Page 42 of Reaper’s Wrath

His head slowly shakes back and forth. “Nice try, but that won’t cut it.”

With lips pursed, I consider backing down. I don’t have to play this little game we’ve started, but then I won’t get to ask my next question, and I’m dying to know the answer. Surely, one little kiss won’t be a big deal. People kiss absolute strangers every day with no consequences whatsoever.

I can do this.

I lean in, lifting onto my tippy-toes, and pause for a second when I realize I’ll never make it all the way up to his lips. Sultry mossy-green eyes gleam back at me, brimming with amusement.

Is he … laughing at me?

He thinks I’ll chicken out, doesn’t he? If that’s the case, he’s got another thing coming.

Girding myself, I clutch his shirt in both my fists and tug him down to my level, crushing his lips to mine. I think we’re both stunned for a second as we stand almost motionless, absorbing the feel of one another.

His lips begin to move, and I inhale his breath into my lungs.

My head spins. My body relaxes.

I melt into his touch.

I part my lips, welcoming his tongue as it swipes seductively against mine. Elio’s hands wrap around my back, pulling me flush against him as he deepens the kiss.

A greedy whimper escapes my throat.

I clutch his shirt closer. He squeezes me tighter, rumbling with satisfaction. His desire for me is palpable and shamefully intoxicating. I want more—of the kiss, of him, of the overwhelming feeling inside me that I’ve finally arrived home after years of wandering.

I’m so unsettled by the intensity of my reaction to him that I abruptly pull away. I drop my gaze, my fingers ghosting past my lips as I attempt to regulate my breathing.

Chaotic emotions try to hijack my thoughts, but this isn’t the time. I have to stay vigilant around this man.

“My turn,” I say in a raspy voice that tells him how deeply affected I am, if it wasn’t obvious already. “Why did you take me? I want the real reason.”

Elio takes a small step to the side and leans a broad shoulder against the nearby wall, casually inserting his hands into his pockets. His now expressionless face gives nothing away. “I took you because you’re mine.”

Confusion draws my brows together as I try to understand.

“El, that doesn’t make any sense,” I tell him as gently as I can. I don’t want to anger him, but he has to know how absurd it sounds. We don’t even know each other anymore.

Elio comes off the wall and closes the distance between us until his presence consumes me. Looming and predatory, he owns all the oxygen in the room, rendering me breathless.

“You’re right,” he concedes. “It doesn’t make any sense at all, and that changes absolutely nothing.”

CHAPTER 23

ELIO

What doesn’t make sense is that I continue to crave a woman who can gloss over the past as if we hadn’t promised our souls to one another. I didn’t expect her to have dedicated her life to my memory, but I also never imagined she’d treat me like any old acquaintance when I returned. Especially knowing she’s never been with anyone since me.

Something doesn’t add up.

Why the abstinence? It wasn’t in my honor. Apparently, what we had together wasn’t even worth remembering. Why, then? Did she at least have boyfriends along the way? I know she never married. I checked. But it’s impossible to track every romantic entanglement.

The questions are driving me fucking insane.

If I had any self-respect, I’d drop her back in the city and forget I ever indulged myself in this childish obsession. That’s what I tell myself as I stare at the lighted control panel in the navigation room. In a matter of minutes, I could reverse course and be free of her in under twenty-four hours.

All I have to do is input the coordinates.

So why does it feel like I’m asking myself to move mountains?