Page 109 of Stormvein

“What is this?” she asks, watching darkness swirl around silver. “Between us?”

“I don’t know.” I lower my head to the curve of her neck, my lips finding the spot where her pulse beats strongest. “But I intend to explore it thoroughly.”

My mouth kisses a path from her neck to her collarbone, then lower still. Her breathing turns ragged while I take my time learning what makes her gasp, what makes her tremble. Shadows follow where my lips lead, leaving trails of silvery smoke behind.

“I thought I’d lost you,” she whispers. Her fingers stroke down my chest, tracing scars that are no longer there, mapping the memory of wounds that once marked me.

I straighten, and lift her off her feet, then turn and stride toward the bedchamber. My shadows respond to her closeness, darkness flowing faster across my skin. When her hands touch me, the sensation is electric, awakening nerves I’d forgotten could feel such pleasure.

We fall onto the bed together, all pretense of restraint abandoned. She pushes me onto my back and crawls on top, straddling my hips, hands splayed across my chest. Her silver light brightens with her arousal, casting her in an otherworldly glow.

“I need to feel you. All of you. I need to know you’re really healed. That you’re?—”

“Here?” I finish for her. “Mel’shira, I’malivebecause of you.”

My hands follow the curves of her body, palms smoothing over her thighs, up her stomach, cupping her breasts. Her lids lower, lips parting when my thumbs sweep over her nipples. The silver brightens, a physical response she can’t control.

Pushing up on one arm, I replace my thumb with my mouth, tongue licking over one taut peak. She clutches at my shoulders, nails leaving half-moon impressions in my skin. When my palm slides down her stomach, the muscles there jump in anticipation.

I surge up, twisting to roll her beneath me on the bed. Shadows flow down my arms, extending and wrapping around her wrists like cool silk. With deliberate slowness, they guide her arms above her head, binding her wrists in place. The contrast is striking—her skin shining against the darkness of my power, her vulnerability against my control.

She tests the bonds, pulling against them. She’s not trying to escape, but testing the resistance. They tighten in response, and her back arches, pushing her breasts against my chest.

I lean over her, pressing my lips to her throat. “Is this what you want?”

“Yes,” she breathes.

I kiss my way down her body, taking my time, savoring each shiver, each small sound she makes. When my mouth reaches the inside of her thigh, her entire body tenses. I pause there, letting her feel my breath against her skin, watching the rise and fall of her chest as she strains against the shadow-bonds.

When I finally taste her, her reaction is immediate—a sharp cry, her hips rising toward my mouth. I use shadows to hold her in place, setting a rhythm with my tongue that soon has her trembling, incoherent sounds escaping her lips.

“Look at me.” I lift my head slightly, gazing up her body.

Her eyes open, hazy with desire, and meet mine. The vulnerability in her gaze, the trust implicit in her surrender, is more erotic than anything I could have imagined.

“I want you to watch me.”

I draw patterns against her with my tongue, making her thighs tremble. The silver grows brighter with each stroke, pulsing in time with her quickening heartbeats. It reaches for my shadows, and they twine together, creating spirals of darkness shot through with light.

When her breathing turns erratic, and her whimpers become sobs, I release the shadows, wanting her hands on me whenshe breaks. Her fingers immediately tangle in my hair, gripping almost painfully as pleasure crashes through her.

The sounds she makes, my name mixed with her cries, turn my blood to molten lava.

Before the last of her tremors fade, I move up her body. She pulls me down for a kiss that tastes of her. Her legs wrap around my hips, positioning me exactly where she wants me.

When I finally push inside, the feel of her wrapped around me is overwhelming. Her back arches off the bed, driving me deeper, a sound of pure pleasure escaping her lips. My shadows surge in response, darkness flowing over both of us like a living thing, creating patterns where they touch her skin—spirals and whorls that dance across our bodies.

We move together with growing urgency, her hips rising to meet each thrust, her nails dragging down my back, digging into my shoulders, anywhere she can reach. The room fills with the sound of our breathing, gasps, and half-formed words.

“Stay with me,” she whispers against my lips. “Don’t leave me again.”

Her words bring a new kind of intimacy, one that transcends the physical. I slow my movements, our bodies still joined, and cup her face between my palms.

“I’m here, Mel’shira.” I punctuate each word with a slow, deep thrust. “I’m yours.”

The admission surprises me. It’s a truth I hadn’t planned to reveal, yet one that feels undeniable in this moment of connection. Her eyes widen, then soften as she accepts what I’m giving her. Something beyond pleasure, beyond the joining of bodies.

It’s a promise. A truth.