Page 90 of Threaded

“How about a demonstration?” He leaned in closer to her, his mouth grazing the soft shell of her ear. “My shadows, after all, have been far too eager to taste you. I suppose it’s as good a time as any to indulge them.”

Mariah’s throat went dry, her breath hitching in her chest. Somehow, she forced out her next words.

“Here? In case you hadn’t noticed, this is alibrary, Andrian.”

Another low chuckle against her ear before he withdrew from her, blanketing her again with living shadows now teasing and licking at her skin, sending goosebumps washing over her in waves.

“Do you remember when I caught you reading here in this very library?”

She couldn’t pinpoint where exactly his voice came from, but she nodded, knowing that even in the darkness veiling her eyes, he could see her.

“The second I saw you standing there, cheeks pink and flushed, I becamefurious. Do you know why,nio?”

Mariah shook her head, not trusting her voice to speak.

“I was furious because I wanted to be the one to make you flush like that in this library. Where anyone could catch us, but only the books around us would hear.”

Suddenly, she was slammed into the shelf behind her, Andrian’s warmth seeped into her skin as his hand wrapped around the base of her neck, her sweater riding up her torso. At the same time, she felt one of those shadow tendrils, as real as another arm or hand, touching the now-exposed skin of her abdomen. It slipped under the burgundy material, brushing lazily up her stomach, sweeping languid circles around the swell of her breasts and across the peaks of her nipples. She pushed her head back against the shelf and the hand that held her neck, a moan threatening to escape when a second large hand suddenly clamped itself over her mouth.

“As you said, princess, this is a library. You must bequiet.”

As quickly as he’d consumed her space, he released her, disappearing back into his shadows. Mariah gasped against the shelves, her body filled with roiling heat, the sudden absence of him dropping every ounce of temptation deep into her belly.

Goddess, he would be her ruin.

She was still heaving breaths into the dark, heavy air around her when his voice sounded again.

“Kneel,nio.”

Her eyes snapped up, peering hard into the darkness.

She was a queen. No one ordered her to fuckingkneel.

“Excuseme?”

His breath reappeared again at her right ear, his voice rumbling through her.

“For once in your Goddess-cursed life, princess, fuckinglistento me. It’s just us. You said you wanted to know what my magic can do, and all I’m asking in exchange is for you tokneel.”

The world around them froze, time standing still as she contemplated his words. On one hand, she was still coming into her power, learning to crave it more than anything before in her life.

On the other hand … the more carnal side of her mind raced with the possibilities of what might happen if she gave in and let him take the lead, much like he had that night of the Uroboros attack.

In the end, it was the second half of her that won.

Slowly, tauntingly, she sank to her knees, the material of her soft leggings meeting the chill stone floor beneath her. A sound of approval rumbled from somewhere in the darkness around her, her magic zapping along her skin in answer. She pushed it down before it could illuminate her skin.

At least right now, she still wanted to do this in the dark.

“Good girl.” A firm tendril of darkness gripped her chin, tilting it up. She couldn’t see Andrian, but she could certainly feel him—his presence, his breath, the space he took up in that hallway between the bookshelves. “You will be rewarded for that. Is that what you want,nio?”

“Yes.” Her answer panted out of her before she could stop herself.

Not that she would’ve stopped herself.

Especially not when a ribbon of darkness began to carve a path down her body, joined by several other wisps that brushed against her skin, slipping beneath the hem of her sweater in smooth movements.

She’d been worried they would remind her of snakes, of the hellish creature that had turned her whole world upside down.

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