Page 78 of How to Claim A Shadow King

"Aveline," he groans, a raw, ruined sound of absolute defeat.

"To hell with the pie," I whisper.

Malakai lets out a low, predatory growl against my mouth, and the knife clatters uselessly from our fingers. He slips his hands past the edges of my shoulders, his huge hands cradling my jaw, tilting my face up as his lips crash into mine.

It destroys me.

Any walls I tried to put up are torn down by his touch, by the way he kisses me.

This isn’t slow, careful courtship vanishes into the ether.

It never has been.

Malakai devours my mouth with a hunger that steals the remaining air from my lungs, his tongue sliding against mine with a lawless heat that makes my knees buckle.

I don't care. I tangle my fingers frantically into his dark, braided hair, pulling him closer, demanding more of the kiss.

More of him.

Before I can even register the movement, his huge, burning hands slide beneath the heavy drape of my dress, locking it around my hips. With terrifying, supernatural strength, he hoists me clean into the air.

I let out a breathless gasp into his mouth as my legs instinctively wrap around his muscular waist. Malakai drives me forward, lifting me entirely onto the high wooden island.

I let out a moan as his hard length presses against the apex of my thighs.

He sweeps an arm across the counter, and with a series of loud, dramatic crashes, the entire morning’s labor is violently obliterated. The heavy ceramic bowls shatter against the stones, the cutting board flies sideways, and all the vegetables go clattering and rolling across the kitchen floor, completely forgotten.

Neither of us looks down.

“You made a mess,” I say, tilting my head back so he can kiss me, oh yes, right there.

“I don’t care,” he snarls. “I want you to be a mess. I want to undo every inch of clothing you wear. I want to kiss you all over, I want to watch you unravel.”

Malakai pins me to the edge of the wood, his mouth sliding down the sensitive column of my neck, his teeth lightly grazing my collarbone until I am crying out against his shoulder. His velvet shadows surge upward from the floorboards unbidden, boiling around our tangled limbs, caging us away from the winter storm, away from the castle, away from the rest of the universe.

I grip his broad shoulders, my nails digging hard through the fabric of his shirt into his solid muscle, completely lost to his mouth.

31

MALAKAI

The echo of the shattering ceramic and rolling vegetables hasn't even faded from the stone floor when heavy, lumbering footsteps reverberate down the outer corridor.

"Hey, Malakai!" Cern’s booming voice echoes through the stone archway, entirely oblivious. "We smell something burning down here. Did the duchess try to⁠—"

A violent, protective fury snaps through my veins at the interruption.

I do not let my mouth leave Aveline's skin, but with a fierce, blinding flex of my will, my shadows explode across the expanse of the kitchen. The oak doors of the kitchen slam shut with a force that shakes the copper pans on their hooks. The heavy iron bolt drops into place with a deafening, echoing thud, sealing the entrance and locking my brothers out in the corridor before they can even reach the threshold.

"Hey! What the hell, Malakai?" Valen’s muffled shout rattles the wood from the other side. "We’re hungry!"

I ignore them entirely.

The house understands the demand, muffling the remaining noise from the hallway until the kitchen is a silent, isolated vault.

Aveline and I are left clinging to each other on the edge of the high wooden island, the ragged sound of her breathing the only noise in the sudden stillness.

My hands are locked beneath her thighs, holding her pinned to the edge of the counter while her legs wrap tightly around my waist. A tangled storm of blonde silk hair wraps around her flushed face. Swollen lips.