The Curse (Belador #3)(41)

See? Things like that made her heart wiggle. “If I’m hurt, it’s my problem to deal with. I believe what you told me.”

“But you’re still bothered about Adrianna.”

She hated to admit he’d hit that nail dead center, but she couldn’t deny the truth. Angling her chin in challenge, she said, “Okay, I’ll give you sixty seconds—”

He had her in his arms, kissing her before she realized he’d moved.

Her righteous anger over Adrianna, which had festered since last night, tumbled beneath the onslaught of emotions crashing through her.

She had the backbone of a caterpillar when Storm touched her. He held her close, secure in his arms.

She’d missed everything about him in the past few weeks. Missed the way he took her in stride, accepting her as she was. Missed his voice, which whispered across her skin. And most definitely missed the way his mouth felt against hers right now, teasing and nipping.

Heat zinged through her core, spinning tornadoes of excitement everywhere and shocking her skin, coiling deep inside until she murmured against his lips.

He smiled, never slowing the kiss that said so much.

Much more than sixty hours of talking could accomplish.

She tasted his sincerity, knew by the way his heart slammed with each beat that she mattered to him.

Blood barreled through her own heart, forcing the organ to feel alive after years of being an iceberg, frozen by terror. Another man had sent her into emotional lockdown as a teen.

But Storm could stir a fever inside her with nothing more than a look.

His hand cupped the back of her head, carefully and gently. Probably still remembering how she’d reacted like a trapped animal when he’d stepped too close to her in an underground subway tunnel. She’d shoved him thirty feet across the tracks. He’d landed against a concrete wall.

Nothing like Sen had done to Storm, but a hit that would have seriously hurt a human.

And would have sent any other man backpedaling to get as far away from a freak as possible.

Not Storm. He’d dusted himself off and had come right back, refusing to let her retreat from him. Looking at her with too much understanding as if he could see past her fears, all the way to the emotional wasteland where her personal demons crouched in the corners of her mind, laughing at her.

She’d tried to warn Storm away more than once, but he could be beyond stubborn at times.

He moved his long fingers lightly over her face and hair, forcing her to think about him and only him. The last three weeks melted away. She ran her hands up into his hair, then folded her arms around his neck. He kissed her with a hunger that sent shivers of excitement fingering along her spine.

She’d never expected to feel that with a man.

The female voice haunting her mind lately said, To feel is to live. To live is to love.

Evalle hoped the woman could hear her when she silently replied, Go. Away.

Storm paused. He swept his lips softly across hers and murmured something in a language she didn’t understand. But she could feel the passion in his words.

He was telling her he cared.

Then his lips were gone and his breath coming hard as if he’d been battling for hours. He dropped a kiss on her forehead, then pulled back, raking a knuckle over her cheek.

Her eyes fluttered open to find him waiting patiently.

He had something to tell her.

She pulled her hands back to his chest and conceded the challenge. “You win. I was an idiot.”

Storm brushed his fingers over her hair and spoke in a deep whisper. “You’re not an idiot. You’re a woman who does everything with passion. Even being jealous.”

“I wasn’t …” The lie died in her throat. “Okay, I was jealous.”

“I know, and that’s why I need you to understand why you have no reason to ever be when it comes to me.” His chest moved under her hand as he took in a deep breath. “My guardian spirit, Kai, stayed with me the whole time I was injured. She said she doubted that I would come back to this world.”

Evalle’s fingers clenched his shirt, unable to stop the knee-jerk reaction. What if he hadn’t come back at all? She couldn’t bear the thought.

He kissed her again, a quick touch, as if not quite finished with her, then continued. “I told Kai I was not ready to leave. That I had to come back. She said I would have to fight a fierce battle to return to the human world, and even then she didn’t think I’d survive. But she believed that the will to live could be greater than the pull of death if my reason for fighting was powerful enough. She asked why I had to come back.”

“What did you tell her?” The question slipped out of Evalle on a strained breath.

“I had to hold you one more time.”

Evalle never, ever cried, but she came close when he said that. She dropped her head onto his chest, so glad that his guardian spirit had been with him. “Thank you for coming back.”

“There was never a question of my returning. Not in my mind. I owe Adrianna a debt for her help that I plan to repay, but only as a friend. I’m not interested in seeing her again for any other reason.”

“Okay.” Evalle lifted her head. She still had some work to do on her lack of confidence as a woman, but she believed Storm.

His gaze searched beyond her. “I don’t want you to go, but you’re running out of dark, sweetheart. Horizon’s getting lighter all the time.”