Page 54 of His Darkest Desire

Fresh agony rippled through his leg, making his knee buckle. Shade hurried closer as though to catch him, but Vex snatched his hand back to avoid hitting Kinsley and braced it on the nightstand. The items atop it rattled. He pressed his other hand over his wound. Vex barely kept himself upright, breathing harshly through clenched teeth to ride out the agony.

Kinsley started, sucked in a sharp breath, and opened her eyes.

“Sleep,” Vex commanded, infusing the word with magic.

“Vex…” Kinsley whispered as her eyes drifted shut once more.

Had it only been his imagination, his own foolish hope, that had filled her voice with such longing and concern as she’d said his name?

Her body relaxed, and the pain in his leg diminished to a raging firestorm made tolerable only because it had been preceded by so much worse. The beast had inflicted a tainted wound upon him, and even the diluted poison from its claws was proving too much to bear. He could afford little further delay in attending to it.

He tore his gaze away from Kinsley, forcing it down. The shadows cast by Shade’s glow danced upon the floor, flickering with the wisp’s concern and uncertainty. Keeping his hand tight over his wounded thigh, Vex forced his legs into motion, hobbling toward the bathing chamber.

Once he’d removed his tattered, soiled clothing and washed himself, he could treat his injury properly.

But still, he found himself pausing at the hearth, where he sparked a mana-fueled fire. Once the flames were emitting suitable heat, he entered the bathing chamber with Shade just ahead of him.

He glanced back from the doorway. The firelight blanketed the bed in long shadows, but he could see Kinsley’s face as clearly as ever. Something tugged in his chest, urging him back toward her. All he needed was a single touch. The lightest stroke of her cheek, or the tracing of her rounded ear with his fingertip. Perhaps the brush of his thumb across her plump lower lip…

Jaw clenched, he exhaled heavily and closed the chamber door.

It was all he could do not to admit the truth…

One touch would never be enough.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Booming thunder vibrated the floor beneath Kinsley’s feet. She sliced through the halved melon on the counter and glanced out the kitchen window. The storm had left the world outside a bleak, gloomy gray, and both the building and the tree through its center were groaning ominously in the raging wind.

Most of her time here had been spent in the shade of that mighty tree, but the weather had been calm and often sunny. The storm had transformed these woods from an enchanted wonderland into a dark, forbidding forest.

“Does the weather here always match the weather on the other side?” she asked, glancing at Echo.

The wisp hovered beside Kinsley, their glow providing a little extra light. They shook their head.

“So this place really is in its own world, isn’t it?”

Echo nodded.

“Does it ever snow here?”

With their blue fire fluttering, Echo whispered a response to her. Though Kinsley still didn’t understand, she sensed there was a story in those words. The wisp punctuated their reply with another shake of their head.

Kinsley sighed and picked up the melon slices, dropping them into a small bowl. Since Vex had left her in the library five days ago, she’d neither seen nor heard him, not even once. The wisps had assured her he was alive when she’d asked, but they hadn’t elaborated—not that she would’ve understood anyway.

Before he’d left, Vex had told her, quite solemnly, to remain inside until he returned. Despite her rebellious streak urging her to sneak out, she had obeyed.

And her obedience had been rewarded with unfathomable boredom.

She’d tried working on her scrapbook, but she’d found little inspiration. She’d spent hours looking through tomes in the library, but she couldn’t read any of them. In five days, she’d explored every accessible inch of the cottage, and the most amazing discovery had been the pantry and root cellar connected to the kitchen, which were stocked with dry ingredients, cheese, butter, meat, and preserves. And as much as she enjoyed the company of the wisps, one of whom was always with her, the conversations were rather one-sided.

Kinsley was…lonely.

She found herself longing for Vex’s company. She wanted to learn more about his world, more about him. He’d always been so guarded, but he’d opened up to her in the library, if only a little. He’d even given her glimpses of his softer side. And she’d been so close to asking him to…

To what? To touch her? To kiss her?

To…have sex with her?