She couldn’t move.
Serenna’s eyes flew to the prince’s face as he pulled away.
Tendrils of shadows streamed from Vesryn, spiraling around them to halt her progress. For a terrible moment Serenna wondered if he wanted her to stop. Her flash of fear quickly rearranged, sensing the pacing beast of his caged desire.
Propping himself on his elbows, Vesryn hovered above her. The heat in his gaze and the hunger echoing through the bond kindled the flames he’d already stoked low in her belly.
“Let me go,” Serenna demanded, squirming against the torrent of darkness, only able to shift her head. “I want…” She swallowed, catching her breath. “I want more.”
“I can tell,” Vesryn said, breaking into an aggravating grin. “Just tell me to stop and I’ll release you.” Serenna stilled, ceasing her efforts with struggling as he sat up, shifting to straddle her thighs. “But if you want to play…” His gaze suggestively drifted down her body and then back up to her eyes.
“I don’t want toplay,” Serenna hissed with as much dignity as she could muster, helpless and bewildered under his magic. Theprince slowly unweaved the ties to her bodice. She refused to whine. But if he wanted her to beg, she was halfway there. “I want you to keep kissing me.”
Serenna gasped, squeezing her eyes shut when Vesryn did just that, pushing her clothes out of the way to drag his mouth along her stomach. His teasing tongue swirled around her navel as he finished freeing her from her tunic. The prince hauled her shadow-shackled body up to tear the remaining chemise layer over her head.
Sitting back up, Vesryn flexed his fingers. “And what I want,” he said as darkness danced across his knuckles, “is for you to break out of this body lock.” Wisps of shadows coiled around Serenna’s wrists, steering her arms up to the headboard, completely exposing her bare chest to him.
Serenna glared at the restraining magic looping around her, caressing her breasts, furious with herself for giving Vesryn the satisfaction of trembling in the bindings. Her blood surged under the rending’s unexpected tingle—a pleasure with an alarming, silent threat of pain. But she knew the prince wouldn’t harm her, even if she refused to participate.
Like a vile bird, Vesryn tilted his head. As if perching across her lap was exactly where he wanted to be. Leaning forward, strands of silvery hair spilled over his shoulders. “It’s time you learn how to channel your power regardless of the…distractions.”
Serenna’s voice came out more shrill than she would’ve liked. “I can hardly summon Essence without my emotions and now you’re expecting me to harness my magic withdistractions?”
“You mastered breaking out of a body lock weeks ago in class.” The prince skimmed a callused palm up her stomach, tormenting fingers lazily winding up to her chest.
Serenna shivered in anticipation, her skin pebbling under his touch. She flailed in the shadowy bindings as he circled a finger closer and closer around the peak of her breast.
“Vesryn.” Serenna battled for breath in frantic bursts, everyfiber of her awareness honed in on the prince’s fingers skating over her naked flesh. “I can’t eventhinkabout my power with you on top of me!”
Chuckling, Vesryn rolled her nipple in between his fingers before dropping his mouth to her chest. Serenna released a ruptured moan when his tongue flicked out, lips clamping around the bud, shooting a flood of heat straight to her core.
After dispensing the same attention to her other breast, Vesryn’s voice was husky and low. “We haven’t even begun, Princess.”
Serenna blinked as the prince tucked his fingers into the waist of her leathers, balling the material into a fist. Grazing her hips, the bond’s current zipped under his touch.
Aroused alarm had Serenna’s voice half strangled. “What are you doing?”
“Summon your power,” Vesryn instructed, his other hand gripping her thigh.
Power?Serenna’s thoughts dispersed the closer the prince’s fingers roved in between her legs. She trembled when he unraveled the ties cinching her leathers together.
“I guarantee if you don’t call your magic now, it won’t get any easier.” Angling out of the way, Vesryn ripped her trousers off with an impressive fluid motion, discarding her pants on the floor. His lips quirked. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Serenna whimpered from her crippled position, panicked excitement stealing her words as the prince kneed her legs apart.
“Summon your power,” he repeated, face drifting down between her thighs.
Serenna sucked in a breath, pulse jumping when he lowered to kiss the inside of her bared leg. She ineffectively tugged against the shadows, trying to arch her body toward the sensation of his mouth skimming across her skin.
All she could manage was releasing a frustrated breath, unable to even perceive her Well. “I can’t.”
“Then try harder,” the prince said, his teeth scraping against her, traveling closer to her thin undergarments.
The rending spiraling around Serenna’s wrists pulsed like a heartbeat. A sudden surge of pleasure undulated from the tips of her ears to the ends of her toes.
Squeezing her eyes shut only sharpened her focus on Vesryn’s lips skimming up her thigh. A tide of warmth pooled in anticipation of him reaching his destination. After several half-hearted attempts of tunneling inward to sense her magic, Serenna admitted defeat. “I can’t do it.”
The prince’s fingers lazily rotated a feather-light graze against the remaining garment. “Why not?” Pulling on the fabric, he rubbed the material against the seam of her entrance.
