Page 72 of Daughter of the Serpent

His fingers pressed slightly at her hip, grounding her, threading his steady warmth through her.

“Trust in me.”

Her breath hitched. His presence, his touch - it was intoxicating, consuming her whole.

The flurry of doubt seemed to disappear as quickly as it had come with those two hands on her body, with his warmth seeping into her curves, her hollows, his energy leaving her almost breathless.

“Now,” he murmured, his voice a command. “Focus.”

The one word rattled her senses back to the present, snappingout of the swirling energy of desire that seemed to rack through her at his nearness.

Nodding, she closed her eyes.

She reached out her hand, willing, wishing - a flame to spark.

She could do this.

She would do this.

“Let it flow through you, trickling like water from a vase. Flowing, ebbing - ” His warmth continued to flood into her. “Close your eyes and let it be so. You are a creator, a vortex of ever flowing light.”

She sucked in a ragged breath, her lungs expanding with an unknown desire, want -need. All else drained away like an open vein.

“Pull on the string - feel the emotion, spill forth.” His whisper tickled her ear, his breath on her cheek as he held her from behind.

His energy was wild, powerful - everything she wasn’t.

Everything she had never allowed herself to be.

Yet now, with his touch trailing the curve of her side, seeping into her skin, something stirred - something forbidden. A heat unfurled, coiling low in her core, mingling with a hunger she wasn’t sure how to name. It wasn’t just the physical draw of him - the solid wall of muscle pressing at her back, or the way he loomed, deliberate, steady. It was the way he made her feel.

Reckless. Alive.

Her lips parted on a sharp inhale.

Could she surrender to it?

Gods, she wanted to.

Magic rose within her, a living thing - heat curling around her, calling to something deep and unclaimed inside her.

She wantedhim.Neededhim closer.

Did he sense it?

The air between them hummed, alive with something raw, something electric. Electricity danced across her skin, and her eyes flared open.

A spark, a flame in her palm ignited.

But in the span of a breath, it vanished.

Her throat tightened, disappointment thrumming through her as her hand fell to her side.

“I can’t do this…” The words slipped out, barely more than a breath. She stepped back, as if distance alone could silence the doubt clawing at her.

For a fleeting moment, she had surrendered - given in to the emotion, the longing - and it had worked.

But just as quickly, it had slipped through her fingers.

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