Page 74 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

Blinking, I shove the unexpected feeling aside and instead shoot another glare at Draven. And then, because with his damn wings taking up the whole bed, I can’t do anything else, I curl up on the floor next to the bed and try to fall asleep.

To my surprise, my body doesn’t ache with stiffness when I wake up. Rather the opposite. My body is surrounded by soft covers and a fluffy mattress and smooth sheets.

Startled, I sit bolt upright and glance around me.

Shock ripples through my soul.

I’m in Draven’s bed.

And so is he.

He is lying on his stomach on his side of the bed, while I’m occupying the other.

My gaze lands on him right as he jerks awake too. His eyes meet mine. And then alarm pulses across his face.

Sheets flutter through the air as we scramble out of bed at the same time. I pull my sheer robe tighter around me while Draven stalks around the bed. That look of alarm is gone from his face. Now, only a dark scowl remains as he advances on me.

“I thought I told you to sleep on the floor,” he says.

“I did sleep on the floor,” I retort.

“Clearly not.” He comes to a halt barely a breath away. So close that I can feel the heat that radiates from his bare chest. “Since you obviously crawled into bed with me anyway.”

Swallowing down a sudden burst of embarrassment, I raise my chin and put as much conviction into my voice as possible. “No, I didn’t.”

“Then how did you get into my bed?”

My mind desperately tries to sort through any possible memories from last night, but I come up blank. I’m sure that I slept through the night. And I don’t sleepwalk. So there is no way that I climbed into bed with him.

“I don’t know,” I huff. “And how could I have even gotten into it? Your wings were blocking the whole bed.” I jerk back in surprise as I realize something else. Flicking my gaze over Draven’s body, I blurt out, “Where are your wings?”

He starts slightly, and then flicks a quick glance over his shoulder, as if expecting his wings to be there. They’re not. There is a distinctly flustered expression on his face as he turns back to me and replies, “I must have shifted at some point during the night. Which is when you saw your chance and crawled into bed.”

“You randomly shift form in the middle of the night without even knowing it?”

That flustered look on his face deepens, and he lets out a huff. “I might have. I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? Do you really expect me to believe that?”

“You ask too many questions.”

Before I can retort again, he grabs my chin and tilts my head back so that he can lock hard eyes on me.

“I told you to stay on the floor,” he begins, his voice now dripping with threats. “And you climbed into my bed anyway. Try that again, and I swear to God, I will handcuff you to it instead.”

My stomach flips. And because that unnecessarily attractive bastard is standing there half-naked and with bed-mussed hair, looking hotter than sin, my mind shoots straight into forbidden places while a throbbing sensation pulses between my legs.

With my pulse suddenly thrumming, I find myself saying, “You like handcuffs in bed, huh?”

He yanks his hand away from my chin as another flash of alarm shoots across his features. It’s there and gone again within a fraction of a second, so I can’t tell if it was because he’s repulsed by the idea or if it was because I’m on to something.

Flexing his hand, he levels a very impressive scowl on me. “I meant handcuff you to the leg of the bed. So that you will be forced to stay on the floor.”

A very untimely grin dances over my lips. “Sure you did.”

He narrows his eyes at me. “Keep talking, and I’ll get those handcuffs right now.”

I open my mouth to bait him again, but then stop myself before I can say anything else. I know that I should stop talking now. In fact, I should probably have stopped talking a while ago. Because if he decides to actually follow through on his threat and handcuff me to the floor, it will make it more or less impossible for me to find the key and steal it from him.

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