Page 186 of Empire of Shadows

He tasted like summer rain and fire. Ellie opened herself instinctively, burning with the knowledge that lips weren’t enough—weren’t evencloseto enough. She wantedmore.

Her hands wanted too. She drew her fingers up the relentless planes of his back, and then grasped a handful of his hair, knotting her fingers in the sun-kissed thickness. She pulled herself closer to him—molded and clung.

His teeth grazed her lip and she groaned, the sound emerging from her throat of its own accord.

A hand slipped to her rear. Ellie gasped out an incoherent plea.

It might have beenharder. Or simplyyes. It could even have been in Latin. Ellie wasn’t entirely sure and did not in the least bit care.

Instinct drove her. She let herself rise in the water, wrapped her legs around his waist, and locked them there. The move brought her higher, giving her new places to explore.

He stole his lips from her mouth. Ellie growled in protest, and he actuallylaughedat her—the absolute rotten bastard—and then set his mouth to her neck instead. He ran his tongue from the curve of her collarbone to a singular little spot just below the lobe of her ear that made her see stars.

Actual stars, exploding behind her eyelids.

She wasn’t sure how that was possible.

And as for what was happening below the water… It was…Dear Lord…

There was nothing decent about it. There was nothingscholarlyabout it, and Ellie relished every ever-loving bit.

“Bates…” she groaned as he pressed her against the wall of the sinkhole, his hands gliding up her flanks until he pulled her shirt from her trousers.

“Princess,” he growled in return and nipped at the line of her jaw.

“I never… I never thought… Well, I mean Ithought, but I neverrealized…” she began.

“Uh-huh,” Adam replied as his hand reached the comfortable, practical lines of her half-corset. It continued up until his thumb slid across the top of her breast.

Those damned stars started popping up across her eyes again.

“You… This… I…”

Ellie had lost the ability to form a coherent sentence. There was nothing left in her but an uncontrollable, animalneed.

“Oh, fiddlesticks,” she declared, and then grabbed his hair, yanked his head back, and kissed him again.

He pressed her harder into the wall. It wasn’t hard enough. His hands gripped the collar of her shirt, and then yanked at it. A button sprang free, followed by another.

To hell with buttons. All of them could go. Ellie didn’t need them.

She knew exactly what she needed.

She didn’t even need words to ask for it. She just clenched her thighs and pulled him even closer.

Adam groaned. He shifted his face ever so slightly to the right and dropped his forehead against the stones over her shoulder. His hands carefully, deliberately lifted from the delicious, inflaming places that they had been exploring on her body. He held them suspended in the air to either side of her.

“Ellie,” he said. It seemed to take him a great deal of effort.

“What is it?” Ellie demanded as confusion and a growling frustration rose up inside of her. “What’s wrong?”

“I… This…” He swallowed, still very clearly fighting for control of himself, and shook his head. “Not like this.”

“Not like this?” Ellie asked as uncertainty crept in.

Adam lifted his face from the wall and looked at her. It was not the look that she had been expecting—or fearing. It was a look that set her nerves tingling again, sparking little fires of the most delicious and terrible anticipation. It was a look thatwanted.

“If I’m going to take you… every perfect, infuriating inch of you,” he elaborated as his eyes moved over her in a way that felt as intense as a touch. “I’m not going to do it like this.”

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