A low whimper escaped my lips, and I gripped the rails of the ladder for dear life as he dragged his fingers over me again and slipped one into my channel.
My whole body clenched at the sensation, and he sucked in a hiss between his teeth.
“Fuck,” he gritted, biting down on his lower lip as he slowly slid his finger out.
“Kaden,” I whispered, my eyes rolling back in my head as he circled that sensitive spot. “Please.”
As if in response, he dipped his head forward, and my whole body seized as his mouth came down on me.
I shuddered at the roughness of his stubble as he parted me with his tongue, thrusting it into my wet heat. Waves of warmth and need crashed through me, almost painful, as Kaden feasted.
Gripping my thighs, he forced my knees apart, thrustinginto me deeper. Each lash of his tongue was a claiming. A promise that I washis.
Then his fingers replaced his tongue, and Kaden kissed a trail between my thighs to circle that sensitive bundle of nerves.
Hot, pulsing pleasure coiled low in my belly, the tension almost unbearable. I let go of the ladder to fist his hair, dragging his face to where I needed him as he continued to fill me with his fingers.
That delicious friction sent me over the edge, the roiling storm of sensation breaking at last. Pleasure pulsed through my body with a violent intensity, my muscles going loose and then taut as my release crashed over me.
As I loosened my grip on his hair, Kaden pulled back to look at me. His lips were slick with my arousal, and there was a feral gleam in his eyes that made a fresh surge of heat bloom in my core.
Pulling him to his feet, I tugged him closer until his thigh was wedged between my legs. The pulsing warmth of his erection against my center was almost more than I could stand. But when I reached out and skimmed a finger along the unmarred edge of his wing, Kaden shivered and drew back.
Disappointment swamped me as he pressed a tender kiss to my forehead, my insides a tangle of frustration and need.
“Kaden,” I whispered. “I need you.”
A crushing sadness filled his gaze, and he let out a shaky breath. “You have no idea how badly I want you, little huntress, but I will not fuck you. Not now. Not when . . .”
He trailed off, his words like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head.
His jaw clenched as his eyes roved over my naked body, lingering on my hardened nipples and the wetness between my legs. His raw hunger pulsed down our bond, stirring something wild within me.
I wanted to scream and thrash and break things, but I forced myself to nod.
“The next time I am inside you, I want to be sure it is only me in my head.” A shudder went through him as he looked me over, his eyes blazing with an intensity that set my whole body aflame. “You are my mate, Lyra,” he growled. “No onegets to have you but me.”
Chapter
Sixteen
LYRA
“Last one,” I murmured, gripping the rowan splinter carefully between my thumb and forefinger and withdrawing it from Kaden’s wing.
He hissed as the shard slid loose, and I rubbed my thumb over the small hurt.
The membrane was red and angry looking where the splinter had been embedded, but the other places where I’d removed bits of those wretched stakes had already begun to heal.
Kaden’s wings sagged onto the mattress as the tension drained from his body, and I found myself mesmerized by the way the early-morning light shone through the thin, dark membrane.
“Beautiful,” I murmured, gently caressing the velvety skin and admiring the patchwork of small white scars that stood out on his wing. With the light behind him, the membrane seemed to glow, and it wassosoft.
Absently, I traced my thumb along the outer ridgewhere his wing met his back, and Kaden’s whole body went taut.
“Lyra. . .” he growled, though it was a different sound than the one he’d made when I’d had to push a particularly stubborn splinter through his skin.
He sounded almost . . .
