Last Stand (The Black Mage #4)(44)

Darren’s lips brushed my hair. “It’s just a dance, love.”

It wasn’t and he knew it. Darren was trying to save the broken girl in his arms. He was trying to save me, and I was fighting him with every last gasp of air.

“I want to dance with my wife.” His words were so quiet. I could feel myself slipping. Down. Down. Down. “Is that so much to ask?”

Was it? Was it really? Before he cursed my name and branded me a traitor? The girl that betrayed a prince?

“It is.”

My confession cut like a knife. Darren jerked away, hurt flaring in his eyes. “You are destroying us.” His hands fisted at his sides. “And I don’t even understand why.”

That pain was my undoing. It broke the control I fought so hard to keep.

I didn’t want to hurt the boy. I loved him more than life itself.

I grabbed Darren’s shoulders and slammed my mouth to his, every bit of emotion snapping under that bridge.

I needed him, and I was tired of pretending I didn’t.

Darren’s chest rose and fell rapidly against my own. For a moment, he didn’t move. Then his hands slid up my back, my throat, framing my jaw, capturing me and crushing me against his lips, drawing me in and stealing my soul.

I could have spent the rest of my life letting him kiss me like that, but I didn’t want soft and slow.

I didn’t care about the consequences. Not anymore.

I implored the prince to move, shoving him back, my tongue dancing across his, his mouth slanting in surrender against my own.

Darren let out a growl, and I gasped as he jerked me forward, choking on air.

He kissed me like he wanted to cherish me and break me in the same breath. His kiss was furious. Unapologetic. Punishing. It spoke of too many nights left alone. It spoke of everything he was holding back.

And then our roles reversed.

I pressed my mouth to his neck and he shuddered. It did things to my senses; my nails dug into his shoulders as I did it again.

I wanted to make him lose control.

Darren’s fingers were on my waist as his teeth grazed my neck.

Gods.

My head lolled back and I could hardly breathe. I had no idea one person could feel so much.

The two of us were stumbling across the meadow, tearing at bits of cloth, his hot hands branding my skin.

Darren picked me up and my legs wrapped around his waist. He slammed me against the base of a tree. I forgot the pain as he held me in place, his arms pinning my own high above my head.

Darren pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes.

“Tell me to stop, love,” he whispered.

I didn’t tell him to stop. I couldn’t.

I needed this. I wanted him.

I was tired of fighting myself.

I pulled Darren to me and pressed my lips to his, giving him the answer he needed.

And then Darren’s hands were making quick work of my bodice, orange beads splaying across the forest, while I clawed at his shirt.

Darren kissed me so deeply I forgot my own name. The last of my bodice slipped away and his fingers rode up my ribs to the swell of my breasts. My sharp intake of breath caught me by surprise.

For a moment that was enough. Then he dipped his head, his lips leaving a trail of liquid fire against my skin. I couldn’t breathe. I was quite sure I was rasping his name like a prayer, again and again.

I felt Darren’s smile through the indentation of his lips.

Then he dropped one hand. Darren cupped my knee and raised my leg, bringing me closer than before. There was an ache in the pit of my stomach, and all I knew was I needed more.

I was dying, and I didn’t know why.

My fingers raked across his arms, shoulders, and chest following the dips and hollows of muscle and bone. I tried to hold back. I tried to memorize the planes of his body, but it was impossible not to move. Not when all of my senses were screaming; my world was wrapped in cinnamon and cloves. I needed to touch every inch of him, and it wasn’t enough.

Darren’s mouth found the base of my throat, and I cried out as his hand slipped down, and then up.

Time stopped. The pit in my stomach was no longer a lonely ember, it was an inferno and Darren’s eyes were heavily lidded flames.

He slowly slid me down the base of the tree, going down to his knees. And then all I saw were stars.

I was dining with the gods, gasping on air.

After, Darren rose up, cupping my face in his hands and kissing me hard. A long, desperate kiss that promised me everything and the world.

And then he drew me to the ground.

I tugged his body over mine, fumbling with the drawstrings at his waist, desperation and need taking ahold of my limbs.

His eyes met mine, and it was just the two of us.

“I love you, Ryiah.” He whispered the words only once and I was lost.

Lost and in love. In lust. Over my head. Over my mind, body, and soul.

For hours the two of us ceased to be Ryiah and Darren. The Black Mage and the traitor who would cause so much grief to come.

We were the boy and the girl.

We were a fairy tale. We were dancing in the forest.

We were everything and nothing, and it was the one thing we both needed to be.





10





We didn’t return until the sun rose the next morning. I watched it with his arms around me, the two of us standing at the base of the rushing falls, and that moment was perfect. Perfect like all the ones that came before.