Shadows of Fire (The Shadow Realms, Book 1) by Brenda Davies (free e books to read .TXT) 📕

Shehadn’t known it was possible to feel so destroyed yet so found by akiss.

It felt as if he was breaking every part ofher down to the most basic element and recrafting it into somethingelse, something made entirely for him. Was this what it meant to beshadow kissed?

But no, despite the name, she knew someonehad to offer up a lot more than a kiss for that kind of completepossession to occur. Still, he was changing her on a fundamentallevel that left her shaken and alive in a way she’d never beenbefore.

She couldn’t get enough of him.

Her hands slid under his arms and pressedagainst his back. She tried to draw him closer even as his armscrushed her against him. His hand entwined in her hair and pulledher head back to give him better access to her mouth.

This was going too fast. She’d never beentouched in such intimate, knowing ways before, and she had to slowdown. He was a dark fae, if she didn’t get control of this, shemight never regain control, but her body completely disagreed withthe rationale of her brain.

She jumped when a booming knock on the doorreverberated throughout the bathroom. When she tore her mouth away,his forehead fell to rest against her temple as his handspossessively gripped her ass.

“Lexi!” Sahira called. “Is everything okay inthere?”

Lexi’s chest heaved as she labored to catchher breath. She tried to wiggle away from Cole, but his armsremained locked around her, and the sound he emitted froze her.When he lifted his head and their gazes met, she blinked at thesight of the pure silver eyes staring back at her.

She’d never seen a lycan on the verge oflosing control. However, those silver eyes were a clear indicationthe beast was close to the surface. It should terrify her, as anout-of-control lycan was one of the deadliest creatures in all therealms, but she couldn’t feel any trepidation with his arms lockedsecurely around her.

For the first time, she felt his clawsagainst her ass and saw the faint hint of a cipher at his temple.The outline of his fangs was visible against his closed lips.

If she wasn’t mistaken, he was on the vergeof transforming. But as she stared at him, the cipher vanished, andhis claws retracted.

She wondered how many ciphers he trulypossessed. Immortals whispered that the dark fae hid some of theirciphers from the outside world. The more ciphers a fae had, thestronger they were, but many claimed they only revealed a smallpercentage of those ciphers to the world so they could conceal thetrue depth of their power from their enemies.

It made sense to her, but this was the firsttime she’d seen evidence of it. The emergence of that cipher was asmuch a sign of his loss of control as his silver eyes.

When his erection pressed between her thighs,she resisted rubbing against him. For a minute, they simply staredat each other. Then her gaze fell to his mouth, and yearning torethrough her.

“Lexi!” Sahira called, and a note of panictinged her voice.

Struggling to breathe, she stammered out areply. “I’m fi-fine! I’ll be right out.”

His arms squeezed her, and she sensed hisirritation as Sahira sighed. Then her aunt’s footsteps soundedagainst the rug as she strode away

She waited for him to release her, but heremained towering over her with his body locked possessively aroundhers.

“I should….” Lexi swallowed the lump in herthroat. “I should go.”

A muscle twitched in his jaw, but finally,and with a reluctance evident in his slow movements, he releasedher and stepped away. Lexi tugged her robe close around her as shewiggled off the countertop.

She resisted the blush creeping up her neckand into her cheeks, but it was a losing battle. With her cheeksburning, she finished tugging her clothes into place.

“I must admit, you are a bit irresistible inthis,” he murmured.

When he gripped the lapel of her robe and hisfingers played with the material, Lexi frowned. She didn’t ownanything she would consider irresistible. She glanced down at thepink fabric, and her eyes widened when she spotted the tiny bunnieson it.

With her face burning hotter, she closed hereyes. In her rush to grab clothes from the closet, she hadn’tsnagged her new, white, fluffy robe. Instead, she’d taken the robeshe’d practically worn threadbare as a kid.

Unwilling to part with it, she stashed it inher closet when she outgrew it at twelve. And now she was wearingit in front of him.

“I was in a rush,” she muttered. “Someonewoke me in the middle of the night.”

His burst of laughter caused her eyes toblink in surprise. The sound rumbling from him made her toes curlas much as his passionate kiss. It was such a vibrant, warm sound,so much like the man who issued it.

He was still laughing when his head lowered.His eyes were that piercing blue again when they met hers.

Lexi bit her lip as she gazed at him. He wasgorgeous, and she longed to run her fingers over the angles of hisface before entwining them in his hair and kissing him again. Butif she kissed him again, she wouldn’t stop, and she was notprepared for where it would all lead.

“It’s adorable,” he said before releasing therobe. “I should return to Brokk.”

“Yes, of course.”

She started to edge away from him, but hishand on her face stopped her. He wiped something from her cheek.When his hand moved away from her, she realized it was some of thesalve she’d put on his palm.

“Your hand—” she started.

“It’s fine,” he assured her as he held it upbetween them.

Some of the salve remained on his palm.Beneath it, she saw the healing edges of the deep gash in his hand.“What caused it?”

“I grabbed the blade.”

Her eyebrows rose at this statement. Shecouldn’t imagine doing such a thing, let alone the agonyaccompanying it, but it didn’t seem to affect him.

“Until later,” he murmured as he clasped herchin and kissed her once more.

Before she could melt into his kiss again, hebroke it off, opened the door, and left the room. She gazed afterhis back as she pondered his parting words.

What exactly did they mean? Would theycontinue what they’d started later, or was it just a partingcomment?

An