to go.
Utterly destroyed him as she came to him and lifted her hands to frame his face.
And softly kissed him.
Chapter 23
Mackenzie had realised something over the last few days, something Syn had made her aware of by constantly getting between her and Hartt, stopping Mackenzie from being able to reach him.
To touch him.
To kiss him.
Hartt wasn’t the only one with a mating instinct.
More than once, she had found herself filled with rage, with a need to strike her friend down for daring to stop her from reaching Hartt. More than once, she had wanted to claw the eyes out of the female serving staff of the bastion, blinding them for daring to look upon Hartt.
More than once, she had come close to going supernova.
Even when she knew that Hartt wouldn’t be able to survive the cleansing fire she wanted to use to eradicate everyone within several hundred feet, stopping them from being able to gaze upon him, halting their plans to steal him from her.
He was right—mating instincts sucked.
They didn’t only trigger when others stood between them or looked at him either.
They triggered every damned time he looked at her. Just the feel of his gaze on her was enough to have her blood heating to dangerous levels, flooded her with a desperate need to seize hold of him and kiss him.
And not stop there.
She wanted him again.
Wanted him so badly that she couldn’t sleep at night, that she writhed in her lonely bed, tangling the sheets around her limbs as her mind filled with thoughts of him, with wicked visions of making love.
She had also realised something else during the painful last few days.
Hartt was putting himself through this same torment, all to prove to her that his feelings for her were true, not because they were fated for each other.
And those feelings were true.
As true as hers were for him.
She was falling for him too, had been from the second she had set eyes on him, from the very first time they had fought. He had mesmerised her then, had fascinated her and drawn her to him, and that pull she felt towards him had only grown in the time she had known him, had taken shape and revealed itself as something more than lust.
It was love.
That was the reason she had been hurt when she had thought he wanted another, when the hope she’d had for them had become nothing more than a dream, one she had felt sure had slipped through her fingers.
Now, as she stood in some sort of dead garden, staring into his eyes, she could see in them that she had been wrong about so many things.
His amethyst eyes were warm as he spoke with her, filled with not only the heat of desire but that softness she had wanted to see in them—a look that made her feel as if she was the most important thing in his entire world.
Made her feel as if she was the centre of his universe, and that she always would be if she only gave up the fight and accepted his love for her—and her love for him.
He had looked at Iolanthe with warmth in his eyes, but not like this. He hadn’t looked at the elf in the way he had looked at Mackenzie over the last few days, sneaking glances at her when he thought she wasn’t looking, lingering with his gaze on her face and a look of yearning in his eyes.
One that made her certain his feelings for her were constant. Deep. A forever kind of love.
And sure, in part it was probably because they were fated, because destiny had made them for each other, gifting them with the potential for a powerful bond that would only deepen their love for each other.
But only deepen it.
This feeling she had for him was real.
So when he told her to leave, looked desperate for her to do as he asked, as if she would be torturing him by remaining, she stopped fighting her feelings.
Rather than running from him as he wanted, she did what she wanted—she closed the distance between them. Cupped his face. Kissed him with all the love that beat in her racing heart, aware of where it would lead them.
A little afraid of it.
His hands shook as he claimed her waist, as he gently pulled her towards him and angled his head, deepening the kiss. She wasn’t the only one afraid, wasn’t the only one aware of how their life was