Page 19 of Salt Between the Wolves

“You don’t want to stop.”

The words destroyed what little control he still had left.

Soren kissed her hard enough to silence the rest, one arm sliding beneath her knees almost instinctively.

Eira gave a startled breath as he lifted her onto the bed behind her.

The movement should have broken the moment.

Instead, it destroyed what remained of his restraint.

Every point where their bodies touched felt amplified beyond reason, heat threading through him so intensely that instinct and desire became nearly impossible to separate. Eira felt it too — he could hear it in the way her breath caught each time he moved against her, in the way her fingers slipped into his hair as though holding him closer only made the need worse instead of easing it.

His hands moved along the bare skin of her legs beneath the fabric gathered around her thighs, roughened palms dragging heat in their wake while cold air brushed newly exposed skin. The contrast made her shiver against him, and the reaction nearly drove him past the edge of restraint entirely.

Because she tightened around him immediately afterward.

The pressure of her legs locking harder around his waist tore a low sound from his throat before he could suppress it.

For one dangerous moment, thought disappeared completely.

What struck him then had nothing to do with the bond or simple proximity. He wanted her, and the realization carried enough force to leave him almost shaking beneath it.

The realization hit with enough force to leave him almost shaking beneath it.

Eira felt it.

He saw the exact moment understanding moved across her face — not fear, not uncertainty, but the sudden awareness that if she asked for more now, he would give it to her.

All of it.

His mouth moved lower again, slower now, rougher, lingering at the sensitive line beneath her throat before trailing downward along exposed skin while his hands tightened against her thighs hard enough to leave marks later. Eira’s head tipped back against the stone with a breath that sounded dangerously close to his name, and the bond reacted instantly, pulling tighter with every shift of her body against his.

The pressure between them became unbearable.

Soren moved against her once, instinctively seeking friction, and the sound she made nearly shattered the last of his restraint.

He could already feel how this ended.

He would take her with all the hunger he had spent weeks denying, and once he crossed that line, he knew he would forget entirely why distance had ever seemed necessary.

The realization struck hard enough to cut through the haze all at once.

Soren froze.

His breathing remained uneven as he forced himself backward just enough to look at her properly again.

Eira’s lips were parted slightly from kissing him, cheeks flushed from heat and breath and closeness, her legs still wrapped tightly around his waist as though neither of them had fully realized yet how far this had already gone.

And the worst part—the truly dangerous part—was that seeing her like this only made stopping harder.

Soren closed his eyes briefly before forcing himself to release her and step back.

The distance was small, but it felt enormous.

After the heat of her body against his, the cold seemed to return all at once, settling heavily between them.

Eira stared at him in stunned silence, her breathing still uneven.