Page 70 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

Immediately following my release, power hits like a tidal wave. Foreign heat floods my veins, warring with my natural ice in a cataclysm of sensation. The gallery’s temperature crashes. Ice crystals form in the air around us, suspended like diamond dust as my control splinters. Everything in me screams to take, to claim, to?—

No. Focus.Control.

But Lara burns fever-hot against my hands where I first clutch her hair in my fists, and then begin to smooth it down. My fingers leave trails of frost that melt instantly against her heat. The contrast should terrify me. Instead, it feeds the inferno in my blood.

Mine to mark. Mine to master. Mine to destroy?—

The burning intensifies until I can barely think. Power roils through me, ice and fire locked in combat for dominance of my soul. The portraits rattle. The marble floor groans. The very air grows heavy with unrestrained magic.

No. Not now. Not with her.

I pull out of her mouth, my cock still half-hard and pulsing with need. Lara remains on her knees before me, her hair a wild halo around her flushed face, and something dark in me revels at how dazed she looks.

Lips swollen.

Eyes heavy with want.

Hair mussed from straining against my bonds.

Every detail brands itself into my memory, feeding the flames that threaten to consume me.

I force myself back another step, though everything in me screams to seize her, to finish what we started. To make her scream my name.

To make sure everyone knows she belongs to me.

“This was a mistake.” The words taste like ash and winter wind. Frost explodes from beneath my feet, jagged spears of ice that mirror the war in my blood, and the bonds holding Lara’s hands against the wall loosen, allowing her arms to drop to her sides.

“A mistake?” Lara gapes at me, confused, shocked.

Hurt.

“Yes.” I infuse the word with ice, with centuries of aristocratic disdain. The fire in my blood howls in protest. “Return to your chambers.”

“Ivrael—” The word sounds like a plea, but I don’t listen.

“Now.” Power thunders through the command.

The ribbons flare with warning magic, and she flinches.

The sight sends a lance of something dangerously close to regret through my chest. But then she turns away with rigid dignity.

Her skirts brush against the ice-rimed floor as she leaves.

Only when she’s gone do I let myself sag against the wall, control crumbling like frost in spring sunlight.

What is this madness? My powers have never felt like this—ice and heat waging war beneath my skin. I press my palm to the wall, watching frost bloom from my fingertips even as internal fire races up my arm.

The double moons. Their influence must be stronger than I anticipated.

But Goddess…

Lara’s warmth. Her soft sounds. The way she fought and yielded all at once.

Heat surges through my blood, and I clench my jaw against a groan.

I will not follow her.

Power spikes again. Ice explodes across the ceiling in deadly stalactites, a frozen crown. I barely contain it, forcing the frost back through sheer will.

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