Page 56 of Rise of the Siren Queen
The moment our skin met, the fragile space between us shattered like glass. Heat seeped into me, curling around my spine, chasing away the cold shadows of my past. His breath hitched, and when his gaze locked onto mine, a storm brewed in his eyes, dark, relentless, filled with something unspoken.
This was wrong.
“I can feel you Princess, I don’t know how but I can,” he murmured, my name rolling off his tongue like a promise, edged with something perilous. “Feel your desire.”
A shiver coursed through me, my pulse a frantic drum against my ribs. The bond pulsed between us, alive, insistent, an undertow I was helpless to fight. It wrapped around us, pulling me deeper, deeper—
“We can’t,” I whispered, but the words wavered, weightless and false. We both knew it. The tension between us was a living thing, clawing, demanding.
His gaze held me captive, his eyes burning with the same hunger that tightened my chest. A battle waged within him, mirroring my own, a tempest waiting to break.
Slowly, almost reverently, he lifted a hand to my face. His fingersghosted along my cheek, barely a touch, but fire erupted beneath my skin. My breath came shallow, my lashes fluttering as warmth spread through me, pooling low and dangerous.
This is madness.
And yet, I leaned in, unable to stop myself.
For a fleeting moment, my crown, the suffocating expectations, the walls I’d built so carefully, all of it faded into nothing. There was only him. Only this.
“Tell me to stop,” he whispered, his voice a raw thread of restraint.
I should. I should rip myself away before this consumed me whole. Before I lost myself in something I could never afford to want.
But when I met his gaze, saw the same desperate, aching need reflected there, the fight bled out of me.
“I…” My lips parted, hesitation tangled with longing.Don’t say it. Don’t let yourself fall.
But I was already falling.
“I don’t want you to stop.”
Those words were my undoing. The air between us sizzled, the fragile balance shattering as the last threads of restraint snapped. The world beyond us blurred, faded, ceased to exist.
His expression softened, just for a breath, before something fierce and unrelenting took its place.
And as his fingers traced my lips, featherlight and reverent, a single thought clawed through the haze.
What if this is my chance to feel something other than pain?
I felt his breath, warm and steady, fanning over my lips, mingling with the rapid, uneven beats of my heart. Every second stretched between us, thick with tension, charged with something raw, something dangerous.
Adrian’s eyes darkened, dropping to my mouth, his gaze heavy with intent. The space between us was a fragile thread, stretchedtaut, ready to snap at the slightest push. My pulse pounded as he leaned in, slow, deliberate, giving me a chance to stop this.Daringme.
I didn’t.
His lips brushed mine, soft at first, too soft. A hesitation, as if he was giving me one last opportunity topull away. But the time for caution had long since passed.
I answered with fire, pressing against him, my hands splaying over the hard lines of his chest. The kiss deepened, turned sharp, urgent. A collision of want and defiance, of everything we had denied ourselves. His fingers tangled in my hair, tugging me closer, and I let him, goddess, I wanted him to.
Salt lingered on his lips, his taste intoxicating, pulling me under. His power hummed beneath his skin, a call my magic answered with a shiver that raked down my spine. It was infuriating, this pull, this bond that made mecravehim, made me burn for something I had no right to want.
But for this moment, I let myself want.
His hands trailed lower, slipping over the curve of my back, teasing the thin barrier of fabric between us. I arched into his touch, my breath hitching as his fingers danced at the edge of my waistband. His palm flattened against the small of my back, dragging me flush against him, andgods help me, I melted.
Adrian’s breath ghosted over my throat as he purred my name, the sound sinful, possessive.
A thrill coursed through me. My hands slid down, tracing the taut muscles beneath his shirt. He was heat and tension, barely contained, his body rigid with restraint. A restraint I wanted to shatter. Desire pulsed low in my stomach, spreading like wildfire. This was reckless, dangerous. But so was I.
