Page 104 of Seduce Me in Shadow

“Piss off.”

Her dismissal stokes my mating instinct, especially when I drink in the human signs of her arousal—her sweetly musky scent, her peaked nipples, the heat in her eyes.

“No. I’ll stay so close, you’ll feel my breath on you. Constantly.”

She stills, her breaths turning ragged. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

“No, you need a keeper. That’s me.”

With an outraged gasp, she starts squirming again. Her arching and bucking inflame my already sizzling nerves.

“Stop!” I growl, my hands like vises on her hips.

“Make me.”

Her dare ignites an inferno inside me. Heat surges through me, primal instinct obliterating reason.

Mine. Take. Now!

Panting, I cover her body with mine, our lips a whisper apart. Her mouth, that luscious red temptation, beckons. The need to taste her, to finally claim those lips, nearly shatters my control. Just one kiss...

But one would seal my fate.

Would that be so terrible?a traitorous voice whispers in my head.

What if we mate, and I lose her to reckless bravery? I would become a mirror of my broken brother. Her determination to fight evil she can’t comprehend will be her death.

Gripped by fear, I clutch her tighter, as if I could absorb her into myself for safekeeping. Electricity pulses through me. She’s so warm, so alive, so perfectly female. My need for her borders on madness.

I trace kisses along her cheek, daring to brush the corner of her mouth. Her intoxicating scent nearly overwhelms me. One hand white-knuckles the sofa. The other digs into her hip as I fight the urge to devour her. Desperate for distraction, I trail kisses down her throat to the soft swell of her breasts, heaving with each rapid breath.

“Caden, this is mad. We should talk.” Her words are wise, but in my head her voice is pure sin.

“We did.”

Shoving her T-shirt aside, I inhale deeply. Since transition, my sense of smell is keener. Though I know she’s showered since we last made love, I smell myself on her, and it arouses me out of my mind. Skin. I need her bare skin—filling my hands and against my tongue.

“But—”

I yank on the clasp of her bra. It snaps into pieces. I push it aside and lave her nipple.

Sydney moans, and I smile in grim satisfaction. She can try to deny that she wants me, but her reactions—her panting, her accelerated heartbeat, her nails in my shoulders—all tell me the truth.

“Damn it, how do you reduce me to a puddle in moments?”

I pull my shirt over my head. “You do the same to me.”

With a quick tug, I remove everything she’s got on above the waist. I’m grateful she’s wearing an easy-to-flip-up skirt. Her knickers beneath are not a problem for my determined hands. Then I’m burying my fingers inside her and thumbing her clit, thrilled at how wet she is. I’m counting the seconds until my cock fills her.

Everything about this woman entices me—from her little pebbled coral-pink nipples, to her fingers tangled in my hair, to the way she looks at me as if I’m her whole world.

I rub her mercilessly in all the sweetest spots. In seconds, Sydney teeters on the precipice of ecstasy, her body a livewire under my touch. I hold her there, suspended in that exquisite moment between agony and bliss, refusing to let her tumble over or retreat. She’s mine to command, to torment with pleasure, and I revel in every tremor, every gasped breath, and every whimper.

She cries out my name. Impatiently, I make quick work of my zip and shove my jeans past my hips, spreading her thighs wider for me.

“Caden. Wait,” she gasps, her voice a mix of desire and hesitation. “We haven’t settled this.”

I freeze, torn between backing off and pressing forward. “Do you truly want to stop, firecracker?”

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