Chapter 31: *CHAPTER 31*

“Rock troll. Big one.” He grunted out, attempting to reach the cuts on side and barely missing, “It was hanging around the murder sight. They make clubs out of tree stumps and have a proclivity to swing them around.”

I could only watch him struggle for so long before I made my way around the bed to help him. I lowered myself onto the comforter beside him and held out my hand to take the bottle, “Give it to me, you’re going to rip open your scabs if you keep trying to do it that way.”

His green eyes met mine, his pulse visibly jumping in the strained skin in his neck and the sight did things to my own pulse. I remembered what he’d said earlier in his truck—about me not being the only one affected by the Bond. It gave me the courage grab the tube from his hand when he hesitated.

“Here, lift up your arm so I can see.” I commanded, climbing more fully onto his mattress so I could better see the damage. He did as I told him, lifting it up to give me better access. I squeezed the contents onto my fingers and began working the paste into his skin. It smelled like mint and something else, something stronger. I hated to admit that the minty smell mixed amazingly with the smell I was beginning to associate with Malcolm. The very spicy very masculine scent.

His skin was hot as I bushed my fingers against it. As I moved the paste around his skin, he shuddered, sucking in a breath. My breath caught in my throat at the sight. The very visual reminder of how I was affecting him. His eyes met mine again as I reached for the bandage waiting to go over the now treated cuts.

Whatever he saw in my face had him leaning closer to me, grabbing at my wrist where it rested between us. I blinked up at him in shock, fingers trembling beneath his at the sight of his pupils blown out—black and taking in every detail of me. This was a very bad idea—being here with him with the Bond affecting us the way it was. But in this moment I couldn’t seem to care.

“You should probably go, Kassie.”

“Why?” I asked, voice barely above a whisper.

“Because I don’t know how much more of you touching me I’ll be able to handle without doing something that we’ll both regret.”

The tug from the Bond was so strong I didn’t care. All I knew was that I had to touch him. My fingers that weren’t being held by his wandered of their own accord to feel the muscles in his chest—the same muscles I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since last night. I felt him tremble when my hand slid over his hard chest, his back.

“Kassie,” he warned, voice changing to something graveled. Rougher than I’d ever heard it. That roughness was a lash of heat through my body. I couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to stop. That single word was the only warning I got before he pushed me back into the mattress below him, his hard body hovering over me, wrists held above my head in a single one of his hands.

The last thing I saw was his blackened eyes before his face dropped down to mine. His mouth crashed into mine. Desperate and starving. He collapsed over me hot lips meeting mine. This kiss was like heaven and hell all at once. Too much and yet not enough. His tongue brushed against my lower lip and and my lips parted, welcoming him. Our tongues clashed and moved in a perfect dance.

I’d been kissed before—plenty of times, but none of those kisses had ever come close to this. This kiss was magic and mayhem.

He pulled back after who knew how long to offer a breathless, “Fuck, Kassie, you taste incredible. Better than incredible.”

I didn’t get the chance to respond tugging against his grasp to get a better angle on his kiss as his lips crashed down on mine again. His skin felt amazing against mine. Perfect. Like that’s where it always should have been, pressed up against my own.

He groaned pressing me more fully into the mattress, his forearms leaning on either side of my head, fingers smoothing my hair from my face as his lips continued to devour mine. I didn’t know how much more of this I could take before I unravelled completely. I wanted to unravel. I felt like I was being consumed by fire and I didn’t want it to stop.

I moaned, pressing my fingers into his toned waist. My thighs parted as his hips began to rock against me while his hand trailed down my side. Through my thin pajama shorts, I could feel the hard length of him pressing into the softest part of me. Soft and hard. Smooth and rough. I was writhing beneath him, on fire and burning brighter with every breath.

And that’s when I smelled it. Smoke.

He must have smelled it too because he pulled back with a strangled curse. We blinked over with hazy eyes at the long curtains crackling and smoking with golden flames. He shot up from the bed, and all I could do was stare on in shock as he stamped out the flames from the burning curtains.

“Shit, I can’t believe I lost control of my Magic like that.” He muttered under his breath. By the time the flames were out, we both stared at each other, breathing hard. The smoke and shock of it all came over us like a cold splash of water. What was I doing? Was I seriously in Malcolm’s room, in his bed, having the most incredible kiss of my life? About to beg him to do more than just kiss me.

He rubbed a large hand over his face, letting out a shaky breath, in what looked like an attempt to collect himself, “We shouldn’t have done that.”

I couldn’t have agreed more. How could I have let myself do this? We both knew that it was the Bond tugging us together, nothing more. I couldn’t stand Malcolm and he couldn’t stand me. But even though my head was screaming that at me, that didn’t stop the Bond between us tugging us relentlessly back together. I stood from his bed on trembling and unsteady legs, “I should go.”

He didn’t look at me again as I stumbled from the room.