“I believe you.” His kiss was devastatingly gentle this time.
I wanted to crawl inside him. I ripped back from his mouth. I was not doing this again.
He pulled the sopping hair from my face, eyes swallowed by black. “I need you so badly, Maggie. Come sin with me.”
And because I was powerless against him and a disappointment even to myself, I wanted everything.
“Yes.”
Fuck. I was doing this again.
Chapter 9
Noth
My whole body exploded with anticipation. What a spellbinder Maggie turned out to be. I mean, we had picked on each other from afar, tried a little light murder now and then, but that one word coming from her mouth was an enthralling experience. It was like she was made for me.
She was, my Nightmare gleefully pointed out.
I ignored him. He just loved the part where we got to chase her through the streets and dive on her. It was thrilling to imagine she might finally use some real magic against us and put up an actual fight when we dragged her between the houses. Maggie could defeat me. She just didn’t know it.
Barring a sensational magical duel, I needed her in my bed. Or beneath me on the floor, begging for me. If she thought someoneelse would fill her up like I did, then she didn’t take the right lesson from our time in the thicket. I needed her to understand her powers because not only was I beginning to think I might use them to my advantage, I would also level this town, or any other, to the ground if I found her with another man again.
I wasn’t this possessive with my other partners, but I wasn’t quite ready to admit Maggie was different. I wouldn’t even think of that M word.
I released her to swim to shore but she clung, shaking in the cold water. I pushed her away without much enthusiasm just to see what would happen. Surprisingly strong, she scrambled to stay put. Should it have been cute? Not really. Was it? Absolutely.
“Hold on tight,” I said.
Even though the shadows beneath the pier were weak in the afternoon sun, I gathered considerable power to swim into them, through the layers of dark, to step out into my room at the inn. We were both soaked to the bone but that was only to my advantage. Maggie’s teeth chattered as she hugged herself. I let go of her but she wouldn’t let go of me. I had to pry her legs off and I set her feet on the floor.
My smirk gritted her teeth. I leaned over her, ghosting my breath over her chest, leaving a trail of gooseflesh in my wake. “I’ll get you warm, Pumpkin.”
She reached out to me, tearing at my shirt, trying to take control of the conclusion to this round, but this wasn’t how this was going to go. I calmly turned from herand built up the fire in the grate. I couldn’t tell if Maggie’s awe was for the shadow walking, or the fact I knew how to build and light a fire. The release of all the poison had me giddy, a rush of power thrumming through me. My Nightmare wanted to fall on her like an animal, making her scream for us. I needed to see if I could spark more than her magical curiosity.
“Come here, Pumpkin.”
Maggie stepped before the blaze and the warmth melted her tension a bit.
“You can take it off now.” I gestured to my soaked clothes, waiting for her to explode.
Refusing to slam into one another was the right choice because she took her time peeling the wet shirt from my body, coasting her hands over my stomach, my chest, down my arms. I waited for the cut, the burst of anger, but it banked behind her eyes. Everyone was always leery of touching me, afraid they might encounter an extra shadow limb when least expected, but Maggie’s fearlessness shone through.
“You’re in charge?” She asked it with a bit of edge, like she was testing out whether she would allow that idea.
I knew I had to make it worth it because if all we had was this moment, I would burn it into her memory forever.
“For right now. While I spoil you like no one ever has before.”
Her eyes dilated. I kept a smirk of satisfaction tomyself. She acted so spiky and difficult I didn’t doubt for a minute no one survived those poisonous spines. But I wasn’t just anybody. I was King of the Elves. My hand gently stopped hers as she started on my trousers.
“Your turn.” I stripped every stitch of clothing off of her, her aggressive stance daring me to say something. Every time we touched, we spilled together like smoke and water and I didn’t have the space to appreciate how the firelight hit her curves and revealed the silvery stretch marks on her now-toned body.
My perusal brought her hand up to cover herself before she defiantly clenched it at her side with attitude. My cock twitched in response. All of me wanted to ruin her so thoroughly she would forget everyone that came before.
“You’re as beautiful as Gertrude, Pumpkin.”
She scoffed, hands now on her hips.
