Chapter 37
Lana
Ian didn’t need to be told twice.
He slid away from me, giving me one last loving smile.
The energy radiating off Kade’s body oozed desire with a dangerous undercurrent I couldn’t name. As much as I loved Ian, in no way did he need to be present for anything that was about to transpire.
Looking between us, Ian smiled. “I’ll just see myself out, then.”
We walked back into my room, and Ian gathered his belongings as quickly as possible before heading to the door. “Goodnight, Lan. Kade.” He dipped his head and shut the door.
Kade immediately scooped me into his arms, carrying me like some damsel toward my bed. “It has been too long since I’ve felt you naked and writhing beneath me, Little Rebel.”
Giggling, I feigned shock. “Whatever shall we do?”
Kade’s shadows shut the door to my bed chamber, and he playfully threw me on the bed. I bounced once as he proceeded to crawl toward me. “I can think of quite a few things to do to you.”
As his body loomed over mine, I grabbed his shirt and pulled him close to me, desperate to feel his lips on mine.
“If this is the last night we are alive,” Kade murmured between kisses, “I will spend every minute of it with you.”
Running my hands up and down his back, I felt his muscles rippling with anticipation as his shadows filled the room, blocking us from the outside world. The light magic inside of me hummed with excitement, trickling out of my hands and swirling alongside Kade’s shadows.
I groaned as Kade’s lips roamed from my mouth down my neck in slow, luxurious kisses. The fire in my core ignited, ready and waiting for him. “I will never get enough of this,” I breathed, my voice quivering with an ungodly need.
He reached for the edge of my shirt and ran his hand across my stomach, tracing my body up toward my chest. Teasing me with the calloused tips of his fingers, he caressed my breast, his thumb rolling over the tip of my nipple.
A jolt of pleasure deep in my belly twisted, taking me higher until I didn’t think I would be able to breathe without him inside of me.
“Get me out of these clothes,” I demanded. “Now.”
Kade chuckled as he continued to tease my nipple with his fingers. “Is that a royal order?”
“Kade.”
His mouth crashed into mine, and he rolled me on top of him, adjusting my legs and settling them on either side of his hips. My head fell back, and I moaned unabashedly as his hard length pressed against my clit through my pants in exactly the right spot.
Danger danced across his features, the darkness in his eyes stuttering in and out as he lost control, even before plunging into me, but it didn’t scare me.
I would gladly accept any and all danger this man would give me.
I knew now that no amount of darkness inside of him would take him away. Kade was mine.
Pulling back, I made my way off of Kade’s body and the bed, standing beside him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he growled playfully. “I had you exactly where I wanted you.”
“Good things come to those who wait, sir.” I took another step back. “Now sit there and watch.”
Kade’s brow lifted, but he shifted back against the pillow, lying propped up on one elbow as he stared at my body with lust.
Shadows danced at my feet, yearning for attention and wanting in on the action.
“Tsk, tsk.” I tousled my hair. “You will have to wait your turn too.”
Kade rolled his eyes at his shadows, but his attention never left my body, allowing his gaze to roam up and down.
Slow and seductive. That was what I wanted this dance to be for Kade.
Edging him in the best possible way. Grabbing the hem of my shirt, I lifted it higher, slipping it over my head, swinging my hips and losing myself in the moment.
I let go of my fears, of my insecurities, and any feeling of unworthiness I'd clung to for so long.
Swaying to a beat in my own head, I ran my hands over my body, moving down toward my pants.
I drank in the sight of Kade’s cock straining against his pants as he observed my movements.
I grinned when he planted his hands on the bed, gripping the sheets as if he barely contained himself from reaching out to me.
“Not yet,” I purred, shaking my finger at him. “I’ve still got clothes to remove.” I lifted my foot and placed it on the edge of the bed. Reaching down, I exaggerated my every movement, removing my slipper from my foot, pulling myself back up before doing the same with the other.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.”
Kade’s shadows took matters into their own hands and untied the string holding my pants up so they fell to my ankles.
“Naughty shadows.” The light inside of me poured out of my palms quickly, mixing with the shadows. Pure unadulterated happiness filled every crevice of my body as my magic sang alongside Kade’s.
I swore our magics themselves were mates too with how they acted.
Unable to control himself anymore, Kade threw off his shirt and removed his pants.
“You can’t expect me to sit here watching you and not do something about it,” he groaned, falling back onto the bed.
Kade stroked his cock as I continued to stand before him, wrapped in shadows and light, swaying to the rhythm of our magic.
“I am done waiting for you, Little Rebel,” Kade growled as he rubbed his palm over the tip of his member. “Get over here now, so I can bury myself inside of you.”
Tying my hair in a low bun, I made my way back on the bed and straddled Kade.
He wrapped a hand around the back of my neck, pulling me to him, his thumb stroking against my pulse point.
I expected rough desperation behind Kade’s kiss.
Instead, our lips grazed each other, soft and tenderly.
Hands exploring thoroughly as if both of us knew the other needed to touch every inch and memorize this moment.
This time felt like so much more. Despite the raw hunger throbbing inside of me, our movements weren’t hurried. This wasn’t anything but genuine love between the two of us, yearning, delicious passion that we allowed to consume us slowly. Fates, I’d allow Kade’s love to consume me for eternity.
Unable to resist him any further, I lowered myself onto his ready cock inch by inch, moaning into his ear.
“Fates, you’re so fucking wet for me,” Kade groaned.
I shifted to pull back, craving to set us on a rhythm that would take him deeper, but he grasped my hips, stilling me.
“Ah, ah,” he grinned up at me. “It’s my turn now.”
His shadows slipped around my wrists, tugging them together behind my back, pulling me until I arched slightly. Another slid up the back of my neck and into my hair, tugging it ever so slightly.
Kade and his shadows held me in place as his lust-filled gaze devoured me. I whimpered, squirming around his length, needing it deeper.
“You look so beautiful tied up in my shadows.” Kade sat up, taking one of my nipples in his mouth and biting.
I cried out, shifting my hips.
He didn’t let me pull him any deeper. I felt his smile against my skin as he tenderly licked my other nipple. “I think I could get used to this sight.”
“Please,” I begged. My body had devolved into a quivering mess. The only thing that would make it better just out of my reach.
Kade pulled out, lying back down on the bed as his hands gripped my waist. Before I could beg again, he plunged into me.
“So pretty when you beg,” he praised. His hands caressed over my hips, trailed by more of his shadows, both entwining with my light and touching me.
My body rested fully in Kade’s control, as he slammed into me again and again.
Stroke after stroke, the pleasure inside of me built until I was gasping for breath, body tightening, chasing the high only he brought me to.
Kade rubbed my clit with his thumb in slow circles, igniting another fire inside of me.
“More, Kade,” I pleaded as I writhed on top of him.
He obeyed willingly. “Such a good fucking girl.” Thrust. “You’re mine.” Thrust. “You’ll always be mine.” He repeated the phrase through his own moans of pleasure.
His shadows tightened in my hair as Kade drove me higher until my orgasm hit in rolling waves. I screamed his name as I trembled in the aftershocks.
Breathless and glowing, I shivered with contentment as both of our magics buzzed with excitement, ready for more. We were all far from satiated.
His shadows loosened, letting go of me with tender caresses.
I brought my forehead to Kade’s as I caught my breath before he kissed me once more.
“The Fates did one thing right,” he whispered, running his tongue slowly over mine.
“They brought me to you. I will never be able to thank you enough for saving me from myself. For letting me be me. For seeing beyond my past, what I was forced to do. You accepted every dark part of me with open arms and looked at me as if I still shone bright. You never turned your back on me, on us. You are my salvation, Lana.”
My heart burst with the love I had for this man. I ran the tips of my fingers up and down his arm, and goose bumps appeared in a trail. “For you, my love—my mate—there is no mountain I wouldn’t climb. No darkness I wouldn’t face to stand by your side. There is only me and you.”
A hungry look flashed in Kade’s eyes, and he shifted, rolling on top of me before leaning me back onto the bed. Taking a moment to readjust himself, he pushed a strand of hair that fell across my face behind my ear.
“Whether in this world or the next, Little Rebel, you will always be mine.”
This time when he leaned down to kiss me, our tongues swirled in a bewitching harmony I knew I’d never come back from.
He propped himself up with his hand next to my head as he began moving with slow and steady strokes inside of me. Our gazes locked on each other, memorizing every second of our time together.
Tears formed in my eyes, as neither of us looked away.
Seconds turned to minutes, and any concept of time erased itself from the room altogether.
Moonlight shone across the bed, illuminating Kade’s body in all of its warrior glory.
I ran my hands along the lines of his tattoos, along the scars of his chest. I closed my eyes as the pleasure slowly built inside of me again.
A deep crescendo of love and desire, waiting to be set free.
I let out a small cry as my body teetered on the edge of something more than anything we’d crashed through before. Emotions ravaged me as Kade’s breathing shallowed. When the tears formed in his eyes too, I lost every shred of my own control.
“Together,” he rasped. “Together.”
“Kade, I’m so close.”
“I know, love, just a little bit longer.”
Biting my lip, I held on for as long as I could, but with two more beautifully deep, sensual thrusts, he threw me over the edge and there was no coming back.
My entire body convulsed in the most mind-altering orgasm I’d ever had.
I cried out, watching him, feeling him everywhere.
My mind and heart completely connected to this man before me as the bond in my chest broke and reforged into something unfathomable.
Kade found his release, and together we rode out our orgasms in bliss.
All the broken pieces of self-doubt, of ever feeling not good enough, thoughts of not being worthy of love were shattered by this man. There was no part of me that remained untouched, that remained less than. Not just because of him, but because his love gave me the space to also love myself.
Kade grabbed a small cloth from the bedside table and meticulously wiped away all evidence of our time together, placing kisses on different places of my body as he did.
A few minutes later, we lay curled up under the blankets while he stroked my hair with my head nestled on his chest. “Lana, we need to talk about the prophecy and what it might mean.”
I stopped breathing, the high of what we’d just experienced together crashing around me as panic set in. “No. No, it is not an option I’m willing to consider.”
Kade pulled my chin up to look straight into his eyes. “We have to consider it. The Fates have foretold the darkness has to be gone for Thames to be destroyed. We can’t dismiss it. We need to prepare for what happens if we meet him and the darkness is still with me.”
“I refuse,” I said more firmly. “Losing you is not an option I will entertain ever. I will not spend our last night discussing it.” I placed my head back on his chest and scooted my body as close to him as possible, wrapping around him like just that action alone could somehow keep me here.
Kade sighed, “We can’t escape this forever. We’re out of time.”
“Forever can start tomorrow.” A tear threatened to escape, but I refused to let it fall.
I would not give it voice or allow it to take hold.
This would be something that presented itself tomorrow.
After all, we still had to figure out how to get the darkness out of half this world. Whatever we did would work on Kade too.
I would not let fear destroy the most amazing night I’d ever had.
The intimate connection between us wasn’t common, it was otherworldly, and that had to mean something.
This bond between us was unbreakable, and I wouldn’t ruin this perfect moment by talking about any prophecy, much less one that could be interpreted as taking Kade away from this world.
Kade must have realized he’d lost this battle, because he wrapped his other arm around me, pulling me in closer, and said, “Sleep, Illiana. Replenish your magic.” He kissed the top of my head. “You will need every ounce of energy you have to win this war.”
“I will win this war with you by my side, Kade,” I said, allowing his presence to soothe me as I drifted to sleep. I closed my eyes and prayed to the Fates they were wrong.