로그인Adam must have gotten tired of waiting for my answers because he dipped his head and pecked my lips softly.
However, that was for a start, because immediately after that, he wrapped his hands around my waist, drew me closer to him, and pecked my lips again.
He withdrew his face thereafter, taking note of my facial expression, to know if he should go on.
I knew he was waiting for a go ahead, so that it wouldn’t be like he was bullying me into kissing him.
Foolish me thought that the act was cute.
I must have nodded my head at one time, because before I could say jack, his lips were on mine, and this time around, his tongue was attempting to push past the protection of my lips into my mouth.
Yet I was not responsive. Not because I wasn't into the kiss, but because I didn't exactly know how to kiss. .
“You haven’t kissed before?” A note of incredulity rang in his voice, as he withdrew from me the second time.
I shook my head in reply, wondering if he would go away when I heard him mutter ‘f*ck’. Of course he would know now that I was a virgin.
Should I have told him that I wasn't a virgin? And where was Naomi? I wondered, wanting her to come down now. This stuation was awkward as f*ck now.
I wanted to be out of here. I felt stupid too—not sure if it was because I had allowed Adam to kiss me or because I didn’t know how to kiss.
When Adam noticed my abrupt change of mood, he sighed and dropped a kiss on my lips, bringing my attention back to the softness of his lips.
“Hey, don’t worry. I can teach you. We will take it slow and steady.” He whispered, making me wonder if s*x was the only thing that can manage to bring out this side of him. I have never heard this voice octave.
My heart raced wildly and fast again when he lowered his mouth on mine, when his fingers began their tracing sequence at my back and around my waist.
He pushed at my lips, and I opened. I didn’t want this to end.
Adam let his tongue into my mouth expertly, using it to guide the motion of mine around his mouth. It was fussy at first, but then it got better and became so d*mn sweet.
The kiss felt like soft rain on a summer evening. It felt like an explosion of the best flavors in the universe all at once mingling together and creating the best taste and sensation I had ever felt. I was lost, totally lost in it.
But then he broke away, and chose to stare at me, perhaps gauging my expressions.
His eyes were filled with so much lust, and surprise.
Yes, I could see that too, though I had no reason why, because before I could think on that, he returned his lips to mine.
This time when Adam’s lips mashed against mine, it was more violent.
He kissed me as if he was trying to flatten and destroy my mouth, as if trying to state his claim on me.
I was taken aback. For a second, I couldn't breathe. My mind was a blank slate until I felt those tingles again.
They assailed my body like rushing water that had broken over a dam. And when they attacked me, I welcomed them with open arms, and hungrily pushed back.
The bristles of Adam’s immature beard scratched against my soft cheeks when I gripped his head firmly—acting out of instinct—as if to keep him from escaping.
Then, I worked my mouth against his, our tongues battling back and forth like wrestlers, each trying to pin the other.
I kissed him like he wanted to be kissed, like no girl had ever kissed him—or so I thought—soft and moist and hot and breathy, not trying to win a battle but seeking union and closeness and the sharing of one breath, one sensation, one timeless and passionate moment.
The heat rose in his loins as my tongue danced with his tongue, quick and electric and delicious, then firmer, more determined, more curious about the heat that lay within, seeking to chase down that elusive liquid lightning that reached through both of us.
I was moaning now, and I could literally hear his grunts of pleasure and it filled me with some kind of weird pride knowing that my kiss was doing that to him.
I gasped softly when I felt his hand begin to snake toward my breast region. Were we really going to do it here? In Naomi’s kitchen?
A light brush of his finger around my nipple caused me to tighten my thighs in anticipation. But that anticipation was caught short when I heard a light scream right behind me.
I knew it wasn’t Naomi. Naomi’s voice wasn’t as shrill as that.
No. This was even worse.
It was Claire, and in the next second, she was dragging my hair, dragging me away from Adam, and into the reality that I had been smooching a forbidden fruit.
ADAMI had been trying to ignore the thought all morning, but it kept circling back like a persistent storm cloud.Sage and Darius.There was something between those two—something sharp-edged, hidden, threaded far too deeply for my liking. Not the softness of affection or the childish cling of old friendship. No. This was something darker. Purposeful. Bound by secrets I wasn't allowed to touch.One of the contestants had reported it to me just before sunrise: He had seen them vault the fence in the dead of night.Vault the fence. Like two shadows. Like two people with something to hide.Where had they gone? When had they returned? How long had they been sneaking around without my knowledge? I had dispatched my men the moment I heard the report. Their message came back not long ago—quiet, irritating, inconclusive:"Sage is in her house.""Darius is in his house."As though that solved anything.My jaw tightened. What were those two planning? What were they in together?And why, in al
I wasn't listening to Darius.I could hear him—his voice flowing beside me as we cut through the brush, his words rising and falling like an annoying chant—but I wasn't absorbing any of it. My mind was far ahead of my body, racing down a darker corridor entirely. I stepped over roots, brushed aside hanging vines, and let my limbs move on instinct alone.He was scolding me. Again."…Makeh could have told us more if you had just stayed," he was saying, his boots crunching against leaves as he tried to keep up with my long strides. "You storming out like that accomplished nothing, cara. We should have pressed her harder… asked the right questions. There are things she was holding back and you know it—"I tuned him out deliberately.The forest shifted around us, alive in that heavy silent way only ancient places could manage. My senses were open and alert, stretched tight across the gloom like fine threads of wire. Every insect click, every dead leaf crushed underfoot, every distant trem
Makeh's words did nothing to reassure me.A replacement. The word curdled in my stomach the longer it sat there.Not heir. Not a successor. Replacement. Something meant to be slotted in when I cracked beyond repair.My mouth pulled into a crooked sneer before I even realized it, the expression carving itself onto my face like instinct.So that was it.All this time—the suffering, the blood, the crawling back from death's throat more than once—and the goddess still kept a spare like a broken shield tucked behind her altar. Just in case.I felt something sour swell inside my ribs. Something ugly. Something dangerously close to grief. I masked it the only way I knew how. With derision."Well," I scoffed, folding my arms. "That's comforting. Nothing says divine confidence like a backup plan with eyes and a pulse. Also gives me peace to go about my other business."Makeh did not scold me. She only watched me with a quiet, uncomfortable patience. "You shouldn't dwell on it," she said. "Your
SAGEVisions?The word sat wrong in my chest. Like a lie dressed in something holy. If what I had seen were visions, then death had a cruel sense of narrative.Because the only time the world had ever opened itself to me like that—the only time reality bent and peeled back its skin—was when I was dying, or felt depressed enough.I laced my fingers together. Visions… No. I had struggled. I had fought my way back from the edge with teeth and instinct and something deeply unnatural screaming inside my ribs.Blood had been the first thing. Always. The thirst. Not gentle. Not poetic. It tore at me, burned me from the inside out until there was nothing but hunger and the certainty that if I did not feed, I would become something far worse than dead.And the dead…I swallowed. They had swarmed me in those moments between breathing and nothingness. Hands dragging. Voices whispering through my bones. Eyes that watched me with the accusation of things I did not remember doing.I had fought them
I sat there while Makeh's words hung in the air like smoke that refused to dissipate, curling into my lungs whether I allowed it or not.You are feeding it.I bared my teeth and felt heat rise behind my eyes. If working with vampires would burn the world, then so be it.If bargaining with monsters made me one too, then I would wear the title gladly. People had died for less noble reasons than mine. Kingdoms had fallen for greed and pride and jealous wars—but suddenly it was my work that would end the world?Then let it tremble.Inside my skull, El sighed like someone witnessing a slow-motion disaster.You're being dramatic, she drawled. Mass extinction is not a personality trait.Shut up, I snapped back in my head. You're not the one being told you're the reason the sun might someday die.Darius cleared his throat.I ignored him.Makeh shifted beside her simmering pot and added something fragrant to the broth, as though she hadn't just accused me of cosmic catastrophe. My hands curled
Silence stretched again in Makeh's hut, thick and uneasy. The fire crackled softly behind her, light dancing across the walls, catching on strange symbols etched into the old stone. Darius sat stiffly on one of the chairs, posture too formal for a place that smelled of herbs and simmering broth. But he was the one who finally broke the quiet."The ones outside," he said slowly, nodding toward the entrance. "The small ones. Who—or what—are they?"Ah. The quafars.Makeh glanced toward the entrance as if she could see through the walls. Her lips curved into something not quite a smile."I told Sage this once," she said. "But perhaps it's time someone else knew."At least she deigned to call me Sage. Maybe not to ruffle my feathers any more than was necessary?She rose and stirred the pot with a long wooden ladle, movements steady and slow, like she wasn't about to unravel some secret. And why was she stirring the pot? It was just soup that was there! But then, one can never know with M







