He was close. So close. I was ready to welcome his seed and taste all of it.
Then, all the heat in the room turned to ice. Kael wrenched me off him with a guttural growl, and I stumbled back, catching myself on an elbow upon the bed. At first I thought he might come apart on me instead, but he drew up his breeches, movements sharp and final.
I stared at him, frowning, shock twisting my features, confused, afraid I’d somehow done something wrong.
“Go to sleep,” he said sharply.
His hand lifted, ready to snuff out the candles with a spell.
“No.” The word slipped out before I could think.
His eyes flared at my defiance. “You do not say no to me.”
“Or what?”
He said nothing.
The world tilted, breath scraping my throat. Shame burned through me, then confusion, then anger, at him, at myself, for feeling either. He had wanted me. I’d seen it, felt it. Yet now he looked at me as though I was a danger he couldn’t afford. My power trembled between my thoughts, restless as my heart.
I pushed myself upright, drew a steady breath, and found my voice. “You don’t get to touch me like that and then walk away, Kael.”
It came out steady. Too steady.
His eyes pierced right through me. He leaned forward, crawling closer until I was forced back on the bed, pouncing like a beast cornering me.
“If I don’t walk away,” he growled, voice low and rough, “I won’t be able to hold back.”
“Then don’t,” I breathed, voice small and frail. I wasn’t sure if it was fear or something darker that thrilled me. Perhaps both. But what, gods, washeso afraid of?
He exhaled hard, the sound torn from somewhere deep. “You were never supposed to come this close…”
“Supposed to?” I said, meeting his gaze. “Well, I am now. So stop pretending you don’t want this. Take me. If I have to beg for it, I will.”
Something flickered in his eyes, a shadow sparking into light. It wasn’t gentleness. It was hunger. He wanted me to beg.
He straightened, caging me between his knees. That look in his eyes… I knew I could push him further, drag that restraint to ruin.
“Take me, Kael…” I wasn’t begging yet. “You can’t do all these things to me and vanish, or run to another woman.”
His jaw locked, a muscle jumping beneath his skin. “I would havekilled you that night,” he said quietly, almost to himself. “And I didn’t fucking care if I killed her.”
My breath hitched. The thought of his loss of control, of what he might do, of how easily he could do it, both terrified and drew me in.
“You won’t kill me,” I whispered, unsure whether I believed it. “But you will take me, Kael.”
His growl filled the space, every muscle drawn tight, his fingers brushing the fabric at my throat. “Do you care if I tear your shift?”
I shook my head, breath shallow.
With one harsh motion, he tore through the fabric. The sound split the air and rang through the alcove.
A shiver rippled through me. I wasn’t wearing undergarments. His eyes gleamed as they swept my chest, my neck, my stomach, lower, then found their way back, pouring into my gaze.
“I could shatter every bone in your body with one thought,” he rasped, his fingers finding the curve of my breast and squeezing.
Heat bloomed low in my belly at his words, the fear he ignited within me a strange and thrilling sensation. My hand moved of its own accord, tracing the contours of his skin, the hard planes of his pectoral muscles, drawing shivers from him.
The air crackled, and I was reminded of his rage at the tainted village, a memory that only stoked the fire within me further.
