His eyebrows knitted as he looked her over, his voice dropping to a sultry whisper that matched the heat in his gaze. “You’ve been driving me crazy all night. The sight of you in this dress… I don’t know whether I want to peel it off you or keep it in place so I can drink my fill of how beautiful you look for a little longer.”
She lightly shoved his chest with her left hand.
He grimaced.
“Oh, gods.” Her hand flew to her mouth, her eyes widening. “Sorry.”
She had tended to his wounds when they had returned from the battle, but he was still healing. He wasn’t the only one with injuries either. Not that it was stopping her from convincing him to peel the long black robe from her body, or perhaps keeping it on and finding a quiet corner where the guards wouldn’t see them.
Keras rubbed at his shoulder. “It’s fine. Just sore.”
His green gaze raked over her again, igniting fire in its wake, the look in it telling her that she wasn’t alone in wanting to find that quiet corner.
But this banquet was about him and his brothers.
There was no slipping away unnoticed when he was meant to be the centre of attention.
She settled for running her hands down his chest, feeling his hard muscles beneath the fine material of his black shirt, and letting her imagination run wild. The banquet would end soon enough and they could return to his home.
Their home.
“I like that look on you,” Keras murmured and captured her hand, drew her closer as his gaze grew hooded and dropped to her lips.
“What look?”
“You look happy.” He slid his arm around her waist and eased her against him, his hard body pressing into her and stoking the fire in her veins.
The desire to kiss him.
She thought about what he had said.
“I am happy.” Now that she was thinking about it, it struck her that she was, and that she couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this way.
Light. Warm. Filled with energy.
With hope for the future.
She smiled into Keras’s eyes, seeing her future in him, a future she had wanted for as long as she could remember, one she had thought she would never have.
He pulled her to him, his gaze locked on her mouth, sending anticipation swirling through her. She licked her lips, eager for his kiss, aware that if it happened, they would end up finding that quiet corner and making love.
A crimson corona encircled his pupils as his gaze dropped to her body, the darkness she could feel in him rising as it devoured the emerald of his irises. His thoughts were traversing dangerous paths again.
Enyo looped her arms around his neck and stroked the hair by his nape, teased it with her fingers in a way she hoped would pull his focus away from what Thanatos had said about her.
When the red invading his eyes only spread, she tried a different tactic.
“I do not want anyone but you, Keras,” she husked, her voice scraping low as his body brushed hers, sending a sharp thrill through her.
His scarlet eyes heated, had awareness washing through her together with anticipation, a rush of tingles and warmth that had her on the verge of begging him to do something, to give in to that need building in his eyes.
It built inside her too, rising rapidly as her senses stretched around her and she detected only a handful of guards—all of them either close to the house or the perimeter wall of the garden.
Keras lifted his right hand from her waist, flexed his fingers near her shoulder and then brushed his fingers over the thick strap of her dress. She trembled as the tips of them grazed her skin, as he eased the black material aside and it fell to rest against her arm. He leaned towards her, his warm breath skating over her flesh as he neared her, as he swept his lips over her shoulder and downwards.
“Gods, this dress,” he muttered and fisted the material at her waist.
He planted his hands against her waist a moment later, pressed his palms into her as he pushed them upwards, past the dip in her waist to her ribs, drawing the skirt of her dress up with it. Cool air swirled around her exposed shins.
“I want to kill every male who looked at you tonight.” He kissed lower as he bunched her dress in the small of her back, twisted it so the hem rose higher. “I want every male in this world to know you’re mine.”
Her heart fluttered, fire igniting in her veins as those words rocked her.
And her soul answered him.
She wanted that too. She wanted the world to know that she was his, and she wanted it to know that he was hers too. She wanted to kill every female who dared to look at him, who had the audacity to comment on his good looks or gaze at him in a way that invited him to go to them.
She wanted to stake a claim on him.
He growled as he pulled her to him, as he grabbed her backside and lifted her. Darkness whirled around her and her breath left her in a rush as her back hit something solid and cool.
Keras pressed against her, pinning her to a wall in the garden, stealing her focus away from the world and narrowing it down to only him as he pushed her up it. He tugged at her dress, pulling the layers of fabric up, his growl growing frustrated as he tried to get to her.
Enyo released him and pulled at her dress with him, her pulse rushing faster and faster, pounding in her ears as need built inside her like a storm that would break at any moment.
When her dress was close to being conquered, she couldn’t stop her hands from flying to the waist of his trousers. She made fast work of his belt, didn’t slow as she tackled the button and eased the zipper down. Keras grunted as she shoved at his trousers, pushing them down his hips, and growled as she freed him.
She didn’t get a chance to touch him.
On a low, blood-heating snarl, he tore her underwear away and buried himself in her. She bit her lip to stifle the cry of pleasure that wanted to burst from her as he plunged into her, as he stretched and filled her.
Keras growled and she lowered her eyes from the sky to him, stilled as she met his scarlet gaze. Darkness reigned in it as it held hers, pushed the storm inside her to a crescendo, and her over the edge. Need overcame her, tore down her control and made her a slave to it, to the desperate craving for this moment.
For this wild, untamed, side of him.
The fight on the Tokyo rooftop came flooding back, roused the hunger in her veins to startling new heights, filling her with wicked needs that only Keras could satisfy.
And only when he was like this.
On another blood-heating growl, he dug his fingers into her backside and thrust into her, pressing her to the wall with each brutal meeting of their bodies.
Enyo clung to him, lost in his eyes as he took her, as she surrendered to him. She gripped his nape with one hand and covered her mouth with the other, stifling the moans that burst against her palm with each deep thrust of his length.
Oh gods.
Keras snarled and gripped her harder, flashed fangs that sent another thrill through her as she stared at his mouth, as her mind raced to recall what he had been on the verge of doing on that rooftop.
Staking a claim on her.
She wanted that now, embraced this side of him, found she loved it as much as she loved his softer side.
He pressed closer, pumping her harder and faster, his breath leaving him on feral grunts. He lifted his right hand and yanked her dress down, covered her nipple with his mouth and sucked hard. She cried against her hand as sparks skittered over her breast, the moan muffled but still audible, and Keras growled in response. He sucked harder as he plunged deeper, angled his hips and took her out of her mind.