Page 51 of A Tempest of Intrigue (Tempest of Shadows #4)

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Ellery

“What. Aren’t. You. Telling. Me?” Ryker bit out.

“Promise me,” I pleaded.

Strands of lightning rose from the ground to encase his wrists. It looked like he was bound to the earth, but I knew how easily he could break those electrical chains.

“Ellery—”

“He’s the head of Ivan’s guard now. You have to promise me that you’ll stay away from him.”

“I promise I’ll stay away… for now. Once all this unfolds and it becomes clear we’re at war with Ivan, that promise won’t hold. The first chance I get to kill him, I’ll take it.”

“Okay, but remember, you promised me that.”

A vein in his temple throbbed to life as a muscle in his jaw twitched. If anyone else saw him like this, they’d probably piss themselves before fleeing into the night.

I’d rather take on a pack of black dogs than one vengeful Ryker, but his anger wouldn’t touch me. He wouldn’t, for one second, question my love for him.

“What else, Ellery?”

Like everything that came before, it was best to get it out. “He kissed me. I didn’t want him to and didn’t know it was coming. He grabbed me and kissed me, and it was gross and… and I… I didn’t want it.”

My words hung heavily in the air as my shoulders sagged and tears burned my eyes at the memory. Yes, I could have killed Gaius, and I was stronger than him, but I hadn’t seen it coming, and he’d taken something from me that wasn’t his to have.

I loathed him for it, and Ryker wasn’t the only one who would make him pay for it.

Across from me, Ryker remained unmoving, but I sensed the fury rising inside him like lava in a volcano about to blow. His lightning intensified until we stood within a white glow in the center of the black forest.

Lightning fired through his eyes as bolts shot around him to fire into the night. I’d never seen anything like the lightning shooting from every part of him.

Normally, we directed our bolts with our hands, but these fissures fractured from the white glow and seemed beyond his control, yet none came at me. Instead, they smashed into the trees, tore off their tops, and sent them crashing to the earth.

The ground beneath my feet trembled, and the fire crackled in the fractured trees. Drawing on my rain ability, I pulled moisture from the air to douse the flames before they got too out of control.

The rain sizzled and popped as it hit the electricity surrounding Ryker. While it helped douse the flames, it did nothing to stop the lightning.

“Ryker—”

My words faded as the chains around his wrists shattered, and he stalked toward me. He’d kill himself before he ever harmed me, but the wrath emanating from him rattled my bones.

I didn’t back away as he stopped before me with his shoulders heaving. Before I could tell him again that I never wanted Gaius’s kiss, he wrapped his arms around me and claimed my mouth.

And it was a claiming as he implemented the touch and feel of him onto the very essence of me. Lightning crackled across my lips and seeped into me.

Aroused by the power he emanated, mine rose to meet him as his tongue found mine. Whereas Gaius’s kiss left me feeling repulsed and wrong on every level, Ryker’s lit up my soul as he illuminated every part of me with his lightning and love.

When I slid my arms around his neck, he lifted me off the ground and pulled me flush against him. I lost myself to the wonder of his kiss as it buried the memory of Gaius.

I would have him. Nothing would stop that from happening.

As his kiss deepened, I wrapped my legs around his waist and rubbed against his hard cock. That was for me .

All of him was for me, and while he sought to brand me as his, I did the same with him.