Page 51 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

Then Draven nods pointedly down at my body. “So your plan was… what? To simply walk back naked for everyone to see?”

He sounds frustrated and annoyed, which just makes me even more angry. He has no right to be annoyed.I’mthe one who is naked, for Mabona’s sake!

“What else was I supposed to do?” I snap back at him. “There was nothing left to cover myself with. And I couldn’t just stand there in the bathing chamber all night.”

He flexes his hand again and grinds his teeth. I glare up at him. He stares right back at me.

Tension crackles between us like lightning.

I don’t even understand why he’s so angry. It’s not as if my predicament has any sort of effect on him.

At last, he forces out a long sharp breath and takes a step back. His face takes on an unreadable expression. I’m just about to ask what he’s doing when he tucks his wings back in tight.

A small cloud of black smoke appears in the stairwell.

I blink in surprise as I stare at Draven.

He has shifted into his fully human form, so his wings are now gone. It’s the first time that I have ever seen him without hiswings. To my surprise, he looks just as powerful and imposing without them as he does with them.

Then my mind malfunctions as Draven suddenly grabs the hem of his shirt and yanks it over his head.

A small noise escapes from the back of my throat entirely without my permission as I stare at his perfectly sculpted and utterly naked chest. It’s an absolute work of art. I get the completely insane urge to run my hands over his firm pectorals and trace my fingers along the sharp ridges of his abs down to that absolutely sinful V that disappears into his pants.

Reality hits me like a shovel to the face.

Jerking my head back up, I blink and then shake my head to clear it.

But the scene before me still doesn’t make any sort of sense.

Draven, now only wearing a pair of black pants and a set of black bracers on his forearms, takes a step towards me.

Several different scenarios whirl through my head. Each one more unlikely and insane than the last.

Draven raises his hand and shoves something at my chest.

For a while, I can’t make my body do anything. Because I don’t understand one single thing about what is happening here right now.

Then my gaze drops down to what he is pressing against my chest.

His shirt. His soft black shirt.

“Put it on.”

I snap my gaze back up to his face.

He narrows his eyes at me. “Do not make me repeat myself.”

With a light shove, he pushes his shirt harder against my chest.

Utter disbelief swirls inside my skull, and I keep my stunned eyes on his as I reach up and take the offered shirt. He releasesit. I just stand there and stare at him. He raises his eyebrows expectantly.

Yanking myself out of my stupor, I hurriedly shake out the large shirt and then pull it over my head. There are slots in the back where his wings are meant to be, but it still covers my nakedness completely.

My heart does a backflip in my chest.

The shirt is still warm. And it smells like him. Like night mist and embers.

Fire flickers through my veins, and my heart pounds against my ribs.

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