Page 45 of Godsbane
Cal’s voice is rough, his stubbled cheek brushing against the side of my neck as he speaks. A shiver shoots down my spine involuntarily as a cool chuckle rumbles in his chest and reverberates through me.
“You like that, princess?”
“I’d like for you to get your hands off of me.”
My voice holds surprisingly steady as I speak words that couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s a low, maddening heat spreading through me and he knows it.
Cal drops his hands and steps away, a mischievous grin plastered across his face when I turn to face him. Stormy clouds fill his gray eyes, a faint electricity buzzing in the air around us. A promise of lightning so hot, it’ll burn us both.
“Try again. No blades, this time,” he says.
Oh there will be blades, just not the ones he’s expecting.
I pull the daggers from my thighs and toss them to the ground. If I was fighting any other opponent, I would think twice about using my body as a weapon. Despite the half-truths and hidden secrets, Cal has made one thing clear today: the growing heat between us is eating at him. And that’s all the knowledge I need to know how to take him down.
So what if he puts his hands all over me in the process? Maybe I’m a little hungry too.
I turn and retreat a few paces, swishing my hips seductively as I walk. My hands take their time exaggeratingly caressing the sides of my breasts as my fingers work to slip the dainty blades from the boning of my corset.
I spare a glance over my shoulder, my breath hitching at the intensity burning in his eyes. I catch my bottom lip between my teeth and let my gaze reflect his.
Like a spider lying in wait, I prepare to lure my prey fully into my silken web. One more move and he’s mine.
“What a pity. I thought for sure you’d attack me from behind,” I say breathlessly.
Cal’s eyes darken, the raging storm clouds disappearing into onyx night. His voice is a low, deep growl. “Not here, princess.”
A wave of heat floods my lower body again, my heart rate spiking as I struggle to stand my ground. With an unsteady breath, I place the toe of my left boot behind me, spinning and releasing one blade in one smooth movement. It flips end-over-end, grazing Cal’s arm as it passes him, nicking exactly where I intend.
A tiny, red rivulet of blood trails down his bicep from the cut. Cal glances down to wipe it clean and I rush him. I go low, dropping my shoulder and using my lower center of gravity to knock him over. As soon as his feet slip out from under him, I lunge upwards. My other blade rests against the soft flesh of his neck as we hit the dirt with a loud thump.
Silver flames spark in Cal’s eyes as he shifts underneath me, large hands grabbing the backs of my thighs and holding me flush against him. I lower my head, letting my breath caress his ear as I press the blade firmer against his throat.
“You like that, Captain?” I taunt, repeating his words with his same seductive tone.
With a twist of his hips, Cal flips us, utilizing his size and brute strength and my cockiness against me. My breath comes in a ragged gasp that has little to do with being pinned against the ground and everything to do with being underneath him.
He grips both wrists in one hand, forcing them, and my blade, above my head.
“I said ‘no blades.’”
Cal slowly drags his pointer finger up the center of my corset, the third and final blade slipping free from the hidden sheath between my breasts. He lowers his head, my back arching off the ground as his lips brush over the swell of delicate skin. There’s afaint flash of silver in the sunlight as Cal lifts his head exposing the dagger he holds between his teeth. With his free hand, he plucks it from his mouth and tosses it out of reach.
“Any more blades I should know about?”
His hungry eyes rove over my heaving chest and back up to my slightly parted lips. The air grows thick, harder to swallow with each passing second. I squirm in his hold. Whether I’m searching for a way out from beneath him or for friction of a different kind, I’m not entirely sure. Pure power ripples over my skin at the delicious promise of him.
“Yield, Ivy,” he commands.
The sheer mention of my name is nearly enough to make me crumble under him. Cal presses his free forearm gently across my throat, rocking forward until the hard press of him rests against my warm center.
Thoughts and reactions no longer my own, my head lolls to the side, exposing my full neck to him. There’s a rough, warm brush against my skin and I feel his growl echo within me.
“Yield. Now.”
Each word is clipped as the captain fights to stay in control of himself. A deep, primal ache floods my senses as strange magic courses through me.
I am an undammed river. A tornadic wind. A raging wildfire. A rolling mountainside. I am light and shadow. Life and death all in the same moment.
