Brimstone Prince
Page 29
“Shit. I’ll be dead before morning.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
He was sweet. But if he had no faery powers to defeat this pinning, she didn’t know what he could do. She’d already insulted him once. She didn’t intend to go to her maker having insulted him a second time. “Thanks. Maybe... Could you try my cell phone?”
“Where is it?”
“In my box.”
Picking through the crushed plastic tackle box, he found the purple phone, but with a few taps at the cracked screen, he announced, “It’s dead. Technology doesn’t work here in the Darkwood. Hey, Blade’s place is at the other end of the forest. I can run there and make a call—”
“No.” She stretched out an arm, her fingers groping desperately. Kelyn’s fingers threaded with hers. It was a natural clasp, something that felt hopeless yet bolstered her courage a little. “I don’t want to be alone. Just stay with me, please?”
“Of course I will.” He folded his legs and sat before her, not releasing her hand from his calming clasp. “We’ll think about this. We’ll come up with something.”
“Actually, what I want you to do is listen to the things I need you to tell my friends.”
Kelyn bracketed her face fiercely. “Don’t talk like that. You will not die.”
“Lying about my fate isn’t going to change it. I did a stupid thing. The universe renders payment for stupidity.”
“You were not stupid. Just...stubborn.”
“So you’ve heard about me?” She tried a little laugh and it actually eased the tension between her shoulder blades. Valor blew out a breath.
And in that moment, when she knew death was her only option, she decided she couldn’t walk out of this world without one last thing. “Kiss me,” she said suddenly.
“What?”
“You want to, don’t you? I mean, if you had a thing for me?”
“I did, but...”
“Please, Kelyn? I want the last thing I remember to be a kiss from a handsome man. I want to be held in strong arms. I want to know passion—”
And he kissed her. The sudden connection seared a delicious heat onto Valor’s lips. Kelyn’s arm wrapped across her back as he slid down onto the moss beside her and pulled her in tightly against his hard body. His other hand clutched at her hair. Hungrily she took from him, falling into his sweet taste, his open and easy manner. He felt like something she’d always wanted but had never known to ask for.
Why had she never noticed he’d been attracted to her?
Because she’d been too busy tagging along with the bad boys. Or those men who could only ever consider her one of the guys.
When he parted from her, their eyes lingered upon each other, as if to look away would end the kiss, their connection—her life. So they held gazes in the quiet darkness, dappled by a beam of moonlight that sifted through the latent troll dust in the air about them.
The squeezing pressure about her thighs moved higher, yet all Valor could do was whisper, “Wow.”
Kelyn nodded. He touched her lips and held his fingers there for the longest time. She closed her eyes to fix this moment forever. She must. She would die with the taste of his kiss on her mouth.
“Best kiss I’ve ever had,” he said.
She nodded and closed her eyes even tighter, fighting tears. Damn right it had been the best.
“Ah, shit.”
That remark sent a frozen chill up her spine. Valor could feel Kelyn’s sudden tension and she knew they were not alone. Please don’t be another troll, she thought. Slowly she opened her eyes to see the pair of red irises that loomed over the two of them.
Copyright © 2017 by Michele Hauf
ISBN-13: 9781488031298
Brimstone Prince
Copyright © 2017 by Barbara J. Hancock
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