Page 53 of Magic of Sins

“Afraid of rolling around on the sofa with me, love? You should know I can be a very tender lover.”

Heat flushes my face, and I quickly turn away so he doesn’t see it. A soft laugh accompanies him as he leaves the room.

Unbidden images come to me. Earlier, his lips were so close, all I had to do was lean forward a little and we would have kissed.Would it have been a tender kiss? Or would it have been deep and full of passion, like the one I’d witnessed between him and Sasha? What if I hadn’t let go of the thread?

“Why do all your sins taste like cinnamon, I wonder?”

Caden’s back, and with his cocky grin back in place as well. In his hand, he holds a small white paper bag. Realizing he’s just tasted my lustful thoughts, my cheeks get even hotter. My face is probably a fiery red by now. At least Caden has the decency not to comment further. He lifts the paper bag.

“Roasted almonds. Want some?”

I shake my head. I’m much too nervous to eat.

Caden shrugs and drops into the chair across from the sofa. He’s keeping his distance, I notice. Presumably to prevent a repeat of what happened earlier. The thought stings for some reason, but right now I don’t have time to deal with that.

The paper bag rustles, and the scent of roasted almonds hits my nose.

“Ready?” Caden asks.

I nod, though I don’t feel the least bit ready. I loosen my tense shoulders, trying to be inconspicuous about it, then close my eyes.

This time I recognize the threads immediately. One of them is still stretched between Caden and me, but it no longer looks as if it’s ready to snap at any second. A second one connects him to the whisky glass, and thread number three stretches between him and the almonds.

As Caden begins to eat, this last thread gets taut. I taste the sweetness and the deeper roast flavor and suppress a contented sigh. At least it doesn’t catch me off guard this time. But I can feel the thread tightening more and more. It’s out of my control.

“I wasn’t planning on eating the whole bag just now, love.”

Caden sounds like he can barely keep it together. It would almost be funny if I didn’t know how easily such powers can getout of control.

I’m trying to remember how I managed to let go of the thread last time, but it was more shock at what I was doing than any conscious decision on my part. Right now, I don’t feel shocked or afraid. On the contrary. I feel powerful.

Intoxicated.

“Kaya?”

I hear Caden crumple up the bag. For a moment I lose focus and open my eyes. A few of the almonds have fallen to the floor.

Caden raises his eyebrows.

“Just so you know, love, I’m not going to crawl around on the floor looking for those almonds just because you can’t get your powers under control.”

His gaze darts to the wooden floorboards as if he were about to do just that. But then his hand wanders to his shirt and begins to undo the buttons. His movements are erratic, as if he were distracted, yet they don’t fail to have the desired effect.

Desire builds inside me. At first it’s just a soft tingle, a long look that lights the fire inside me. But with each additional button Caden opens, it becomes more urgent. I move forward on the cushion, roasted almonds forgotten. Caden doesn’t seem to care about them anymore either. Maybe I let go of the thread without realizing it.

Caden’s hand pauses, his shirt open to his belly button. I can now clearly feel his presence in my mind, intensifying my desire. I get to my feet and stumble blindly toward him. All I can think about is how his skin, his muscles, his heartbeat will feel under my hands.

But before I can touch him, he grabs my wrists and pulls me close. His lips curl up into a smirk.

“Oh, love, you really can’t control yourself at all, can you?”

Chapter Fifteen

I wonder if it’s possible to die of shame. As I leave Caden’s mansion, I’m sure that’s exactly what I’ll do. We’ve been training all day. Caden was relentless. Every time I wanted to give up, he made me try again. And if I didn’t succeed, he retaliated. I can’t even count the number of times I tried to rip his clothes off. Quite literally. Caden’s shirt is missing a few buttons now.

Rey is waiting for me outside the house. Caden has ordered her to take me back to the palace. Only there, he believes, will I be safe from his enemies.

“Someone looks like they’ve had anintenseworkout,” she comments. Caden and I tussled a few times so my hair now looks like I’ve been caught in a hurricane.

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