Page 97 of Fate's Wicked Oath

“It’s not the naughty songs that are putting ideas in my head, sweetheart.”

I tipped my head back enough to look into his eyes. They were alight from the bonfire, heated. He was flirting with me. Something about the wide-open sky full of stars made me feel like I didn’t quite mind.

As we leaned slightly apart, Faren regarded me, too, his gaze tracing my mouth, my clavicles, the bodice of my borrowed dress. His jaw feathered and his brow creased slightly, and I couldn’t make sense of the expression, until—

“You’re exquisite,” he said.

I snorted dismissively. “More flattery?”

He drew me against him again, my breasts pressing against his ribs. He tipped his head so that he could whisper in my ear. “It’s fact.”

I shoved his chest, a weak rebuttal that had my fingers tracing the canyon between his pecs. I cocked my head. “Beauty can’t be fact, it’s subjective.”

“Not yours,” he replied. “Not to me.”

Faren’s hand slid higher up my back. His fingers found the bare nape of my neck, sending a panicked shiver down my spine. My heart beat faster, and my skin began to tingle with excruciating awareness, and suddenly everything felt too close.

“Do you want me to stop touching you?” His lips were against my ear. “Do you want me to let go?”

My magic was frantic, sending a wave of goosebumps across my skin even as I began to sweat along the tightest seams of my dress. My mind clanged like a warning bell, a litany of perfectly justified protests ringing in my ears.

At some point, my eyes had fluttered shut. I forced them open. “Don’t let go.”

His breath on my neck was kindling, his next words, a match: “Then do it.”

“Do what?”

“Whatever you’re about to do,” he said. “Stab me or kiss me. Whatever you want, just end my suffering in this suspense.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I can’t take it anymore.”

My body was alight, tight with warning and need. Both of Faren’s options would be disastrous, and I drifted between them, untethered.

Avoiding the challenge in his eyes, I let my gaze fall to the strong column of his neck. There was a dark freckle under his jaw, half hidden by his collar. I’d never noticed it before, and in spite of my frantic nerves, it tugged at me like gravity. I rose onto my tiptoes, dragging my chest against his. Deciding but not deciding.

In response, Faren dipped his chin, his cheek grazing mine. We moved in tandem, angling our mouths closer, and closer, and it felt inevitable, this kiss that we had not even shared yet, a Fate more real than anything I’d ever seen in the Mirrors.

His breath skimmed my mouth, first. Then his lips. A single, questioning touch.

The scattered sparks of my magic coalesced at that single point of contact, the whole of my attention settling on the tantalizing seam between his lips, where I could sense the wet warmth of his mouth, if only he parted further. The ringing in my ears ceased, and I arched up, fitting my lips more firmly against his and thrilling at the sensation of him, warm and supple and beseeching.

He groaned with relief, but there was a quaver in his manner, as if he were still holding back. I gripped the muscles bordering his neck, pulling myself closer, chasing our shared desire. When I darted my tongue out to taste him, he groaned a second time, opening up to me, setting me ablaze. His hold tightened as he enfolded my waist with one strong arm, the other hand slidingup to cradle the back of my head, steadying our frenzy. His mouth was heat and velvet, urgent and claiming.

Time slowed with the slide of our lips and tongues, the rocking of our bodies. Nothing else seemed to exist as my magic lit me from the inside, gilding me in fire, scorching me everywhere we touched. And it was…too much.

Too vulnerable.

Too intense.

Too fuckinggood.

With a heaving breath, I broke our kiss, trying to calm my magic before I combusted.

Faren looked down at me, his brown eyes eclipsed by wide pupils, his gaze dark with desire. He hummed appreciatively, giving my hip a sensual squeeze, unaware that I was no longer panting with lust but panic.

A greatwantingbroke like a dam in my heart, desire rushing through me in a dizzying cascade, the fire in my skin turning it to steam. My body tingled and my heart throbbed, the alarm bells once again clanging in my skull, urging me to run far away from this disaster. I’d been entangled with a fellow knight before, and it’d ended in tragedy; I didn’t want to do that again. Icouldn’t.

“I—” I stammered, then shoved him off of me and fled.

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