Page 38 of Star Bringer
“Aren’t you scared, little priestess?” Her tone is mocking now. “Don’t you want to run away?”
Not even a little bit.I don’t say that, though; I just shake my head.
Which has her eyes narrowing. She takes a step closer, and I don’t move a muscle. I’m not sure I could even if I wanted to. But I don’t. Ireallydon’t, especially when she reaches out and takes hold of the end of my long braid. Her calloused fingers stroke back and forth over the wispy ends of my hair for a moment before she tugs me closer.
“Pretty,” she murmurs.
I’m not sure if she’s talking about my hair or me. I don’t suppose it really matters, considering a shiver runs through me either way. I feel quite strange, sort of hot and cold and really aware of my own skin all of a sudden.
“You interest me,” she murmurs, head cocked to one side as she studies me. “Why do you interest me so much, little priestess?”
“I—” My voice breaks, and I have to clear my throat, try again. Except my mouth is suddenly as dry as any desert in the galaxy, and something tells me it doesn’t have anything to do with the strict water rationing we’re currently experiencing. “You interest me, too.”
She laughs a little at that. “Now you’re just being nice.”
I want to argue that I’mnotnice. How can I be, when I’m always having the most wicked thoughts?
“Tell me something,” she murmurs, and her fingers go from stroking my hair to stroking my cheek.
A strange, devastating heat flares inside me. “What do you want to know?” I whisper, afraid to speak too loud in case she moves her hand.
But she doesn’t stop. In fact, her fingers keep moving, sliding along the sensitive skin of my jaw until they’re dancing along the nape of my neck. “Have you ever been kissed?”
I gasp as shock runs through me, along with another delicious flare of heat.
She laughs in response, then licks her lips. And just like that, my gaze is glued to her mouth. I couldn’t look away if the fate of Senestris rested on it.
I swallow hard but don’t answer her. I can’t.
Which I’m fairly certain is an answer in and of itself, even before she murmurs, “I’ll take that as a no.”
I shake my head vehemently.
“Well, I guess that leaves me with just one more question.”
I wait for her to ask it, and when she doesn’t, a low, keening sound works its way up my throat. It echoes in the silent room, and I’d be embarrassed if I wasn’t so…hot.
She laughs again, a low, wicked sound that makes my stomach flip even as it slides along my every nerve ending. But she still doesn’t speak.
“What—” My voice cracks again. “What do you want to ask me?” I finally manage to get out.
“That’s easy.” She smiles even as she leans closer to me. “Do you want to be?”
Oh my goodness.
It’s not easy. It’s not easy at all. In fact, the answer to that question is the very opposite of easy.
I know what it should be. What it has to be. I really, really do. But for some reason I can’t make my mouth form the word. Instead, all I can do isnod.
Beckett seems as surprised by my answer as I am. But she doesn’t let her surprise stop her. Instead, her direct yellow gaze holds mine as she moves closer, her hand cupping around my neck. And then slowly—so slowly that it barely appears she’s moving at all—she leans forward and brushes her lips against my own.
I can’t breathe. I can’t move. I’m burning up.
“More?” she whispers against my lips.
My head nods without any command from my brain. And she presses her lips to mine just as the lights flash bright, an alarm rings out, and someone calls my name.
It looks like Merrick has found me.
