Serenna’s eyes flew to the prince’s face as he pulled away.
Tendrils of shadows streamed from Vesryn, spiraling around them to halt her progress. For a terrible moment Serenna wondered if he wanted her to stop. Her flash of fear quickly rearranged, sensing the pacing beast of his caged desire.
Propping himself on his elbows, Vesryn hovered above her. The heat in his gaze and the hunger echoing through the bond kindled the flames he’d already stoked low in her belly.
“Let me go,” Serenna demanded, squirming against the torrent of darkness, only able to shift her head. “I want…” She swallowed, catching her breath. “I want more.”
“I can tell,” Vesryn said, breaking into an aggravating grin. “Just tell me to stop and I’ll release you.” Serenna stilled, ceasing her efforts with struggling as he sat up, shifting to straddle her thighs. “But if you want to play…” His gaze suggestively drifted down her body and then back up to her eyes.
“I don’t want to play,” Serenna hissed with as much dignity as she could muster, helpless and bewildered under his magic. The prince slowly unweaved the ties to her bodice. She refused to whine. But if he wanted her to beg, she was halfway there. “I want you to keep kissing me.”
Serenna gasped, squeezing her eyes shut when Vesryn did just that, pushing her clothes out of the way to drag his mouth along her stomach. His teasing tongue swirled around her navel as he finished freeing her from her tunic. The prince hauled her shadow-shackled body up to tear the remaining chemise layer over her head.
Sitting back up, Vesryn flexed his fingers. “And what I want,” he said as darkness danced across his knuckles, “is for you to break out of this body lock.” Wisps of shadows coiled around Serenna’s wrists, steering her arms up to the headboard, completely exposing her bare chest to him.
Serenna glared at the restraining magic looping around her, caressing her breasts, furious with herself for giving Vesryn the satisfaction of trembling in the bindings. Her blood surged under the rending’s unexpected tingle—a pleasure with an alarming, silent threat of pain. But she knew the prince wouldn’t harm her, even if she refused to participate.
Like a vile bird, Vesryn tilted his head. As if perching across her lap was exactly where he wanted to be. Leaning forward, strands of silvery hair spilled over his shoulders. “It’s time you learn how to channel your power regardless of the…distractions.”
Serenna’s voice came out more shrill than she would’ve liked. “I can hardly summon Essence without my emotions and now you’re expecting me to harness my magic with distractions?”
“You mastered breaking out of a body lock weeks ago in class.” The prince skimmed a callused palm up her stomach, tormenting fingers lazily winding up to her chest.
Serenna shivered in anticipation, her skin pebbling under his touch. She flailed in the shadowy bindings as he circled a finger closer and closer around the peak of her breast.
“Vesryn.” Serenna battled for breath in frantic bursts, every fiber of her awareness honed in on the prince’s fingers skating over her naked flesh. “I can’t even think about my power with you on top of me!”
Chuckling, Vesryn rolled her nipple in between his fingers before dropping his mouth to her chest. Serenna released a ruptured moan when his tongue flicked out, lips clamping around the bud, shooting a flood of heat straight to her core.
After dispensing the same attention to her other breast, Vesryn’s voice was husky and low. “We haven’t even begun, Princess.”
Serenna blinked as the prince tucked his fingers into the waist of her leathers, balling the material into a fist. Grazing her hips, the bond’s current zipped under his touch.
Aroused alarm had Serenna’s voice half strangled. “What are you doing?”
“Summon your power,” Vesryn instructed, his other hand gripping her thigh.
Power? Serenna’s thoughts dispersed the closer the prince’s fingers roved in between her legs. She trembled when he unraveled the ties cinching her leathers together.
“I guarantee if you don’t call your magic now, it won’t get any easier.” Angling out of the way, Vesryn ripped her trousers off with an impressive fluid motion, discarding her pants on the floor. His lips quirked. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Serenna whimpered from her crippled position, panicked excitement stealing her words as the prince kneed her legs apart.
“Summon your power,” he repeated, face drifting down between her thighs.
Serenna sucked in a breath, pulse jumping when he lowered to kiss the inside of her bared leg. She ineffectively tugged against the shadows, trying to arch her body toward the sensation of his mouth skimming across her skin.
All she could manage was releasing a frustrated breath, unable to even perceive her Well. “I can’t.”
“Then try harder,” the prince said, his teeth scraping against her, traveling closer to her thin undergarments.
The rending spiraling around Serenna’s wrists pulsed like a heartbeat. A sudden surge of pleasure undulated from the tips of her ears to the ends of her toes.
Squeezing her eyes shut only sharpened her focus on Vesryn’s lips skimming up her thigh. A tide of warmth pooled in anticipation of him reaching his destination. After several half-hearted attempts of tunneling inward to sense her magic, Serenna admitted defeat. “I can’t do it.”
The prince’s fingers lazily rotated a feather-light graze against the remaining garment. “Why not?” Pulling on the fabric, he rubbed the material against the seam of her entrance.
Serenna stifled whatever pathetic noise tried to flee from her throat by grinding her teeth, unable to conceal the evidence of how he’d effectively coiled her into a jumbled knot. “You know why,” she snapped. The pressure from the prince’s teasing hand had her flesh throbbing with need, drenching the material between them. “Your face between my legs is hindering any progress I can make.”
Vesryn preened at the praise. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Gripping the sides of her hips, he yanked her undergarments down with his teeth. Slices of rending slashed the fabric into ribbons. The prince lobbed the tattered remains dismissively behind him.
Serenna’s mind went blank when Vesryn tossed her legs over his shoulders before lowering his face. His emerald eyes shackled her to the bed as effectively as the shadows enveloping her. The prince had the audacity to smirk before diving between her thighs.
Serenna sucked in a hiss through her teeth as the warmth from Vesryn’s mouth merged with the dampness between her legs, blasting her with a bolt of pleasure. When his tongue stroked wickedly down her center, she threw her head back, blinded by stars.
All semblance of sense abandoned her as the prince’s tongue plunged into her core, curving inside of her. Retreating, he sucked that sensitive area, coaxing her body toward a euphoric peak. His ferocity had Serenna dissolving into eager moans, body throbbing in time with the stroke of his tongue.
Serenna's eyes flew open when Vesryn suddenly paused, the pounding pressure he’d built fading in the worst way. Completely bared to him, her cheeks flushed as his gaze locked on hers. It wasn’t her first time with a lover, but it was her first time with someone…like him.
Despite knowing what she felt through the bond, the prince studied her. As if waiting for any sign that she wanted him to continue or stop. The consuming way he looked at her only made Serenna redden further. If she could’ve moved, she would’ve been covering herself up.
“You don’t have to be shy,” Vesryn said, brushing the inside of her leg, his rough fingers kindling flames in their path. His cruel shadows furled, stroking the peaks of her breasts, shooting tingles of pleasure straight to her spine. “I’ve been wanting to do this since the first day you talked back to me.”
Serenna couldn’t help but laugh, her embarrassment evaporating. “You’re lying.”
“You know I’m not. I’ve always been curious how intimacy would feel with a bond.” One side of Vesryn’s mouth lifted. “Though I doubt my advances would’ve been welcome at that time.”
“And whose fault was—” Serenna gasped, clicking her teeth shut as the prince’s lips returned, clamping down on that bundle of nerves. He flicked and swirled his tongue around her entrance, rebuilding the tightness in her core.
Serenna sensed that his focus was entirely on her reactions. A coil of bliss knotted as he drew out her pleasure, release slowly gathering like an afternoon storm.
“Vesryn,” Serenna panted as he wound her tighter and higher, needing rougher friction than his current touch. The shadows restricting her from grabbing the prince or shoving herself further into him was an unforeseen torture. “Please.”
Vesryn emerged from between her legs. Loose strands of hair tumbled in front of his face, brushing his ruddy cheeks. His voice was hoarse with amusement when he answered. “I’m not letting you finish until you break out of this hold.”
Serenna’s jaw dropped along with her stomach. “What?”
Vesryn didn’t allow her any further protest. Arms hooked around her legs, he lifted her hips higher to plunge his tongue deeper, proceeding to devour her.
The prince’s mouth moved as he read how she reacted. Serenna now realized that he was reading the bond to use her body’s responses against her. As soon as he built pressure close to a devastating crescendo, he either slowed down, applied his tongue to the wrong places, or simply grinned at her, intentionally dissolving her release by withholding.
The stars-cursed bastard knew.
Frantic, Serenna knew she’d have no hope of blocking herself from the bond so she battered at her power, demanding that Essence answer her. Vesryn had previously used desire to pry out her force talent, but that emotion would be useless in shattering this rending hold.
Mouth working, tongue flicking along the center of her body, the prince drove Serenna to the cusp of release, again and again. Pressure spiraling low inside of her, she whimpered as he pushed her to the highest peak, anticipating that he’d let her vault over the edge.
Instead, Vesryn retreated, clicking his tongue. “Come on, Harpy,” he growled, shadows dancing around her. “You’re not even trying.”
