Page 54 of Sworn to the Shadow Throne

Magic flickered wild and bright beneath my skin like it recognized him, like it was getting everything it needed from this. Every sensation between us was an answer to all my questions—to all my secret prayers.

His hands urged me forward until I was half in his lap, one leg across his. Throbbing, expectant heat rose in my core at the brush of my thigh against the rock-hard bulge in his lap.

This was how unexpected futures were born, but I didn’t care. Closer. I needed to be close enough to—

His wound. Reality slammed back into me, hard enough that it shocked me still, even through the haze of lust.

I pulled back abruptly, face flaming, heart pounding like it wanted out of my ribs so it could hide under the bed.

“Sorry—I— Gods,” I stammered, wiping a trembling hand over my mouth. “I don’t want to hurt y—”

“Don’t apologize. You stop, I stop.” His voice was thick with passion, breathless. His pupils were blown so wide I literally couldn’t see the whites of his eyes anymore. “Lunette, I—” He stopped, swallowing hard. “I’ve wanted to do that since the moment I first opened my eyes to see you.”

The confession rooted itself somewhere deep and permanent in my chest.

His hands kneaded my back as he added, “Dreamed about touching this since seeing you in those trousers.”

“But your wound,” I said, panting.

“What wound?” His hand came up to tilt my chin until my eyes met his. “I want to run my fingers through those red curls and bury myself inside you until the world outside ceases to exist.”

Heat flooded my core, and I stopped pretending I needed convincing. I removed the space between us by wrapping my arms around his neck, careful of his bad side.

Then he claimed my mouth again, letting out a quiet growl against my lips.

Oh, gods, that sound. It shot a second wave of heat between my thighs, crumbling the last vestige of my worries. If that growl meant he felt the same way I did, neither of us would get much recovery sleep tonight.

The world narrowed to the warmth of his skin beneath my fingers, the press of his hands on my hips. I’d never felt this ravenous before. As if yearning had purged the cobwebs from around my heart, with hunger arriving just after it like a wildfire burning through everything else to make room for one thing: him.

He broke away from our kiss for a heartbeat, midnight eyes drinking me in.

Even as I mourned the loss of his lips, I melted under his smoldering gaze. He looked at me as if he were seeing me anew, as if his mind had just settled on something momentous. His stare was starved but also longing in a way I’d never experienced before. I wanted to drown in the heady sensation of being desired. Of being his.

Before I could question the look any further, he rushed back in, tracing a warm path with his lips across the sensitive skin of my neck.

When he reached my ear and sucked lightly at the lobe, the first sound that escaped me wasn’t entirely human. My next gasp, rough and nearly feral, slipped straight into a moan as his hands caressed my curves like he was trying to memorize the shape of me.

Straddling his legs, I inched up the long plane of his thigh. His muscles tensed, and every time I moved, a faint shudder rippled through him. Even through his tunic, I could feel the unyielding tension holding his body together, like he was afraid that if he let go even a little, we’d both be doomed.

Let it happen, I thought. Doom me. Take me down with you.

I’d never wanted to fall so badly. My aching core throbbed with desperate need as I rocked it against his unyielding warmth. A silent cry to keep going. I was so close, nearly unraveling from nothing more than simple friction.

His fingers tightened on my hips, a question I felt more than heard. Do you want more?

I tugged on his shoulders, giving my answer in the only language two bodies needed to communicate in the fading light.

I felt him smile through the kiss. Slowly, almost reverently, he lowered us both to the bed. His weight pressed down, and every inch of my skin lit up with anticipation.

No turning back now.

Clothes. We had on too many clothes. I started to work the laces of my bodice—

A wave of dark, wild magic surged through the cabin, cold and electric, raising every hair on my body.

BAM!

The front door exploded inward off its hinges.