Page 186 of Scarlet Wars
“Right. Well. I’m not planning on it either.” My voice pitched too high, my words clumsy, my hands opening and closing like they didn’t know what to do with themselves.
“Good,” he said dryly, his eyes never leaving mine. “Because if you did, you’d end a lot of lives.”
I shifted my weight, twisting my fingers together. “That wasn’t—I didn’t mean it like?—”
Caden sighed, rose to his feet and moved slowly into my space. My breath caught when he stopped close enough for the heat of his body to skim over mine. He tipped his head, studying me in that way that stripped me bare without a single word.
“What’s going on, Emma? Talk to me.”
“What? Nothing is going on. Why would anything be…going on?” My laugh came out too high, too brittle.
Oh my gods.Internal forehead slap.Why was I soawkward?
“Because,” he murmured as he looked down at my restless hands, “you’re talking like a madwoman, and you’re fidgeting. Both of which you never do.”
I waved my hand impatiently. “No, nothing going on. But, uhm…” I sucked in a quick breath, heart hammering. “Fuck, I’m trying to communicate here, Caden.”
“Uh-huh.” His mouth curved, almost lazily. “First time?”
I shoved against his chest, more flustered than furious. “Asshole.”
He chuckled, then reached up to brush a stray strand of hair out of my face, his fingers only slightly grazing my skin. “Just ask me what it is you want to know, and I’ll answer.”
I twisted my hands together so tightly my knuckles ached. “Right. So, if you want to keep kissing me and not kiss anyone else, and I’m not kissing anyone else?—”
His voice dropped, now low and certain, the kind of tone that vibrated straight through me. “Emma, let me be very clear about this. I am going to do a lot more than kiss you.”
My stomach flipped so hard it felt like the floor shifted under me. “But…onlyme, right?”
Realization flickered across his face, and then the corner of his mouth curved like he’d finally caught me in something.“Emma Lucia Thompson, are you asking me to stop seeing other people?”
A startled snort escaped me, half laughter, half panic. “Not like that, I’m not.”
A quiet certitude settled over his features, as if he recognized the truth in me before I did. He reached out before I could retreat, fingers catching my chin. His thumb pressed lightly beneath my jaw, tilting my face up until I had nowhere else to look but at him. “You’re done running.”
His gaze held steady, fire pouring into me until my knees threatened to give way. “You want this. You finally want this.”
His grip tightened just a fraction. “Us.”
Not a question. Only the simple, devastating truth.
I exhaled hard, my shoulders sagging under the weight of it. My eyes darted past him, searching for any escape, before snapping helplessly back to his. “I know it’s an insane risk. Aside from the fact it probably means a death sentence for everyone I care about, we’re not exactly in a normal?—”
His lips crashed onto mine, hungrily, swallowing the rest of my words, cutting me off so completely I couldn’t even breathe.
I froze for a split second—shock, instinct—but he only pressed harder, driving me back until the handle of the door bit cruelly into my spine. My hands roamed his chest before my mind could catch up.
His hand clamped around my throat, forcing my head back, his mouth relentless, demanding.
“Caden—” I gasped against him, but he seized the sound and dragged it from me, tongue sliding deep, claiming me before I could think.
“Fuck yes,” he growled, the sound vibrating through my mouth into my chest. He groaned low and rough, other hand on my hip as he hauled me flush against him. My body arched helplessly, pinned to every hard line of his. His teeth scraped mylower lip, sharp and stinging, before he crushed his mouth back onto mine, harder this time, bruising, desperate.
“Yes to your question, yes to you, yes to all of it.”
“You—” I tried again, though my hands betrayed me, fisting in his shirt, dragging him closer like I couldn’t survive a single inch of space between us. “You sure? If the Chiefs?—”
“I’ll slit their throats before they’ve even crossed the border,” Caden muttered between kisses, his words scorching against my mouth. His lips trailed hot down my jaw, grazing skin that burned under the contact, before he claimed my mouth again, relentlessly, leaving me trembling so hard I could barely stand.
