Page 179 of Taken By Shadows

I shimmied into the closest thing I could find. Kaed’s shirt was huge on me. It smelled just like him, and my body clenched in response.

Glancing over at Kaed, I watched as he fought the urge to open his eyes. His forearm even came up to cover them.

It was wrong to do it, but I watched him when he couldn’t watch me. His body, that same chest I’d fallen asleep on, was carved from stone. His bare arms flexed with the pull of lifting them overhead. I followed the lines of his abdomen as they disappeared beneath the sheets.

“I can feel you watching, peach,” he ground out, frustration cauterising his words.

After a deep inhale, I released him. “You can open your eyes.”

No sooner had I spoken than he was in front of me, silk sheet in place around his middle.

His gaze raked down me, draped in only his shirt that skimmed across my bare legs, the sleeves too long around my hands. Kaed swallowed. “Do you know how torturous that was?”

Even clothed, I felt naked under his stare.

“Torturous?”

“Mm-hmm.” He nodded as he came closer. “And I won’t forget that.”

I actually found myself hoping he meant that.

“I will get something I want today, however.” Kaed brushed my hair from my shoulder and placed his hand on the back of my neck to guide me to his lips.

Why had I wanted to get dressed again? I couldn’t remember the logic behind that one. His shirt and dark silk sheet were all that separated us.

And I couldn’t resist falling into his kiss.

But he stopped me just before he let me touch him, his fist twining in my hair. Just as mine had been in his last night.

A choked moan escaped my lips at the restraining hold he had on me. I wanted to demand he kiss me. But all that came out were sounds. Plaintiff, yearning sounds.

His mouth moved past my lips to my neck, and he planted little roses of fire along my body. They bloomed everywhere his lips touched my skin. Up my neck to my jaw and all the way along it. I moved to try to meet his lips, but his grip on my hair tightened.

Kaed pulled his head back and shook it.

“No.” The command was painful, but I stilled under its weight.

And then his lips found my skin again, and the fire raged inside me until I felt my core go molten and wet. The slickness between my legs was a delicious agony as it built with each kiss.

Kaed moved to kiss along the other side of my jaw and down past the collar of the shirt. He stopped before reaching the exposed part of my chest. For the briefest of moments, he paused and looked into my eyes. I gave the most imperceptible tilt of my head under the restraint of his hand in my hair.

Yes, I wanted to breathe, but I was afraid more tangled noises would escape instead.

His tongue traced my collarbone until I cried out. My skin pebbled where his tongue drew lazy lines across me.

“Kaed …” I breathed, and I didn’t even know what I wanted to say.

My fists were bunching in the fabric of his stolen shirt.

Gripping and releasing.

That ache in my centre was growing. Building.

Kaed pulled away and stood to his full height over me.

Gripping my wrists, he pushed my hands to my sides.

Neither of us said anything. Words would have been a waste with the command rampant in his gaze. I stilled under the stare he gave me.