Page 166 of Daughter of the Serpent

She gasped, trembling and helpless to those two talented fingers and the building fire.

“Ashes,” She gasped, hardlyable to speak. “Yes.”

His mouth curled in approval, his eyes full of smoke as her body rose to meet him, desperate and aching.

More.

Sheneededmore.

And she was completely at his mercy.

He obliged her, his mouth meeting her again and instantly she could feel the pressure building, the heat coiling in her core, ready at any moment to overflow.

“I want to watch you come undone.”His words curled around her thoughts, consuming her mind completely.“And know that it’s because of me.”

And at the sound of them she was lost.

Her thighs trembled as she buried her fingertips deeper into his hair, as the first shockwave overtook her body. Her mouth dropped open, completely lost to the crescendo of sensation that wracked her. Wave after wave, she shattered, deep into the fading light, breaking apart completely.

Energy crackled, flashing like lightning through the bond, and she felt her heart explode in a plethora of inexplicable emotion.

There was nothing like this.

Nothing like the feeling of pure bliss that spiraled through her body, nothing like his name as it tore from her lips as her hips rolled, taking everything he would give her, until she fractured, until she was completely undone.

When she finally came down, her breath still unsteady, her body still trembling, she met his gaze - and faltered.

“You are so beautiful.”

The words wrapped around her, sinking deep, filling her with something warm, something unbreakable. And in that moment, she felt the shift - the unspoken change between them, a quiet but undeniable rearranging of what they were.

She saw it in his eyes, in the way they traced the delicate lines of her face as if memorizing her, in the way his fingerslingered on her skin, not just touching, but claiming - wordlessly vowing something she didn’t yet have the words for.

This wasn’t just hunger. Wasn’t just need.

It was something insurmountably more.

As if he had seen her - truly seen her - every unguarded, fragile part, and still thought she was beautiful. As if he had just poured himself into every curve, every hollow of her, sealing himself inside. As if he had reached into the depths of her and uncovered something she hadn’t even known was there.

Her chest ached as she looked at him, because she knew - he had opened her. Unraveled her. Stretched her heart wide, unfurling its petals one by one in the palm of his hand.

And with a certainty that stole her breath, she knew.

She was his.

Utterly.

Inescapably.

His.

Chapter Twenty-Five

It was near dawn when she stirred, cocooned in warmth, her face nestled against the curve of his neck. The steady rise and fall of his breath was a quiet rhythm beneath her hand, as she soaked in his scent - cedar, pine, and something unmistakablyhim- filling her lungs, and she relished it.

She wanted to savor this moment.

Hold on, and keep it locked away within her heart forever.