Page 144 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

My knees wavered, and I sank against him fully as my mind tumbled back fifteen years. To a kiss in another lifetime that was never given the chance it deserved. To a summer night and a grassy lookout. To a terrible bottle of port. To a boundary I’d been desperate to leave behind.

This time, though, I wasn’t a young woman with no idea what she wanted, other than a sweeping and unknown everything.

I curled my fingers into his shirt, holding him flush to me, and sought the slide of his tongue. His sharp exhale was utterly maddening. We staggered backward together until my thighs hit something hard. His hands filled that space quickly, squeezing and hauling me up onto goddess knew what, slotting himself between my rucked-up skirt and parted thighs.

Whatever I had thought I’d needed, this was it.

Warmth I hadn’t chased in so damn long licked up and down my spine, pooling in my belly, as he cradled the back of my neck, curling his fingers into my hair with gentle tugs. I didn’t know which part of him I wanted to touch first—his broad chest, his lean shoulders, his ever-messy hair.

All I knew was that with every coax of his mouth against mine, I needed to feel his skin. Not the shrouding layers he cloaked himself in, nor the façade of his new self—I wanted to touch the parts of him that had been there since I thought I knew him better than myself.

My overeager, fumbling fingers fought against the urge to just rip his infuriating clothing apart. I tugged endlessly at fastenings and pleats of fabric while our mouths waged a lazy battle, cursing against his lips when I brushed the soft fabric of an undershirt. Another tug, and my fingers met the warmth of his taut stomach, and we both let out appreciative groans. A shift, and both my hands splayed fully against his skin, soaking in shifts in his muscles and the feeling of him in his purest form.

I was keenly aware, though, of how close my touch lingered to the waist of his pants, how easy it would be to seek my next quarry. Just the pull of a tie. A shift of fabric. The curl of my fingers around him. Goddess, I’d gladly get on my knees in an alleyway for him. Judging by the way his thumb had found the crease of my thigh and hip, massaging it in slow sweeps, I had a feeling he wouldn’t object.

But just like that night from another lifetime, someone interrupted us.

A door creaked a little too close by, and we stilled against each other a little too late. An utterly damning sight, I was sure, with Jasper’s hands in my hair and up my skirt, and my legs wrapped around his hips.

“Where did you two—” came Gallan’s unmistakable drawl. “Oh. Well, well. As you both were. Don’t mind me.”

A beat of tense silence passed after the door creaked shut.

Jasper eased away an inch and let out a shaky breath. “Is this what you wanted, Nor?”

It took a second to swallow down the lump that formed in my throat. What a loaded question with such a painfully simple answer.

I drew him right back and rested my forehead against his, settling my hands against his chest.

“You were all I’ve ever wanted, Kieran.” I had told myself his old name would never leave my lips again—that I’d honor his wishes even though he never seemed to honor mine—but nothing else felt right at that moment. “And you always knew that.”

He let out a bone-deep sigh that served only as confirmation and brushed his knuckles along the outside of my thigh. “What are we doing?”

“That depends,” I said. “I’ve made myself clear, but what do you want?”

A pained noise preceded the press of his lips against my temple. “You. Unequivocally. Always. Do you not understand how you’ve ravaged my mind? The way I dream of you?”

I leaned into him, slipping my arms up around his neck. “Then take me somewhere that isn’t here. Please.”

Darkness shuddered my senses before I’d even finished speaking.

My back hit supple plushness as I came back into myself, and Jasper was kneeling above me, framed by dark walls and the soft blue glow of nytefire, somehow both different and tragically reminiscent of that ill-fated night. He must’ve felt it too, because the smile that tugged at his mouth was the same one he gave me then, just a coy curve of his aggravating mouth before he dipped down and kissed me again. I didn’t even think to tease him for depositing me straight into his bed.

Whatever scant restraint we had in that alleyway never made it back through the planes with us. We were nothing but soft gasps and clacks of teeth as I fought to dismantle the puzzle that was Jasper’s jacket, and he was too busy nestling his body between my parted legs. My need to feel his bare flesh had become inarguable, but a fucking labyrinth of hooks and ties I didn’t have patience for separated me from my bounty.

“Take this off before I rip it off you,” I practically growled, and the low chuckle he let out sent a rush of heat to my core.

Intent on torturing me, Jasper paused, kissing a slow trail down my throat before he sat back on his heels. A charged crackle of magic saturated the air, and he pulled his jacket through his body, discarding it on the floor with the haze of shadow that seemed to cling to it. His shirt came next, and I’d forgotten entirely what I’d been thinking about.

Jasper’s torso was littered with scars that hadn’t been there a lifetime before, including that damned brand I refused to linger on, but he was sculpted like a masterpiece too. As a mage of his talent, he didn’t need to pad himself with bulky strength, but there wasn’t an inch of his torso that wasn’t a long line of lean muscle.

I couldn’t wait to explore it all, preferably with my mouth.

“Who’d have known I’d render you speechless,” he mused, that moss-green eye studying me like I was the one who was a work of art.

“Who’d have known,” I breathed back with a chuckle as I reached for him.

But Jasper grabbed my hand and kissed my palm. “Always in such a rush.”