He kisses me.
Not gentle. Not careful. A kiss of desperation and devotion and years of wanting. His hands tangle in my hair, pull me against him until there’s no space between us. His shadows surge around us both, wrapping us in darkness that feels like home.
I kiss him back with equal ferocity. My fire rises to meet his shadows, shadow-flame dancing between us, our powers finding each other the way they have from the beginning.
“Inside,” he growls against my mouth. “Not in the garden. I want you in my bed.”
“Then take me there.”
THIRTY
NASYRA
His chambers are dark, lit only by the flicker of shadow and flame.
Zyphon kicks the door shut behind us, his mouth never leaving mine. His hands find the fastenings of my clothes, fingers working with desperate efficiency. I return the favor, pulling at his shirt, needing to feel his skin against mine.
We strip each other bare between kisses. His shirt falls. My dress pools at my feet. Boots kicked away, undergarments discarded, until we’re standing skin to skin in the darkness, our powers swirling around us in visible tendrils of shadow and fire.
“You’re beautiful.” He pulls back just enough to look at me, his gaze traveling over my body with an intensity that makes me shiver. “I’ve had centuries of dreams about this. About you. None of them came close to the reality.”
“Show me.” I step backward toward the bed, pulling him with me. “Show me what you dreamed about.”
He follows me down onto the mattress, covering my body with his, his weight pressing me into the sheets. His mouth finds my throat, my collarbone, the sensitive hollow behind my ear. Each kiss leaves trails of shadow on my skin, marking me even before the claiming.
“Everything.” He kisses his way down my chest, his breath hot against my skin. “I dreamed about everything. Tasting you. Touching you. Feeling you come apart beneath me.”
His mouth closes over my breast, and I arch into him with a gasp. His tongue circles my nipple while his hand finds the other, pinching and rolling until I’m writhing beneath him. Fire licks along my skin everywhere he touches, shadow-flame responding to his shadows in ways that feel as natural as breathing.
“Zyphon—“ His name comes out broken, needy.
“I have you.” He kisses lower, his lips tracing the curve of my ribs, the dip of my waist, the jut of my hip. “I have you, and I’m never letting go.”
He settles between my thighs, his breath warm against my center. I’m already wet for him, already aching, and when his tongue finally touches me, I nearly come apart.
He devours me. There’s no other word for it—his mouth working with devastating precision, his tongue finding every spot that makes me cry out, his shadows holding my hips steady when I buck against him. He licks into me, sucks my clit, fucks me with his tongue while I grip the sheets and moan his name.
The pleasure builds and builds, coiling tighter with every stroke, until I shatter with his name on my lips. My shadow-flame erupts, dancing across my skin, and he groans against me like my pleasure is the sweetest thing he’s ever tasted.
He doesn’t stop. Drives me higher, pushes me further, until I’m coming again before the first orgasm has finished crashing through me. Only then does he rise over me, his cock hard and ready, his shadows merging with my fire in a dance that feels like destiny.
“Now.” I wrap my legs around him, pulling him closer, feeling him press against my entrance. “Claim me now.”
He thrusts into me in one long stroke, and the world dissolves.
This isn’t just sex.
Our first time was desperate and raw—two people grabbing at pleasure in the midst of chaos. This is something else. Something deeper. Something that reaches into the core of what we are and rearranges it.
Every thrust carries the weight of three centuries. Every kiss seals a vow. Every moan is a promise.
His curse wraps around my fire, and instead of consuming, it completes. My shadow-flame pours into his darkness, and instead of burning, it anchors. The powers that should destroy each other instead find balance, stability, purpose.
“More.” I rake my nails down his back, urging him faster, harder. “Give me everything.”
He growls—a sound that vibrates through both our bodies—and drives into me with abandon. The bed creaks beneath us. The shadows thicken around us, wrapping us in darkness that feels like protection. The fire burns brighter, shadow-flame dancing across our skin wherever we touch.
“Mine.” His voice is barely human, roughened by want finally being satisfied. “You’re mine.”
