Page 28 of Kiss of Fire

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispered. Shade stood behind her and closed his hand over hers, fire pouring through his fingers like molten lava.

“You could never hurt me,” he replied. He kissed the back of her neck and it seemed to her as if heat was rushing through her whole body. “Your fire makes me whole.”

He pulled her hard against him so she could feel his arousal pressing against the small of her back. He reached round to cup her breast and she arched into it. He stroked her stiffening nipple, pulling on it gently until she moaned in helpless pleasure.

He left her breast and caressed her waist, her stomach, moving lower with aching slowness until his hand slipped between her legs. He inhaled sharply as he discovered how wet she was.

She parted her thighs for him, wordlessly urging him on. He circled a finger around her sensitive little nub and she ground her hips, desperate for his touch.

Liquid warmth pooled in her stomach.

She was close. So close.

She surfaced from her dream, panting. There was a moment’s disorientation, a blurring of lines between fantasy and reality. Then she felt Shade pressed up against her back. His arm was slung over her hip and his hand was beneath the waistband of her trousers. He was stroking her with an expertise that made her want to cry out in pleasure.

“Shade…”

She should stop him, she thought wildly. But she was so wet, so aroused. No-one had ever touched her like this. No-one had ever made her feel like this.

Heat coursed up and down her body. It was as though tiny flames were flickering beneath her skin, waiting to explode out. She could scarcely bear it. And she wanted it to go on forever.

He nuzzled her neck and groaned into her hair.

“Leona.”

Her eyes flew open. In an instant she had thrown his arm off her and rolled away. Furious tears pricked at her eyelids as she got to her feet adjusting her clothes.

“Bastard,” she hissed, trying to cover her humiliation. “You had no right!”

Shade woke fully. The puzzled expression on his face changed to thoughtfulness as he took in her flushed cheeks and his own state of arousal.

“Don’t take it personally,” he drawled. “I was half-asleep. And my body tends to take over when it finds a woman in bed next to it.”

“Your body wouldn’t fuckingbehere if I hadn’t dragged it down a fucking mountain,” Raya yelled, so angry she wanted to punch him. “If it wasn’t for me you’d be dead!”

“Well, I definitely feel alive now.” Shade rubbed his fingers together and Raya was mortified to see they still held traces of her. “As do you. Come here.”

“I will not!”

“You cannot mean to leave me like this?” He raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were enjoying it?”

“I… that’s… mind your own business. Who the fuck is Leona, anyway?”

“She is a friend.”

“Then go fuckher.You said our alliance was purely for show. Or are you not a man of your word?”

His brows drew down. He got to his feet, and she had time to see the wound from the jotnar’s claw had almost completely scabbed over before he caught her round the waist. Shadows coiled around him and she felt the smoky warmth of a tendril brushing her cheek.

“You are lucky Iama man of my word. Or I would bend you over right now and finish what we started.” His eyes blazed blue neon. “And you would beg me not to stop.”

She forced herself to hold his stare.

“I will never beg you for anything.Anything.”

The shadows grew until they brushed the ceiling of the hut and expanded outwards. She heard the glass pane in the window crack as pressure was exerted against it.

He let her go, putting distance between them.

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