The word
hate
landed clean but not hissed in an angry spat.
"I hate that youâre treating me like a
victim.
Iâm not
fragile,
Phei." She pressed more closerâ"For onceâjust
close your eyes,
kiss me,
make love to me like youâre supposed to. Without
feeling sorry
for me. Because that hurts me more than what the Legacies ever could."
Her fingers curled into the collar of his shirtâsmall, determined fists. Not pleading but definitely claiming.
"The fact that you
want me
and I
want you
and we canât have each other because youâre too busy protecting me from something that already happened and is already overâ" She exhaled, shaky.
"Phei..."
She pulled back just enough to look up.
What she found were his eyesâamethyst gone glassy, shimmering with something wet he was holding in through sheer stubbornness and failing badly. The purple caught the dim sodium glow of the parking-lot lights and fractured like broken glass.
He wasnât blinking. He couldnât. If he blinked, it would spill.
She knew.
Sheâd always known.
Phei
blamed himself
for that night. Blamed himself so completely it had become part of his breathing.
Heâd been so
consumed
by rageâby the cold, violent thing that lived inside him when someone touched what was hisâthat heâd walked away after everything that happened with Victoria incident and left her and David behind to chase the Legacy boys down like prey.
And in the space heâd left empty, they got hurt. Emily got
drugged.
David got beaten until his face was unrecognizable. Because Phei couldnât control the monster long enough to stay to protect them in a place he knew how much legcaies did there.
He blamed himself because the boy who could break princes couldnât hold himself together long enough to protect the people who mattered most.
He was
seventeen.
Extraordinary,
yes
â
dragon, system, impossible body, impossible power
âbut still
seventeen.
Doing things no
seventeen-year-old
should ever have to do. Carrying the weight of protecting every woman whoâd chosen him, every family member whoâd chosen him back, every soul heâd sworn to keep safe.
And
sometimes people looked at him
âthe purple eyes, the feral smiles, the quiet violenceâand
forgot
that
behind all
of it
was a boy
.
A boy whose pieces were still being assembled after years that made him almost committee suicide while at the same time he tried to hold everyone else together.
Emily could see the places the weight had pressed hardest. The tension he never talked about that lived in his shoulders. The way his jaw locked when he thought no one was watching. The
guilt
he carried for a night he couldnât un-do, a girl he couldnât un-hurt, a moment he couldnât take back.
She
cupped
his face.
Both hands with her small palms on his jaw. Thumbs brushing the sharp line of his cheekbones.
"Tell me youâre not thinking this was your fault."
He shook his head but he didnât say the words.
"Phei."
Still nothing.
"Say it."
He couldnât.
Emily with fierce, possessive, no preamble, no permission, no careful distance... she kissed him like she was trying to reach inside his chest and pull the guilt out by its roots with her tongue. Like she could overwrite every
I shouldâve been there
with the soft taste of her mouth, the gentle press of her body, the quiet, unshakable truth that she was hereâ
alive, whole, his
âand she was finished being treated like something that might shatter.
Her lips met his with a
tenderness
that still carried heat. Teeth brushed onceâbarelyâthen parted into something deeper, slower, hungrier in the sweetest way. She kissed him like she wanted to
crawl inside his skin
and stay there forever.
Like she could
replace
the memory of that awful night with the memory of this one:
her fingers
sliding gently into his hair,
her chest
rising and falling against his, her
heartbeat
steady and warm through the thin cotton of her floral dress.
Pheiâs arms tightened around her with no conscious thoughtâfirst hesitant, then sure. His hands stopped being careful and started being
honest.
One slid up her back, fingers tracing the delicate line of her spine through the light fabric, feeling every small shiver that ran through her.
The other
cupped
the
nape
of her neck, thumb brushing the soft skin behind her ear, holding her close as if letting go would unravel everything.
He kissed her back like a man who had finally been given permission to breathe.
Emily didnât let him stay cautious.
Her
hands
found
his wrists
âsmall fingers wrapping around them with quiet certaintyâand
guided
them exactly where she wanted.
She drew
his right palm
down
her side
, over the gentle curve of her
hip,
until his fingers rested against the soft
swell of her perky ass
cheek beneath the floral dress.
The fabric was thin, warm from her skin; she pressed his hand there, encouraging him to feel her fullyâher
ass plush
and yielding under his touch, the ass cheek
filling
his palm perfectly, soft outer layer giving just enough to let his fingers sink in before meeting the firm, toned muscle beneath.
She
sighed
into his mouth when he
squeezed
âgentle at first, then deeperâhis thumb tracing slow, reverent circles over the curve, feeling her tremble and arch back into his grip.
"Touch me,"
she whispered into the kiss, voice trembling with need and trust. "
Feel me...
here. Hold my ass like
Iâm yours... knead it... love it..."
Phei exhaled shakily against her lips. His fingers spread wider, cupping her ass cheek more fullyâsqueezing with reverence, lifting slightly so her flesh molded to his hand, the plush globe jiggling softly when he released and squeezed again.
He
kneaded
her slowlyâdeep, rolling pressure that made her moan quietly, her hips rocking back into his touch like she was begging him to claim every inch.
Her other hand
guided
his left one upwardâsliding it beneath the hem of her dress, over the smooth, warm plane of her stomach, until his palm found the bare swell of her breast that had no bussines to be in a bra today.
Just warm, silken skin and a nipple already peaked and sensitive under his touch.
"Here," she breathed, voice fracturing into a soft moan against
his
tongue. "Touch my
breasts...
hold them...
cradle
them... make love to them, Phei... please..."
Pheiâs thumb brushed over the stiff
peakâslow,
reverent circles at first, feeling her nipple tighten further under his attention, darkening, throbbing softly in time with her quickening breath.
He
cupped
the full weight of her breastâsqueezing tenderly, letting the soft globe fill his hand, her skin so silky it almost slipped from his grip before he tightened, thumb rolling her nipple gently between his fingers until she gasped sweetly into his mouth.
He moved to the other
breast,
repeating the slow worshipâhis palm cradling the heavy curve, fingers tracing the underside where her skin was impossibly soft, thumb circling her nipple until it stood stiff and aching, begging for his mouth.
Emily moaned softlyâraw, intimate sounds vibrating into the kissâ
her tongue
sliding against
his
in slow, languid strokes. She broke away just long enough to whisper against
his
lips, voice trembling with want:
"Phei... touch me
everywhere...
hold my ass... cradle my breasts... make me feel how much you want me...
love me... donât hold back anymore..."
Her hands kept guidingâpressing his palm back to her ass so he could knead the soft, plush curves with both reverence and hungerâhis fingers spreading her cheeks gently, tracing the cleft through the thin dress, feeling her shiver and press back harder.
Then lifting his other hand to her breast again, encouraging him to roll her nipple gently between his fingers, pinch softly, tug just enough to make her sigh his name like a prayer.
Every touch made her body melt against himâher hips rocking slowly, her thighs trembling, breath coming in soft, broken gasps against his mouth. Her
breasts
heaved into his handsâsoft, warm, nipples throbbing under his thumbsâwhile her ass filled his palms perfectly, cheeks yielding and springing back with every squeeze.