Page 157 of First Ritual
Hesitating first, I traced his lips, then his cheekbones and brows. “You’re a handsome son of a gun, you know that? Of course you know. No one shuts up about it. Have you heard of Wild fantasies? I haven’t gotten one yet, but I must be the only one.” I stared at the ceiling. “Hmm, we’d be outside in mine, I think. Maybe. In the Wild.” I chuckled, then frowned. “You have no idea how much I regret not letting you bury your face between my legs the other day. Maybe that’s behind the urge for an outdoor setting.” I trailed my fingers up and down his arm. “Yep, we’d be outside in the moss forest. We’d pick up where we left off. You’d taste me, and I’d taste you. That’s how it would start.”
Wild shifted against me, his face relaxed in sleep. I stared at his lips for a long time before darting my head forward to kiss him.
He moaned and moved his lips against mine. Slowly. Deeply.
I pulled back, and his eyes opened. Darkness.
“Are you here?” I whispered.
Wild weaved a hand into my hair to bring me back to him. He moved his mouth against mine, and I responded in full. This was the kiss I would have shared with him without any of this other ritual shit going on. Part of me wanted that illusion of a normal relationship. I wanted to cuddle in bed and kiss.
Right now I’d pretend.
I clutched Wild’s pendants to eliminate space between us. I kissed him like it was my last day on earth. Like he could be my everything. I put the last of my breath into the mind-shattering kiss and came up gasping, panting in tandem with him.
His hand remained threaded in my hair, and we looked at each other for an age.
“Feeling better?” I whispered.
“He’s going to kill me,” Wild stated.
“What?”
“Without you, there’s no purpose. You convinced him there’s no chance. He’s going and taking me with him. I’ve tried everything. I can’t figure out how to slow or stop this.”
My heart thudded in an attempt to escape my rib cage. “I don’t understand. It’s yes or death? Are you sure?”
Wild closed his eyes. “I’ve spoken with him more lately. Trying to understand what’s going on. He never responded until a few days ago when… when my feelings changed. I’m sure. Without a mate, there’s no point to existence in his mind.”
My eyes widened. Wild wasn’t fucking around. I could see the defeat in his gaze. “How do we stop it?”
Fear flickered in his dark eyes. “I’m fresh out of ideas that you’d like.”
That I’d like. I exhaled. Because I already knew the answer. “The only way is to continue the ritual. To accept you and him.”
Wild had to taste me.
My core throbbed at the thought. I’d regretted turning that down, yet definitely hadn’t regretted turning down the attached strings. I could sever those strings now. Scrap that, I didn’t know how to do the severing, but I was capable of figuring that out.
The immediate, dangerous issue was that the creature in Wild—that was there because of me—was going to kill him because there was no longer a point to life. Because he couldn’t taste me.
Which was beyond ludicrous. However, his hold on Wild’s life was not.
“Looks like I’m going to save your life,” I said lightly.
He closed his eyes. “I’m not doing that to you.”
“You don’t want to?” That changed things.
“Of course I fucking want to,” he said harshly. “You didn’t want it in the forest, and I won’t do that to you.”
My heart squeezed. “Wild, for starters, my legs were nearly collapsing in the forest from how much I wanted it. What put me off was not knowing who was in the driver’s seat. I’m not about to let you die when I could just let you give me what’s likely going to be a terrific orgasm.” Humor entered my voice. “Cunnilingus could save your life—”
“I care, Tempest. You didn’t ask for any of this, and I keep—”
“Neither did you. You’re just trying to get through this like me. I’ve… recently I’ve been…” A jackass. Confused. Distant.
He looked at me. “Hurt.”