Every cell in my body comes alive, buzzing with the physical connection and his gift. I pull at his power and command it to shield us. Tendrils of shadows slide up Kyron’s chest and swirl around his neck. They caress my skin, heating it like the sun after a long winter.
He braces me against the wall, freeing a hand to roam over my bare shoulders and down my chest. Lowering the red silk of my gown, his mouth follows the path and skims over the swells of my breasts. When I think I’ve reached the limit of what I can take, his fingers pinch and pull my hardened nipples. I tilt my head back and close my eyes, lost in his touch.
All those months alone, I fought to keep the thought of him out of my head. But no matter how hard I tried, he would always creep back in, and I’d find my fingers slipping inside of me. Never did it feel as good as this. Never could I satisfy myself the way he could.
He takes one of my hands from his hair and lowers it between us. “Touch yourself,” he commands with a gravelly voice.
“You touch me. I’m so tired of my own fingers,” I say, unable to hide my desperation.
“I know, princess. But I need to see your fingers wet. Show me how you touched yourself when you thought about me like this.”
I can’t deny him. I don’twantto deny him. My fingers swirl over myclit, matching the rhythm of his hips.
He watches as I pleasure myself, soaking in every brush of my fingers. “Fuck, that’s a pretty sight,” he says, gripping my ass in both hands. “Keep going just like that.” He slides me up and down on him, touching me in places I can never reach on my own—the deep recesses that I only want him to fill.
Like his shadows coiling around my body, the same sensation grows low in my stomach. It expands and retracts each time Kyron thrusts into me until it grows to the point of uncontainable. My fingers move faster, my breath comes quicker, and I tug at Kyron’s hair.
His lips brush my ear as he says, “Let go, Raelle. I need to feel you come apart on my cock.”
I gasp as the first wave of my climax pulsates through me. My body clamps around him, sucking him in deeper and deeper. Kyron covers my mouth with his, his tongue finding mine. He swallows my lustful moans until they’re nothing more than small whimpers.
“Your fingers. Give me your fingers, princess,” he demands.
I lift my wet fingers between us, and Kyron takes them into his mouth. He sucks and licks, consuming the taste of me. His hips move faster, and I give myself over fully to his control, letting him take what he needs.
I press my cheek to his, loving even this simple touch, and I breathlessly say, “Let go inside of me. I took the elixir within the last year. You don’t need to hold back.”
“Fuck,” he says, releasing my fingers. He bites down on my shoulder, muffling his moans. I hold the back of his head and squeeze him tight, savoring the feeling of him emptying inside me. We cling to each other, not saying a word, as we catch our breath and slow our hearts.
He releases my legs, and I go slack, grateful for him and the wall holding me up. Brushing my hair away from my face, he kisses my forehead. “I love you. You don’t need to say it back, just know that I’ve loved you from the moment you fell in my arms during the battle at Lake Holly, and I’ve never stopped loving you, Raelle.”
I push a strand of ebony hair from his forehead and search his eyes. He loves me, and I love him. With everything I am, I love him. That love isn’t enough, though, because I’m not sure I can trust him.
I right my undergarments and tug down my dress only to discover it’s ruined. The slit that once ran to my upper thigh now ends at my waist.I gather the two ends into one hand and try to take a step, but the skin-tight material slips from my grasp. A sigh falls from my lips as I work to figure out a way to get back to my room without someone catching a glimpse of my undergarments. For Statera’s sake,thisis what I’m worried about after what we just did.
Kyron’s warm chuckle washes over me as he stands in front of the alcove tying his trousers and watching me from under his lashes.
“Someone is proud of himself,” I say, trying again to close the gap as I admonish myself inside my head.
He stands up straight and props his forearm above his head on the wall next to him. “Don’t blame it all on me; you’re equally responsible for this mess.”
“If you weren’t so irresistible, maybe I’d have some self-restraint,” I mumble.
“That angers you?”
I give up on the fabric and drop my hands to my sides, clapping them on my thighs. “Yes. No. I just wish I weren’t finding you so irresistible under the circumstances.”
With a slight smile, he grabs each side of his leather jacket and pulls it off. He wraps it around my shoulders saying, “Even if you don’t want to admit it, I know you have always found me alluring.”
“It’s the bond.”
He hooks his finger under my chin and lifts my face to his. “Our bond is more than an uncontrollable fate. What we feel for each other transcends power and higher beings. It is ours.”
“You have a lot of pretty words, Your Grace,” I whisper.
“Don’t do that. You know they’re not just words. They’re the truth.”
I pull my face away from his fingers. “Just because we had sex doesn’t mean everything between us is fixed. I don’t trust you, at least not with my heart. Parah bond or not, I won’t let you in like I did before. I won’t give you the chance to hurt me like that again.”
