Luna Forsaken (Arya and James) novel Chapter 250

250 Say You Will Let Me

Arya’s POVO

Met

The room went quiet. My breathing was not quiet. Neither was his. Lev lifted his other hand and touched my jaw. Gently. Too gently for the kind of man he was. That softness from him always undid

me faster than force would have.

“You do not need my permission to destroy the people who wronged you,” he said.

The words slid straight through me. I closed my eyes for one second. Only one. Because if I kept them closed longer, I would lean into his hand and that would be the end of my dignity.

When I opened them again, he was still there. Still watching. Still too close. Still speaking like vengeance and tenderness belonged in the same breath.

“That doesn’t mean I will stand back and gamble with your safety,” he said.

My voice was barely there now.

“You make it sound like I matter too much.”

His gaze did not waver.

“You do.”

There. There it was. Simple. Quiet. No decoration. And it broke through me worse than poetry ever could have. I did not know what expression crossed my face, but something in his own changed right after. His hand slid from my jaw into my hair, fingers brushing slowly at the nape of my neck. My body answered before my mind could. A shiver. Small, but enough.

His eyes deepened.

“Arya.”

Just my name. Nothing else. It felt intimate anyway. I should have pulled this back to Silverfang, to Daniel, to strategy, to something solid and hard that I could hold without feeling like my ribs were full of fire. Instead I whispered,

“You hear me talking about war and somehow this still happens.”

A soft breath of amusement left him.

“What happens?”

I looked at him in disbelief.

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“You know what happens.”

“Say it.”

Damn him.

“You stand too close,” I said.

He moved a fraction closer.

“Like this?”

I should have slapped his chest. I should have walked away. What I did was worse.

I said, “You are enjoying this.”

“Yes.”

The honesty of it almost made me dizzy. His thumb stroked once along my neck.

“And you are not immune to me just because you are planning bloodshed.”

That went through me like a blade drawn slow. Dark. Hot. Wrong in the most perfect way. Because he was right. My revenge did not make me less of a woman. My anger did not kill my hunger. If anything. it sharpened it. Lev standing before me, calm and possessive and utterly certain that Marcel’s home should become mine, was doing things to me no soft man ever could.

“I hate when you know things before I say them,” I muttered.

His mouth was close enough now that his next words touched my lips.

“You hate it less than you pretend.”

Then he kissed me. God. He kissed me like he knew exactly what had been building under my skin and

had finally decided to be merciful enough to end it. His hand in my hair tightened slightly. The one at

my back pulled me flush against him. My breath caught in my throat and then disappeared entirely when his mouth deepened over mine.

There was no softness in the kiss at first. Just heat. Just possession held on a leash Just Lev reminding my body that strategy and revenge could live beside hunger without killing it. I made a sound against his mouth that I would have denied if anyone else had heard it. He swallowed it. His kiss turned rougher for a second, and then gentler, and that change nearly undid me on the spot. Lev did that too well. He knew when to press. When to ease. When to make a woman feel his restraint and when to let her feel the force under it.

But he didn’t stop there. His lips broke from mine only to trail down my neck, teeth grazing the skin

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where my pulse hammered. I gasped, my hands fisting in his shirt, pulling him closer ever as my mind

screamed to push back. “Lev… we can’t,”

“We can,” he growled against my throat, his voice low and unyielding. “And we will. Because I’m not letting you walk into that fire alone.”

His hands moved with purpose now, sliding under my shirt, palms rough and warm against my bare skin. He yanked the fabric up and over my head in one swift motion, tossing it aside. My bra followed, his fingers deft as he unclasped it and let it fall. Cool air hit my breasts, nipples hardening instantly under his stare. He cupped them, thumbs circling the peaks, pinching just hard enough to make me

arch into him.

“Listen to me, Arya,” he said, his breath hot on my collarbone as he kissed lower, tongue flicking over one nipple before sucking it into his mouth. I moaned, the sound raw and desperate, my fingers digging into his shoulders. “Marcel, Silverfang, they don’t get to touch you. Hurt you. I’ll send my men. In the shadows. They’ll watch your back while you take what’s yours. But you don’t fight without me

guarding you.”

I tried to argue, but his mouth on my skin turned my words to whimpers. He sucked harder, teeth nipping, then soothed with his tongue, the mix of pain and pleasure mirroring the storm inside me, vengeance and this aching need twisting together. “You think I need, ah, protecting?”

He lifted his head, eyes dark with that possessive fire. “You don’t think. You know. And you’ll let me do this. Because if you get hurt, I’ll burn the world down to get to you.”

Before I could respond, he spun me around, pressing my back to his chest. His hands roamed down my sides, unbuttoning my pants and shoving them down along with my panties. I stepped out of them, naked now, vulnerable in a way that should have terrified me but only fueled the heat pooling between my thighs. His cock pressed hard against my ass through his clothes, thick and insistent, making me

grind back instinctively.

“That’s it,” he murmured, one hand sliding between my legs from behind, fingers parting my folds. I

was already wet, slick with arousal, and he groaned as he found my clit, rubbing slow circles that

made my knees buckle. “Feel how much you want this. How much you need me to keep you safe

while you unleash hell.”

I braced my hands on the nearby table, the wood cool under my palms, as his fingers dipped inside

1. One, then two, thrusting deep and curling to hit that spot that made stars burst behind my eyelids.

“Lev… fuck…”

“Say you’ll let me,” he demanded, his free hand gripping my hip, holding me steady as he pumped his fingers faster. His thumb pressed my clit, relentless, building the pressure until I was panting, body trembling. “Say you’ll let my men shadow you. Protect what’s mine.”

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