In my dreams, he was mine, and I intended to show him exactly what that meant.
His lips parted, perhaps to speak. I didn’t let him, instead slipping my tongue inside to taste him. He jolted against me. Fear had me latching onto him, terrified he might push me away for good.
But he didn’t.
Instead, his grip on my neck turned into a brand, his searing heat melting into me as he rolled me onto my back, his leg parting mine.
And then he started kissing me.
Really kissing me.
Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
I’d won, yet somehow, he’d seized the moment, dominating me in a single sweep of his tongue. He made me his. Claimed me. Owned me.
Nerve endings tingled throughout my body, igniting pleasure sensors I never knew existed. This felt darker than our usual entanglements, more real, more powerful. Like he’d completely and utterly possessed me from the inside out, his intentions to devour me clear.
I trembled with a growing need, my skin on fire from his touch. He flexed his thigh, the muscles contracting against my sensitive center and stirring an inferno inside me.
“Grigory,” I breathed, desiring more. If these were my last moments, I wanted to enjoy them thoroughly.
But a bang from the adjoining room had him ripping his mouth away from mine, his body immediately moving to protect mine while I fought to catch my breath on the bed.
It’s just Necros, I wanted to tell him. However, I couldn’t move my mouth. It tingled with astute awareness, his taste still firmly on my tongue.
“What is it?” Grigory asked, his back blocking my view of whoever had entered his rooms.
“Napia is aware that you freed Zaya,” a deep voice said. “She’s gone to your mother, and they’re on their way here. Together.”
Grigory sighed. “Of course they are.”
“There’s more,” the male added.
“Tell me.”
“Byron and Erie are missing, and Alaric is dead.”
“What?” Grigory jumped to his feet, allowing me to see Cyprus standing in the doorway with a contrite expression.
“The rumor is that you killed him, sir.”
“That’s insanity.”
“I agree. However, you were the last one to be seen with him,” Cyprus replied. “And Napia is claiming you did it for Zaya, that she has some sort of mental control over you.”
Grigory snorted. “No one is going to believe that.”
“That’s the problem, sir. Queen Lux does believe Napia, and she’s ordered me to take Zaya into custody. That’s why I’m here.”
Silence.
I swallowed, the sound seeming to echo through the rooms.
“Something isn’t right,” Cyprus continued softly. “I don’t know what it is, but the order felt very unlike the queen I know. My suggestion is that you react accordingly.”
More silence.
Grigory’s shoulders were stiff and unmoving. I wasn’t even sure that he was breathing.