A Kiss of Shadow (Court of Starlight and Darkness #2)(32)

Pleasure shot through me, fierce and quick. I gasped, unable to stop myself from moving against him. Every shift of my hips sent another jolt of fire through me, and starbursts appeared behind my eyelids.

“Sia,” he rasped, turning to press my back against the wall. He gripped my hips and moved against me. I clutched his shoulders, and he ran his lips down my neck, pressing kisses to the sensitive skin.

I tilted my head to the side, giving him better access.

He laved his tongue over the curve of my neck, then groaned. “You taste so sweet.”

I tilted my head so that I could nip his jaw. “You don’t. You taste like sin.”

“You feel like sin.” He thrust against me, his length hard and delicious, putting pressure in just the right places. I’d had no idea it could feel so good through so many layers of clothing.

His lips found mine again, and he kissed me with the passion of a man who thought he might never do it again.

I couldn’t let that happen.

This couldn’t be the last time. I ran my hands over his shoulders and biceps, marveling at his strength, memorizing every inch of him.

Tension tightened in me as his movements drove me to the edge of madness.

“I want you inside me.” The words whispered out of me on a moan.

Lore stilled, withdrawing his mouth from mine, and looking at me with hot eyes. “Sia…”

“Please, Lore.”

“No.” His jaw hardened, and he appeared to be trying to drag himself back from the brink. Panic flashed when he pulled back from me and said, “This was a bad idea.”

“Please, don’t leave me like this.” I hated the pleading in my voice. “I—I want you.”

A shuddery breath escaped him, his gaze dropping to my lips. The desire in his eyes made something tighten inside me. The ice blue was filled with sapphire flame, and I swore I could see all the things he wanted to do to me. He said one thing, but he clearly felt another.

No one had ever looked at me like that. I was pretty sure no one had ever looked at anyone like that.

A low groan escaped his throat. “Fate, help me.”

His lips crashed down on mine, a kiss so fierce that it stole my breath. It swept me up in a perfect storm of frustrated desire and desperate pleasure.

I gripped his shoulders, moving my hips against his in a rhythm that felt better than anything ever had in my life. I didn’t care what happened from here, as long as I could come. As long as I could make him come.

I wanted to feel him let go, to feel the ecstasy rush through him. He hadn’t been with anyone else in centuries. The idea of it took my breath. I wanted to feel his pleasure more than I wanted to feel my own.

“Sia.” He dragged his lips from mine and buried his face in the crook of my neck. “You’re going to make me—”

He cut off, the words stolen by a gasp that made my heart soar. His hands dug harder into my thighs as his hips moved in a desperate rhythm. He shuddered, his breath coming harder.

All of it combined to steal my thoughts and drag me into the vortex of pleasure alongside him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and hung on as all the tension exploded inside me, making me feel like a star going supernova.

A low groan escaped him as he shuddered, his breath hot at my ear. “Sia.”

The pleasure tapered off, leaving me lax and satiated. “I didn’t expect that to happen.”

He drew back, his gaze warm. “I wouldn’t leave you behind.”

I laughed, happier than I’d ever been in my life.

Then the shadows crossed his face.

“Lore?”

His brow creased and his jaw tightened. The change in his expression was fast enough to give me whiplash.

“We shouldn’t have done this.” He set me down with a gentleness that made my heart clutch, then whirled on his heel and left the room. The door thudded closed behind him.

I flinched, then leaned back against the wall.

Had that really just happened?





12





Lore



* * *



I strode through the train, wishing I could outrun my demons the way I’d walked away from Sia. I’d just left her there. After what we’d done, I’d found the strength to walk away.

I couldn’t believe it.

I also couldn’t believe the way I’d lost control.

Frustrated, I dragged a hand over my face. I’d let my desire get the better of me, just like I had in the past.

Weak.

I was weak. Especially where she was concerned.

I stopped in the bathroom and cleaned myself up, ashamed by my loss of restraint. Sia was a danger to my self-control, which meant she was a danger to my people. She wasn’t to blame—that was all on me—but she was still too much of a temptation for me to resist.

And yet, she was meant to help us defeat the witch with the deathly magic. I couldn’t let her go.

I left the bathroom and went to the dining car, unable to get my mind off of Sia and the witch who would arrive at High Court Palace.

The damned witch needed to stop with the theatrics and arrive, already. Her dark clouds had been hovering over our kingdom for months, growing ever closer. They filled the sky as the train steamed toward the palace, growing thicker and darker as we neared our destination.