I was afraid of what he’d do next—not of him, but of how intensely he was taking in my body, exposed to him from the waist up. The way his gaze lazily drifted over me, taking his time to catalog every detail of me, was intoxicating.
“Now,” he said with a tone of fiery challenge. “Keep things professional and stop me.”
Before I could think, breathe, or question what he meant, his Shadows descended on me. They wrapped around my torso, between my breasts. Cool vines slipped between my legs and made me gasp against their cold touch.
Krait climbed the ladder, pushing a knee between my thighs to replace the sensation of the Shadows. “Isaid,stop me,” he repeated as he reached down to grab my wrists and pin them. “Come on, Sybilla...”
“I don’t want to stop you,” I admitted. Heat built in my core—and the friction of his leg had me grinding against him as he pushed my arms up over my head. No, I wasn’t going to stop this.
“What am I going to do with you?” he whispered into my mouth before kissing me again. It was an all-consuming kiss—a kiss where the world spun around us.
Between our next kiss, I retorted, “Tying me to the ladder is still an option.”
He pressed his knee up against my core again and lifted me onto my tiptoes. Meeting my gaze, he said, “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
I wanted so badly to deny it, just to be contrary. Instead, I nodded. He knew as well as I did—I could stop him anytime. Something about giving myself over to whatever he had planned appealed to the worst of my instincts.
Krait wrapped my blue ribbon around my wrists and tied them with a deft knot to a rung above our heads. I pulled down to test the knot’s strength. He’d truly tied me there.Up on tiptoes, dangling. My lips curled into a smirk.
Despite being bound, I felt like the most empowered woman on the planet to witness this feral, wanting side of him. My wrists would hate me for this tomorrow. My body hummed in anticipation despite the pain where the silk pinched, and it felt indulgent that he was not coddling me.
When he stepped back, his Shadows retreated. He tilted his head, assessing me and swiping his thumb over his lower lip in thought. Then, he began walking toward the stairs with casual ease and said, “Well, this has been entertaining—”
“Don’t you dare fucking leave me here!” I screeched. “You get back here. Right now, Darvanda.”
He glanced over his shoulder with amusement. “Make me.”
The bastard was going to make me use my power on him.
My mind opened up to him and pushed past every barbed barrier he set in front of it. The sole of his boot squeaked against the terrazzo floor as he came to an abrupt stop and stiffly turned toward me.
Dealing pleasure was the opposite of dealing pain. Instead of draining, it was rejuvenating. Krait’s head fell back a moment with a groan as I let my thoughts caress him.
“You’re going to need to stop whateverthatis, or we’ll never get started,” he said, sucking in air between his teeth.
“Then strip and come here.”
“Yes, my Queen.” His words were his own, but the frantic movement of his fingers on his shirt buttons was all me. Hekicked off his boots before unbuttoning his trousers. A deviously handsome smirk graced his lips—seeing him wear anything but a scowl was jarring in the most alluring way.
“Are we in a hurry?” he asked, throwing his belt aside.
“Don’t tempt me to make you leave. Everythingoff,” I demanded.
Once his tunic was tossed to the floor, he thumbed the waistband of his trousers and pushed them to the ground. With him standing bare in front of me, my mouth dried. I drank in my fill of his exquisite form, letting no detail go unobserved.
After mentally egging him on to cross the room back to me, I finally dropped control of him. He placed his palms against the ladder on either side of my head and stepped up a rung to catch my lips with his.
Not close enough.
Wriggling against my restraints, I breathed out, “Please, stop teasing. If you still want this—”
“Shut up, Sybilla.” He shook his head. “This is all I’ve wanted for months.”
That couldn’t be true. The longing that stretched between us had turned desperate, and I was not above pretending in the moment that he could want more.
He knelt against the ladder before drawing my knees up over his shoulders, which eased the strain on my wrists. With his teeth, he bit down on the tie that held the dress at my left hip and yanked until it was undone.
When he ducked his head toward my core, my mouth fell open. His hot breath against my thigh left gooseflesh in its wake. I could only watch in wonder as he did the same on the other side, baring me to him completely. Watching this man unwrap me like a present with his teeth was going to live on forever in my mind.
