Lina twisted, resting her forearm along the shelf and giving Bri a full look at the front of her dress again. Bri’s eyes savored every inch of skin that peeked, from her sandaled feet to the top of her thigh.

“Admiring my dress?” Lina asked breathlessly.

Bri rose from her chair and stalked over to the door. Lina’s lips parted as Bri held her stare from across the room and turned the lock.

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” Lina rasped, watching Bri. “You and me.”

Those soft words cut straight to the core of her. Bri had never encountered anyone like Lina—soft and warm, strong and brave. She was the most perfect balance, letting it all shine through her with such intensity that one couldn’t help but reflect it all back.

“Neither can I.” Bri prowled closer, each step a promise of what she might do when she reached her. “I’m glad you and I chose to be . . .”

“Close?” Lina whispered with a secret lover’s smile.

Bri’s breath hitched. “I want to be a lot closer.” Her words were filled with a thundering need.

Lina’s eyes glimmered as she drew near, but Bri paused. Whatever this molten thing was between them was not friendship, but it had no other name. There was no misunderstanding, no assumption between them, that this magnetic pull would last. It would be a quick flame, burning them up and leaving its scars, but they’d move on. They both knew they had to. Bri had a destiny to make in the East, and Lina had a people to unite with her upcoming nuptials, but Bri was sick of pretending she didn’t feel completely enraptured by the Princess. In a few weeks they would be parting ways, but Gods could they make their time count.

“I don’t want whatever this is between us to end up hurting you,” Bri murmured, searching Lina’s face.

Lina’s hand lifted and swept Bri’s hair off her forehead, mirroring her action the day they’d nearly drowned. “It will,” she whispered back.

One more step. That’s all it would take, and then her lips would be on Lina’s, her aching hands would be roving Lina’s curves, and the line that was drawn in that cellar would forever be crossed.

Bri’s eyes guttered. “I wish I could be everything to you, give you everything you need—”