Page 159 of The Edge of Darkness

I reached up to remove my crown, but he pulled my hands down, breaking away from my lips to say, “No. Leave it.”

I did as he asked and claimed his mouth again. He growled, gripping me beneath my backside and lifting me up. We moved a few steps, and then, I was tilting. My back met something soft. Pillows, blankets, some sort of pallet, I assumed. I didn’t look—didn’t dare take my focus off my mate’s lips. I let him spread mine further, relishing the plunge of his tongue and the weight of his body.

Humans consummated their marriage just like the fae did, but judging by the way Niall was absolutely devouring me, the mating union had to be far more impactful. It seemed to bring out something feral within him. Something I hadn’t yet seen before. And gods was I ready to experience it.

When he pulled back for a breath, his eyes were solid orbs of gold, burning from within. The sight fanned the flame of the desirous ache between my legs. I didn’t want him to stop. I needed more.

He knelt over me, his voice so deep and gritty, I hardly recognized it as he said, “Do you have any sentimental attachment to this dress?”

“No.”

“Good.” The word was nothing more than a breath.

Shadows spun from his shoulders and speared for the collar of my gown, threading into the fibers and ripping. In one powerful movement, they tore the fabric from my neck to my naval, and Niall’s hands did the rest. He fisted what was left and ripped the material until it split at the hem and fell to the cushions beneath me.

His eyes raked over my body, flaring with delight when he realized I wore nothing underneath the gown.

Lying bare beneath him, I felt like I held all the power in the world. But there was something I loved about letting him take control.

As if reading my thoughts, his shadows—the extension of his very body and soul—moved over me, caressing my skin before wrapping around my thighs the way his hands would. They thrust my knees apart, baring all of me to him, and he wasted no time making his move. With both arms, he swept his cloak behind him, then lowered his face and dragged his tongue up my center, feasting, just as he said he would.

Seeing his golden crown between my legs, glinting in the night atop his dark hair, sent my arousal into a frenzy.

Another shadow manifested and grazed the peaked tip of my breast as Niall’s tongue worked between my legs. I arched my back, leaning into both sensations, moaning to the sky.

In the valley below, the finale of fireworks echoed through the mountains, every pop seeming to sync in perfect time with Niall’s tongue and the shadow’s strokes.

I reached down with one hand and gripped Niall’s crown, holding him steady, right where I wanted him, while I rode the wave of pleasure as it built and built and shattered through me.

I kept my eyes open, staring up at the night sky, taking in heavy breaths as my body hummed with satisfaction and my legs shook. This kind of ecstasy was too good to be true, and yet I was bathing in the aftermath of it under the stars.

Niall moved, but he didn’t come to settle atop me as I expected. Instead, he got to his knees, tugged my body across the blankets and into his arms, and we ported without explanation.

We tore through the darkness, Auren naked in my arms, and me with the evidence of her pleasure still coating my lips. I landed both of us in the middle of our bedchamber and took her straight to the bed.

My emotions were running rampant within me. Saying those vows, making her mine, sealing it in blood, all of it had me in a state of pure carnal need.

The golden luminescence from my eyes reflected off the silk sheets as I stared down at my mate. My wife. I’d wanted her before, but gods, this desire was beyond anything I had yet to experience. Perhaps it was knowing she was forever mine that made it feel all the more rapturous.

Beneath my wanton need, my power kept a watchful eye, coasting just beneath the surface, waiting for the moment where my control was at its weakest. It was when my emotions were at their highest that I was most vulnerable. The darkness knew it, and so did I. Truth be told, ever since returning from Benmoor, I’d wanted to let a sliver of it surface each time Auren and I were joined. If only to spur the pleasure. If only to give in to my baser instincts. Because when I allowed myself to feel the darkness, it felt like a rush of adrenaline, invigorating and enlivening. Too damn enticing at times like this.

I knew my power would never hurt Auren. In her presence, it acted as if it wanted to coexist alongside her rather than bend her to its will. Like it somehow knew she was the balance.

The fact that it even had a will of its own was something that had been rising to the top of my list of major concerns lately. But now, with Auren blood-oathed and lying naked beneath me, my innate male desire was taking over, and I wanted her to coax that side of me out. Hell, I’d let it loose on my own if that’s what she wanted.

Fuck. I blinked, trying to shake away my own thoughts.

Reckless. That’s what I was being by thinking like that.

My heart was starting to pound in my chest again, and Auren was looking at me like she was on the verge of begging. She moved, rising onto her elbows and drawing her knees up, baring herself to me again in the most sinful way and beckoning me with her heated stare.

There was no more holding back. It would kill me if I tried.

I unclasped my cloak and tossed it aside, but I didn’t have enough patience to do the same with the rest of my clothes. I called forth my power and it pulsed from every inch of my skin, turning all the remaining fabric to ash.

Auren grinned wickedly, then gasped as my shadows shot forward and pressed her back into the sheets.

For a moment, I froze at the edge of the bed. I hadn’t commanded the shadows to move that time.