Page 62 of Crown of Wrath

Those black-tipped fingernails run through my hair, scratching my scalp as I stare away from him. His fingers tighten, and he pulls my head back. “You would have had far more pleasure without the Shadowed Cloak,” he whispers into my ear.

A shadow slides between my legs, becoming thick and hard, yet it doesn’t enter me. It just presses against my opening, reminding me of what the Shadecoulddo. Then his nails run over my ass and up my back, just like I’d done to Cole.

“I didn’t come back to this world just for pleasure,” I groan. “I came here for all of you, just like you promised.”

His hand wraps around my throat, yet he doesn’t use any pressure. He just needs to feel me, to touch me everywhere. Those black tinted nails dig into my skin, always on the verge of cutting me.

I can’t help but give into the sensations, and I let go of any kind of control. When his hand moves from my neck to my breast, the shadows between my legs press harder against my opening, and I slowly grind against them. The temptation is agonizing. The Shade presses himself against my back through the linen of the cloak, and I want to beg him to stop teasing me. I want to tell him just how badly I need him; how long I’ve spent fantasizing about this very moment.

Instead, a deep moan slips from my lips, and the Shade grips my breast so hard I’m sure that there will be bruises under his fingertips. The other hand slaps my ass, and the sound echoes in the otherwise silent room.

I shake, not from what he’s doing to my body, but from trying to hold back the pleading. I need him inside me.

And then I feel the slightest bit of shadow slide into my entrance, and I let myself hang, doing everything I can to get them deeper inside me. “Please,” I beg. “Please, Shade, stop teasing me. I want all of you.”

“This is only the beginning,” he whispers from behind me. “I told you that you wouldn’t be able to handle what I was offering. I told you that you’d be screaming until morning. That’s what you asked for. That’s what I promised.”

The sound of his voice is so rough I can’t tell whether he’s trying to scare me or whether he’s desperate to give in to what I’m begging for. “Please,” I whisper, and his hand leaves my breast, moving down my stomach. “Please, please, please.” The words tumble from my lips with none of the control that I’d forced myself to have as the Queen of Nyth.

I’m that stupid Wyrdling in the woods again, with the Shade playing my body against me. Except that this time, I know that he’ll show me everything I’m terrified of.

Shadows move upward, past his hands, and become claws with sharp nails on them. They grip both of my breasts, squeezing them and driving those talons in. Drops of blood well up, bits of red on midnight black, but I barely notice.

Because the Shade’s fingers slide between my legs.

I don’t bother to hide my desperation as I grind against him. “Yes,” I mumble. “More. More, Shade. I need everything.”

A single finger finds my wetness and slides past what little resistance is there. My body shakes at the long overdue intrusion. But it’s not enough. I don’t know if anything could be enough. Yet, that drumbeat continues to speed up. My own shadows flow from my fingertips, weaving their way around the Shade’s and there’s something sensual about it.

Then the Shade pulls away from me, and I grit my teeth as my body begs for him to return, to at least continue that bit of teasing. “No, you said that you’d give me everything this time,” I beg.

“I’m going to,” that gravelly voice says as he glides in front of me. “But part of that requires you to be a little higher in the air.”

He moves his finger to the darkness under the hood, and I instinctively know that he’s licking his finger clean. “You’re delicious, Maeve Arden. Like the first cup of sweet wine after months on the road. I should have taken you like this long ago.”

The shadows rise, moving my body with them. They twist and contort until I’m reclining at head level, my back and ass supported by dark shadows. My arms and legs are still spread wide, and then shadows cover my face just before I feel a brand new sensation.

The Shade’s tongue between my legs.

His shadows whip around my body, teasing every inch as his tongue fills me, teasing me and pushing that drumbeat inside me to an impossible tempo.

“Gods, Shade,” I groan as his tongue finds my clit, and pure lightning races through me. I strain against the shadows holding me still. I want to pull him closer to me, to press that magical tongue so deep inside me.

Then I feel a thin bit of shadows slip past my opening and my legs shake as he fills me while he continues to lick. That constant drumbeat that I’ve felt ever since I woke up to see Cole is the only thing I can hear. It’s everything. It pounds the time of my heart and breath and has become the rhythm of the world that everything revolves around.

Just like I’d used shadows to tease Cole’s cock, the bit inside me is moving agonizingly slowly. The Shade grips my ass, and his nails dig into my cheeks. Everything inside me wants tomove, wants to squirm and both pull him tighter and push him away.

But I can’t do anything except moan. “Is this what you wanted, Maeve? Is this what you dreamed about while you were stuck in your mind?”

“Yes!” I scream, and my hips buck against his face as he goes back to licking me. The drumbeat reaches a crescendo, and it’s like a dam is breaking. My body is filled with uncontrolled power as I shake, suspended in the air.

It lashes out of me as whipping coils of shadow, striking the stone walls and sending dust into the air. Tiny pieces of crystal explode from my body and shatter against the walls. More than anything, I scream. Not in pain. No, there is no such thing as pain while the Shade’s tongue is between my legs. No, I scream because the power has to go somewhere. My body can’t hold it any longer. I can’t see, can’t move, and can’t force the Shade to lick faster or harder. My scream dies as my body does everything it can to regain control.

Just as I think I can’t go on any longer, I claim the shadows that control me. I don’t mean to. The power raging inside me does what it feels it needs to. The darkness goes away, and I look down at the Shade, whose tongue is still fast at work. He hesitates for a moment as he realizes that he’s lost control, and I maneuver the shadows holding me.

I break away from him, setting my feet on the ground and letting go of the restraints. I smile as I stand in front of the Shade, completely naked. “You are so much more than you were in my dreams,” I say, and my fingers brush his cheek so softly as they move past the hood into the darkness. “But just like my mind, it’s time to put the pieces together.”

Shadows wrap around me, suspending me, and the Shade’s gaze rakes over my body. My body is too weak to stand on its own right now, but my powers are at full strength. Both of myhands move to the edges of the hood, and I lower it until I’m staring at Cole. Pieces fall into place in my mind.

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