Page 111 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
‘Croinn.’ There was a dangerous edge to that word as his hands captured my face. Despite the softness of his breath asthose eyes looked at me, stormy with indecision. A thousand thoughts flicking across his expression.
He remained so still and cautious. ‘I’m a curse, Kat.’
Such absolute certainty pressed between those quiet words made my heart ache.
He wasn’t a curse. Not to me. And he needed to know that there was nowhere else for me but here with him. No matter what he became or how that darkness called to him.
So I pressed my lips against the scars on his cheek.
‘My father created that malice out of devotion to my mother.’ I brushed those words against the curve of his jaw, my fingers making quick work of his shirt buttons so I could lay my palm over his mark. ‘That vengeance isnothingcompared to what I’d do for you, Emrys.’
His hand at my hip got fractionally tighter, his gaze heated as that darkness danced beneath his flesh. Yet, he still didn’t move.
I was done waiting. Done with not claiming the things I wanted.
‘Maybe I should remind you why Kysillians are formidable opponents, my lord.’ I understood now. The power I held when it came to him. How restless his magic was in my presence, how curiously it rushed over my skin.
I stepped back the barest inch out of his reach and tugged the shirt over my head. Letting it fall from my fingers to pool at my feet, I bared myself to him completely. Watching how his hands curled into fists at his side. Shadows weaving between his knuckles, wishing to touch me too.
I took his fist in my hand, that darkness wrapping like a caress around my wrist as I eased his palm flat. Running my thumb down his arch. Seeing that magic shift beneath his skin. Alert to my presence. I laid a gentle kiss there. Feeling the cool bite of his summoning against my lips.
I stepped closer until my naked chest barely brushed against his. He was so still I wasn’t certain he was breathing as I guided his hand around me to press against the bare skin of my waist. Sliding it right over the scarring at my back.
The pitch-black depths of his gaze awoke something within me. The rage I’d felt tear the Council chamber apart like a dark storm. The ruthlessness of it that had found me beneath Fairfax. Desire coiled tighter in my abdomen at the memory. At the brutality of him, of the things he’d do for me.
I left his hand there, tracing my finger up his chest, pressing a kiss to that mark over his heart.
‘Eria.’ I laid that word there.My love. The sacred word he’d given me first.
Then his fingers curled into my damp hair, so he could tip my head back, and his lips brushed my cheek.
‘Croinn.’ The plea left him darkly, another warning, but I brushed my answering smile against his lips.
‘You burn, I burn, Emrys.’ I gave that promise back to him. Even if the darkness consumed him as my flame had me. I wouldn’t leave him. Even to the monster he believed himself to be.
Then something changed. His hand against my scarred flesh became firmer, pressing me closer as his other cupped my jaw. Thumb tracing the curve of my cheek.
‘I could hear them in my head in that pit. In that endless dark. It offered me anything to submit.’ His voice was suddenly hoarse as if raw from the pain of that memory. Eyes solemn grey.
I gave the barest shake of my head. ‘You didn’t.’
‘I don’t want anything but you, Kat.’ The words came in surrender as he ducked his head, his mouth the barest inch from my own. ‘I’ve never wanted anything the way I want you.’
I love you.I wanted to say, but he kissed me. Deep and claiming. I arched myself closer in answer, revelling in my victory. How my hands slid so greedily into his hair. How closely he held me, as if fearful the air itself would come between us. How ravenously my fingers dug into the muscles of his back. Wanting to touch every inch of him. Crazed with the feeling of his skin against my own.
My magic flared and bit where his curled and stroked so teasingly.
His kiss was ruthless and my knees went weak in surrender to it.
‘What do you want?’ he whispered wickedly against the curve of my throat as I gasped for breath. The same way he had when we’d been tangled like this before.
‘You,’ I answered, as I always would.
Then I found myself on the scattering of blankets and pillows by the fire. I raised myself on my elbows, breathing unsteadily as I looked down at my body where he suddenly knelt. Right between my legs. My cheeks burnt, my heart racing as he crawled over me. His lips running a torturous trail up my bare stomach.
‘Emrys,’ I whimpered, but he was clearly done with talking. The only answer to my plea was his wicked smile before his clever fingers pulled at the lacings of my trousers.
I arched my hips in answer as he expertly pulled my leathers away, only to capture my calf and lay a kiss on the inside of my knee, that hungry gaze never leaving my own.
