Page 134 of Stormvein

When I’m finally as naked as she is, our skin meets with electric intensity. Her silver light flares brighter, reaching for my shadows with an urgency that mirrors our bodies. Everywhere we touch, our powers mingle. Darkness and light, shadow and silver, twining together. The air around us grows thick with power, heady with desire.

Her legs part for me, an invitation I have no intention of refusing. But not yet. Not when there’s so much more to explore, to taste, to experience.

I move down her body again, hands spreading her thighs wider. She realizes my intent a second before my mouth finds her center, her entire body tensing in anticipation. The first stroke of my tongue draws a sound from her throat, quickly smothered by her palm. I laugh softly against her skin.

“Are you sure no one can hear?” Her hips rise up to meet my mouth.

I lift my head just enough to respond. “You’ll have to trust my word.”

I return to my task with absolute focus, learning what makes her fingers dig into my shoulders, what makes her thighs tremble around my head, what makes silver light pulse beneath her skin in waves that match her pleasure. I don’t relent when her breathing grows ragged, when her body begins to tense toward release. I increase my efforts, determined to break her control completely.

When she comes, the cry that rises in her throat is muffled by her hand, her body arching with such force it nearly dislodges me. Silver blazes across her skin, so bright it threatens to pierce through my shadows. I don’t stop until the last tremor passes through her, until she’s limp and breathless beneath me.

Only then do I crawl up her body, claiming her mouth again, letting her taste herself on my tongue. Her hand slips between us, finding me hard and ready. Her fingers wrap around me, stroking with enough pressure to make my breath catch.

“My turn,” she whispers against my mouth.

I catch her wrist and gently draw it away. “Next time.”

Before she can protest, I settle between her thighs, positioning myself. Our eyes lock in the silver-lit darkness, a moment of perfect understanding passing between us. Then I push forward, entering her in one slow thrust that makes us both gasp.

I hold still for a moment, almost overwhelmed by the sensation of her body surrounding mine. Her power pulses in rhythm with her heartbeat, while my shadows curl around us both.

Then I begin to move, setting a rhythm that starts slow but quickly builds in intensity. Her hips rise to meet each thrust, her hands clutching at my shoulders, my back, anywhere she can reach. The sounds she makes—small gasps, broken moans—drive me to push harder, faster.

“Look at me,” I demand when her eyes start to close from pleasure.

She does, silver-rimmed irises holding mine as we move together. The intimacy of it is almost too much to bear, more exposed, more vulnerable than the physical act itself. I nearly look away, but force myself to maintain the connection, to acknowledge what is happening between us.

Her legs wrap around my waist, changing the angle, taking me deeper, and my control fractures, a low sound escaping despite my earlier admonishment for silence.

“Who can’t be quiet now?” There’s a triumphant note to her whisper, even as her breathing grows more ragged.

In response, I shift my weight to one arm, and slide my hand between our bodies. She tenses when my fingers connect with her clit.

“Still you.” I circle my fingers in time with my thrusts.

Her release takes her by surprise, body clenching around me, back arching up. She buries her face against my shoulder to muffle her cries, nails digging into my back hard enough to leave marks. The sensation of her body pulsing around mine, the sight of silver light washing over her skin in waves, is enough to send me following immediately after.

For one blinding moment, pleasure obliterates everything else. The world narrows to where our bodies join, where ourpowers intertwine. Time seems to stretch and compress. There is only this perfect connection, this impossible joining of powers that should never have met.

My shadows and her silver spiral together, merge completely, become something neither darkness nor brilliance, but both at the same time. The air around us vibrates with it. In the space between heartbeats, I glimpse flashes of what we might become together. Power beyond what either of us could access alone, the fulfillment of words from a prophecy I want to deny.

Two forces never meant to meet shall intertwine, the union defies the patterns of ages past.

I understand now why I’ve fought against this connection, why every instinct screamed danger. Not because it will destroy me, but because it will change me.

We stay tangled together, our breathing gradually slowing. My shadows keep their protective barrier, sheltering us from the outside world. Her fingers trace idle patterns across my back, following paths where sweat cools against my skin.

“I won.” There’s smug satisfaction in her tone.

“Won what?”

“You made more noise than I did.”

I laugh, the sound surprising me. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh, you did.” She props herself up on one elbow, hair falling around her face. “And I definitely won.”