Chapter 15: Ask Me

He kissed me against the armory wall until neither of us could stand it.

His hand was in my hair, and the other one was braced on the stone.

His ribs were bound in white, and I could feel the wound pulling every time he breathed.

"Your wound," I said against his mouth.

"I don't care."

"I do. Get up."

I got my shoulder under his arm and hauled him to his feet.

He was heavy, and he was laughing under his breath, and I wanted to kiss him again for that sound.

I picked the brass ring up out of the dirt.

It took four tries to find the key to his rooms, because my hands were shaking.

Nobody stopped us.

The Guard had cleared the corridor, and Ferris had left the door of his study standing open without a word.

His rooms were at the top of the royal wing.

The bedroom was bare and dark, with a huge bed and one window full of the last red light.

I shut the door and turned the key in the lock myself.

Then I stood with my back against it.

"I have never done this," I said.

He went very still.

"I want to," I said. "I want it to be you. I need you to know that I'm choosing, and nobody else is."

"Nessa."

"You said I can ask."

His eyes went black.

"You can ask for anything," he said. "Anything at all."

"Then sit on the bed."

He sat.

I crossed the room and knelt on the mattress in front of him and unbuttoned his shirt the rest of the way.

The bandage ran white across his ribs, and a bruise was spreading under it.

I laid my palm flat against his chest above it and felt him shake.

"You're hurt," I said.

"I'll live."

"I'm not touching the wound."

"Touch whatever you like."

I kissed him again, slow, and he let me lead it.

He held still the whole time, and his hands stayed on the blanket on either side of him.

It undid me.

"You can touch me," I said.

"That's a rule," he said.

"Rule one, overruled," I said. "Put your hands on me."

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Forgot My Rank, So the Lycan King Claimed Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.