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He was several feet away. “You’re going to need to be quicker than that.”
Blowing out an already aggravated breath, I launched myself at him, kicking, but I hit nothing but air. I started to turn when I felt a faint brush across the center of my back. I spun, jabbing my elbow back. He’d shadowstepped several feet from me again.
“One day, I’m going to shadowstep my fist into your face,” I warned.
Nyktos laughed. “Does that mean you don’t actually plan to throw your life away then?”
Gritting my jaw, I stalked forward. I knew he was taunting me on purpose. He wanted me mad, and it was begi
“Hmm?” Nyktos glanced down at his shirt, flicking a piece of lint from it.
“I think you keep shadowstepping because you know I will land a hit if you stop doing it.”
“I know.” He winked. “But this is more fun.”
Nyktos blinked out of existence just as I swung, reappearing behind me. He continued that way for quite some time, and I started to sweat. I didn’t move when I felt him behind me, knowing he would shadowstep before I could respond.
“Tiring out already?” Nyktos asked.
“A little,” I whispered.
There was a beat of silence. “It could be the Culling—”
I twisted, kicking out. I made contact this time, landing my boot in his stomach. Nyktos grunted as he staggered back. Bright eyes met mine. “Pure trickery.”
Gri
He tsked under his breath. “You’ll never be fast enough.” He moved, ending up behind me. An arm came around my waist, spi
I caught myself, pushing the braid over my shoulder as my heart rate started to pick up. He shadowstepped in front of me instead of behind me as I’d expected—and caught my chin. The grip wasn’t painful at all. “I’m a Primal.”
“Congratulations,” I spat, the words sparking a memory that made the embers in my chest hum as I reached for him, but this time, he was near the pool’s edge.
This was what Taric had been doing, I realized. When I fought him in the throne room. Being reminded of that did piss me off. Because I’d been utterly helpless then. Fighting him had been pointless. I hadn’t been fast enough. Just like I wasn’t here. The crack in my chest hummed, the feeling becoming stronger and stronger as we continued, Nyktos taunting, and me being too slow. It happened over and over until my chest and skin felt like a fire.
Nyktos shadowstepped once more. Then he was behind me, his arms trapping mine before I could even take a breath.
“Godsdamn it,” I growled.
His chuckle was rough as he hauled me back against his hard chest. “Now, how would you get free from me? You can’t reach that dagger or any other weapon, even if you had them. What would you do?”
I strained against his hold, only succeeding in having him draw me closer. “Scream loudly?”
“No.”
“Beg?” I suggested, tensing as I felt his breath on the side of my neck.
“There are very few things I would be interested in hearing you beg for, and your life is not one of them,” he said. “I can feel the essence in you ramping up. It’s there. Charging the air. You can summon the eather. Will it to manifest into energy that can break my hold. You won’t hurt me.”
I had been able to feel it, too. Keyword being had. “I’m not worried about hurting you.”
His cool breath grazed the shell of my ear. “Then what’s stopping you?”
“Those few things you’re interested in hearing me beg for.”
Nyktos went still behind me.
I gri
And more than a little reckless.
“I bet I can guess at least one of those things,” I said.
There was a beat of silence. “And what would that be?”
“I don’t know if I should speak it.” I turned my head toward his. “It may be too bold.”
“There is not a single part of me that believes you’re worried about being too bold.”
“But you may find me speaking it to be…distracting.”
Nyktos’s hold on me shifted. He drew me onto the tips of my toes and over, just a few inches, and I felt hardness against my lower back. “I’m already distracted.”
I bit down on my lower lip as heat flooded my blood. “You may be more distracted.”
“Tell me what you think I’d like to hear you beg for,” he ordered, his voice full of silk and shadows. “Or is it you who has become nothing more than talk?”
I laughed, the sound deep and throaty as I stretched as far as I could, bringing my mouth close to his. “Your cock,” I whispered, then I brought my foot down on his. Hard.
Nyktos grunted, likely more from surprise than pain, but his grip on me loosened. I broke free, twisting out of his embrace. Facing him, I backed across the packed soil and stone. “That’s how I’ll get free.”
Eather seeped into his eyes as that lush, full mouth tilted up at the corners. “Is that your grand battle plan when you have no access to weapons? Speak of cocks?”
“If it works, why not?” I eyed the thick ridge clearly visible in his leathers. “And it most definitely worked.”
“Perhaps a little too well.”
“Is that so?”
Nyktos said nothing as he stalked toward me. The thrill of anticipation pumped hotly through me, mingling with the adrenaline. I waited until he was no more than a foot from me, and then I darted to my left, dipping under his arm. He spun, catching me, no longer shadowstepping.
He hauled me against him once more, my back to his front, one arm folded over my upper chest. “That was far too easy, Sera.” His other hand landed on my lower stomach, causing me to jump. “I don’t think you’re seriously trying to evade me.”
My breath caught as his hand slid down, over the laces ru
I couldn’t think.
“I’d say it’s obvious.” His hand continued its downward path, slipping between my thighs. A sharp pulse of desire whipped through me. “You wanted to be caught.”
A ragged gasp left me as his fingers pressed against my center. “I don’t like being caught.” My hips twitched as his fingers began to move in tight circles. “Ever.”
He chuckled. “Liar.”
I was totally lying. I was also begi
The sound Nyktos made against my back shouldn’t have excited me, but it did, and I gri
“Wrong move,” he growled, lifting me clear off my feet. He turned us toward the old stone table. “But I don’t think you tried very hard then, either.”
I gasped as he pressed me down until my stomach was flush with the table. My feet barely scraped the floor as I started to flip over, but he was suddenly on me, his chest against my back, and his legs twined with mine. He lodged his right forearm between my cheek and the stone, and all I could see was his bleached-white knuckles and my dagger, where it was still embedded in the wall above me.
I was trapped.
My fingers curled against the rough stone as I waited for the panic to hit me and for my chest to tighten. But when I dragged in a breath, all I could taste was citrus. All I could feel was Nyktos behind me, his chest rising and falling against my back, his breath teasing my cheek, and his hips pushed against my ass. Panic didn’t find me at all. A hot, shocking flood of desire did.