Page 74 of Wings of Shadow
Gasping for air, I press my forehead against hers. Sweat-slicked skin, tangled limbs, breath mingling in the quiet aftermath. We ride out the aftershocks together, our bodies molded so perfectly against each other that the thought of separating seems impossible.
I don’t want to move.
When our senses begin to return, I shift just enough to take in her face. Her sapphire eyes, still heavy-lidded with pleasure, meet mine. But there’s more to it—a depth, a knowing. An understanding I wasn’t ready for.
It sends a shiver skittering down my spine. Not of fear, but of something far more dangerous.
Connection.
I have never felt so close to another person as I do now.
I tuck a damp lock of hair behind her ear, fingers lingering on her flushed skin, unwilling to break the moment. She’s luminous, the glow of satisfaction softening every edge, and I experience it then—the ache, deep in my chest. A foreign thing. A thing with claws.
I clear my throat, reluctant to examine it. Resistant to name it.
“Kaisner,” she whispers, her voice hoarse from her cries. “That was... beyond anything I could have imagined.”
I smirk, the corner of my mouth tugging upward, but even that seems unsteady.
Clarissa’s eyes flutter closed, a lazy smile curving her kiss-swollen lips. “I never knew it could be like this,” she breathes, tracing idle patterns on my chest with her fingertips. “Never knew I could feel so... complete.”
Possessive pride unfurls inside me, dark and fierce.
She’s mine.
The thought pulses through me, an absolute, an inevitability. I was her first.
Her only.
I take her hand to my mouth. “No one else will ever touch you like this,” I purr, pressing my lips to her wrist. “Remember that.”
But beneath that dominance, beneath the satisfaction of staking my claim, something else stirs—a tenderness I wasn’t prepared for. A quiet, aching wonder that this woman, this impossible woman, has let me in. Has let me see her, truly see her, in all the ways that matter.
And now that I have?
I don’t think I can ever let her go.
I brush my knuckles along the delicate line of her jaw, tilting her face up to meet my gaze. “Clarissa,” I murmur, my voice rough with emotion, my thumb tracing the soft curve of her cheek. “You are everything I never dared to dream of.”
Her lips part on a breath, sapphire eyes shimmering with unshed tears, mirroring the storm inside my chest. “Kaisner,” she whispers, my name reverent, fragile. “I... I don’t know what this is, what we are. But I don’t want it to end. Not now, not ever.”
Something tightens inside me, a sensation I can’t name. I lean down, capturing her mouth in a kiss that is slow, sweet—a promise wrapped in silk and fire.
“It won’t.” The words are a vow, low and unyielding as I rest my forehead against hers. “This is just the beginning, my love.”
She nods, her fingers finding mine, twining together in a silent affirmation. A pact sealed in touch, in breath, in the unspoken certainty that neither of us dares to put into words.
I hold her close, reveling in the steady rhythm of her heart against mine, and for the first time in my life... I am whole.
For so long, I have been a man divided—torn between duty and desire, between the burden of my lineage and the hunger of my own damnation. Between the darkness that has always been my birthright... and the light I never thought I deserved.
But with Clarissa by my side, the war inside me stills.
She is my peace. My salvation. The gentle touch that soothes the jagged edges of my soul.
And I know, with a certainty that goes beyond mere words, beyond reason, beyond logic—I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. To protect the fragile, precious gift of her love.
Even if it means going to war with those who seek to tear us apart.
