Page 79 of How to Claim A Shadow King

Blue eyes.

Pink cheeks.

Perfect.

We stare at each other in the dim, golden light. The amulet at her throat rises and falls rapidly against her collarbone, and I want to rip it away, to let her power play with mine. I want all of her. The gold current beneath her skin is humming, vibrating against my own magic.

I need to hear it. I need her to say the words before I completely lose my mind.

"What do you want, Aveline?" It’s the desperate plea of a man who has spent lifetimes waiting to be hers again. My fingers dig into the linen of her overdress, my forehead pressing against hers. "Tell me. Before I ruin every rule of this courtship."

Aveline doesn't flinch.

She doesn't falter.

She looks dead into my eyes, her fingers tightening into the fabric of my shirt.

"You," she whispers. "I want you, Malakai. I’m ready."

The last thread of my self-control snaps.

A low, guttural growl rips from my throat. Devoid of a single ounce of restraint, I hoist her clean off the wooden counter, keeping her legs locked securely around my waist as my arms bracket her back. I do not walk; the living castle fractures the space around us, the shadows boiling up from the floorboards to swallow us whole.

Between one breath and the next, the kitchen is gone.

We materialize directly in the center of my rooms. The double doors behind us slam shut, the lock clicking into place with absolute finality. The room is thick with her scent.

I refused to let the castle clean it since the last night she slept here.

I drive her backward toward the massive bed, entirely consumed by the need to claim my queen.

32

AVELINE

He drops me onto the plush, velvet expanse of his bed with a soft thud.

I can hardly catch my breath.

I know what I want. I don’t understand it, not yet, but I know I want him, and if I have to wait one more second I think I’ll scream.

The darkness dissolves back into the floorboards, leaving the bedroom illuminated only by the crackling amber firelight of the hearth.

Malakai hovers over me, magnificent, shedding his clothes while I watch, barely breathing.

His chest is heaving, his dark eyes dilated so completely that the need I see there makes my head spin.

He reaches down, his large, calloused hands sliding up my thighs, his fingers bunching the linen of my undergarments as he prepares to rip away the final barriers between us.

Fear hits me, unexpected and unbidden. My hand flies up, my fingers pressing against the burning center of his chest to halt his momentum. "Malakai, wait."

He freezes, his muscles locking under my palms like carved marble. He looks down at me, his breathing tortured. "What is it, Aveline? Do you need me to stop?"

The care, the tenderness in his voice… it tells me I’m doing the right thing.

"I don't want you to stop," I whisper, my throat tight. "But you should know... I have… There has never been anyone else. I have never done this. I don’t want to disappoint you."

I feel incomparably small and stupid at that admission.