“I should have moved. I should have run. But my body betrayed me—staying still, burning, waiting—for him.”The silence was suffocating.No, not silence—something thicker, heavier, more alive than mere absence of sound. The air itself pulsed with it, vibrating through my skin like a second heartbeat, resonating in frequencies I could feel in my bones until I couldn't tell where I ended and where Kael began. It was as if the very molecules between us had become charged, electric, humming with an energy that made my teeth ache and my fingertips tingle.The bond. It had to be the bond doing this, weaving invisible threads between us that pulled tighter with every breath, every heartbeat, every second I remained here when logic screamed I should run.My body screamed at me to move. To run. To do something—anything. Every rational thought I possessed fired warning signals through my nervous system, reminders of who he was, what he was capable of, what I'd witnessed him do to others who'd cr
Hearing my name on his lips in that tone—rough with desire and desperation—sent shockwaves through my entire body. It was the first time he'd said it like that, like it meant something more than just a way to get my attention. Like it was sacred and profane and utterly necessary all at once.One of his hands shifted — Slow, trembling with restraint — Moving dangerously close to my waist.I could see the internal struggle playing out in the tension of his muscles, in the careful, deliberate way he moved. Every instinct was telling him to touch me, to to claim me, to give in to whatever this thing between us demanded. But some last thread of control held him back.His fingers brushed against the thin, torn fabric at my hip.The contact was feather-light, barely there, but it sent electricity racing through my entire nervous system. The fabric was so thin it might as well have not existed, and I could feel the heat of his skin through the delicate material.I sucked in a sharp breath, th
The world shrank to nothing but the space between our bodies — The heat, the tension, the electric charge in the air.Nothing existed outside this moment, this bed, this man hovering above me like he was deciding whether to devour me or flee. The bond between us thrummed with such intensity that I could swear I saw sparks dancing in the air around us, could feel the very fabric of reality bending under the weight of whatever power connected us.His chest rose and fell with each labored breath, and I found myself matching his rhythm without conscious thought. We were breathing the same air, existing in the same impossible space where desire and magic and something deeper than either had collided to create this moment of perfect, terrifying suspension.Kael's storm-gray eyes locked onto mine, wild and feral.There was nothing civilized left in his gaze. Whatever careful control he usually maintained had been stripped away, leaving something raw and primal and utterly dangerous. His pupi
My feet moved of their own accord, carrying me across the room despite every rational argument my mind tried to make. The floorboards were cool beneath my bare feet. Each step felt monumental, like I was crossing some invisible threshold from which there would be no return.Drawn like a moth to a flame that would inevitably consume me.The comparison was apt. He was fire—dangerous, beautiful, capable of giving warmth or causing destruction depending on how close you dared to get. And I was helpless to resist the pull, even knowing it would likely burn me alive.The bond hummed louder as the distance between us decreased, like a tuning fork struck against crystal. My skin prickled with electricity, and I could swear I felt sparks dancing along my fingertips. The air itself seemed charged, heavy with potential energy that made my hair stand on end.Without thinking, without permission from my own mind, I crossed the room, closing the distance between us.His scent grew stronger as I app
“The storm outside had nothing on the one breaking inside this room.”Kael didn't move.Not when I ignored the screaming in my head telling me to leave.He stood there, shoulders heaving, his body tense as a drawn bowstring. The silence in the room was deafening, broken only by the sound of our labored breathing and the distant rumble of thunder outside. The storm that had been brewing all evening was finally breaking, and somehow it felt like a reflection of everything happening between us.The air was thick with more than just the approaching rain. Magic crackled invisibly around us, the bond that neither of us had asked for pulsing like a second heartbeat. I could feel it in my bones, in the very marrow of me, pulling me toward him even as every rational thought screamed at me to run.I watched him —Watched the way his hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, fighting some internal battle I couldn't begin to understand. The moonlight streaming through the tall windows cast silv
A low whine escaped him—pure anguish, the sound a wounded animal makes when caught in a trap—and he jerked back suddenly, as if my skin had burned him, as if contact with me had been agony rather than ecstasy.The loss of his heat made me whimper before I could stop myself, my body instinctively trying to follow his, to maintain that precious connection that had felt like coming home.Kael stumbled a few steps away, fists clenched so tightly at his sides that I could see the tendons standing out in his forearms, could see the way his nails bit into his palms hard enough to draw blood.His chest heaved. His jaw locked. His entire body shook with the effort of denying what we both wanted.And he wouldn't look at me.Not because he didn't want to.Because if he did—if he gave in to the need burning in his eyes, if he let himself see the answering desire in mine—We both knew he wouldn't stop.Couldn't stop.Wouldn't want to stop.I lay there for a moment longer, trying to catch my breath