He guided me into his body, his arm folding around me in a protective manner as his heated chest enveloped my bare back.
A temporary heaven.
Or maybe it qualified as hell.
I neither knew nor cared, too comforted by his touch to debate any further.
“Sweet dreams, Claire,” he whispered.
Dreams, I thought. Do those even exist anymore?
My eyes fell closed, the nightmares of my existence sprouting to life behind my eyes in the vision of my mother. A cruel woman destined to destroy the fae.
Except, when I looked her in the eyes, all I saw was a vision of myself.
No, there were no dreams here.
Not for me.
Only delusions of fate.
My fate.
Titus
I’m an asshole.
Tightening my grip on Claire’s hip while she slept, I tried to think of any angle in this situation where I wasn’t a bastard, but came up with ashes. Exos had done the right thing by stopping me before I went too far. Claire didn’t know me—didn’t know this world. I didn’t mean to take advantage of her, but damn, the pull between us was so strong.
She destroyed our clothes. That shouldn’t have been possible. My wardrobe was customized for Fire Fae. Yet she’d demolished the fibers with the ease of a millennia-old fae. And fuck if that hadn’t turned me on even more.
Her power was an aphrodisiac, seducing my fire and exciting a need I could hardly control. Not an excuse or even an explanation, just a fact. But I needed to do better.
She deserved better.
Embers flickered where my skin touched Claire’s, reacting to our newly established bond—a bond that would awaken the deepest fiery passions innate to the carnal Fire Fae. Claire wasn’t my first courting, but it felt different with her. Almost like I couldn’t keep my thoughts straight and our dancing elements went straight to my dick.
Fuck it. Exos was right. I couldn’t trust myself to be this close to her. We needed to get up, anyway.
I eased away from Claire and grimaced when she curled into herself and whimpered in her sleep.
“So cold,” she mumbled.
“Shh,” I whispered, drawing a finger down her cheek and sending more of my fire into her. “Today’s a big day. We can’t cocoon in our element all morning.”
She groaned but didn’t open her eyes, as if fighting the urge to wake up. She clutched the charred blanket closer to her chin and turned her face into the pillow.
Holding her through the night had been a selfish pleasure for me. I’d tried to be strong and give her the space she needed, but she’d demanded my touch. Perhaps I’d been weak to oblige her, or maybe I needed her, too.
I wasn’t going to fool myself into thinking I meant more to her than what I was: an ally in a world of strangers. Maybe our connection would only make things more difficult for her, or maybe it was the anchor she needed right now.
Or a distraction.
I shoved that thought aside and forced myself out of bed. Elana’s guest room of vines and mist and foreign elements seeped into me. I shivered, missing the warm embrace of the Fire Dorms.
Looking down, I smirked as ash fell from my naked body. So much power in the fireball that was Claire. How did you do it? I wondered again.
A soft touch across my shoulder blade made me stiffen.