Page 200 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Ever so slowly, I let my fingers trail farther. Over her shoulder. Down her side. Across the curve of her hip.

My erection strains against the crotch of my pants. A fresh jolt of fear hits me.

She’s so small, and I’m so big… everywhere. Are we really going to be able to?—

The shadows singing through my blood call out, Yes, yes, yes. And so does everything in the way Riva’s responding to me, tipping her head so our mouths can meld together even more temptingly, humming encouragingly at my touch.

I want—I want to really touch her. All of her, skin to skin, nothing between us.

I want to feel how much we belong together in every meaning of that word.

Is this how the other guys all felt when they got this far? Is the act supposed to be so overwhelming?

It doesn’t matter. All that matters is how it is for her and me.

I draw back only a few inches. My voice has gone hoarse. “Can I take your shirt off?”

Riva only smiles again and lifts her arms to make it easier for me. My pulse racing, I grip the hem, barely grazing her skin, and peel the shirt off of her.

The sleek curves of her breasts rise and fall with her breath within the plain pink bra she’s wearing. I’ve never seen anything more tantalizing.

Oh, please, if any higher powers exist at all, let me get through this encounter without coming in my pants first.

Keeping a close watch on the whirl of emotions inside me, I tease my fingers along her collarbones. The three thumbprint-like marks she shares with the other guys stand out against her pale skin.

As I let my hand drift downward, her chest gives a little hitch. The flush spreading across it reassures me that the sound was approving rather than frightened.

I chart the path from the base of her throat to her belly button. Splay my fingers across the toned planes of her stomach. Dare to lift my hand higher so I can cradle one breast against my broad palm.

Riva’s tongue flicks out to wet her lips. “It feels good, Zee,” she says softly. “Really good.”

The longing twined through those words wakes up an animal inside me, but not the one I was afraid of. One that wants to throw her beneath me and drive inside her without wasting another instant.

No. That’s too dangerous.

But I can’t completely hold back. My reservations are fraying.

I roll her nipple under my thumb through the fabric. Riva quivers and then reaches behind her to the clasp at her back.

She catches my gaze first, waiting for my approval. My mouth goes dry.

“Yes,” I rasp. “Please.”

She lets the bra slip off her arms. And something in me cracks open.

My mouth crashes into hers, my arms enfolding her. Riva lets out an eager gasp and clutches me in return.

Our tongues collide and dance around each other like licks of flame. I devour her mouth and then brand a path down the side of her neck, over her shoulder, to the slopes I can’t resist.

When I lap the peak of her breast into my mouth, she arches to give me better access. A needy whimper spills from her lips, and my cock turns so hard I’m aching.

The shadows inside me leap and jitter, egging me on. Craving everything she can offer.

This isn’t enough. I need everything. I need to be inside her.

Somewhere in the midst of my passion, my claws have come out. I rid myself of my shirt more by shredding it than tugging it off.

Riva raises her hands to my chest, at first cautiously and then tracing my bulging muscles with more confidence at my encouraging growl. I tip her over on the bed, yanking at her jeans as I do.

She has the presence of mind to undo the fly so she can wriggle out of them. Her fingers hook around the waist of my pants.

And all at once my breath stutters with a spike of panic.

The hired woman. The white-walled room. The nausea on Andreas’s face when he returned after she led him away.

The demanding stroke of her hands over my body, trying to tempt my compliance?—

I freeze over Riva, panting and trembling, a groan of frustration locked in my throat.

Riva goes still. I can feel Dominic watching, evaluating—deciding he doesn’t need to interrupt.

Not yet.

Riva gazes up at me with no judgment at all in her bright eyes. “We don’t have to do anything more than this. This was—this was amazing. If you need to stop?—”

Fuck, no. The idea of stopping when we’re so close, when my need for her is throbbing through every inch of my body, brings a screaming sense of resistance to the front of my mind.

She’s mine. I will not let the fucking asshole guardians and their perverted tricks ruin what should be ours.

I inhale her scent, absorb her warmth, and will my sparks of panic to dwindle. When I lower my head to steal another kiss, the heat of it sears away any lingering chill.

I jerk at my pants, and Riva resumes her assistance. She caresses my bare thighs until a groan that’s all hunger reverberates out of me.

Then she lifts one hand to my face, holding my gaze. “I love you.”

The last fragments of my control shatter. “I love you too. I want you. I need you.”

Her smile could reignite the sun. “You have me.”

I don’t know what I’m doing, but my hips sway toward hers as if we were made to fit together. Her legs splay to make room.

My dick slides between her folds, and the rest of the world falls away.

If I’m stretching her more than she was ready for, she shows no sign of it. Her breathy cry sounds only ecstatic.

I can’t stop myself from pushing deeper, faster. Reveling in the scorching friction of our joining.

My balls pulse. I’d swear my cock gets even harder.

I slam into her, all restraint lost, and Riva bucks to meet me just as wildly. She clutches my shoulders, her forehead tucking against my chest, her breath breaking with bliss.

The same joy blazes through my veins, igniting the shadows that are craving this moment as much as any other part of me.

My claws jut farther, scoring the bedspread. My fangs spring from my teeth as my jaw lengthens. Fur sprouts along my shoulders.

Before I can feel more than a flash of dismay at my unexpected shift, Riva curls her fingers into the tufts of fur as if she welcomes it.

“It’s good,” she mumbles. “It’s good.”

Her body quakes beneath mine, heat floods my groin—and the base of my dick swells in a way I’ve never felt before, not when I got myself off with my hands in furtive moments of privacy. The sudden bulge locks into place inside her, just as the shadows inside me roar to the surface.

I come harder than I can ever remember, in a rush so heady it sweeps every other thought out of my mind. Riva moans, gripping me tighter, and I feel the pleasure of the moment wash through her too as if I’ve totally merged with her, soul as well as body.

I drift to reality to find myself braced over her, my breath rasping, my cock still lodged inside her with that thickened ring that came out of nowhere. I don’t know if I can pull out without hurting her.

The bulge starts to shrink with the fading of my wolf-man features. “I’m sorry,” I mutter. “I didn’t know?—”

Riva curls her hand around the back of my neck. “It’s all right. It must be something to do with your powers, or the shift—it always seems to happen like that, the first time. We lose control over our abilities a little. But not in a bad way.”

She gives me the same brilliant smile, and my heart lights up with the sudden realization.

I did it. I was here for her as a lover as well as a friend, and I didn’t fall apart. I didn’t go crazy.

My damage hasn’t totally ruined me after all.

And now the marks dappling Riva’s collarbone balance out. Two on one side and two on the other.

I shift my weight so I can touch the new one, the one that matches the tingle on my breastbone with a connection I can’t explain, can barely describe.

“I really did it,” I say inanely.

Riva’s smile widens. “With undeniable physical proof.”

A chuckle tumbles out of me. When I adjust my position, I realize my dick has finally softened, the strange swelling fully contracted.

As I sit back on my heels, Riva pushes herself after me. She slings her arms around my torso and hugs me.

“It was so worth the wait.”

There’s so much joy in her voice it almost breaks me.

I blink hard and glance over at Dominic. He’s grinning too, like nothing could have made him happier than seeing us get to this moment—than seeing me sort out my baggage.

I wrap Riva up in my arms, press a kiss to her forehead, and shoot him a smile in return. “Thank you.”

He lifts a shoulder in a mild shrug. “I didn’t do anything. You can take all the credit.”

I only get another few seconds to linger in the thrill of Riva’s embrace before we’re interrupted by a sharp rap on the door.

Matteo’s even voice filters through. “I’d like all of you to join me in the back garden as soon as you’re decent.”

My cheeks flare all over again, first with embarrassment and then with an angry suspicion that Balthazar sent him to cut our happiness short. But Riva bobs up to offer me a quick kiss to my lips—a kiss I can accept without even tensing—and I decide I don’t give a fuck.

He can be an asshole about it, but I’ve already won.

We scramble into our clothes and head out to where the other three guys have already gathered. Andreas arches an eyebrow, and Griffin aims a pleased smile our way—of course he knows what we just got up to.

Matteo clears his throat impatiently and ushers us all the way to the wall along the edge of the property. He points to the stone surface. “Sit right there. That’s as far out as you can get without triggering your bracelets.”

Frowning, I do as he said, sticking close to Riva.

The skinny man consults a tablet and eyes us for about a minute. “Do you feel anything you didn’t inside the house? Any discomfort or uneasiness?”

“Other than the fear of falling over the edge to our doom?” Andreas says dryly.

Matteo ignores him, his gaze scanning the rest of us. I feel totally normal, so I shake my head.

Riva knits her brow. “I haven’t noticed anything. Why?”

He taps his lips. “Interesting. Very interesting. Well, you might as well come off of there now.”

We do, Jacob scowling as he pushes away from the wall. “What the hell was that about?”

Matteo turns with a distracted air. “There are protections against the monsters you’re partly made from embedded all around this hill.

I thought as your powers became more pronounced, you might also experience some similar negative effects…

Apparently not. You can go back to your evening activities. ”

Confusion loosens my voice. “But—there was that shadowkind guy we saw here before?—”

I cut myself off, unsure if mentioning the being we were warned not to talk to, the one Balthazar killed Sully over, was a wise move.

Matteo simply shrugs. “We have one possible route, fully under our control. They can only use it if Balthazar lets them in.”

He strides off, leaving the rest of us to drift toward the villa behind him. None of us wants to hang out in the deeper chill now that the sun has sunk below the horizon.

But when I look at Riva, her skin looks even more sallow than I can blame on the security lamps. She catches my gaze, and her mouth tightens.

Then it hits me.

She was counting on Rollick coming to break us out of our prison. But how much can any of the shadowkind help us if the entire hill we’re on top of is warded against them?