Page 78 of Prisoner of Steel and Shadow

Only Ronan.

She was lost to the sensation of him. Helpless to do anything but follow wherever he led while her heart beat erratically in her chest, like a tiny bird learning to take flight. She’d been kissed before. But not like this. Nothing compared to the soul-awakening experience that was Ronan. It was so much more than two mouths fumbling against each other in the dark.

It was a confession.

A promise.

A claiming.

He pulled away, and it took a few seconds before Shadow could recognize the uneven pants surrounding them as her breaths. Still holding her face, he tipped her chin up, peering down at her with a reverence usually reserved for holy men praying to their gods.

“Reyna...”

A dozen tiny things happened at once. The icy burn of anger replaced the warm pulse of desire in her veins. The winged creature soaring in her chest fell from the sky—dead once more. Her hand dropped from his shoulder to the dagger sheathed at her thigh, seamlessly releasing the weapon and digging the tip of the blade into his stomach.

Her face felt frozen, but Ronan’s was a concert of conflicting emotion.

Relief. Hope. Disappointment. Despair. Confusion.

And then, finally... acceptance.

“You still don’t remember me, do you?” he asked, his desire-deepened voice tinged with regret.

“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you. My name. Isnot. Reyna!” She spat the words, furious that he would kiss her like that... make her feel those things... while thinking about, and dreaming about, andloving, someone else. The truth of it eviscerated her more brutally than she had ever managed while wielding one of her beloved blades.

He didn’t wanther.He’d never wanted her.

She was a replacement. A stand-in for the woman he’d lost.

Shadow didn’t know it was possible to hurt like this. To feel cracked open. Raw. Bleeding and broken. All while remaining perfectly untouched and whole.

She wanted to pummel him, to claw his face and shred him into a million pieces just as he’d done to her. Instead she sucked in a breath and did nothing, working hard to pick up and tuck away every last shattered piece of her pride. He didn’t deserve her pain. He didn’t deserve anything.

Completely unaware of the gathering storm within her, Ronan swept the pad of his thumb over her lip. “I’d hoped... but then I guess it doesn’t matter.” He started to lean down, his mouth feathering against her.

“No.” She jerked in his arms, fighting against his hold like a feral cat. “No!”

“Yes,” he growled, pushing her back against the wall and pinning her in place with his body. “Yes.”

Shadow didn’t even realize she’d cut him until the coppery tang of his blood hit the air. He didn’t react to the wound with so much as a hiss of pain. He was wholly focused on taming her, and she wasn’t nearly strong enough to resist.

But that didn’t stop her from trying.

She twisted her face away, attempting to ignore the tickle of his lips over her skin as he breathed kisses along her jaw. Her voice shook, losing its edge as her chest rose and fell with desperate breaths. “You don’t get to kiss me like that and pretend I’m someone else.”

He gripped her chin and turned her head until she was holding his gaze once more. “There is no one else. Only you. Just you.” He punctuated each declaration with a kiss. “Your name doesn’t matter. Your memories... your past. None of it matters. They change nothing. Because you.”

Kiss.

“Are.”

Kiss.

“Mine.”

The next time his lips met hers, she melted into him, her weapon falling forgotten to the floor. She hated how completely he’d taken control of her body. How it responded to him with no regard to her wishes. Mostly, she hated how much shedidn’thate him. If anyone else ever dared manhandle her the way he was, she’d have them castrated and bleeding out at her feet. But with Ronan? She couldn’t get enough.

Her hands tangled in his hair, fisting in the silky strands and gripping hard. He grunted into her mouth, his thigh settling more firmly between her legs. She rocked against him without conscious thought, and she moaned as the subtle friction sent tiny sparks shooting across her body.

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