A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(44)

“Then why did you not name a different heir?”

“She is the only blood relative I have. With us the line dies out. Gretha is mother to no children as yet, although she is married. To a very powerful Heddah…who will also have control over lands and an army…albeit on a much smaller scale. Mason and Jutsin will want nothing to do with her. They would rather make the government bi-political than see her have power over the lives and welfare of their subjects. That means warring within our own borders. Brother against brother.” As she spoke she grew more anxious, twisting one hand within the other. “Don’t you see? I must go back,” she begged him. “My country needs me.”

“I need you,” he said stubbornly.

“You are but one man! I am speaking of thousands of lives!”

“If they know you are alive then your sister cannot inherit?”

“No. She cannot. But they don’t know I am alive. And even if they did, I need to rule my people and I cannot do that from here! How do you think I will get my armies to follow me if I am sitting here dining with the enemy they fought against for autumns? Gretha might swoop in regardless of my being alive and wrest control away and there would be nothing I could do about it from here!”

She stepped closer to him, allowing her warmth to wash over him, radiating heat into him.

“Please. You must take me back. For the good of my people, you must take me back. Would you do any less for your own people? Are you so selfish that you can think of no one else but yourself?”

“Yes!” he hissed, grabbing her by her upper arms and giving her a little shake, making her tousled curls bounce. “Yes I am that selfish! You don’t know what it’s been like these past two autumns! And then two months ago when I kissed you…the fire it lit was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It was consuming me until all I could think about was you. Did you not notice the numbers you were tabulating went back farther than two weeks? I am trying to catch up from months of being obsessed by my plans to take you for myself. I worked out every single detail and went over and over it in my mind. By the time the moment came I was so desperate I feared I would accidentally hurt one of your guards.”

“Wait…you were there?” she asked, shocked. “You didn’t just send your men? You were there?”

“I had to be. Tradition and my own peace of mind demanded it. A man must capture his own mate. Others may help, but it must be him above all others. And I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you or those that protected you.”

“But…I didn’t see you. Were you there with us the whole time?”

“Yes. I traveled with you. But every time you were to alight from the carriage I put myself out of your sight.”

“You mean all those nights…you camp out alone in the wilderness? Away from the fire and the safety it and your men provided?”

“Yes,” he said with a simple shrug of his shoulder.

“But what was the purpose in that?”

“I…” He hesitated. “I didn’t want you to see me…to give you a hateful target that would make your journey even worse than what it was. Had you known I was with you it would have made things worse for you.”

Ariana was torn between emotions. On the one hand he was the most selfish bastard she had known…but on the other he kept doing things—selfless things—for her comfort and well-being.

Her belly churned with her mixed emotions, the dinner she had previously enjoyed sitting ill on her.

“Leave me,” she whispered to him.

“Ariana—“

“Leave me! I cannot bear to be in the same room with you!”

“You bore me well enough for the rest of the day,” he ground out, giving her another slight shake. “Why must you fight me like this?”

“I enjoyed the day because anything was better than remaining cooped up in this room alone…even spending time with you!”

“No…no! It was more than that. You know that it was.”

“I know nothing of the kind. Now let me go and leave me alone!”

“Stop this! Stop fighting me!”

“Then let me go! Please,” she begged him. “Let me go home. I want to go home!”

“There is more for you here if you would but open yourself up to the idea! If you would just—“

“No! There is nothing for me here!”

“Yes there is!”

He hauled her up against his body, her hands pressing flat against his chest, pushing herself away…or trying to. He was too strong for her. He clasped her with one hand around her body and the other diving deep into her mussed hair, he held her head and sealed his mouth over hers.

She cried out against his lips, trying to wrench herself away, but it was to no avail. His mouth on hers was relentless. Demanding she open herself up to him and his command of her, he seared her with his heat. In fact, that was what she felt most from him. His heat. Burning and fierce, rolling over her in singeing waves. His ability over his pyrokinetic abilities was seemingly out of his control…or so it felt as he scorched her from the outside inward.

Ariana was, of course, resistant to the heat and to fire, but she could not seem to make herself impervious to this. She wanted to repel him—wanted to continue to hate him—but he was making it so difficult to despise him with that pure blind hatred she had felt at the beginning of this. He had stolen it away by making her understand him and his motivations better. She wanted to abhor him for forcing himself upon her, but she couldn’t help but admit it was a force she found compelling and arousing. He commanded the moment, commanded her, and it felt good to give control over to someone else for a change.