Page 23 of A Reign of Storm and Madness

Kiera

Kalix’s kiss is a bruising, cruel action. There’s no sensuality, no gentleness. Only hot, violent desire. I don’t feel the pulse of his persuasion which means that when my lips part to allow him entry, I’m doing that all on my own. Once I decide to let this happen, all my inhibitions fall away and I kiss Kalix back with a ferocity I’m sure surprises him as he makes a little growling noise in the back of his throat. Suddenly, his hands are on me, around me, gripping my waist as he lifts me harder against him.

The hard ridge of his erection digs into my lower belly, a reminder of just how far this can go. How far I’ve already gone with one of them.

I don’t bother trying to ask him why he’s kissing me. I doubt he’d give me a rational answer or one I could understand. Kalix Darkhaven, I’m finding, is a man of little sanity.

My hand curves up and over his shoulder, pulling him down closer to me as I lift my hips against his and grind. A puff of air slips over my mouth as he pulls away and grins at me, repeating the action with his own body rolling against mine.

“Not fighting me tonight, little human?” he asks, nuzzling against the side of my throat even as he keeps his cock pressed tight to me. The only thing keeping us apart are the thin clothes we both wear, and I’m so hot, I feel as if I’m burning alive inside my own flesh.

“Would it do any good?” I counter, breathless.

The quiet laugh he emits is every dark, deviant thought I’ve ever had wrapped up into a single sound. It causes butterflies to blossom in my stomach and break free, fluttering up my abdomen and spreading out until they become tingles in my limbs.

“No,” Kalix responds just before his head descends again and his lips crash into mine a second time. I close my eyes and lean into him, my nails digging into the shoulder I’m latched on to.

If he feels them, he doesn’t react. No, all his energy and focus are solely on my mouth as he forces his tongue between my lips and then curls it around my own. The heat inside me is unbearable, but Kalix … Kalix isn’t hot at all. If anything, he feels cold. His skin is like frost as I retract my nails and skim down his arms and over his chest, pushing into the open neckline to feel his muscles.

He must have been outside before coming here, I think absently. It’s the only excuse. Or … wait, is it because he can shift into a snake? Snakes are cold-blooded. It’s entirely possible that his body is—

My thoughts are interrupted as his hands rove down and curl behind my thighs. He twists the two of us, and my mouth rips away from his as the world spins and I’m suddenly sitting astride him, a massive male Mortal God lying beneath me. White flashes as he grins broadly.

Kalix cants his hips upward, rubbing himself against me in rough thrusts. Were we naked he would most assuredly be inside me. “Come, little human,” he says. “Your heart is soft—you should put me out of my misery.”

“By fucking you?” I gape down at him. This is a terrible fucking idea. Yet, I don’t get off him. Maybe I’m insane too.

He lifts his arms back behind his head and threads his fingers together to prop his head up. The flash of tan skin beneath his tunic draws my eye. I liked feeling him, liked running my hand over his body and feeling his muscles and broad smooth flesh. As if they recall the memory, my fingers begin to tingle and inch towards the opening of his tunic.

“Why not?” Kalix asks with a slight shrug. “You fucked Theos. Wouldn’t it just serve to get a little revenge on Ruen if you fucked me too?”

Definitely crazy, I decide. A part of me hates that Kalix is pointing out my own earlier thoughts, but at the same time … sometimes it feels like he’s the only one who truly looks at me and understands. We’re not all here to follow the Gods.

Kalix Darkhaven is dangerous in so many ways. I know I shouldn’t, so why does it make me want him even more?

My core swells and wetness rubs against my inner lips, reminding me of the hot, hard cock pressed up between us. I swallow roughly, my eyes scanning down from his face to his throat. With his position, he’s got his head reclined and it’s open to me. It’d be easy to reach for my dagger and have it back against his neck before he could move. He wouldn’t expect me to move as fast as him—or maybe he would and that’s why he’s baring his throat to me.

Is he testing me? My gaze flicks up to check his expression, half-expecting to find an amused, knowing look. There’s amusement, for sure, but everything about his face reads hungry and uncaring.

I return to my perusal of him. There’s still a smudge of blood from where I nicked him with my dagger. Thank the Gods for his quick healing ability because no doubt if Ruen were to see the wound, he’d have questions.

I blink. Why the fuck would I care if Ruen has questions? If I do decide to fuck Kalix, it will be because I want Ruen angry. I want to punish him for his betrayal.

“Penny for your thoughts, little mortal?” Kalix asks, lifting a brow. It’s as if he’s challenging me to follow through with this and regardless of how I ended up last time I fucked a Darkhaven brother—imprisoned and punished in front of the entire Academy—I’m stupid enough to still consider it.

What is it about these men that makes a woman lose all sense of reason?

Bending forward, my hair slides off my shoulder and curtains us between each other. “Why are you pushing me to fuck you so hard, Kalix Darkhaven?” I ask, tipping my chin with bravado I don’t actually feel. “Can’t get anyone else to do it?”

“Why would I want anyone else when I can have you?” The bastard answers my question with one of his own. He’s playing with me like a cat with a mouse. Bite and retreat, watching and waiting to see how I’ll respond. What I’ll do. It makes me want to throw him out a window. Infuriating man.

“Who said you can have me?” I sit back up, moving away from the temptation of his lips—lips that are still wet from our kiss.

His green eyes glimmer with a red hue, there and then gone just as fast. “You’re a Terra,” he says casually. “I can have any Terra I want whenever I want.”

“Sure.” He’s not wrong and I hate that I can’t deny it. The reminder that these God spawn can use and abuse their human servants leaves a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Would I have looked at human life the same way if my God parent had reported my birth?

“You can have anything and everything you want, Master Kalix,” I state. “Save for a person’s trust and heart.”

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