“Something foolish,” she murmured, only a sliver of space between them. “Something completely and utterly foolish.”
Then her lips found his.
Dez groaned low in his throat, maybe in anguish or relief, but he kissed her back and his lips gave under hers. His arm tightened to pull her closer as his hand wove into her hair.
She plummeted into the kiss. Her arms wound around his neck as she arched into his body, perfect and toned beneath her softness. She dove off the cliffside, and if darkness waited below, she would gladly descend into the shadows with him. Would bathe in it if that was the cost.
Heat pooled in her belly as his hand slid from her waist, down her thigh, to hitch her knee around his hip where she found him hard and ready for her.
The kiss heated, hands frantic, fueled by scorching desire as he rolled her atop him, and she straddled his hips. But then his eyes sprang open, as if doused in reality, and Dez gently pushed her back. His chest heaved like he couldn’t get air into his lungs, and he barely clung to that thread of restraint as his thorns threatened to burst through.
Emmery’s hair fell in a curtain around them and her hands braced either side of his head. Lost in that haze of lust, she wanted too many things and longed for Dez to give them all to her.
He squeezed his eyes shut, like he summoned every shred of strength inside himself. “We haven't talked about what happened.”
“I don’t want to talk,” she said. She leaned down to kiss his throat. “The last thing I want to do istalk.”
He inhaled between clenched teeth as she sucked on his neck. His hands found her waist beneath the fabric of her shirt. “You are making it—” He groaned and his hips rolled as if he couldn’t help himself. “You’re making it impossible for me to be a decent man right now. But I need you to tell me what this is.”
She licked a path up his neck and kissed him again, this time with fervour to show him exactly what she wanted. How she wanted to forget everything but him and fade into each other.
Dez moaned against her mouth in both yearning and frustration, before he pulled away and rolled her onto her back. “What is it you want? I need you to say it. For the sake of my sanity.”
A sinful little smile painted her lips and she asked sweetly, “What if I want to play?”
He shut his eyes like he silently counted to ten. “Really, Emmery. Where is this coming from? Because you’ve endured something I can’t even begin to imagine. And I’m afraid—” He turned his face away and sighed. “I’m afraid we’re playing different games now, angel.”
“What game are you playing, Dez?” She tilted her head and studied him. “Because I can think of a dozen fun things that I think you would enjoy, too.”
He returned to her then and scrutinized her the way she usually hated but now craved. Her heart thundered with anticipation. With desire. It banged against her ribcage, stretching for him.
Could he feel it? His smirk told her he certainly could.
Dez raised his brow in a silent command:answer now or no game.
A sigh slipped between her lips, and she stared up at him, unsure if what happened between them was truly the labyrinth’s trickery, the celestial trumpet, or a moment of weakness where they fell into each other.
“I want you. Tonight,” she breathed, her desire flooding the space between them. “Just tonight.”
Dez searched her face, and Emmery could practically hear his thoughts churning as he examined the situation. His expressionsteeled and his heavy eyelids darkened his stare. For a moment, she thought he might say no, laugh at her, or turn her away.
“You want me.” He drew out each word like he didn’t believe them. His gaze dropped to her lips and remained caught there like a rabbit in a snare. “And you think you can handle only a single night with me?”
She hadn’t considered it, but she knew what she wanted right now: her and Dez and this damn bed bathed in moonlight.
“I’m willing to take the chance if you are,” she hummed.
“Honestly, Em, you’re not seeing clearly, and I don’t want you to regret this,” he said, his tone careful. “After what you went through, whatwewent through, and you lost—” He turned away again, perhaps to search for an excuse. “Besides, I haven’t taken the draft, and I’m assuming you haven’t either.”
Emmery slowly shook her head. “It’s not … necessary. For me.”
His brows pinched and he opened his mouth to speak, but her expression stopped him, and he studied her in a way he never had before.
No games. No flirting. Merely compassion.
“I can’t,” she started, but swallowed the words and closed her eyes. She had never actually said it aloud, not even to Maela or Fionn. It was the kind of admission she wanted to inhale back in. An admission that fed the hollow part of her that no praying or healing could undo. It would always be the reason for her loneliness. Afterall, who would want to be with someone so utterly fractured, who couldn’t do an act so natural, miraculous, and beautiful? And she’d been robbed of it.
She skimmed her finger over her shirt where the scar across her abdomen lay. The one that had broken her so completely.