Chapter Thirty

“I don’t think you would.” His voice was close, his breath hot on my ear, speaking just above a whisper.

“You feel it, Freya, If I kissed you right now, I do think you might faint. You’re barely breathing as it is.”

“I’m breathing just fine,” I lied. “Would you? Let me go home right now?”

“No, I don’t think I would.”

“Why not?” These two words slipped, breathless, from my lips.

His breath moved, warming my ear, then my cheek, and then, oh god—I felt his lips on my skin, mere centimeters from my mouth. “This is why.” As close as our faces were, I still barely heard him.

My heart was pounding, hammering, thudding in my chest, sending blood pulsing in my ears. My skin was tingling, my hands shaking. Nerves, anticipation…fear? Parsing what I felt was impossible. I only knew I dreaded and needed in equal measure the feel of his lips on mine. So close. Yes. There, please. A kiss, a single kiss.

I’d only known this man for a matter of perhaps two hours, yet his lips were grazing mine, and he