Chapter 37

Ronan didn't try to talk to me again. I could see something had changed. When he looked at me, there was a spark of something in his gaze. It unsettled me, yet also sent a thrill down into my bones. It was not the look of a man who had given up.

Eventually, we came to a quiet clearing to rest. He left Nea to graze in a small clearing, setting up what remained of our provisions. Then he left without a word, taking a well-worn path into the trees.

A damp earthy smell filled the air, gentle splashes coming from the area to my right where Ronan had walked. I looked through the low branches and tall grass to see a small pool of water, its clear glossy surface shining under the moonlight.

I hesitated only a moment before I followed after him.

In the dark it was hard to tell, but the small pool of water looked deep enough to submerge up to my shoulders. Long shoots of wild leafy grass bordered a steep ledge around it, large blooming flowers scenting the air with their sweetness. On the opposite side was a small waterfall trickling into the water, flickering from lavender to deep cerulean under the night sky. I made my way over a few rocks to get near the water. I caught sight of my reflection and frowned.

I was in serious need of a bath.

Ronan pulled off his shirt, shooting me a mischievous grin. But this one, unlike the ones I had seen before on him, was both playful and challenging. I knew the look well; I had seen it on Brody and boys from high school.

My frown deepened as he lowered his hands to unlace his trousers. His broad chest glistened with a sheen of sweat. I spun around before he could finish taking his clothes off. My cheeks felt warm, which only set my blood buzzing with annoyance.

Water splashed. My heart raced. I carefully turned my head to the side, not sure why I was suddenly feeling so shy. Ronan wouldn't be the first person I had seen naked after all.

But as I saw him surface, his hair dripping wet as he pushed it off his face, and he turned his head to send me a devastating grin, I decided it was likely because Ronan wasn't just anyone.

He was a faerie. An infuriatingly beautiful faerie.

I cleared my throat. "A warning before you take your clothes off would be considered polite."

He laughed, then dipped his head back under, swimming closer to the rocky ledge. He leaned his arms over the side and looked up at me through his wet hair. "Another one of your human customs I take it?"

With his relaxed smile, it was so easy to forget what he was.

I glared down at him, feeling strangely ruffled. "Yes. It is." I spun to start stalking off, my cheeks still flushed.

This was a bad, bad idea.

"Join me," he asked, his voice light. "You could use it."

I glanced down at my dirt-streaked clothes, patches of dried brown blood still embedded in my skin. I was quite certain at some point my top had been white.

"I'll wait until you are finished."

"That's no fun," he called after me. "The water is delightful."

"Nope," I said shaking my head vigorously. "I can see what you are doing faerie, and it's not going to work."

I walked back over to the rocks I had come from and readied myself to climb up and away from Ronan. I glimpsed himgo under the water again, following me under the surface as I went, but I tried to ignore him. I hopped up on a rock, only to feel a clawed hand grip my ankle.

"That's no fun."

I got only a glimpse of Ronan's gleeful smile before I was tugged into the water.

I came up coughing, gasping for air. I righted myself in the cool water and once I composed myself, glared at Ronan.

"What the hell!"

Ronan shook with laughter. Annoyed, I splashed him but that only made him laugh harder.

"Oh, sweet Mab, that was worth it," he said once he calmed down, though his eyes continued to dance with mirth. "You remind me of Nea when he gets caught in a water storm."

As if the horse heard Ronan's comparison, a loud disapproving snort sounded from the trees beside us. It caused a disturbance, a flock of glowing creatures bursting from the trees and flying up into the sky with small squeals of fright.

Ronan followed my gaze, watching as they flew away, small pinpricks of luminescent light. "Ah, looks like the pixies have decided to leave us alone." Ronan grinned before his eyes settled back on me, and he tilted his head, taking in my drowned appearance. He let out another snort of laughter before his expression softened.

Then he rose his hands, a small burst of fiery orbs filling the air. They danced across the water like fireflies.

"Now we can see better."

I glared at him, but my annoyance was quickly turning to embarrassment. He stood a few paces from me in the water, the added light revealing his body below the surface. Where I was still fully clothed, he was not.

As his expression sobered, his eyes still lit with a glint of impish delight, and I became acutely aware of every line of his bare body. His hair dripped down his neck, falling to his collarbone, then ran along a scar that started on one side of his chest and led down below somewhere under the water.

Warmth spread through me, and this time not because Ronan was touching me.

He didn't miss my silence, a smirk curving his lips as he moved closer to me. A ripple of water spread between us, and I stepped back.

I lifted my eyebrows. "You can stay right over there."

Ronan's smirk widened into a grin, but he stopped. "And why is that?" he asked, but I was pretty sure he knew the answer.

Shooting him another glare, I ran a hand through my tangled hair, pulling it over my shoulder and trying to wring some of the water out of it. I made quick work of washing my face, ignoring Ronan's expectant stare on me.

"It's funny how touchy you get about nudity. Are all humans this prudish?"

I pressed my lips into a frown. "I'm not prudish. I just don't want to give you the wrong idea."

Ronan grinned roguishly, and I got the feeling I had walked right into his trap. "And what, precisely, is this idea you are so concerned I might have?"

Shit.

My cheeks flamed, and I cursed myself. So much for my fierce resolve. All Ronan had to do was take his clothes off and I was a sputtering mess.

"The ones you are having right now, I'm guessing."

Ronan's grin slowly faded away, and he fixed his eyes on me intensely. For some reason, I felt like I was the prize in the Hunt all over again, only this time Ronan fully intended to come after me.

And a small, very problematic part of me, was curious. I might have been focused on staying alive in Faerie, but that didn't change that I had always been a little reckless. If I hadn't been, then I wouldn't have been here to begin with.

"You see, that's where you are wrong. I'm not thinking anything I shouldn't be, at least not something I shouldn't be thinking about my wife."

A fiery charge ran through me at his words, my mouth going dry. His tone had fallen to a low and deep, triggering an intensity inside me I had been trying to ignore.

I hovered where I was in the water, not looking at Ronan, but acutely aware of where he was. I knew I could jump out, walk away. Go sit next to Nea until my wet clothes dried off. I could leave Ronan there, nude, and by himself. Nothing was making me stay there. Ronan stayed right where he was, only the charge running between us holding me in place.

I lifted my head, meeting his eyes. I didn't say anything.

Ronan moved closer, then paused, watching me for a reaction. Still, I stayed where I was, locked in place. The glint in his eyes brightened, but not into something feral. Hungry.

I should have been terrified.

"Why do you want me so much?" I asked softly, as he moved closer. "You don't even know me."

His lips curved, and he prowled closer, his gaze never leaving my face. My body thrummed with both the desire to run and the desire to stay. They warred inside of me, but the closer he came, the more relaxed my body grew. The steadier my breaths became. Warmth spread through the water, the heat of his body nearing mine.

"True, I don't know you near enough." His voice was suggestive. "But I do know a few things about you, Heather."

The way he said my name sent a shiver across my skin.

I licked my lips, caught up in his gaze. "Like what?"

He smiled. "You, like me, crave excitement—danger. Even now as you look at me, you know what I am and what I have done, but you also feel a thrill." He licked his lips. "I can hear it in the way your heart beats. Feel it through the water. And, if I were to taste you..."

My breath caught.

He stopped moving, his body so close all I had to do was reach for him and I'd be in his grasp. Water droplets glistened on his skin, catching the light of the fireballs he'd left floating around us..

"And you seek that thrill. You need it, even." He moved a hand up to my cheek, tilting his head down to me.

"I know it, because I feel it too. With you. No one has made me want something as much before as you have," he whispered. "I would do anything..." he trailed off, looking down into my eyes.

"Do you want me?" I asked softly, finding it hard to think with him so close. "Or do you want my Craft?"

Because I wasn't so stupid as to think the two weren't connected.

The only thing that gave him away was the small flicker of surprise in his eyes. But then they hooded, and his lips curved.

"I do want your Craft. You are powerful for a human, more than I ever imagined and I think if you learn to control it, you would be an asset at my side. But..." He lowered his face closer to mine, drawing me close. "There is is also something about you that I cannot deny. It is unexpected but pleasant."

I wanted to close the distance between us, press myself to him and give into the deep desire within, but I turned my head.

"Wanting is not the same as love."

Ronan froze, lifting his head to fix me with a puzzled look. "Love?" he asked, then his brows pushed together. "Is this what bothers you?"

I pressed my chin down into my shoulder, keeping my gaze averted from him, the press of Ronan's body hard to ignore.

I nodded. "Yes," I replied, surprised to find it was true. "I can't damn myself to an existence with someone who will never love me."

Ronan regarded me for a moment, but then his hand came back down to my chin, lifting it to so I was looking into his eyes. They were softer than before.

"I do not know what love is," he said softly. "But I do know when I think of you leaving me, if effects me in a way I have never felt before. It may not be love, not as you know it." His other arm curled around my back, holding me flush to his body.

"But to me, it is the closest I have ever come to such a feeling. If you give me a chance, I can show you."

I stared up at him, both surprised and terrified. My skin tingled everywhere we touched. His eyes seared through me, filled me, and left no room for other thoughts. He wanted me.

And I would be lying if I said I didn't want him to.

My hands came up to his chest. I ran them up over his scars, and around his neck. My fingers glided through the silky strands of his messy hair and I drew myself up to him. My heart was beating furiously, and my hands were shaking.

He remained still, his eyes searching mine as I hovered my lips over his.

"Then show me," I said before I impulsively pressed my lips to his.

Ronan let out a soft groan, his body tense under my fingers, but then his own hands were in my hair, drawing me nearer. A shudder ran through him, his lips pressing to mine with rapt desire. My back met the rocky ledge behind me, and Ronan used one of the hands tangled in my hair to tilt my face up to his.

His body pressed against mine, and I ran my hands down the silky skin of his back, feeling the raised lines of each scar as I dug my fingers into his skin. Soon he was trailing his lips down my neck, stopping at my collarbone to plant soft feathery kisses there. I let out a gasp, which made his lips curve before he moved back up to capture my lips again with his.

"I didn't expect you to kiss me first," he whispered. "You never fail to surprise me."

"Shut up."

He chuckled softly before drawing me closer.

His kisses turned hungrier. I knew I should stop, but each time his lips met mine, I found myself answering them with one equally as ravenous. I tangled my hands in his hair, and pressed my nails into his skin.

I was so wrapped up in the moment I didn't even think. A warning resonated in the back of my mind. Too far. Too soon. A line I shouldn't cross.

But I pushed all those things away, and filled my mind with only Ronan.

"I could make you a Queen," he said, his lips at my ear. "Stay by my side, and we can achieve greatness this world has never seen before."

He hesitated a moment, waiting for my reply. I felt myself hovering over the point of no return. I knew I should heed his words, I knew there was more to this for him. There was so many things he wasn't telling me, lies twisted from half truths and omissions.

I looked up into his eyes. The moon shone bright down above us, catching in his eyes. The orbs of dancing firelight gathered together, hovering low over the water, flickering against his skin, creating a halo of flames around him. The image was enchanting. My body sung to his, the draw between us holding me in place. When his hands touched me, the Craft that sat inside my chest woke up and answered his, creating an inferno within me.

He was perfect.

Perhaps I had always known I would give in. I always wanted the things that were wrong for me.

My hands pressed into the small of his back. A small voice in my head protested, but I ignored it. I pulled him closer, my silent reply.

He smiled, bending to kiss me. Strong arms held me to him like I was a delicate, fragile thing.

All I could think of was Ronan. All I wanted was Ronan.

Sometime later, as his head pressed into my hair, both our bodies coming down from what we had just done, he spoke.

"Together, " he murmured so softly I wasn't sure I understood him, "we'll burn it all."