Black Moon Draw(89)

The hunger in his gaze makes my breath catch, his intensity already rocking my world before he’s even kissed me.

Tonight is going to be something I never forget.

Taking his cheeks in my hands, I rise up on my tiptoes and kiss him hard, sliding my tongue between his lips to taste him once more. His response is instant and he deepens the kiss, his velvety tongue moving expertly against my lips and inside my mouth. Any second thought fizzles and disappears, along with the emotions and barriers that have guarded me for years.

The feeling rising in their place is one of pure joy, happiness I’ve never experienced, a sense of being where I belong so intense, it anchors in my soul.

“My god,” I breathe, dropping onto my heels. The sense I experienced when I first saw the emerald hills is back, piercing me to the core.

Home. It’s not just the place – it’s the man.

“’Tis the bonding, I believe,” he whispers, temple against mine. “Did I not tell you to cease fighting your destiny?”

“You also threw me out of a tree,” I point out breathlessly. I can’t help it – I’m crying, laughing, aching so badly to feel his skin, I can’t think of anything but feeling him inside me as he claims me, running my hands over every inch of the warm, smooth, fragrant skin coating his incredible body. To smell, touch, devour . . . I need him in a way that goes much deeper than physical lust. I need him to be a part of me, to become one.

“I need you too much to be gentle,” he says huskily. His palms skim down my body, one hand going to my ass and pulling me hard against his straining cock. He’s long and thick.

“I don’t care,” I gasp, already lost to him. “Wreck me. I’m yours.”

With a growl that doesn’t sound human, he claims my lips. His touch grows rougher, commanding my body.

This can’t be the end. The thought quickly fades, burnt up in his passion, and I take the step I never thought I’d ever take.

I surrender. Every last part of me.





Chapter Twenty One


The Shadow Knight had never intended for his witch to be drawn into the final day of this curse. In his last moments alive, he wanted to be numb, to watch the world crumble from a place of neither emotion nor memory of how he had failed. He planned on being alone, on sequestering himself in the bedchamber that was supposed to become his when he was master of the castle.

He didn’t expect his witch to find him, especially once the Heart was destroyed.

By some miracle, she had, and he began to realize they were reliving the fate of his ancestor, the Shadow Knight whose death started the curse. Naia had predicted his death at the hands of Brown Sun Lake and they’d bonded the night before the final battle.

The only real difference: the world was ending this day and there was no Heart for Naia to use to cast another thousand-year spell.

His feelings and mind refused to give him peace and grant him the respite he hoped to have today. Pain so raw it caused physical pain made him touch his heart, and he rose from the bed where he had spent the entire night making love to his battle-witch, his queen, his Naia, who slept deeply after the long night.

She proved to be as intriguing in bed as she was during daylight, her complete submission making his sense of possessiveness roar in satisfaction. He had laid with her every way possible, unable to get enough of her, needing more despite the hours they spent with their skin pressed together.

Sweet, gentle, spirited, beautiful. His queen was not traditional, but she was his in every way, a woman with compassion greater than all the magic of the medallion she wore, whose tears for him and his world were genuine, and whose cries and sighs as she writhed beneath him made him want to do what he thought impossible.

He wanted . . . needed to save her. His soul quivered with the despair brought on by the thought of watching her die. One night with the woman who brought him back to life and gave him hope was not enough.

The Shadow Knight crossed to the window and braced his hands on either side. It was harder than usual to know what time of day it was; the black clouds above his castle shunted out even more sunlight than usual. It was lightening outside despite the fog, and he judged it to be around mid-morning.

He had dreamt since he was five of seeing the blue sky during his reign. Instead, the heavens had turned black because he was unable to stop it.

His eyes swept over the city. Tens of thousands of people waited for him to awaken them from their slumbers and revive their world. They, too, would perish before the sun set, along with every other person in the realm.

And Naia.

The pain was back.

He pushed away from the window and pulled on his breeches and boots, unable to think clearly whenever his mind went to her. He wanted to crawl into bed beside her and make love to her up until the very last moment of their existence. He had swept them both into pleasure unknown before last night, and it was not enough.

Accustomed to solving his problems through battle, he stood and thought hard, pulling on his tunic. Never before was he willing to listen to Naia’s insistence there was more than one way to resolve the conflict between Black Moon Draw and Brown Sun Lake. Mayhap it was pride, arrogance, or desperation, but he wished now he had tried a different approach at least once. The reasoning that it never worked for his predecessors suddenly seemed foolish, especially when he considered that neither had battle.

Strapping on his weapons, he snatched up the boar’s head worn by every Shadow Knight for a thousand years and hesitated, gaze going to the woman sleeping in his bed.