Page 29 of Why Broken Wings Fray

And what felt like an eternity later, the King of Talamh stood before me, only an inch away. His height had never been so threatening, his width never so obvious, as he crowded me like the darkest of shadows. Yet as he had always been, Raegan was something else – something full of light and brightness, radiance and excellence, that was roaring to come to the surface. For a moment, I basked in it, like a cat in the rays of summer beneath a window. I let all that he was wash over me, drowning everything dark and gloomy within me if just for a few minutes.

Doing that must have changed something about me, whether it was the relaxing of my features, the unfurling of my shoulders, or the soft sigh that fell from me. My eyes fluttered shut for a moment as I leant towards him, not expecting any sort of contact but simply craving all that he was.

A hand brushed my neck.

At first it was just to push some hair that curtained my shoulder, but then his touch lingered. The next gasp from me was anything but soft and subtle, it punched through me like a shock and made him stiffen, his hand still barely touching me. He waited for a moment, still watching my eyes, watching my every movement. So I once again moved into his touch, slowly becoming ravenous for more.

“Would it help?” he whispered, his voice heavy.

I forgot how to speak as his fingers spread, his skin sliding across mine as he let his touch wander.

“Olivia?”

“Wh-what?” I managed, somehow, far more drunk on that tiny touch than any alcohol could make me.

“Would it help? Would a distraction help you?”

No. Not from him. Never from him. Raegan was a lot of things, but he was not a distraction. I knew that from the way my body responded to the simplest of touches from him, every part of me coming alive and craving more. Raegan could never be just a distraction.

His nostrils flared again as that silent admission set in me, as if he could hear my thoughts.

The ceadan bond kept me from lying to him, but it didn’t stop me as I pulled my lower lip between my teeth, bit down with all of my might, and ushered a muffled, “Yes.”

The noise I made was somewhere between a breathy admission and a moan, and it lit a fire within Raegan that made him throw caution to the wind. He was leaning towards me, his lips getting closer and closer, my body slick with desire as he pressed nearer. I was left remembering the balcony, the most brief of brushes of his lips against mine that sent me into a spiral.

At the last moment, just as I was prepared to throw myself against him and claim his lips for myself, Raegan changed paths. His mouth no longer moving towards mine, he chose my neck, instead. And as his lips settled on the delicate, sensitive flesh in the curve of my shoulder, I came undone.

It was nothing extreme. It was just the swipe of his mouth against my neck, his skin on my skin, but my body flooded with excitement, threatening my demise right then and there. I couldn’t imagine how it would feel to have him kiss me again, to kiss me the way I wanted him to kiss me. Or how he would feel against me, his body strong and unwavering, his movements precise and practiced. I couldn’t even tolerate the thought of him going further than that, binding us in a dance of skin and a melody of pleasure. My brain couldn’t take it. Nor could the rest of me.

I let him explore with his mouth. He moved up, a long stretch of moisture gathering from his movements until he was beneath my ear, until the sharpened fang of his pinched at the shell of it and a shiver dominated my being. Then he was moving back down again, sliding and testing with his lips and his tongue, constantly sending my body into new waves of anticipation and desire.

Just when I was prepared to drop to my knees, to place my head in my hands and beg the King of Talamh for something, anything more, he bade my wish. His hand, the one that had been tempting my skin only moments prior, settled on the curve of my waist just as he continued to lay claim to my neck. I tilted my head, a silent movement of permission that made him grumble against me. While his mouth moved back towards my shoulder, his hand moved towards my neck.

It didn’t reach my neck and instead changed course, his hand that I had seen perform cruel and twisted acts of war sliding along my shirt until he had my breast in it, a motion that started as supportive in nature but quickly turned to possessive as he worked his hand against me.

My body responded, leaving my brain as a muddled mass in my mind that no longer worked. I arched into him, pushing my breast firmer against his touch. His approving groan rattled my entire being as it rushed over my shoulder, which only furthered the pebbling of my skin and my nipple grazed his palm. Without urgency, Raegan brushed his thumb over the fabric that sat between it and him, once, twice, and then a hundred more times that had me unravelling at his touch.

Thoroughly overrun with want, I moaned and pushed against him, a silent plea for more from the King. His chuckle was wicked as he laughed against me, but once his mouth was open, something else took over Raegan. Something more primal and definitely more promising as his hand slipped from my breast and instead travelled down towards my waistband, all the while his mouth parted farther and the tips of his fangs lingered above my veins.

After waiting for some sort of denial from me, Raegan’s whole body shuddered as he slipped that hand into my trousers, his movements slow and intentional as he dragged every shiver and every breathy moan from me. I had no idea what would become of me once he truly touched me, once his fingers or his mouth or he was inside of me. Just the moisture from his breath on my neck and his hand sliding down towards the peak of my thighs was sending a throb throughout my being, pushing me closer and closer to an edge before he even had the chance to feel or taste me.

He was right there.

Only an inch away, his middle finger stretching and elongating as he approached that bundle of nerves that I feared one swipe of would have me unfolding before him. He sucked in a sharp breath, his body stiffening, and lowered his mouth as the promise of his fangs approached my neck–

Someone knocked on my door. Twice, knuckles heavy, the beating of flesh against clay and stone echoing across the bedroom.

Raegan snarled, fury across his face as he pulled away from me.

But then his eyes, dark and dominated entirely by the blackness of his pupils, looked down at me. “They can wait.”

“Raegan?” the intruder called, their voice slightly panicked.

I moved closer to Raegan, desperate for the heat that emanated from his body, and looked up at him. “Go.”

“They can wait,” he said again, firmer and unwavering as he stared down at me, his tongue sliding across his swelling lips.

“Raegan! I know you’re in there!”