But Kat pulled back. “How can you still want me?”
I pressed my forehead against hers. “Oh, I still want to strangle you. But I’m insane. You’re crazy. Maybe that’s why. We just make crazy together.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It kind of does, to me at least.” I kissed her again. I had to. “It might have to do with the fact that you finally admitted you’re deeply and irrevocably in love with me.”
She let out a weak, shaky laugh. “I so did not admit that.”
“Not in so many words, but we both know it’s true. And I’m okay with it.”
“You are?” She closed those beautiful heather-gray eyes, and all I could think was how grateful I was she was still breathing.
Man, I was turning into a pansy.
But I didn’t care. Not when it came to her.
“It’s the same for you?” she asked.
My answer was to bring our mouths together again…and again. The touch was like tapping into the Source, sending lightning straight to the soul. The kiss deepened until there was no me, no her. It was just us, and it wasn’t enough—could never be enough.
I was moving without realizing it, and the next thing I knew we were on the bed and she was right where I wanted her—in my lap. And then she was beside me on the bed, and my heart was doing crazy crap in my chest. Such a human thing, but it was happening.
Kat breathed heavily. “This doesn’t change anything I’ve done. All of this is still my fault.”
Placing my hand on her stomach, I moved so close I was practically attached to her. And I wanted to be in so many different ways. “It’s not all your fault. It’s all of ours. And we’re in this together. We’ll face whatever is waiting for us together.”
“Us?”
I nodded, working on the buttons of her sweater. Some of them were buttoned incorrectly, and I laughed. Only Kat could have trouble putting clothes on correctly and somehow make it sexy. “If there is anything, there is us.”
Kat lifted her shoulders and helped me get her out of the damn thing. Good. She was on board with where this was heading. “And what does ‘us’ really mean?”
“You and me.” I moved down, tugging off her boots. “No one else.”
Her cheeks flushed as she pulled off her socks and lay back down. Jesus, she still had on way too many clothes. “I…I kind of like the sound of that.”
“Kind of?” Bull. Shit. I slipped my hand down her stomach, to the hem of her shirt and underneath. I bit down on the inside of my cheek. The minor burn of pain did nothing. I loved the way her skin felt like satin. “Kind of isn’t good enough.”
“Okay. I do like that.”
“So do I.” I lowered my head, kissing her slowly. “I bet you love that.”
Her lips curved into a smile against mine. “I do.”
There was that damn constriction again, like I’d been punched in the chest, but in a good way. How you could be punched in the chest in a good way was beyond me, but damn, I sort of loved that feeling.
“Tell me everything,” I asked in the tiny space between our mouths.
The tips of her fingers slipped over my cheek, and she seemed to know what I’d meant without having to say the exact words. “I didn’t burn my fingers on the stove. Blake…he was teaching me how to control fire—how to create it.”
Jesus. “The bruises?”
“From him during training,” she whispered as her lashes lowered. “I didn’t think he was doing it on purpose. Not until our last training session before Christmas. I’d been too tired to train, so he suggested we grab something to eat. It didn’t feel right from the beginning, because we went out of the range of the beta quartz.”
I might’ve stopped breathing.
“Dinner was strained, and then he got a text message. Looking back now, I wonder how much of this was set up.” She laughed without any humor. “On the way home, I felt an Arum. He pulled along the side of the road, made me get out…and fight it.”
“What?” I seethed.
She didn’t look up. “I had to fight the Arum, and I did. I killed…I killed it,” she continued, her voice low. “It wasn’t easy.”
It took several moments before I trusted myself to speak. “That’s how you were covered with all those bruises along your back?”
“Yeah. I didn’t tell you the truth, because I knew…I knew you’d go after him, and I wasn’t worried for him. I was worried for you, because at that point I knew something was wrong with him. I knew something was off, just like you’d been saying the whole time.” Kat shuddered, and I pressed my lips to her forehead. “That’s when I began to really suspect he wasn’t what he seemed to be. I didn’t want you to go after him in case he was working with the DOD or something.” Her voice shook. “I should’ve listened to you, Daemon. I should’ve—”
“Shh,” I said, kissing her still-damp cheeks, and then I found her lips. I kissed her softly, changing the reason she trembled in my arms. “I was jealous,” I admitted.