Page 33 of To Crave Truly

“Wait!” someone in the room shouted but I couldn’t wait a second longer. I dragged her into the shadows and transported her to her bedroom.

She gasped as I pushed her against the wall, pinning her there with my hips and forcing her to look deep into my eyes.

She’d changed. A red glow hung about her eyes, and I could see the tell-tale points of her fangs lurking behind her full lips. There was a new darkness in her that I could feel pushing against my shadows. It felt manic and wild. Unstable.

Worry curled in my gut as I stared into her ruby eyes. Mordecai had a plan and I feared that Lori wasn’t going to survive it, no matter how powerful she was now.

Lori ran her thumb between my brows. “Stop worrying so much. You’ll get frown lines.”

I captured her wrist and pulled her hand down over my heart. “I can’t lose you again, Lori. Being without you… seeing you die…” I swallowed, my words sticking in my throat.

She wrapped her free hand around the back of my neck and pulled my forehead down to hers. “I don’t plan on going anywhere ever again. I won’t lie and say I’m not scared about Mordecai because I am. But I know that with you, and the rest of the guys, we have a good chance of coming up with a way to defeat him. Right now, I want you to kiss me because it’s been too long since I’ve felt—”

I didn’t wait for her to finish her sentence. I slammed my mouth to hers and revelled in her gasp that caressed my lips. I forced her mouth open and ran my tongue along the length of hers. She kissed me as eagerly as I kissed her, and my heart soared at the thought of how much she wanted me.

I called my shadows and slid them in between the layers of clothes before slicing through them and ripping them to shreds.

“Torsten! You can’t keep doing that,” she squealed, the smile on her face showing me she wasn’t really mad.

“I will get you more. There were too many buttons, and I couldn’t be bothered to try to remove those trousers. They looked tight.”

She laughed as I slid my palms down to her ass before lifting her into my arms. I turned and fell with her onto the bed, using my shadows to shed my own clothes as well.

“Make love to me, Torsten. Make me feel alive,” Lori said, her hands clutching at my back with desperation.

I sealed my lips against hers and did just that.

Chapter Fifteen

Lori

Asoft knock at my door pulled me from my drowsiness. Torsten’s arm gripped my waist tighter and he muffled something about skinning the intruder alive if they didn’t leave. He was so stinking cute when he was half asleep. The lines of his face were softer, and the harshness of his life fell away as he gave into the vulnerability only to be found when sleeping.

The knock came again, but louder and definitely more insistent.

“Lori!” Cassian growled through the door, “I don’t care if you’re riding that demon, I will break down this damn door if you don’t open in the next three seconds."

“I see absence hasn’t made him fonder,” Torsten mumbled.

I slapped his shoulder and pulled my sore limbs from the bed.

“Three…”

“I’m coming!”

“Two…”

I pulled the door wide open and came face to face with my grumpy dragon.

“Do you usually answer the door naked?” he snarled, a frown sinking deeper over his ice blue eyes.

“Only when there’s a dragon threatening to knock it down.”

His nostrils flared and his pupils started to lengthen into reptilian slits as his gaze caressed my curves.

“You need to get dressed.”

“Why?” I asked, drawing out the syllable just to piss him off.

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