Page 104 of Kingdom of Shadows and Wings

His strokes grow frenzied as his mouth finds mine again. There’s nothing practiced or controlled about our kisses. They’re hungry, raw, full of need.

He circles my clit with his thumb and draws my lower lip between his teeth. Every fiber of my body responds. The tension in my lower belly builds.

If something doesn’t happen soon, I’m going to combust.

“I,” my voice is breathy and foreign, “don’t think?—”

“Don’t think.” He kisses the sensitive spot just below my ear. “Just let go.”

His thumb moves in small circles, winding me tighter and tighter until I teeter at the breaking point. His teeth skim my throat. With a final, firm press of his thumb and a sharp nip at my flesh, I hurtle over the cliff, the tension exploding as pleasure pulses through me in waves. I cry out his name. I’m falling, floating, and I don’t ever want to be pulled back in.

“So fucking perfect.” Thorne’s fingers slow, then ease out of me. “Keeping my hands off you has been killing me.”

It takes a few moments for the pleasure-induced fog to clear before my brain can form words. “Then maybe stop trying.”

He half laughs, half groans. “You make it sound so simple.”

After buttoning up my pants, he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me closer, brushing his lips across mine. His erection pokes my belly. I reach for him, wrapping a hand around the hard ridge tenting his pants. He groans and rocks into my palm once before gently tugging my hand away. “Not now. I need to go back to make a report or else someone will come looking.”

It takes me a second to make the connection. Elijah and Mark. The fire. “Oh, right.”

Everything comes rushing back. To my utter horror, my nose starts to burn, and my lip quivers. My eyes mist with tears. I try to blink them away, but they spill over, dripping down my cheeks as a sob climbs up my throat. “I’m s…sorry. I don’t…it’s just…I was so sc…scared.”

With more tenderness than I knew he possessed, Thorne wraps me in his arms and presses his lips to the top of my head. “Shh. I know you were, but it’s okay. You’re okay now. You did great.”

I cry into his shirt, clutching the fabric like it’s the only thing holding me together. “I c…could have k…killed someone.”

He strokes a soothing palm down my back. “But you didn’t. If anything, you saved someone. Multiple someones. Left to my own devices, I would have happily frozen Durand and Levine solid and then watched with a smile on my face as I shattered them into thousands of tiny pieces.”

That brutal visual disturbs me enough to stop my crying. He doesn’t sound like he’s joking, either. He must be, though, because what he just described isn’t even possible. Is it?

Sniffling, I decide not to ask. It’s the thought that counts, and the violence of Thorne’s reaction tells me he cares.

I frown. This is the second time he’s come to my defense like this. While I appreciate his protectiveness, the fact that he had to step in makes me feel weak. “I can’t keep relying on you to save me from them. I need to be able to defend myself.”

He pulls away, using his hand to lift my chin. “Your brain must still be foggy from all that moaning you did a few minutes ago, so let me give your memory a little nudge. From what I saw, you were doing fine all on your own defending yourself from those two guttersnipes. You learned from that first experience and let your power out to play this time around.”

Blinking, I realize he’s right. I did defend myself against Elijah and Mark. “Okay. But now I need to learn how to control my power.”

He nods. “So you work on control. I don’t see that being an issue for you when you managed to control it so quickly with only minor prompting from me.”

“Let’s be real, Thorne. You helped by using your own magic to subdue mine.”

He shakes his head. “I merely bought you some time to rein yours in, which you did. And when we’re alone, you can call me Sterling.” With his thumbs, he gently swipes the dampness from beneath my eyes before cupping my cheeks. “Do you have any idea how magnificent you are?”

His husky, reverential rasp loosens the knot in my chest and fills me with a warm glow. The praise heats my cheeks, and I can only imagine the lovely shade of pink my skin’s become.

Thorne’s—no,Sterling’s— eyes bounce between mine, as if waiting for me to respond, but I have no idea what to say. What’s the correct reply to a question like that?Yes, of course I know how magnificent I am.Talk about arrogant.No, I have no idea, but feel free to tell me what magnificence level you rate me at on a scale of one to ten.Fishing for compliments, anyone? Andmaybesounds unbearably coy.

So I say nothing, keeping my mouth shut and watching his grin grow. “Who knew that complimenting you was the secret to shutting you up all along?”

I give his chest a playful shove. “Please,Sterling. I’m only shutting up because I’m drained.”

That makes him sober up. “Right. We should head back. When we report in, follow my lead. I think it’s best if we try to keep the scope of your power under wraps for now. Give yourself time to work with it more and have better control before advertising it.”

“But Elijah and the others?—”

“Will be easy enough to discredit since people will believe they exaggerated your abilities in order to make themselves look less weak.”

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