Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Kyran’s whisper teases my ear. “You’re the one person who makes me feel real. As If I’m not just someone else’s shadow but a man like any other. Blood, flesh, and bone.”
My fingers drift to the buttons at the front of his elegant riding jacket. “Let me see all that flesh then,” I whisper with a growing smile despite my cheeks being still wet from tears. I want to—no, I need to feel him close. The emotional barrier that separated us for so long is no longer there, and I can’t wait to find out what it’s like to be naked with him now that my heart is free.
His eyes glint with anticipation, and while I’ve seen the same expression on so many faces before, none of the men I’ve been with was ever so hungry for me, not me specifically. I might be Kyran’s first, but his devotion, his absolute inability to stay away from me make me believe that he wouldn’t have been like this with just anyone. That maybe he and I really have been brought together by fate. That maybe we do belong together in ways I could have never anticipated.
One thing is for certain—if this is a dream, I want it to keep going forever.
“See me,” Kyran begs, taking my hand and sliding it between the folds of his shirt.
My breath hitches when my fingers reach his pec. I love how he towers over me, how he can turn me into a blabbering mess, and how I can’t get enough of him.
And I do feel safe with him. Safe enough to let go of inhibitions, to be unafraid of his shadowy lair, and to trust him with my body, soul, and shadow.
“Very real…” I purr, sliding my fingers up his hard stomach. This man is made of pure fucking muscle. So strong he can easily carry me, pin me down, and protect me as well.
The shadow bed stirs under us, as if it’s full of tiny bubbles, and Kyran’s eyes darken, his irises spilling over and coloring the whites around them black. The strange effect is gone when he blinks before sliding his knee between my thighs and cradling my head with one arm. “I can already see you in the red moonlight, ready to be mine forever.”
It’s silly. I never imagined I’d want to get married, but with Kyran? As soon as he mentions it, I melt, dreaming of long, happy years together. Vowing in front of the whole Nocturne Court that I am Kyran’s.
“Not long now,” I whisper, looking into his strange eyes, already unbuckling his belt, because, fuck it, we’re here alone, and I don’t care what’s going on at the hunt.
He inhales, but when he speaks my name next, his voice sounds as if he’s whispering through a copper pipe. The metallic, otherworldly quality of his words makes me curl my toes, but as the bed stirs under me again, I blink and raise my head to see shadows attaching themselves to Kyran in wispy strings like elongated leeches.
I must have made a face, because he hushes me with a peck on the cheek. “Don’t be afraid… things are different in the shadowild.”
“But you’re… fine? This doesn’t hurt you?” I ask as shadows swell under my fingers where I was touching his skin, no less warm and pleasant to the touch.
Kyran shakes his head, and I can’t miss that his hair no longer acts as it normally does, instead floating in the air and merging into thick, flat strands. “It’s an effort to keep my elven form here, for me at least. I spent most of my life as a creature of shadow,” he says, and the darkness is back in his eyes, covering them whole, as if he’s no longer a man.
I can’t contain the shock of seeing him like this but keep still when his long finger pulls down the front of my shirt, flinging buttons away as if that was his plan all along.
I gasp, and my heartbeat quickens. The shadows cover him and melt into each other, making his form grow. Am I scared or excited? I’m not sure, but my dick is.
“Is this… safe?” I mutter, running my fingertips over his swelling forearm, black, matte, and soft as velvet.
Kyran’s features have sharpened too, and when he smiles, it’s like being in the arms of an exceedingly handsome praying mantis. As my heartbeat speeds up in response, the confused arousal I experienced earlier becomes more insistent too, and I wrap my legs around him as he speaks.
“I won’t hurt you. My soul is still the same,” he tells me, sinking his long fingers into my hair as the shapes around us pulse, creating abstract forms I have no interest in anyway. All I can see, smell, and hear is Kyran, and when he dives in to nip my neck, my moan gets lost in the darkness surrounding us.