Another puff of breath, this time accompanied with an arrogant tilt of his lips. “And I didn’t know the meaning of beautiful. Until I saw you in those woods that night.”
Oh God.
Oh myfuckingGod.
I fist the sheets tighter. “Reign —”
“You weren’t kidding,” he gulps again. “About what you want me to do.”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Because I didn’t wanna look,” he says, roving his eyes over my body once again. “At you.”
“Why not?”
“Until I looked, I could pretend…” He licks his lips. “I could pretend that it wasn’t real. That it wasn’t you that I was touching. Although who the fuck was I kidding, it was you. No one… has ever felt like you but I… Maybe, justmaybe, I could survive this, you understand? If I didn’tlook. But now I have. Now I have seen you. Now I’m…” Another swallow. “Seeing you and you’re… the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. You’re made of moondust and sugar and… If you back down now, I’ll —”
“I won’t.”
I will never ever back down.
Not when he looks like this. All overcome.
Not when he’stalkinglike this.
When has he ever talked like this? When has he ever been… dramatic?
Because he was being that back there, wasn’t he?
Only to me, it sounded perfect.
So, so perfect.
His chest shakes again. “So you’re reallymine.”
Now it’s my turn to shake.
Time for my breaths to hitch and my throat to well up with emotions. And words.
Well, just one word: Yes.
I’m really his.
His. His. His.
But somehow my brain kicks in and I whisper, “F-for tonight.”
And it’s like I broke something. Something precious.
Not only inside my own chest but inside his as well.
And whatever it was, ithurts.
Especially when all the emotions that were flickering on his face vanish, leaving behind sharp things.
Sharp peaks of his cheekbones, sharp hollows, sharp jut of his stubbled jaw.
I don’t like it.