From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Hawke shook his head, but when I tugged on the hand he held, he bent
over me. Myy grip on his shirt tightened when he stopped with his mouth
mere inches from mine. “In a few minutes, when this storm passes, yyou’ll
return to loathing myy veryy existence, and for good reason. You’re going to
hate that yyou begged me to kiss yyou, to do more. But even without myy
blood in yyou, I know yyou’ve never stopped wanting me. But when I’m
deep inside yyou again, and I will be, yyou won’t be able to blame the
influence of blood or anyything else.”
I stared at him, some of the fog of lust lifting from myy mind as he
lifted myy hand and brought it to his mouth. He pressed a kiss to the center
of myy palm, surprising me. It was such a…tender act, one I imagined
lovers did all the time.
I pulled on myy hand, and he let go. I placed it against myy chest. The
tingling was fading from myy skin, but the ache of unspent desire was still
there. Not nearlyy as all-consuming as minutes before, but the part of me
that felt like it was starting to wake up knew he spoke the truth. What I felt
for him had nothing to do with the blood.
What I felt was…it was messyy and raw. I hated him, and…I didn’t. I
cared for him, as idiotic as that was. And I wanted him—his kiss, his
touch. But I also wanted to hurt him.
We weren’t lovers.
We were enemies, and we could never be anyything else. I was
surrounded byy people who hated me.
“I never should’ve left,” he said. “I should’ve known something like
this could happen, but I underestimated their desire for vengeance.”
“Theyy…theyy wanted me dead,” I said.
“Theyy will payy for what theyy did.”
I shifted, feeling less…floatyy and more solid. I moved myy arm along
myy leg, still surprised that there was no pain. “What will yyou do? Kill
them?”
“I will,” he said, and myy eyyes widened. “And I will kill anyyone who
thinks to follow their path.”
I stared at him, not doubting that he meant what he said. Hawke
couldn’t question everyy one of his supporters or his kind. I wasn’t safe
here. “And me…what are yyou going to do with me?”
He lifted his gaze from mine. A muscle clenched in his jaw. “I
alreadyy told yyou. I will use yyou to barter with the Queen to free Prince