where she’s sneaked a fingertip between the buttons of my shirt, grazing the skin beneath. “I’ve told you. Things are complicated.”
“Kara?” I prompt, squeezing the ball of her shoulder. “What is it?”
Two seconds into her weighted silence, I can already tell that answer won’t be forthcoming. Not even as she tugs away far enough to link her gaze directly with mine again. To let me see all the somber meaning in hers. But this time, without those glorious flames.
I’m thankful she’s showing me what’s behind them instead. Her earnestness. Her nervousness. Her…fear. An emotion I fully recognize as it brews inside me too.
I slide my hand up the side of her neck to where it can flatten to the side of her face. Beneath my palm, her skin is a collection of warm, strong angles—so unlike the bleak, desperate smoke in the backs of her eyes.
Give me more, little temptress. Something. Anything.
I’m about to say all of that when Kara darts her dark stare back up to me. “Does it frighten you, Maximus? This…us. Does it frighten you?”
I work my fingertips around a few loose wisps of her hair. I tug on them gently while dipping my face closer to hers. “Not all the time. But sometimes…like here and now, looking at you like this, holding you like this…” I push in tighter, not stopping until our lips are grazing and our breaths are mingling. “Yeah. It scares the crap out of me.”
For a long moment, Kara’s only response is the tripled pace of her breaths—then the second finger she adds to that sizzling touch atop my heart. The organ underneath pounds at the wall of my chest like a prisoner declaring mutiny, clamoring to throw itself right into her waiting hand.
“You feel that?” I push more of her hand against my wild, bucking sternum. “You do, don’t you?”
She jerks her way through a nod.
“Then you understand. You know that I’m scared because I don’t understand so much of this. Nobody’s ever done this to me before. Had this kind of crazy power over me. I don’t know how it’s you or why it’s you. I only know I’m so damn glad it’s you.”
She blinks slowly. “You are?”
“Yeah. And God fucking help me, I want to know more of it. I’m burning to give you more.”
“And I’ll take it.” Her lips, tasting like cinnamon, brush at the edges of mine. Her skin, smelling of roses, heats beneath my touch. She turns and presses tighter against me, delving her hands into my hair. “Everything this is, everything we are…I need it, Maximus. I need you.”
“Then open up for me.” My croak is desperate, and I don’t give a shit. I secure a hand at her nape, holding her steady for my equally imploring stare. “Kara, please. Whatever these ridiculous Valari secrets are, I can handle it. All of it. Just trust—”
My insistence is swallowed by the thrunk of the door that’s opened at the top of the stairs. A half-dozen students barge into the lecture hall. Kara scrambles to her feet, inviting the snickering stares the new arrivals shoot her way.
I answer them with a quietly lethal glower as I rise, but their presence already has Kara racing to leave. I’m there behind her, following in her immediate shadow.
At the top of the stairs, she stops. There’s a cramped audio and lighting control booth to the right. She takes my hand and tugs me into the enclosure. I have to admit, even with our small but curious audience, I’m fond of the new accommodations. It’s darker in here. And warm. I like having her this close. A lot.
I’m mesmerized by what the fresh wash of shadows does to her beauty. Rather than subduing her glory, the dimness enhances every stunning feature, every entrancing curve. I dare to slide a palm to her waist, hiding the move between her body and the foam-lined wall. At once, our blazing connection flares to brighter intensity.
“Listen,” she rasps. “These secrets you seem to think are so ridiculous? They’re not. They’re exactly the opposite. They’re…dangerous.”
I smirk. “You could tell me, but then you’d have to kill me?”
“Don’t. Joke,” she spits.
I pause, intrigued by her new claim. “Then stop evading.”
“I’m not evading!”
“You are. And I’m not giving up just because you said ‘dangerous.’” I tighten my hold on her hip, punctuating my newfound fervor on the matter.
As she rakes her hand up my arm, her breath hitches. “Maximus… In spite of all your jaw-dropping, wow-inducing—well, you get