Page 29 of Of Wind and Terror

There’s a fluttering sensation in my chest, and the strength of it terrifies and exhilarates me in equal measure. I want to spend the rest of my days in his arms just as much as I want to run for the hills.

Blaze pulls the scratchy blanket down so my breasts are revealed. I moan when he sucks one of my taut nipples into his mouth, his beard tickling my skin in a way that sends molten lava through my veins.

“You’re so beautiful, little beast,” he whispers reverently as he kisses across my chest to give my neglected breast attention. He swipes the pad of his tongue back and forth across my nipple as I arch my back, desperate for more. “So perfect. You’re mine.”

My initial thought is—yes. Yes, I’m yours.

But then reason eclipses lust.

What does being Blaze’s entail? I don’t want to be another prisoner or pet.

Is he offering me freedom or a gilded cage?

He kisses down my stomach, but just before he can reach my pubic bone, I push at his shoulders with my gloved hands. He’s so large, so muscular, that a tiny thrill shoots through me. All of that raw power…

I shake my head to clear my arousal-laced thoughts and take a moment to consider my words.

“What is this? What are we?” My hands shake slightly as I sign those words. I immediately want to take them back, but now that they’re out in the universe, I know there’s nothing else for me to do but own them.

Blaze’s brows lower over smoldering eyes. “What do you think we are, my love?”

He grabs my gloved hand and presses it to his lips.

My love.

Goose bumps pebble on my skin.

“Is this just…lust? Infatuation?”

But Gaia help me, even as I sign those words, I know that can’t be further from the truth.

And I’m terrified.

When we kissed, I could taste his darkness, his demons, his sins. He’s hiding something, something monumental, and there’s no telling what that secret may be. He’s a monster disguised as a beautiful fae, and I’m not sure anyone—let alone me—can tame him.

Blaze’s eyes harden, turning molten, peeling away my defenses. “I know lust, little beast. And I definitely know infatuation. What we have isn’t either. I don’t know what it is besides a barbaric type of obsession. I want to possess you, claim you, own you. I want to feel your fingernails digging into my back as you fall apart on my cock, but then I want to hold you in my arms as we both fall asleep. That’s not mere lust. That’s something else, something more, something other.”

My breath leaves me, and magma traverses my veins, setting me aflame, burning me alive.

I lift my hands to respond—though I have no idea what I even want to say—when the door to the cottage is thrown open.

Blaze immediately throws himself on top of me, shielding me with his body, and bellows a barrage of threats at the intruder.

Faye ignores him entirely and turns towards me. “Kassandra, you need to come quick.” Something dark flits to life in her eyes. “There’s something you need to see.”

11

ALEKSANDER

It’s been half a day, and my little cherub still hasn’t returned to me.

What more does she want?

I’ve been patient—it’s the least I can do after upturning her entire life—but this is becoming ridiculous.

Haven’t I proved myself?

For fuck’s sake, I willingly allowed myself to be taken prisoner by these damn Summer fae and shoved into a cell.

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