Page 184 of Elemental Becoming

He pulls me gently to my feet, and suddenly every inch of space between us feels impossibly small. Heat radiates from him in continuous waves, wrapping around me until it becomes difficult to think about anything else.

Before I can stop myself, I press my palm against his chest. I need the contact. Need the reminder that he’s here.

His heartbeat thrums steadily beneath my hand while his chest rises and falls in slow, controlled breaths. My fingertips graze his chest, tracing the ridges of muscle through his battle-worn tunic.

When he dips his head closer, I catch the faint scent of leather, rugged and worn from years of use. Earth dampened by summer rain. And beneath it all, a trace of spice lingering low beneath the surface.

The breath catches in my lungs.

For a moment, all I can focus on is him. His warmth. The constant thud of his heartbeat beneath my palm. The quiet rasp of our breathing in the dark.

It’s astonishing how something as simple as his nearness can leave me feeling like I can let my guard down and just be.

His hand slips to my hip, tugging me flush against him until there’s no space left between us. Heat floods through me as I feel the unmistakable tension in his body beneath the thin layers of my dress, and my breath rushes from my lungs.

He lifts his hands to my hair. One by one, he pulls free the few pins still in my hair after the battle, letting the disheveled braids unravel over my shoulders in dark waves. His fingertips brush lightly against my scalp, sending a shiver racing down my spine.

Thane’s hands settle on my shoulders, turning me gently until my back faces him. I exhale sharply, heat rising beneath his touch.

He unwinds each braid with painstaking care, his fingers sliding through my hair, making my entire body tense with awareness. The warmth of his breath brushes against the curve of my neck, close enough to make my pulse stumble hard against my ribs.

Every nerve inside me feels raw and exposed. Desire tangles dangerously with the lingering adrenaline still coursing through my body, until I can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins.

He sweeps my hair over one shoulder, exposing the curve of my neck.

“You are so beautiful,” he murmurs reverently.

I melt instantly, warmth unfurling through me at the softness in his voice. I turn back toward him immediately, needing the contact. My hands rise to cup his face, my thumbs tracing the sharp line of his jaw, rough with stubble beneath my fingertips.

The hunger in his eyes nearly unravels me. But beneath it, I see the exhaustion too. The strain. The unbearable weight of this night still pressing against him. Of everything he carries, always.

I see it in the shadows beneath his eyes, in the strain pulling at the hard lines of his face, in the weight of this night still pressing heavily against him.

And yet he still looks at me like I’m the only thing tethering him to this world.

His gaze darkens, intense enough to unravel me completely. Beneath the desire, I can still see the restraint holding on by a thread.

Gods, he is barely holding himself together.

“Tell me you want this. I need to hear the words,” he murmurs.

Heat floods through me instantly. Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.

Not just want.

Need.

“I want this,” I whisper, my pulse thundering hard beneath my skin. “I want you.”

His hand tightens at my waist, as if fighting for control. A strained breath leaves him before he finally closes the distance between us.

“Good girl.”

The words send a sharp wave of heat through me.

Then his mouth finds mine.

The kiss begins almost carefully, but it unravels fast, turning fierce and desperate beneath the weight of everything we are no longer holding back.