Kol instantly stops vibrating.
The sound cuts off so abruptly it leaves my ears ringing. The sudden absence of his chest-rattling purr leaves a horrible, physical ache directly in the center of my chest. Before I can even process it, Kol rises.
The gold glow on his forearms flares hot in the shadows. He turns his broad back to me, giving Tharn a sharp jerk of his chin, and sweeps rapidly toward the lower tunnels.
Thirty seconds later, the migraine hits the back of my right eye like a hammer.
I press the heels of my hands back into my eyes, biting back a gasp. I’m alone again, and I am in total agony. I sit in the freezing dark for a long time, my forehead pressed against my knees as the headache rages. For one humiliating second, my body actually demands I get up, chase him down the dark tunnel, and beg him to put his hands on me.
I finally surrender to the exhaustion. Staggering up from the freezing ledge, I blindly navigate my way back to the main cavern floor and collapse onto my sleeping mat. I bury my freezing face into the perfectly placed pile of thick new furs. They smell like dry heat and spiced musk. His scent.
Wrapping myself up in his warmth, I just lie there waiting to pass out.
I fall asleep quickly,but it isn’t peaceful. The exhaustion drags me straight down into a dark fever.
The furs beneath me are scorching hot. The air is so thick it feels like I’m trying to breathe underwater. I can’t move. There is a massive, incredibly heavy body stretched out directly behind me, his furnace-hot skin pressed totally flush against my spine. He is burning, and I arch my back directly into his heat, practically begging for the friction. My brain knows exactly who it is, and the realization doesn’t scare me. It just makes my heart race with a deeply humiliating anticipation.
A thick, callused hand slowly slides over my hip. His thick fingers easily span the entire width of my hipbone, gripping down hard. He drags my hips back until my entire body is pulled tightly against the rigid, terrifyingly thick length of him.
I make a breathy, pathetic sound I have literally never made in my real life. I want this terrifying giant to just take over andcompletely own me. The absolute surrender sliding through my own exhausted brain makes my head spin.
His hot mouth drags roughly along the back of my neck. His lips are parted, the sharp points of his fangs scraping slowly over my skin. His breath is scalding. Every time he exhales, it sends a tight shudder rolling straight down my spine, making my lower body clench around an empty ache between my thighs.
And then, the low vibration starts up again directly against my back. It sinks right through my ribs and drops into my belly, completely short-circuiting every single rational nerve ending I possess.
His huge hand slides from my hip down to my bare stomach. He presses his hot palm flat against my skin, pinning me securely against the solid wall of his chest.
A low, raw sound rumbles out of him.
The deep voice bypasses my translator. It hits me straight inside my skull.
Mine.
The sheer pressure of that psychic claim throws me straight out of the dream.
I gasp sharply, jerking up off the sleeping mat as my eyes fly open.
I am flat on my back on my sleeping mat. The huge fur blankets are tangled heavily around my legs. I’m covered in a cold sweat, my heart is hammering against my ribs, and my entire body is throbbing.
The cavern surrounding me is completely silent. It’s the deepest, deadest hour of the night cycle.
Dragging in a shaking breath, I stare up into the pitch black, trying to convince my own exhausted brain that it was just a fevered hallucination. Just a dream.
Slowly, I turn my head toward the cavern wall.
Directly across the open space, perfectly positioned in the high, pitch-black shadows of the warlord’s alcove, two solid, unwavering amber eyes are glowing in the dark.
He hasn’t slept. He’s just been sitting there in the pitch black this entire time, staring directly down at my sleeping mat.
And looking up into the intensity of his stare, my stomach does a hard flip.
A deeply humiliating part of me actually wishes he would cross the floor and finish what he started in my head.
Chapter 7
THIS TINY, FRAGILE HUMAN IS TERRIFYING, AND IT MAKES MY FANGS HURT
KOL
