Page 85 of In Darkness Forged

She sighed and looked at the flower between her fingers. “Because I don’t want to lose you,” she murmured softly. “I know you can’t stay with me forever, but selfishly, I want to keep you for as long as I can.”

“And you believe if you tell me this truth, I will leave? Why would you think that?”

“Tal”—Aislin’s tone grew pleading—“you’re going to leave eventually no matter what I say. We both know you cannot follow me across the river. You have your own life, and the human world would be a dangerous, lonely place.”

She thought he was going to leave her. Believed that there was no place for him in her world.

And yet, she’d also said…

“If you don’t want to lose me, then why are you trying so hard to drive me away?” he demanded. “Did I not promise to keep you from harm? Did you not hear me when I said that your life was worth every possible sacrifice?”

“Yes,” she said cautiously, “but I’m not sure I know what that means to you. You’ve said you want to protect me, but aswhat? I might be no more than a pet you cannot bear to part with.”

“A pet?” Tal growled dangerously. “You think I see you as apet?”

Her eyes widened, as bright and blue as the flowers beneath their feet. “You don’t? Then why…”

He did not give her a chance to finish that question. It was suddenly imperative that he show herexactlywhy.

So he clasped her wrist, and as the flower fell to the ground, unheeded, he pulled her closer until there was no space left between them. No space for fear, no space for doubt.

Aislin’s breath caught, and her lips parted as they collided. With a featherlight touch, Tal tilted her face towards his, leaving her mouth tantalizingly close. Her next breath was an indrawn whisper of surprise, and at the end of that breath, he kissed her.

He kept his hold gentle, his kiss undemanding, in case he had read her entirely wrong. He never wanted her to be frightened—not of anything, and least of all him. But she did not pull away.

At first, her lips were soft and hesitant. But as Tal threaded his fingers through her hair, cradled her head, and pulled her closer still, she answered with a passionate intensity that stunned him.

Her arms went around his neck, and she drew him down to meet her, kissing him back with her hands in his hair and salty tears of joy on her cheeks.

“Tal,” she murmured, pressing her forehead to his and cupping his face with trembling fingers. “Does this mean I’m more than a pet?”

His only answer was to kiss her again as fierce exultation swept through him, hotter than the fires of his magic, stronger than the bones of the mountains themselves. As the last of the walls around his heart cracked and began to fall, Tal swore never again to hold himself back from her.

The woman in his arms was a gift beyond price, and he would dare anything, fight anyone, to keep her by his side.

CHAPTER23

“Definitely not a pet,” was Aislin’s first exultant thought, and then there was no room for anything in her world except kissing Tal.

It was, she decided, the only thing she wanted to do for the rest of her life. His arms were unyielding, his skin a scorching fire, and his heartbeat a steady rhythm that echoed through her own chest as they became more one than two. His lips were on her cheek, her jaw, her neck, then back to her mouth with an urgency she echoed back sevenfold.

Was this real? Or had she finally succumbed to exhaustion, and this was no more than a dream? A fevered wish that her brain now replayed in excruciating detail?

“Wait!” she cried, and broke away to stare at him, heart galloping faster than Cuan at a dead run.

“Did I hurt you?” Tal appeared horrified at the very thought.

“No, I just…” She bit her lip and stared into his familiar amber gaze. “I wanted to make sure this is real. Thatyou’rereal. That I haven’t somehow lost my mind and invented a future that I want so badly, my imagination conjured it from too many sleepless nights.”

“I assure you,” Tal said dryly, “I am very real.” He caught one of her hands and brought it to his lips, his eyes never leaving hers. “Does this not feel real to you?”

As his lips touched her palm, his amber eyes ignited, and the flutter in Aislin’s chest erupted into a horde of butterflies.

He was stunning—a primeval spirit of the forest made warm and living flesh—and somehow, he was hers.

It made no sense, and a part of her insisted that she would never be allowed to keep him, but in that moment, she did not care. She wanted him too badly—this wounded, relentless, honorable, prickly, protective man—and for the moment, that was enough.

Rising on her toes, Aislin dared to press her own gentle kiss to his lips, and it was as if the fire between them only flared hotter. His strong, scarred hands cupped her jaw, and he reclaimed her mouth with a gentleness that nonetheless scorched her to the core. His power was only leashed, his desire no less for being restrained, and she felt it echoing through every fiber of her being.