His hands find me, sure and unyielding, pulling me against him.
I gasp at the heat of his body as it presses into mine.
It’s sudden, fierce, lava hot—and it feels so damn good.
The kiss that follows is nothing like the first.
This one is hungry.
Ravenous.
It steals my breath and leaves my knees weak, my thoughts scattering like sparks in wind.
I clutch at him, fingers fisting in his clothes, knowing even as I do that I’m not strong enough to resist this.
Not him.
Not the pull between us that feels older than choice.
His mouth leaves mine only long enough to press his forehead to mine, heat radiating between us like a living thing.
His breath is uneven now, rough against my skin, as if he’s been holding himself back for far too long.
“Shula,” he says, and my name sounds different in his voice—ancient and intimate, like a promise he’s been afraid to make. “I need you.”
That’s it.
That’s all it takes.
Whatever careful walls I thought I still had crumble instantly. They simply melt away.
I don’t think—I feel.
I lean into him, my hands finding his chest, my heart pounding so hard it feels like it might shake loose from my ribs.
My body answers him before my mind can form a single sensible objection.
He groans softly, like the sound is pulled from somewhere deep, then releases me—slowly, deliberately—stepping back until the edge of the bed meets the backs of his legs.
A single flick of his fingers.
Firelight flares.
And his clothes simply… cease to exist.
They dissolve into a scatter of glowing sparks and fine ash, whisked away as if the air itself refuses to let them linger.
I stop breathing.
My mouth actually hangs open, and for once, I don’t even try to be embarrassed.
He is—there’s no other word for it—magnificent.
All rippling muscle and burnished skin, etched with dark, intricate tattoos that spiral across his shoulders and down his back like living flame.
Power clings to him, visible in the way the firelight bends toward his body, how the shadows seem reluctant to touch him.
He looks like something sculpted by desire and danger in equal measure.
