble of a possessive growl only fed my desire for him.
All of this combined made it near impossible for me to stop, but stop it did, and far too soon.
However, when he finally broke the kiss, it was only to rest his forehead against mine. His breath unsteady, his voice rough with confession.
“You have no idea…” he murmured, every word thick with truth, “…just how long I have wanted to do that. How much I have craved to.”
My eyes fluttered shut as an overwhelming warmth rushed through me so fast it almost hurt.
“Me too,” I whispered quietly, unsure whether he would hear it, but his lips brushed my cheek in answer, soft and reverent, as if my words had undone him.
The library alcove felt impossibly small around us, the shelves towering like silent witnesses as he stepped back just enough to take my hand. His fingers laced through mine with a certainty that stole my breath. He tugged gently, guiding me forward.
“Come with me… now,” he said, voice low but authoritative.
I blinked up at him, still dazed from the kiss.
“Where?”
“Somewhere safe.” His expression hardened then, not with rejection this time, but with determination. “You can’t stay here.”
“But my father…” I began, the old fear rising again.
Thane actually grinned at that. A real one this time.
Not a smirk, not a fleeting quirk of his lips, but a full, bright grin that transformed his entire face.
One that softened the hardness and enhanced the beauty, stealing the air from my lungs.
I had never seen anything so breathtaking in my life.
“Screw the rules,” he said, eyes glowing with something dangerously close to joy. “You’re coming with me.”
I barely had time to process his words before he was already guiding me out of the alcove, his hand tight around mine as if letting go was no longer an option he was willing to consider.
The moment we stepped into the open aisles of the library, I felt his body shift, the tension returning to him like a coiled wire pulled taut beneath his skin.
His eyes scanned every direction, sharp and assessing, the softness of our kiss already folding itself away beneath something fierce and protective. I stayed close, matching his pace, letting the gravel of his breath and the slight squeeze of his hand anchor me.
We reached the doors, and the sudden wash of outside air cooled my fevered cheeks. That kiss still playing heavily on my mind, making me wonder when the next one would be and hoping it would be soon.
Thane stepped deliberately in front of me as we exited the building, his presence a barrier, his large frame shielding mine without him having to think about it.
I felt the weight of his awareness settle around us both, the air almost humming with the intensity of it.
I parted my lips to speak, to ask what was happening and why he looked ready to fight the entire world for me.
But the words died on my tongue the moment my gaze followed his.
It was the man from earlier.
The one who had been watching me.
He was across the courtyard now, walking quickly toward a sleek black car parked along the curb.
His shoulders hunched slightly, as if trying to disappear, but it was too late.
I had already seen him. And Thane had too.
The man pulled open the driver’s door in a hurry, glancing back once as though to check if he had been noticed.
My breath froze when he turned enough for the sunlight to catch on the ink along the side of his neck. A serpent curling around a dagger.
Thane went still beside me, so still that for a moment even the wind seemed to hesitate.
His grip on my hand tightened, his entire body coiling with a lethal promise that made a shiver make its way up my spine.
I felt power ripple through him like he was already planning how to get to the man.
Already assessing how to break him, how to make him regret ever looking in my direction.
He took a single step forward.
Just one.
And in that single step, I could feel the violence he was holding back, the fury simmering low beneath his skin. As if he had the instinct to hunt and punish. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew enough in that moment to understand that whatever darkness lived inside him wanted blood.
“Thane,” I breathed, barely more than a whisper, but he heard it.
And it was enough to get him to stop mid-stride.
He looked down at our joined hands, at the way my fingers clung to his in trust rather than fear.
The decision played across his eyes, as if the small gesture of trust was something huge for him.
As if the predator inside him wanted to chase, but the protector inside him wanted to stay.
Instead of violence… he chose me.
His jaw flexed, tension cutting through him like a blade as he stepped back instead of forward.
His gaze remained locked on the car as the door shut and the engine roared to life, but he did not move.
The car sped away, disappearing down the road with a screech of tires, carrying the man who had followed me out of sight.
My heart hammered painfully.
He could have chased him as he had clearly wanted to, but he stayed with me, and that meant a lot.
Thane then turned to me slowly, the storm in his eyes now mixed with something else, something deeper and terrifying in its intensity.
He lifted our joined hands slightly, his thumb brushing over my knuckles in a motion so gentle it made my breath stutter.
“I will deal with him, but not now,” he said quietly, voice low and rough as he stepped closer. Close enough that his warmth pressed against the last remnants of my fear.
He tugged gently, urging me to move with him, keeping my hand tight in his as if he refused to risk losing me.
“Come on, I’m taking you somewhere no one can touch you,” he murmured, the command soft but unyielding, and with Thane’s hand in mine…
I felt safer than I ever had in my life.