Page 134 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
‘I need you, Emrys.’ Needed his steady will, his interest and his temper. I needed his smile, the darkness of his eyes, the gentle nature of his hold. I needed his hesitancy, that longing in his gaze. Every part of it.
The depth of my words broke some spell over him, as he finally reached for me. His hands gliding down either side of my throat, a slow, gentle reverence about his touch as he ducked his head to catch my ear. Breath not quite steady.
‘You’re the most chaotically beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Katherine Woodrow.’ A faint smile tugged at his mouth with his surrender.
Mine. Something in my very bones sighed in response. I might have been chaos, might have been haunted by the cruel brutality of this world, but I was safe with him.
Finally. Right here. I was safe.
I wasn’t that clever with words, so I kissed him instead. Gently brushing his lips with my own, refusing to let fear or inexperience hinder me. The warmth of my desire spread through me as ruthlessly as my magic, commanding me to take my fill. He returned the kiss instantly, softly at first. Guiding and patient.
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pressing myself closer. Skin flushed, biting at his lip and commanding him to open his mouth. To give me everything. To be rougher with his claiming as his hand dragged greedily across my waist, holding tightly as if I could slip away. Impatience mingled with a ravenous hunger.
My hands curled into his hair, thick and soft between my fingers. My lips parted and his tongue was inside, ruthlessly seeking more of me. I clutched at the muscled expanse of his back, hands dragging across the powerful enormity of him.
The bed post was suddenly at my back as my hands tore his open shirt off his shoulders. Fingers burning with the feral urge to touch him. Everywhere. Something in me needing to know he was all there. That it was real. That he was mine.
He broke away from the kiss with a curse, breath ragged.
‘Kat.’ The word was soft with breathlessness. Cautious. Trying to gift me back some sanity, despite how tightly he held onto my waist, despite the hunger in his gaze. ‘This is dangerous.’
I didn’t stop, my lips dragging across his jaw, down his throat. My hand tracing a line down his abdomen to the waistband of his trousers.
‘When has that stopped me before?’ I teased darkly, letting my tongue and teeth drag across his collarbone, tasting salt, chaos and the richness of his magic on his skin. Watching those eyes go liquid with desire as I undid the first buttons of his trousers.
‘Croinn,’ he cursed, and that one word snapped whatever loose hold remained on his gentleman’s restraint. I found myself up in his arms, bare calves locking around his hips. His hand was in my hair, tugging ruthlessly to have my mouth back on his. Something primal in me bent to his will in response. Hands roaming the hard broad planes of his shoulders, nails digging in with command for more.
His hands dragged over the skin of my backside where my nightdress had ridden up, the rough callouses of his fingers making a wanton whimper leave my lips. My head fell back against the bedpost, as the ruthless focus of those lips fell to my throat, down to the barest curve of my breast that my nightgown revealed.
I arched my hips, silently demanding him to move his hands, needing them between us. My movements made my nightgown slip off my shoulder, exposing more of me.
Then we fell to the bed as Emrys’s lips continued their torturous exploration of my skin. The cage of his body around me. My bent knees either side of his hips as I panted, fingers curling in his hair, but he pulled back the barest inch, only for his thumb to drag across my bottom lip. Savouring every one of my trembling breaths as he considered the disarray of me. Teasing.
That hunger in his gaze was of my making. Mine. So, I closed my lips around the pad of his thumb, biting it softly in demand.
Then he wasn’t teasing anymore as he captured my chin and kissed me again. The hard weight of him pressed me intothe bed, the rough drag of his trousers against the inside of my thigh excited me. Warnings tried to fill my mind about fey girls and the things lords wanted from them, but I was far beyond warnings.
‘Kat,’ he whispered against my neck, as I panted for breath, his hands moving up my thighs as if we were sharing secrets. Unsteady, on the brink of something but afraid to tumble off. Giving me the power once more. Refusing to take it from me.
I tugged his hair so his eyes came back to mine, just as his hands reached my bare hips. I looked into the darkness of his gaze before I kissed him again.
I copied what he’d taught me, biting his lip and tightening my grip on his shoulders. He groaned into it, harder and deeper. His hold intensified as he lifted my knee higher, pulling me closer to his heat. My bare heel dug into the back of his thigh. His hand slid up my calf at a tormenting pace. The roughness of him against such sensitive places fuelled the madness.
His lips slipped down the side of my throat, the rough stubble of his jaw scratching gently at the top of my breasts with his kiss. His mouth found the nipple of my exposed breast and I lost all competent thought. Nothing but heat and desire, bending effortlessly to his will.
One hand fisted in his hair and my other gripped at his back, unable to catch my breath. I dragged my hand across the muscular contours of his skin until I held onto his bicep, feeling the tension beneath. The warmth of his fingers and the teasing drag of them against the sensitive flesh of my inner thigh. A moan escaped my lips before my breath was stolen as his fingers found their way between my legs.
‘Emrys,’ I pleaded weakly, holding onto him as his attention moved to expose my other breast and taste it too,His hand pressing and teasing places only I knew. Pleasure streaked through me, making my legs open wider, hips rising, commanding him to add more pressure.
His thumb answered effortlessly as his finger slipped inside, making me gasp, his lips coming back to my own to taste his name as he drew it from me. He curled his fingers with a stroke, his thumb dragging over the most sensitive part of me and I could only raise my hips, feeling the devious nature of his smile. Relentless as he did it again and again.
He watched every breathless plea leave my lips as my head fell back, hair spilling across his bed as that ruthless focus drank me in. Taking his own pleasure at the sight of my disarray. The bright light of the wishing stone around my neck reflected in his eyes.
I was too hot and restricted in my own skin, hands gripping and pulling until I could press my nails into his back. Feeling the tautness of him trembling slightly beneath my touch.
He built me expertly to the brink, only for my whimpered disappointment as he stopped, the cunning nature of his smile as he pulled back to kiss me again. Slowly. His knuckles barely grazing the inside of my thigh.
‘What do you want, Kat,’ he whispered wickedly against the shell of my ear before taking the lobe between his teeth.
