Page 83 of The Rose in the Shadows

And I was realizing that I had wanted him for longer than I had allowed myself to see.

“Yes,” I whispered.

I stepped forward, pressing myself into him more fully and reaching up to rest my hands on his hips. His tongue pressed against my bottom lip, and I opened for him, reveling in his taking ownership of my mouth so entirely. He reached for my chin with his left hand while his right lost itself in my hair, pulling out my braids until the golden locks rushed over my shoulders.

"Gods this hair." His mouth left mine so his gaze could crest over its waves. "I should have known you would ruin me the first time you wore it down so freely."

"And have I-" My breath caught. "Ruined you?"

Those heated eyes traveled from my hair to my lips. The way he looked at me… it was like a man in awe. He worshipped me with his eyes alone. And suddenly, the overwhelming need for him to worship me withmorethan his eyes nearly took me off my feet.

"Not yet, princess. But you might be the only one in the kingdom with the power to do so."

I couldn't fight my grin as I pulled him to me once more. I would accept that challenge happily.

His touch was a flame, setting my skin alight wherever his fingers brushed my skin.Yes. I had needed this. For so long I had needed him without realizing it, and now with his mouth on mine I couldn’t think of anything more perfect than the way Clayton Vail kissed me. I pressed myself to him hungrily, needing more, demanding more from him. An unfamiliar ache in my core overwhelmed me as I tangled my fingers in his sandy hair.

And yet for as desperately as he clearly wanted me, he still held himself back. I could feel it in the tension of his shoulders and the softness of his hand sliding down my back. Clay was still waiting for me to stop this.

But I didn’t want to stop. I only wanted him.

As I pulled his bottom lip between my teeth, a breathy moan managed to escape me and his restraintfinallyshattered.

He pushed me back, never breaking our kiss, and guided me towards the wall. My back crashed against the glass case containing the bident of Hyrax with such force that I was grateful it hadn’t shattered. I doubted I would have even noticed if it had. Nothing existed outside of he and I and the place we met. My knees weakened as he nipped at my lower lip, and he strung his arm around my waist, lifting me so that I could lock my legs around him. I pulled on the wavy strands of his hair, delighted at the softness between my fingertips. As he broke our kiss I whimpered in frustration, but my cries turned to those of need as he trailed his lips across my throat, finding the sensitive flesh that made me arch against him.

The world began and ended with him.

“I’ve never…”

His eyes pulled back, meeting mine. “Should I stop?”

The idea of his warmth leaving me was almost too terrible to imagine. “Please don’t.”

“Gods, Thea,” he whispered my name like a prayer. “I don’t have the strength to be gentle with you right now, especially not if you're going to sayplease.”

That was good because I didn’t want him to be gentle. I didn’t want him to be a proper, dutiful,gentleprince right now. Clay had seen me, and now I wanted to see him. I wanted the man under the crown. Pulling back, I took his face in my hands and forced him to look me in the eyes once more. I knew very well the heat he would see there. I knew it mirrored his own.

“I want you Clay.Please.”

“Fuck,” he groaned, burying his face against my throat as his fingers dug into my ass. We brought our lips together once more. Months of forbidden passion had left us starving for each other. He was all I could think of, all I could feel around me. I was positively burning alive for him.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, piercing me with his eyes as his hand began reaching for my inner thighs. “You’re the most beautiful thing in this entire fucking kingdom. Do you know that? You must.”

His fingers reached that delicate spot between my legs and it was all I could do not to scream out. That felt… well, that was indescribable. He trailed kisses down my throat as his thumb continued tracing circles overthat spotand by the Gods I started to move with him. My body knew what it needed even if my mind didn’t.

Clay watched me, unblinking, as I struggled to chase the tension that was building within me. As his free hand reached under my tunic to grasp my breast and pinch at the subtle peak, his golden eyes were more aflame than I’d ever seen them before. I whimpered when his tongue slowly darted out to wethis lower lip and the sound earned me a small grin. That grin nearly pushed me over the edge.

“We gotta get you out of these pants, princess.”

I wanted to agree, but words escaped me. I was hot. Too hot to think clearly. My skin was scorched and tiny beads of sweat began pebbling my forehead. It was all too much. The heat was impossible, both in my core and between my shoulder blades. It spread over my back until it encompassed me entirely and flowed freely through my veins into my fingers and toes, warming every part of me. The feeling was indescribable, only comparable to the sensation of my own magic rushing in me before it exploded.

Magic.

There was only a moment after I realized the heat at my backwasmagic, pulsing from the bident into me and mingling with my own, before it finally erupted out of me in a vicious rush. It pushed into Clay sharply, snapping his head away from me.

“What? What happened?” He questioned, frozen.

Power pounded in my body, more potent than anything I’d ever manifested before, and sent tingles across my skin. Silently, I pushed his shoulders, removing him from me and stepping away. The bident behind me was entirely unchanged. There was no glow, no cracks in the glass, no visible sign of any magic emanating from it. That spear was nothing more than an antique on the wall.

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