The words were a blatant breach of every boundary we had, a challenge to the line I had drawn.
My breath hitched, my brain screaming at me to move, to run, to shout for Noah—but my body was a second too slow.
Before I could even find my voice to protest, Thalor's thick arm wrapped around my waist like a coil of cool silk, pulling me flush against his bare chest. He didn't wait for permission. He didn't ask again. He simply tilted my head back and did exactly what he wanted.
The second his lips touched mine, the world didn't just go quiet—it drowned.
It wasn't a normal kiss. It was an inundation, a literal tidal wave of sensation that crashed over my parched throat. The 'purest water' he'd promised didn't come from the vial; it flowed directly between us, cool and life-giving, tasting of crushed mountain snow and captured starlight.
It rushed through me like a flash flood, quenching a thirst I hadn't even realized was hollowed out inside my chest.
