Page 36 of Blackwarden
“Your hands. I’m not used to such gentle...” His voice was so soft, his eyes, two bottomless black wells of hunger, catching and holding the breath in my lungs with their intensity.
I slipped my other hand beneath the hem, just to test if he’d push me away. Instead, he wove his fingers tightly into my hair and kissed me again. I followed the lines of his muscles to hisshoulders, pulling his shirt up with my arms. He grinned against my lips as he pushed my hands away.
“Is my shirt a problem for you, Ms. Greene?”
“Among other things.”
He chuckled and pulled it over his head, a flare of heat plummeting through me. Before he could stop me, my lips found his chest. He gasped, a beautiful sound I hadn’t expected. There was so much honesty in the way his breath caught, the muscles in his abs flexing as he took both my wrists in a firm grip.
“Ms. Greene...”
I wanted him to chastise me, to tell me I should stop. He just stared instead, his cheeks turning a delightful pink. Was he blushing? I didn’t think that would be possible. I couldn’t be the first person to kiss his chest.
“Yes, Keres Blackwarden?”
He stiffened when I used his full name. A name he hadn’t been able to confirm. I hadn’t even been certain I was right, but based on the way he looked at me now, the muscles in his neck and shoulders tight, a fear so deep in the curve of his brows, I could only assume I was correct.
He swallowed hard as I pulled a hand free, my fingers unable to resist tracing over the curve of his neck as I leaned forward. Again, I worried he’d push me away. But he tipped his head back, inviting me in as I kissed the column of his throat, tasting his skin, the oakmoss and earthy scent of him filling my lungs.
“Seems the Gatehouse has answered some of your questions,” he said with a breathy voice that settled in my core.
Mother save me, I wanted him. I knew there was a very real chance everything I saw was a glamour, made perfectly to my tastes, but I didn’t care. Did it matter what he looked like? I desired so much more than his beautiful face. I desiredhim. Every question he refused to answer, every wicked smirk that tugged at his impossibly soft lips, every sharp word he spoke, every breath. I wanted Keres to destroy me entirely. I wanted him to tear mydesires apart and reshape them intohisdesires. I wanted him to leave me with nothing but more wanting.
His breath hitched as I tucked my thumbs into the waist of his pants, his hands hovering at his sides as though he was too scared to touch me.
“You don’t know what you ask for,” he said in a tight whisper.
I leaned back and glared at him with as much conviction as I could.
“I knowexactlywhat I ask for.”
Chapter 19 ~ Broken Barriers
Rosalin
––––––––
He stared with insatiable hunger, black eyes devouring me. Every nerve in my body tingled as the muscles in his neck tightened. There was something so primal in the way his lips parted before his hands captured me. One wrapped firmly around my backside, jerking me hard against him, the other twined into my hair holding me in place as our lips crashed together.
Like our first kiss, this was forceful and greedy and all consuming. The urgency ripped my breath away and left me gasping and searing with need. Keres was of sound mind this time. There was no question he knew exactly what he was doing...and he knew exactly who he was doing it with. A moan slipped from him, burning through me and sinking between my legs. Yes, he knew exactly what he was doing. Tracing his devilish tongue along my jaw and melting me into hot wax in his arms.
My mind was numb from his touch. I could do little more than trail my fingers up his arms before sinking them into his impossibly soft hair. I followed the angle of his pointed ears to his horns, my curiosity taking over as I traced over the satin ridges, down tothe tips. They were warmer than I expected, and I lost myself in the surprisingly soft texture.
His hands roamed over my shoulders before he traced the bare skin at the neckline of my bodice. With deliberate slowness, he unlaced my overdress, letting it fall to my feet. He didn’t give me time to be shy before trailing his lips to my chest, pushing my chemise further down with his chin as he kissed lower.
“This is dangerous,” he said against my skin, goosebumps blooming over my flesh from the heat of his breath.
I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. There was only his lips, his skin against mine. Even if I was able to speak, it would only have been to beg for more.
“We shouldn’t,” he panted between kisses. “I...shouldn’t,” he corrected, hands roaming further up my thighs and pulling my hips against him before continuing to my ribs, his fingers like brands. He climbed higher beneath my chemise, brushing agonizingly soft over my breasts and sending a hot shiver through me. “I’m not permitted to—”
I didn’t let him finish what he was going to say before I pulled my chemise the rest of the way over my head, throwing it to the side. I stood half naked in front of him, worried I’d done something very wrong when he did nothing but stare, the muscles of his jaw flexing. Maybe I’d wrongly assumed he wanted more, when he had in fact been trying to push me away. I began to step away when he yanked me back into his arms, trapping me beneath his mouth. I didn’t have the ability to feel his emotions like he could mine, but if his lips were any indication, he desired this intimacy as much as I did.
“What do you want, Keres?” I asked between gasps as I struggled to restrain a moan. Words were so hard to form. I don’t know what possessed me to ask, other than the memory of him asking me the very same question in my dream.
He eased back from me, eyes scouring over my bareness with a delirious thirst. His eyebrows furrowed in pain as he met my gaze with sorrow.
“Tomorrow...” He squeezed his eyes closed and hung his head, hands going limp at his sides. “I shouldn’t...”
