Varen was still speaking and it was an effort to concentrate on what he was saying. He paused, looking at me in curiosity with a dash of concern. "Are you alright?"

I blinked, roused out of the tangle of thoughts that were racing through my mind at lightspeed.

"You look a bit spaced out." He clicked his tongue and slowly raised a single eyebrow. "Did my waffling bore you, Miss Catt?"

"I'm so sorry." I quickly gestured to the wyrm branded across his heart. "I'm just... It's just..."—the best freaking news I've had in a long, long time—"Breathtaking." My nose scrunched a little as my shoulders shrank inward. Even I winced at how lame it sounded when I croaked out hoarsely, "Ah, what were you saying?"

His eyes narrowed and mouth thinned as if vexed but it was softened by the amusement glimmering in his gaze. "I was saying, my family line is born with an affinity for wyrms, and those tamers with full wyrmblood are able to bond with the wyrm."

The ends of my hair fanned out in the water when I tipped my head to the side, thinking back to the knowledge I'd acquired from Florin. "Wyrms are currently in hibernation."

His smile was full of pride as if what I'd said pleased him. And there was also an inquisitive gleam in his gaze. "Not many within the world of Houses know that."

No, I expect not. And not many of us, if any, were friends with a Horned God either.

"I do a lot of reading," I replied airily, in way of answer. "I read all sorts of books... Not just porn."

His rich chuckle skated across my skin like a featherlight stroke of his fingertips.

Drumming his knuckles on the rocky ledge, he looked back up at the willwips and said wistfully, "One day I expect the wyrms will awaken from hibernation and soar through the skies once more. Then I expect a new tamer will be born within my family with wyrm genes waiting to be—"

"Wyrm genes?" My eyebrows knitted together as I cut him off.

"I have a theory that tamers are only born when there's a wyrm present. And when they bond, the wyrm tamer's genes are activated." He carried on talking and I only heard portions of it, such as infused and feral power and that's all a guess, of course. Though I was staring at him, my mind had wandered elsewhere.

How was I going to get wyrmblood from Varen?

Ask him?

Steal it from him?

I had less than two weeks to figure it out. More than enough time to fill a single vial with his precious blood.

Suddenly his annoyed voice caught me by surprise when he boomed, "Oh for fucks' sake. Are you listening to me?!"

I jolted and splashed about in the water. "Yes, yes, of course, I am," I reassured him with a little white lie.

He glared back petulantly. "Little liar."

Though I should have been thinking about how I was going to obtain the wyrmblood, it would keep. For now, relief, sweet, intoxicating relief sang through my soul. I now had a real chance of possessing the last item needed for the spell to break my aunt's dark curse.

Thank you Skalki and Zrenyth!

I could have kissed Varen.

I shouldn't kiss Varen.

Heir, Tabitha... He's a freaking heir!

It was a long, long moment before I became aware we hadn't looked away from one another. When I saw astonishment fade from his eyes and his heartbreaking features soften, I realized too late my last thought of kissing him had been written all over my expression.

Water dripped from his fingers and splashed into the pool as he raised a hand, waving his fingers, urging me toward him. "Come here," he rumbled.

My hands tightened on the rock ledge beneath me. I shook my head. "That's not a good idea." The illicit moment in the glassware cupboard had been so wrong and so dangerous. I couldn't let it happen again. But more importantly, I couldn't let my heart fall for Varen. I needed to protect it. If I kissed him I knew I'd falter.

"I never said it was a good idea. I said—Come here."

He was so freaking bossy, sitting there, glowering at me across the steamy pool.

Suddenly he lunged and snatched hold of my ankle beneath the water. I warbled a shriek as I was bodily hauled over to him with frothy water rushing up my neck to splash across my chin and lips. His broad hands worked their way up my leg like a rope. But before he drew me up to straddle his lap, I kicked out and twisted around. Instead, I found myself perched on his lap with a powerful arm banded around my waist to keep me in place. And something jutting up against my backside. Something big and long and hard.

I felt him, it flex against me. Once, twice...once more.

He hissed and his whole body shuddered.

A rush of feminine power ignited beneath my skin. The ache I'd earlier denied myself came alive between my thighs. Even though our bodies were touching, flesh against flesh, his large fingers splayed across my midriff, he didn't do anything further than hold me.

"Friends," I begged, struggling feebly to free myself because deep down I knew my truth. I didn't want to be freed. I wanted him to hold me forever.

"I am your friend," he purred. The words rumbled out low and sensual and reverberated against my sensitive ear. I very nearly moaned and melted against him, boneless and pliant. His free hand came up to draw my damp hair gently over a shoulder. "But, why can't we be more?"

Our reflection was distorted by the disturbance our bodies made on water. While I'd glanced down, he was looking at my profile, his expression unguarded and fierce with longing. Even in the ripples of water, it hurt my heart to look at him, knowing he wasn't for me. He'd make someone a handsome husband, just not me. "I can't," I whispered. "I know what you want, but I can't."

"Why can't you? And I don't want to hear the bullshit reason of servant and heir."

I barked a hard laugh of exasperation and threw up a hand. "That's the main reason. The only reason."

Half-twisting around, I faced him. He'd been handsome with all that wild hair, but now he was on a completely different stratosphere. "You're just so..." I flailed for the words and settled on, "So beautiful."

"Yes." His voice was harsh and cruel and cutting. "One word that got bandied about when women wanted into my pants. For me to take them to bed. Varen Crowther, how beautiful, gorgeous, and fuckable."

I flinched at the bitterness edging his words and gaze and turned away.

His voice softened. "And yet the one girl I want looking at me...can't."

A jolt ran through me when his fingers gently curled beneath my chin to tilt my head back to his. I searched his face, desperate to understand why he wanted me. There were plenty of women who desired him. All he had to do was flash one of his lazy smiles and they'd come running. He'd never have to do the chasing.

I swallowed. "I imagine you've had plenty of opportunities. And there will still be plenty of women to meet. Perhaps the one."

He frowned, and in his typical bullheaded way focused on the first part. "Plenty of opportunities?"

A flare of anger erupted. I gritted my teeth. "I'm sure someone like you would have had company. A lot of company."

His head jerked back as if I'd slapped him. Understanding gleamed in his dark gaze. "It's true. There was a time when I bedded a lot of women."

Jealousy stung and poisoned the air in my lungs. I knew I shouldn't have been jealous and didn't have any right to be jealous, but I was.

He raised a hand carefully as if concerned he'd startle me. Curling his fingers, he stroked the backs of them along my cheekbone, his gaze trailing the movement of his hand. Black brows slanted over his eyes as he took his time thinking about what to say. Perhaps he didn't want to look at me while he spoke, perhaps it was too much to share with me, the vulnerability he was placing himself in. He glanced down between us to a place on my body where I was sure he could hear the wild beat of my heart. "It didn't last very long, maybe a month at most. The thing is, plenty of company, means fuck all if there isn't a connection. And I learned that meaningless sex wasn't for me. So...it's been a while," he admitted, blowing out the words with his breath. His eyes flared wide as if he'd surprised himself that he'd confessed it.

I raked my teeth against my bottom lip to stop the smile. He'd surprised even me.

His gaze slowly lifted to hold mine. The unmistakable want heating his eyes was intense and blinding like holding the sun in my vision. "When I'm with someone, I'm with someone." His hand moved to the back of my neck to gently pull me nearer as he pressed closer. Our breath mingled with anticipation. A promise of more. "I'm a one-and-only kind of guy," he admitted softly, refusing to let my gaze go. "And right now, Tabitha Catt, you're my only."

My breath caught in my throat. "Your only?"

The words were brushed along my lips. A glancing touch. "My only."

His nose slid along mine. A sigh. I wasn't sure if it was him or me. He was big and brutish and fearsome and our earlier encounters had been full of fire and greed to steal pleasure from one another but this time he was baring his soul with sweet touches.

His mouth swept languidly along my temple and I shivered even though we were embraced in the warmth of the pool and his body was a furnace. He wasn't just physically hot, there was need burning up inside him. Tiny droplets of water were caught on my eyelashes and he kissed them away, his touch tender and careful as if I were delicately spun glass. That with a careless touch, I might shatter. I might run. I might push him away and break him instead. Though both of us needed to be wary of our hearts, it slowly dawned on me that his heart was more fragile than mine.

And that was my undoing.

My mind spun with incredulity that it was I who could hurt him, and it was too late to protest when I became aware he'd turned my upper body away to face forward once more and his hands scooped up my hair. He played with the long strands but it seemed he wanted them up and out of the way. One hand locked like a handcuff around the wet mane, and a shiver skated down my spine when his other hand slipped gently beneath my bra strap to ease it off my shoulder. A quick hot kiss below my ear. A swift flick of his tongue. And I caught fire like a flurry of embers scattered on dry grass. Dark craving slunk beneath my skin and thrummed in my bones.

His mouth lowered in an open-mouthed kiss that trailed down the gentle curve of my neck, along the valley of my shoulder and back again. "You know I want more. I want all of you," he murmured against my skin.

I knew he wasn't talking about my body. He wanted me. He wanted every single facet. Everything I could give him.

He bowed my head to tease a sensitive spot at the back of my neck with his lips and teeth, dragged his tongue down my spine and up once more before moving to the dip in my shoulder, where he showered my heated flesh in nips and tiny kisses. My breathing came faster as white-hot flames of lust erupted on every single spot he touched.

Varen used my hair to angle me wherever he desired. My head tipped back so he could bite and kiss my jaw. Lick the length of my throat. He tilted me to the side so his lips could press butterfly kisses along the edge of my ear. "You're beautiful, you know that right?" he breathed. Savage, unearthly pleasure barrelled through my veins and my fingers flexed against his forearm wrapped around my stomach. "But it's your heart which makes you exquisite."

I couldn't help but fall apart at his words and touch.

He angled my face toward him so he could sweep his mouth over mine in an agonizing featherlight touch. A slow slide of his tongue. A swift bite that stung my bottom lip to sharpen the pleasure. I leaned eagerly toward him, my hand on his hard chest as I hunted his mouth, desperate for a kiss, only to be denied when he pulled back. An exasperated hiss left my throat and his laugh tickling my cheek made me whimper.

Varen paid thorough attention to my cheek with open-mouthed kisses, darting back to flirt with my lips, withdrawing before I could ensnare him, only to suck the sensitive spot just below my ear until I writhed and moaned. The pressure of his lips on my flesh became harder, greedier, and insistent the more uneven my breathing became. Swifter, wetter, harsher hisses—everywhere but on my mouth. I couldn't do anything about it. I could only take what he chose to give.

Varen's low growl of want coiled right through me. I desperately needed him to quench the flames searing inside with his hands and wicked mouth and tongue. His fingers were drawing languid circles over my stomach. I wanted him to go higher and knead my aching nipples. I wanted him to go lower and slide his hand beneath my panties, thrust two fingers deep inside, and drive me hard and fast until I fell apart with his name on my lips.

I was mindless.

Breathless.

Feverish.

I wanted more. I needed more.

He was merciless in his taunting.

And cruel to deny me what I wanted most—his kiss.

Varen murmured softly, "Tabitha, sweet Tabitha," before kissing my earlobe and grazing his teeth across its outer shell. His hand drew up my stomach to cup my breast, to pinch my nipple. And I gasped, my back bowing to press further into his hand as that ache between my legs grew painful. I groaned low and filthy, twisting against him, seeking his mouth. A chuckle rasped from him, and then he choked out his own filthy groan when I purposely ground against that long, hard erection. "Fuck, Tabitha."

He was driving me crazy. I couldn't take it any longer.

I was ready to pounce.

Swiftly pushing out with my elbows, I shoved free from the cage he'd trapped me in with his arms. Spinning around before he could block me, I straddled his lap and my sex turned to liquid, spread wide and pressed against his length. A shiver ran across his skin as a helpless moan crawled from his throat. His hands tightened their hold on my body.

My palms slid along silky smooth cheeks as I pressed forward, meeting glassy eyes that shone with something deeper than lust. Before I could capture his lips, he claimed mine. Both of his hands slid up my spine as his tongue nudged my mouth to part and I fell into wonderous sensation where our lips met and bodies touched.

Blissful and agonizing.

Varen's thick eyelashes lowered and we watched one another while we kissed, the intimate act baring us to the other. The first touch of his tongue gliding against mine, and we both sighed softly. My fingers threaded through his hair as pleasure, deep and intrinsic, flowed through my veins like an intoxicating elixir as we drank one another down.

He deepened the kiss and explored my mouth, languid and thorough.

He tasted of hope. Of dark, seething desire.

My blood was set alight like fire burning upon a midnight ocean. And this time I reveled in the burn.

"Be my only," he breathed between kisses.

I am, I am, I am...