Page 31

“You think I’m fighting it?” He stepped even closer, and I immediately stepped back, pressing my back to the rocky wall. I still could feel the warmth radiating from him. “I’m just trying to understand all of this, and you don’t make fucking easy.”

I swallowed hard, the heat of his body making my head spin. His frustration etched into his features, but there was something else there too, something vulnerable that mirrored my own struggles. For a moment, I glimpsed the man beneath the bravado, and it shook me to my core.

He’s not just a man with a cocky attitude. He’s lost, just like I am.

“I’m losing my mind.” Before I could speak, he leaned in a little closer, his voice barely above a whisper. “You are making me lose my mind. I can’t stop thinking about kissing you.”

Instinctively, I reached out, my fingers barely grazing his forearm. A slight gesture, fleeting and innocent, yet the sensation sent a jolt through me, sharp and electric.

What am I doing?

The moment our skin met, the fragile space between us shattered like glass. Heat seeped into me, curling around my spine, chasing away the cold shadows of my past. His breath hitched, and when his gaze locked onto mine, a storm brewed in his eyes, dark, relentless, filled with something unspoken.

This was wrong.

“I can feel you Princess, I don’t know how but I can,” he murmured, my name rolling off his tongue like a promise, edged with something perilous. “Feel your desire.”

A shiver coursed through me, my pulse a frantic drum against my ribs. The bond pulsed between us, alive, insistent, an undertow I was helpless to fight. It wrapped around us, pulling me deeper, deeper—

“We can’t,” I whispered, but the words wavered, weightless and false. We both knew it. The tension between us was a living thing, clawing, demanding.

His gaze held me captive, his eyes burning with the same hunger that tightened my chest. A battle waged within him, mirroring my own, a tempest waiting to break.

Slowly, almost reverently, he lifted a hand to my face. His fingers ghosted along my cheek, barely a touch, but fire erupted beneath my skin. My breath came shallow, my lashes fluttering as warmth spread through me, pooling low and dangerous.

This is madness.

And yet, I leaned in, unable to stop myself.

For a fleeting moment, my crown, the suffocating expectations, the walls I’d built so carefully, all of it faded into nothing. There was only him. Only this.

“Tell me to stop,” he whispered, his voice a raw thread of restraint.

I should. I should rip myself away before this consumed me whole. Before I lost myself in something I could never afford to want.

But when I met his gaze, saw the same desperate, aching need reflected there, the fight bled out of me.

“I…” My lips parted, hesitation tangled with longing. Don’t say it. Don’t let yourself fall.

But I was already falling.

“I don’t want you to stop.”

Those words were my undoing. The air between us sizzled, the fragile balance shattering as the last threads of restraint snapped. The world beyond us blurred, faded, ceased to exist.

His expression softened, just for a breath, before something fierce and unrelenting took its place.

And as his fingers traced my lips, featherlight and reverent, a single thought clawed through the haze.

What if this is my chance to feel something other than pain?

I felt his breath, warm and steady, fanning over my lips, mingling with the rapid, uneven beats of my heart. Every second stretched between us, thick with tension, charged with something raw, something dangerous.

Adrian’s eyes darkened, dropping to my mouth, his gaze heavy with intent. The space between us was a fragile thread, stretched taut, ready to snap at the slightest push. My pulse pounded as he leaned in, slow, deliberate, giving me a chance to stop this. Daring me.

I didn’t.

His lips brushed mine, soft at first, too soft. A hesitation, as if he was giving me one last opportunity to pull away . But the time for caution had long since passed.

I answered with fire, pressing against him, my hands splaying over the hard lines of his chest. The kiss deepened, turned sharp, urgent.

A collision of want and defiance, of everything we had denied ourselves.

His fingers tangled in my hair, tugging me closer, and I let him, goddess, I wanted him to.

Salt lingered on his lips, his taste intoxicating, pulling me under. His power hummed beneath his skin, a call my magic answered with a shiver that raked down my spine. It was infuriating, this pull, this bond that made me crave him, made me burn for something I had no right to want.

But for this moment, I let myself want.

His hands trailed lower, slipping over the curve of my back, teasing the thin barrier of fabric between us.

I arched into his touch, my breath hitching as his fingers danced at the edge of my waistband.

His palm flattened against the small of my back, dragging me flush against him, and gods help me , I melted.

Adrian’s breath ghosted over my throat as he purred my name, the sound sinful, possessive.

A thrill coursed through me. My hands slid down, tracing the taut muscles beneath his shirt.

He was heat and tension, barely contained, his body rigid with restraint.

A restraint I wanted to shatter. Desire pulsed low in my stomach, spreading like wildfire.

This was reckless, dangerous. But so was I.

The ache between my legs, sharp and relentless, a need that thrummed in time with my pulse, was unbearable. His touch sparked fire beneath my skin, igniting every nerve, every part that I had buried, every part of me I fought to keep locked away.

His fingers dug into my waist, holding me like I was his to control, and I arched into him agian, desperate for more.

His lips found my neck, leaving trails of heat in the column of my throat.

The press of his broad tongue against my skin sent shockwaves of pleasure surging through me, drawing a low, breathless moan from my lips before I could stop it.

It was as if he couldn’t get enough, as if every part of me was something he needed to explore, to claim. And I couldn’t stop it. Not when every part of me burned for him, not when his touch pulled me closer, made me forget everything but him.

Another soft moan escaped my lips, unbidden, and I felt my hips instinctively rubbing against his, seeking more of the intoxicating heat between us.

My body moved on its own, drawn to the electric connection that crackled like a storm beneath my skin.

His touch wasn’t just physical. It reached deep, into the core of who I was, into the parts of myself I’d long hidden away.

It was more than desire. It was raw, primal, a kind of hunger that tore away everything else, leaving only the need to possess, to be possessed. And I wanted it. I wanted him .

“Adrian…” His name came out as a breathless whisper, half plea, half surrender.

His body pressed against mine again, and my heart raced in response. Every hard line of his muscles, the raw power in his movements, made me ache for more.

His lips found the hollow of my collarbone, and I whimpered, my fingers tangling in his dark hair as I held him closer.

Two souls colliding, the air thick with the desire we’d been fighting against. It felt like a tsunami, wild and unpredictable, but for once, I wasn’t afraid of being swept away. I wanted to drown in it.

But even as I lost myself at the moment, a part of me clung to reality.

I couldn’t ignore the whisper of doubt lingering in the back of my mind, the reminder that this was dangerous.

Not just for me, but for both of us. If we crossed this line, there would be no going back.

We were playing with fire, and I didn’t know if either of us was ready for the consequences.

Yet despite that fear, I couldn’t stop.

I wasn’t sure where I ended and he began, and maybe that was the point. Maybe this was what the bond had always been leading us to, this moment, this surrender.

“Tell me you feel it,” he breathed against my skin, his voice rough with need. “I need to know you feel the same. Tell me I’m not the only one going insane.”

I swallowed hard, my heart hammering in my chest.

“I’m going insane too,” I whispered, barely able to form the words. “I’ve felt it from the moment we met.”

His eyes blazed as he pulled back just enough to look at me, his breath heavy, his gaze searching mine as if he was looking for something, some confirmation. The hunger burned in his hazel eyes, but there was something more. Something deeper, possessive.

He captured my lips one more time, and this time he kissed me with possessiveness.

He claimed my mouth, my body and my soul, with his plush lips.

Like he needed to prove that this was real, that I was his.

All hesitation between us before was gone now, replaced by a fierce, unrelenting craving that sent a shock of heat through my entire body.

If he only knew I was his already.

His eyes gleamed with surprise as if he…. Wait had he heard my thoughts? It was a privileged of mated pairs, to pry into your partner’s mind with ease, but it shouldn’t have been po ssible so soon. The corners of his mouth lifted into a knowing smile.

“Good, you know who you belong to, princess,” he rasped, his voice low and hoarse, the edge of possessiveness sending delicious waves of pleasure down my spine.

My breath hitched. I hadn’t realized until now that my mental shields were completely down. A faint awareness had hovered in my mind, but now it was undeniable.

His hands gripped the hem of my top, fingers digging into my skin. I could taste his frustration, longing, and need, all wrapped in a kiss that overwhelmed and drowned me.