Gleam (The Plated Prisoner, #3)

by Raven Kennedy

“Love happens in all kinds of ways. Fast. Slow. In bits and pieces, or immediate. Filled with lust, one-sided longing, a snap realization never noticed before. Deeply. Thoroughly. Love is a whisper we didn’t hear or a sound that drums in our ears and drowns out everything else.”

“You’re wrong, and you’re also a presumptuous jerk, and I no longer want you, so I’m leaving now.” His grin widens. “And you’re a gorgeous little liar, but that’s okay,”

“Now?” I squeak.

“We can play this push and pull game for a little bit longer if you prefer. I enjoy our verbal sparring. The challenge makes the reward that much sweeter. But we both know it’s just a matter of time before I have you under me, spread out and gloriously naked with your sunlit skin pressed against mine as I take you hard and slow.”

“Oh, Goldfinch, if you think that was crass, then you don’t want to know the things I’m thinking, because they’re positively filthy.”

But I’m a patient male, and as soon as I’m able, I’m going to touch and taste every inch of you. I’m going to have you writhing and begging, and I’ll give you every bit of pleasure I can wring from your delectable body,”

he murmurs in a wicked promise. “The moment that sun dips, Goldfinch, you’re mine.”

“Tell me again that you want this. That I can have all of you. I want to hear it.”

There comes a point in your life when you have to choose between having regrets and the possibility of making mistakes.

I’d rather make those mistakes than live without ever taking a chance, because I’ve missed out on too much already.

No, he’s pure heat and restrained hunger, and I love that I’m the person who’s put that look in his eyes.

“Let down that gorgeous hair of yours.”

My breath catches, and once again, there’s no nausea or sense of wrongness. Instead, his magic seems to blow around me in an unmoving breeze.

“I need to catch my breath,” she says, pulling away again to pant against my neck. “I get your breaths right now.” My tongue darts out to lick at the burnished edge of her neck, making her shiver deliciously.

“Naughty thing. I’m in control right now.”

Not only did I wait, I was going to let her go. I almost can’t believe that she’s here, warm and willing, choosing me.

“Look at you, you’ve had my cock for two seconds, and you’re already begging for more.” Her scowl is damned adorable.

She settles my magic, calms my anger, calls to my fae nature. She’s a burst of light in my dark, erupting life in the rotting depths of my soul. She is everything I don’t deserve. But I’m going to keep her anyway.

Her touch is familiar. Intimate. And it makes me pleased as hell.

When I stroke a finger down her cheek, her head leans into my touch ever so slightly. I’m not sure if she even realizes she does it,

I want her every reaction to sway toward me like branches in the wind, caught up by the f...

The dying night is the stroke of an artist painting over the sky, lessening the black into shades of muted gray.

weight. “Can you get off?” “I suppose I don’t have to ask the two of you that question,”

“All of you, every part, and I’m not giving you up, remember? I would definitely tie you to the bed if you tried to back out on this. Your ribbons would probably even help me do it.”

His warm breath skates across my cheek. “Have a little faith in me. I could have you begging again, even without touching your skin.” Great Divine.

“You keep looking at me like that, and I won’t be letting you leave.” My eyes shoot up to his teasing gaze that has an entirely different sort of hunger in it

His lips twitch in amusement. “Hello, Goldfinch.” He doesn’t say it. He practically purrs it.

“Has to choose between spikes coming out of his ass, or magic lines down his...unmentionables.” My brows pull together in a frown. “He doesn’t have magic lines on his—” I cut myself off, but it’s too late. Lu chokes on her wine.

his voice pitched in firm demand. “The world would be a dreary place without your light.”

“Shit,” Judd says in a groan. “Rip is being fucking cute, and it’s making me want to vomit.”

“Don’t turn away from me,” he rumbles. Laughing, I say, “You have to let a girl breathe.” “I want to breathe you in,”

“You’ve bewitched my senses, taken over my thoughts. Every time I blink, all I see is you, like you’ve seared yourself into my eyes and I’ll never close them again without envisioning you. And you know what?”

He is everything I never thought I could have. Every sip I never thought I’d taste.

“I’ll stay in whatever form you like. I’ll give you whatever you need.”

“Then I’m the luckiest bastard in the realm, because I get to be the first one to taste you.”

gold and black

I breathe out, embarrassed to admit that I’m a little turned on right now. But damn, that was intensely sexy.

“Ho there, Commander. Didn’t see you there. Sad to tell you, Gildy Locks outshines you.”

“You can’t cut off the strings of your puppet and still expect it to move for you.”

“I already told you. If you think I’m leaving without you, you’re out of your damned mind.”

We all have our edge, Auren. One day, you’re going to find where yours is. I found it, I want to tell him. I found my edge. The question is, did I fall, or did I fly?

My breath hisses between my teeth as a barrage of emotions crashes over my head like thunder. Surprise, pride, guilt, it all rushes over me, soaking me through.

That’s my girl.