Page 127 of The Shadows Between Us
His breathing is ragged, but he manages to focus. “I swear it, Alessandra. You’re not going anywhere. You’re mine.”
He sits back on his knees and starts unbuttoning his shirt.
I follow his fingers with my eyes, watching as each inch of his beautiful skin is revealed.
I don’t like being on uneven footing, so I sit up, too. He draws his shirt away from his chest and tosses it to the ground, and I understand.
I place the palm of my hand flat against his chest, and he closes his eyes. He hasn’t been touched in so long. And what he wants right now—what he needs—is to be touched.
My hands do a thorough search of his chest, and then I replace them with my lips, feeling every muscle, every slope, every smooth and coarse surface.
I lay him back, climb atop him, let him feel the weight of my body. My hair slides against his cheeks as I kiss the stubble at his chin, and then I move to his neck, up to his ear, grab the lobe between my teeth and tongue.
And then, as though he can’t stand it anymore, he rolls us, effectively sliding me underneath him. My dress hitches up, and one of his thighs goes between mine, nudging upward—
And then I’m gasping, but he covers the sound with his mouth.
I can’t think. I can’t breathe. I can’t—
Kallias slows the kiss. Draws each connection of our lips out almost lazily, as if he has all the time in the world.
My senses return, and I just enjoy the feel of him, the heat of him, the way his clever lips move across mine.
The Shadow King is the most patient man in the world. He kissesme for hours. He plays with me, speeding the kisses up for a time and then slowing them down, as if to see how close he can bring himself to the brink of control before calming back down.
He never takes off his pants. He never takes off my dress. He doesn’t even let his hands stray to fun places.
And I’m so terrified that he’ll change his mind. That he’ll send me away. That he’ll decide he doesn’t want me anymore—as Hektor did—that I don’t try to push anything. As badly as I want him, I let him control the pace and speed at which we go.
Just for tonight. When things are new and terrifying.
Perhaps that is what he needs. To ease himself back into remembering what it is like tofeel.
WHENIWAKE, Itry to cling to the remnants of a delicious dream. There was me and Kallias and—
But when my eyes open, I find him in bed next to me, one gloveless, shirtless arm slung over my middle.
Not a dream.
A beautiful reality.
My Shadow King.
His eyes crack open, and he just stares at me, as though startled. But then he collects himself. “That’ll take some getting used to.”
“Waking up to another face?”
“Waking up to a face that isn’t Demodocus’s. As much as I love him, I much prefer yours.” His hand snakes forward to cup my face, and he draws me in for a sweet kiss.
An hour or so later, he leaves me to dress in his own room, but he doesn’t bother to shut the door that usually separates us, so that we might talk.
“I’m having your things moved in here,” he says.
“Moved where? Into your room?”
“Into our room. We’ll knock down this wall. Make it one great room. I don’t care. But you’re sleeping with me. There will be no your-bed-and-my-bed nonsense.” His next words are muffled, as though he says them while pulling a shirt over his head. “Unless you really want your own bedroom…” It sounds as though the words cost him greatly.
I smile, not answering right away because it’ll drive him mad. Finally, I say, “I don’t need my own room.”
