Page 94 of Taken By Shadows

I tried to draw my eyes back to the texts we had been poring over all day.

Nothing on faebane. Not even a tiny hint.

Nothing to tell Kaed. If he even wanted to hear it.

I huffed and smacked the book closed.

If he didn’t want to see me and learn about any of our progress, that was fine by me. I didn’t want to see him. No part of me needed to be pinned under his stare or between his arms. I didn’t need his chest right in front of me … shirt falling open, fabric spilling to show off the smooth skin beneath—

I grabbed a book, flicked open a page, and tried to bury the burning blush that pushed to the tips of my ears. I cleared my throat in the silence around me. I flicked to another page. And to the next. And the next.

The Four-Hundred-and-Fifty-Seven Magical Flora of the Four Corners: A Compendium was not a late-night read. And yet, here I was.

The more distance I got from Kaed, the more time I spent in the air that wasn’t permeated with his perfumed aroma of citrus and amber, the more I could think straight. Even if my thoughts strayed back to him, my senses managed to stay on course. Mostly.

Musty books had a way of making the mind wander on occasion, though.

The tapers of my candles had all but burned to saucers at my desk. The fae lights around the library had been dimmed to a soothing gold, which didn’t help with the tiredness that was seeping through my bones now.

The strange light played with the dark recesses and hollows of the cavernous place. More than once, I thought I saw someone weaving through the stacks. Maybe Eryk was here late? Or maybe it was Kaed being overprotective. The orbs of fae light were a brighter yellow in the far stacks, but it was impossible to make anything out. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. It was just the flickering flames playing tricks.

I stifled a yawn and turned another page. At this point, I would be well on my way to becoming a magical botanist with everything I had read. But there were only so many times one could read “another fascinating shrub is …” before it all became one mass of leaves and earth, piling into mulch.

My eyelids were heavy, and the thrum of my heart slowed to a sluggish beat in the silence around me. The edges of the pages I was staring at felt soft, and black pulled at the corners of my vision.

“Here all alone, peach?” His timbre was rough as it broke through the darkness around me, and he emerged from the shadows as though he owned them.

My eyes snapped from the books to take in the sight of Kaed before me, his shirt half open until it showed the carved and hard lines of his chest.

“I—” I swallowed against the dryness that had gripped my throat at the sight of him. “I was just …” But words failed me as I stood and tried to gather the books I’d been reading. I couldn’t stare at him like that.

As soon as my back was to him, I felt him press into me, his lips at my ear, his hands staying my own as they fumbled for the books.

“You were just what?” His breath was hot as it brushed the curve of my ear. His hands landed on my hips, and I felt the heat of him where his grip tightened on me.

But I couldn’t answer him. My words were lost to the molten warmth where his hands touched, where the exposed skin of his chest pressed into my back. Where his hips met mine. And then I felt the length of him pressing into me.

I gasped at the sensation of him hard against me, but I didn’t pull away. I couldn’t. Not with the tugging deep in my core answering his question. I was just thinking of your arms around me in the Cage.

Kaed dipped his chin until his lips found the delicate skin on my neck. A deep rumble sounded in his chest, and he hummed his approval as he inhaled my scent. Kaed nuzzled along my neck, tracing a line to my ear. Teeth nipped at my lobe and I felt tiny pinpricks of heat pierce my skin where his bite teased me.

“What are you …” My breath failed as he nipped my ear again and then my neck. Tiny bites followed by deep kisses. But he didn’t stop.

“Kaed …” I breathed as his hands moved from my hips to my stomach and rushed up to my chest.

“Yes, peach?” he whispered in between tasting new parts of me. His hands never stopped moving, gripping, exploring. My own hands moved to feel that hard length behind me, but I was instantly stopped.

“I’m the one with you at my mercy tonight, Lady Imogen,” he purred in my ear as he gripped both my wrists behind my back, my fingertips just out of reach of the mound laced beneath his pants.

My lungs forgot how to breathe properly as I writhed under him, tugging at the iron hold he had on my wrists. And then no breath at all came as his free hand came to rest on my neck, his grip a gentle collar encircling me.

“Are you going to behave for me?” His words were softer than a whisper, but they ignited a furnace in my core.

His hand closed a little on my throat, coaxing.

I managed a nod, and my hands strained again to pull from his and find what was pressing into me.

“Good girl,” he cooed as his grip fell from my neck and tugged at the fabric around my hips. I arched into the touch and eventually his hands released mine, but I didn’t get a chance to touch what I wanted as Kaed’s hips slammed into mine and my hands crashed to the table. My body was now bent low over the piles of books, pages spilling around me. Some distant part of my mind worried someone might see, but I forgot about that when Kaed flipped me so my back rested on a bed of vellum and ink.