Page 55 of How to Claim A Shadow King

"Do you feel it?" he asks, his hand tight on my abdomen, around the bottom of my rib cage. "Right here, do you feel how it's coming from inside of you? Do you feel its heat?"

"Yes," I whisper.

"Are you in pain?" he asks, taking a step back and loosening his grip on me. Almost immediately, the light sparks, then dies. "Does it hurt you?" he asks, a confused look on his handsome face.

I don't know why I do it, but everything in me is screaming to get him back—to get his arms back around me immediately. I take a step forward, determined to reclaim what he's taken, and I pull his arm back to my waist. I reach up with my other hand for his face. It's coarse with the stubble of a sleepless night, a delicious feeling against my fingers, and I pull his head down to me, overcome with a heady sense of desire and power from feeling my magic for the first time.

A ragged laugh tears from him.

His hand goes to my face and he bends down, breathing the same air as I. For one long, heated moment, I wonder if I've made a mistake.

And then his lips find mine, and I forget how to breathe.

Any illusion of control I thought I had over this man vanishes the exact second our lips meet.

I expected a cautious acceptance, and I am entirely mistaken.

Malakai lets out a ragged growl against my mouth that vibrates straight down to my toes. The shock of it makes me gasp, and he immediately seizes the opening, his tongue sliding against mine with a desperate, heavy hunger that completely steals the breath from my lungs.

My world narrows to the scent of him.

Ozone, and midnight, and the cool, indescribable flavor of his ancient power.

His hands, huge and burning hot, slide beneath the heavy drape of my traveling cloak and the hem of my overdress, finding the bare skin of my waist. I flinch at the contrast of his shadow-calloused palms against my skin.

Heat spikes right through my core, and I need more.

The kiss changes, hungry, alive, and before I can even register the movement, his grip tightens on my hips. My heart stutters when he lifts me clean off the damp forest floor as if I weigh nothing at all.

Instinct takes over.

Instinct, and desire.

My legs wrap around his waist, locking me flush against his massive, muscular frame. Malakai drives me backward in a single, fluid stride until my spine meets the solid, rough bark of an ancient oak tree.

The impact should jar me, but his body is there to cushion it, pinning me to the wood. My hands tangle frantically into his dark hair, pulling him closer, like I can selfishly demand more of the heat of his mouth with mine alone.

The moment our bodies fuse together against the tree, the orange-gold light that had died out sparks back to life with a vengeance.

My eyes go wide.

It doesn't just stream from my fingertips anymore; it erupts from my skin in waves, pouring over his broad shoulders. A moment later, Malakai’s velvet shadows surge upward, wrapping around my thighs, my back, my hands.

I want him everywhere, and it’s like the magic knows it.

They don't fight each other. They blend.

Gold and darkness twine together like liquid eclipse fire, spiraling up our bodies until the sheer volume of our combined power overflows. A visible shockwave of golden-shadow energy arcs through the air, throwing a massive blinding light across the dim forest. It slams directly into the pulsing, fractured violet ward right in front of us.

The sickly cracks are instantly overwritten, replaced by a smooth, unyielding wall of gold-threaded darkness. The forest itself echoes with a deep, resonant hum as the threshold locks into place.

The brilliance of the magic flash forces my eyes closed, and when I open them, the frantic rhythm of the kiss changes. It slows.

It’s agonizing.

Possessive.

Malakai abruptly tears himself away with a shudder.