I did, and he knew it. He didn’t use it particularly often around me, though I suppose I wouldn’t even know if he had. Such was the nature of Shadow, but I had always been equal parts attracted to and fascinated by Kieran’s darkness.
His mouth returned to my neck, the clever bastard having already caught on to the fact that I was…excessivelysensitive there. I ran my hands over his thighs and felt them flex beneath my touch as I replied.
“Would you laugh at me if I confessed that I actually do find it sexy?”
I felt his mouth curl into a smile against my skin. He didn’t laugh, but he was most definitely going to remember I said that. No chance in Hel would he let me live that down, but I didn’t even care. His touch felt like heaven as he ran his fingers through my hair, continuing to press kisses up the column of my neck, straying towards my jaw.
More.
I needed more, and wrapped one leg around his waist just so that I could grind myself against the warmth of him, aching for his entry. Kieran groaned in response, throaty and low and I swear my eyelids fluttered involuntarily. Gods, that sound was fucking hot. I wanted to hear it again, and so I stretched my arms out above my head before allowing them to wander—but it waslike he could read my mind. Again, he caught both of my wrists in one hand and pinned them against the headboard.
“I told you, Arken…” he growled.
“Hmm?”
“I am taking my sweet. ass. time. with you.”
“Gods,” I groaned as he pressed the pad of his thumb against my lower lip. I licked it, in protest. “Are you trying to torture me?”
He snorted. “If I was trying to torture you, sweetheart… You would know. And you’d thank me for it.”
Oh, fuck.
“So Iwasright,” he chuckled, gaze darkening as he read my expression. Perceptive son of a bitch.
“I can neither confirm nor deny that statement,” I breathed.
“Uh huh.”
As his mouth returned to my neck, biting down as if to prove a point, I gasped. Not just because of the way he ran his tongue over the bitten flesh, but rather… something else entirely. As Kieran continued to kiss me, running his hands anywhere and everywhere they could find purchase, I could detect what felt like… curling wisps of smoke. A cool, weightless darkness licking its way across my skin, too, creating delicious contrast with the pressure of his touch and the warmth of his breath. Heated, heavy breath that was growing more and more ragged by the minute.
But Fates, what even was that? His Resonance? I opened my eyes, but there were no tendrils of Shadow to be found. Whatever he was doing, it didn’t seem to be intentional, and it didn’t exactlyfeellike the buzzing arcana that I’d drawn from before. This felt different, somehow. More like an extension of his touch. Did he even know he was doing it?
But by the time Kieran’s mouth had made its way from my collarbone down to one of my breasts, I lost any ability totheorize… or eventhinkfor that matter. I didn’t care what it was, I just didn’t want him to stop.
“Gods, Kier,” I moaned, tossing my head back against his pillows as his tongue drew slow, intentional circles around my nipple, leaving it swollen and sensitive.
He hummed appreciatively as he read me like an open book, taking the other nipple between two fingers and kneading softly. He tugged at the former with his teeth.
This man was going to be my undoing.
We both knew this was a bad idea. Despite our explosive chemistry, despite how perfect every inch of him felt beneath my hands… I knew there was a reason we’d both kept one another at arm’s length, I just couldn’t exactly recall what it—Oh, sweet Hel.How the fuck was I supposed to think straight when his fingers were stroking up against the center of me now, with only my tights serving as a barrier between us?
“You like that, sweetheart?” he murmured.
“Yesss,” I hissed. I very much liked that, and I needed more. I rocked my hips desperately against his hand, forcing his knuckles to graze against my clit beneath the clothing—the existence of which was growing more and more maddening with every passing second.
“Good,” he growled, pressing those fingers against me harder, tongue returning to my nipple as he grabbed the surrounding flesh, hard.
That strange, dark sensation returned, this time with tendrils weaving their way around my throat as Kieran trailed a series of love bites across my chest. The feeling only intensified, tightening when he slipped several fingers beneath the waistband of my tights, teasing at the skin just above my panties.
Gods above and below.
He hadn’t been lying when he said he’d be taking his sweet ass time. My eyelids fluttered closed again as I focused onthe feeling of his every ministration. Finally, when I felt like I couldn’t take it anymore, I tugged at his hair. Releasing my poor, swollen nipples, Kieran kissed me hard on the mouth before pushing himself off me, abruptly climbing out of bed.
“Excuse me, sir,” I objected, and something in his eyes seemed to flash. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Oh, I’m not going anywhere,” he replied, grabbing me by the hips and pulling me towards the edge of the mattress so that he was standing in between my legs. “But uhh, quick question.”