Page 44 of The Shadow Prince's Ruin
“I told you it’s real,” Sylvan says and kisses me again, without a hint of resentment for my lack of trust. “The house is protected by a powerful illusion, so the police can’t enter, we are safe. But we’re not in the Nightmare Realm just yet. We will go there soon though. And since the bastard did take off my collar, I can bind your shadow to mine, as I promised.” When he raises his hand in an elegant gesture, I’m not imagining things, a dark thread rises from his shadow and wraps around his finger.
I blink, then pinch myself, but the image doesn’t disappear, defying everything I know about the world and its physics. “Holy hell… you’re a magician.”
Sylvan’s smile is sweet despite the bloodstains on his face. “Of sorts.” He gives me a dreamy look from under pale eyelashes as he pulls another thread, this time from my shadow, into his hand. “It’s called shadowcraft, and I might not have much talent for it, but with your shadow tied to mine, my power will be so much greater. He tried to take you from me. But I’d rather die than let that happen.” He twists the two threads in his fingers into a tidy bow, then squeezes it.
When he opens his hand, they form a single, uniform thread connecting our shadows. I’m flooded by a sense of warm anticipation so very unlike the repulsive shackles of my brief connection with the smith.
I swallow, pulling Sylvan close, until I can sense his heartbeat where our chests touch. My head is spinning a bit as the scenery blurs around his serene features. “But I didn’t agree. How could he just…do that? I thought it needed to be mutual.
Sylvan kisses me again, and his arms cradle my head as we embrace. “Your shadow is so potent. I think it’s because of your near-to-death experiences. But it’s also vulnerable. I don’t know why, but only the shadows of those drowning in the River ofSouls are like that?desperate to attach themselves. Yet I found you in the human realm, in my path. Any shadow-wielder can bind a shadow like yours to theirs, and your consent would have been irrelevant. The bond can only be made with one human, and it cannot be broken. Other than by death.
“Your precious shadow on the other hand can only be used once you become a Dark Companion, and for that to happen, you will need to make a vow. It cannot be forced, though I have heard stories of lies and coercion. Even stories of a shadow-wielder killing the person they bound to them when the human wouldn’t comply under any circumstances. That will not be our case though, will it?”
Sylvan’s voice is sweet in my ear, as if we were in bed already, whispering filthy promises. “I will take you to the Nightmare Realm, and under the cover of my shadow, you will vow to be mine as the full moon gazes upon us. Body, soul, and shadow. And as promised, my body will be yours.” He backs out enough to look into my eyes with such softness, I can’t believe he’s a killer even though a body is at our feet. “But in truth, Hawk, you already have my heart as well.”
He’s such a temptation. A never-ending sundae with fruit, whipped cream, and copious lashings of sauce. I can barely think when he’s stroking me, peering deep into my eyes, making such sweet promises.
Nobody ever wanted me like this, mutually and without shame. For good.
It’s addictive, and when I slide my hands down his body, taking hold of his ass, he whimpers in excitement.
“Are you saying I can just have this? Escape the law, and then live forever married to a prince?” rolls out of my mouth as I push my nose into his fine dew-scented hair. Now I know why he always smells so gloriously. He is not of my world.
I love the way his breath quickens. “You can haveeverything. Is it so bad that I don’t want to wait until you’re my Dark Companion?” His whisper is raspy, but it’s his words that throw gasoline over the fire inside me. “Some say that it shouldn’t be done. That it’s coercive…”
He’s so precious.
“I only want you if you want me, my prince. But I don’t think it’s a secret I’m daydreaming about your body,” I tell him and knead his buttocks.
Sylvan nuzzles my cheek. “I don’t want you. Ineedyou. I need to know what it’s like to be under you, to please you, to be a vessel for you.” His voice trembles at the end in a tone that awakens my most feral instincts.
He might be powerful, magical, and a prince, but he’s a little shy about the things he wants from me, and that only turns me on more.
“You literally murdered a guy for me. That’s commitment,” I rasp and slide my finger up and down his crack, pushing on the fabric to tickle his hole through it. He’s so responsive.
Sylvan shivers and bends his spine when he pushes his hips back, and I nip his upper lip, captivated by the ecstasy painted over his features. “You want to be my ‘vessel’, huh? That can be arranged, pretty thing.” No rubbers it is then.
“Now?” he asks, kissing my neck.
The mix of needy and vulnerable is intoxicating. Just like when I first saw him and couldn’t look away, couldn’t leave despite it being such a stupid thing to do while on the run from the law.
But now I can have him, and arousal dances in my veins when I slide my hands down his thighs, feeling them as I kiss my way along his jaw. I intend to savor this. “‘Now’ what?” I tease and lick the side of his face, making him moan. “What do you want from me, princeling?” I’m pretty sure I know, but I want him tosay it. I want to see him blushing when he admits he wants my cock.
Sylvan squeezes me tighter, and now that I know he really is a prince, I wonder how he got here. Not why he got banished, that can wait, but how did he get to be twenty-five and a hapless virgin when he’s so adorably fuckable.
“I want you on top of me,” he says, hiding his face in the crook of my neck.
I spit on my fingers and grab his jaw with my other hand as they dive into the back of his pants, headed to the center of his heat. I remember rubbing my cum into his hole, but now I’ll do much more than that.
His eyes roll back when my damp fingertips slide over wrinkled flesh, and I lick across his open lips still stained with blood. I want him to lose himself. I want him to scream, twist, and arch in my arms until he’s so pumped out I’ll have to carry him wherever we’re going next.
“Are you too embarrassed to ask for the things you want? For my cock diving deep into your needy hole?” I ask, making him tremble with my words.
“It’s… I shouldn’t ask for that. I should be the one in control. But I don’t want to,” his voice turns into a whimper when I press my finger against his opening. My dick will fit so snugly in there. The only one he’ll ever have, because there’s no way I’m ever letting go of this gem, not when he wants to keep me for good.
“What would all the other royals think if they knew you want to be fucked like this and filled with cum until that’s all you can think about,” I say, dipping my digit into his opening so rapidly he slides one knee up my hip, begging to be taken away to my den of choice.
I can do that. I’m more than happy to take charge.
