Page 36 of An Empress of Earth & Darkness

He had kissed her hard and wild, but how she was kissing him back was matching every part of what he had offered her.

His equal.

His superior.

His thrill.

Trailing his hand from her hair round to her throat, he reluctantly pulled back and whispered into her mouth, “I am so unworthy of you. I see that every time I look at you, especially when I see how you fight for a better world. What I have done makes me so undeserving of you.”

“Torin…” She panted against his mouth, clutching at his neck.

“No, you have to hear this.” He opened his eyes to find hers watching him, droplets of rain clinging to her lashes. “Don’t think for one second that I never wanted this—us. I wanted all of it. I swear to Thorin, I wanted it all. I just didn’t know how without putting you in danger. I wanted to give you the best chance at being an empress.”

Her midnight hair was soaking, hanging heavy and straight around her shoulders. Her lips were swollen from his kiss and slightly parted, unable to speak. Her skin, drenched in raindrops, was darker, and it was evident that it had been bathed by the sun’s light. But even in this storm, she finally had a glow around her again. That steely gaze was back in her eyes, that fire and magic swirling endlessly. Her grey summer dress lay against her curves, highlighting where she rounded beautifully, all places he had worshipped before and wanted to worship now.

She was the most exquisite creature he had ever laid eyes on. Their chests heaved as they looked at one another. The energy charged around them, and he could have sworn that the lightning that split the sky in half was all for her. For them. She was the storm. She was the stars. She was the moon.

And she was right. She was always right. They couldn’t go down without fighting for this. How could he not fight for this?

That was very un-Blacksteel of him.

He pushed her dark, wet hair back from her face and leaned in further, his fingers splayed on her cheek. “I never thought I would find someone like you, Emara. The first time you ever scolded me for being a dick was the second I knew I was in trouble, and I was addicted to you from that moment on. I had to know every inch of you, your heart, your soul. I had to be the reason for your tremendous smile, and I had to know that the dangerous glint in your eyes was for me. Only for me.” He kissed her again; he needed to feel her lips on his, it had been too long. He pulled back, leaving them both breathless. “I have darkness too, Emara. And you have been so very patient with that. I was not afraid to see your darkness. I’m still not. And I do not care what blood you have running through your veins. I am so madly in love with you and nothing can change that.”

He noticed her eyes widen and change colour as shock hit her heart. As her lips parted to speak, he kissed her again, this time with a little more poise than last. Emara pulled his head to hers again, not settling for anything less than hard passion as she pressed her body against him, drinking in every inch of his mouth. She wanted more of him, and he wanted all of her.

Maybe a moment of madness slipped past them both, but they laughed against each other’s mouths, and when she pulled back to look at him, he couldn’t for one second more believe that this was not the path the Gods had set for him.

It was her.

She was magical.

She was rainstorms and beauty. She was fire and steel. She was chaos and harmony. She was darkness and light. She was…

She was everything.

She was his everything.

“I love you too.” She smiled up at him as if she could feel what he was thinking and then she said, “Kiss me, Torin Blacksteel, and don’t stop.”

His grin must have been wider than the broken sea as he took in the memory of the first time he had begged her to say those little words. Words that meant more to him than she would ever know. Words that had changed the course of their path.

His hand found its way behind her ear. “I will never stop kissing you, Emara Clearwater. Not for anything. Not even for the Gods.”

He picked her up like the Goddess she was, and she wrapped her body around him before his mouth was on hers again and he was striding towards a place where he could have every inch of her glorious bare skin against his.

Emara was unsure how she’d made it down the stairs or through the corridors without as much as opening her eyes or taking a breath.

Torin had just burst through a door and slammed Emara against the wall. His hard body pressed into hers, and she let out a moan of want—of need.

What he had said to her on the roof, how he had looked at her, how he had kissed her…

She would take some time alone to process it all, but right now, with her back against the cool stone and Torin Blacksteel at her neck with this wicked mouth—and tongue and teeth—she wanted to let the worries of everything slip away, leaving only them.

“You have no idea how much I have wanted this.” He nibbled into her skin, and her body moved against him the way the moon commanded the ocean’s tide. “What I have thought about every time I saw you.”

Her mind tried to conjure up words, but nothing but pleasure and fire rode through her veins, silencing her speech entirely.

How could he do such things with one press of his mouth against her skin?

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