Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)

by Rebecca Yarros

“You walk into a room, and I can’t look away. I get anywhere near you, and this is what happens. Instantly hard. Fucking hell, I can barely think when you’re around.” He rocks his hips into my hand, and my grip tightens along with my stomach. “Wanting you is not the problem here.”

I smile and kiss the side of his mouth. “It’s always a shit day around here. And it’s not taking advantage when I’m asking”—my teeth nip at his lips—“correction, begging you to make my day better.”

“I don’t want to think, Xaden. I just want to feel.” I release him. One tug of the ribbon is all it takes to unravel the long, loose braid of my hair, and I run my fingers through the mass. His eyes darken, and I know I’ve won.

He’s the worst kind of addiction, dangerous and impossible to sate.

“Don’t stop.” I’ll die if he does. “Fuck, Violet,” he groans, slipping his hand between my thighs. Never mind. That is how I want him to say my name from now on. Just like that.

He glides the fabric of my underwear across my clit, and my back arches at the burst of pleasure that radiates through my body, so sweet I can taste it.

“If I get my hands on you, really, honestly get my hands on you, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.” He would. I know it in my soul. That’s why I trust him with my body.

My heart? It isn’t playing into this decision. “Stop being so fucking honorable and fuck me, Xaden.”

THAT PART!!!!

His eyes flare, and then he kisses me like I’m the air he’s been missing, like his life depends on it, and I think mine just might. His fingers slide under my underwear and stroke my slickened core, and a moan tumbles from my lips. His touch is electric.

“So damned soft.” He kisses me deeply as his fingers touch and tease, making that sweet coil of pleasure tighten in my core. I dig my nails into his shoulder, my back arching as he makes tighter and tighter circles against ...

I’m going to combust, to burst into flames, and all I can do is whimper against his mouth as he slides one finger inside me. My muscles clench around him, and he works in a second.

“You’re so fucking hot.” His voice drops, sounding like it’s been scraped over coals. “It might damn us both, but I can’t wait to feel you come around my cock.”

Something shatters on the floor to the left as I ride his thrusting fingers. He curls them against my inner walls and I gasp, my thighs locking around his leather-clad hips. And when he uses his thumb to stroke my clit, the friction and pressure push me to the edge of mindless bliss.

“Look at you. You’re fucking beautiful, Violet. Let go for me.” His words curl around my mind, his mouth fused to mine, and the intimacy of it pushes me to the limit of pleasure and then right over it.

He swallows my cry as my back bows, the first wave of my orgasm washing over me, releasing that tight coil of tension in a burst of sparks at the edge of my vision, breaking me into a million scattered stars. Lightning strikes outside my window, flashing light through the room again and again as he strokes me with an expertise that kicks the first climax into a second.

and any cloth beneath—past his hips, freeing the thick length of his cock. It’s hot and hard in my hand, and the moan that rips from his lips makes me feel invincible. “I’m asking you to fuck me.” I arch up and kiss him.

My pulse skyrockets. “I take the fertility suppressant.” Of course, we both do. The last thing anyone wants are little quadrant babies running around. But it’s better said than sorry. “Same.” He grips my hips, lifting me for a better angle, and the head of his cock rubs against my clit. I gasp and his eyes lock with mine. The hunger I see etched in every tense line of his body is my undoing.

I reach between us, guiding the head of his cock to my entrance, but this position is shit.

He pushes inside that first, tight inch of me, and I gasp at the fit, the stretch. “More.” I’m too busy kissing him to speak. “I need all of you.” “You’re going to be the death of me, Violet.”

Whatever’s left of his control slips, and he takes me completely with one hard thrust. I moan into the kiss. Deep. He’s so fucking deep that I feel him everywhere. “Tell me you’re all right.” He’s already moving, thank gods. “I’m perfect.” Better than perfect. Power blazes beneath my skin again, buzzing in wordless, frenzied demand. “You feel so fucking good.” He slams back into me, again and again, as he sets a brutal, steady pace, his mouth sliding down my neck as his hand rises to cup my breast.

“Fuck, I’m never going to get enough of you, am I?” he says, his face buried in my neck as I arch into him. “Shut up and fuck me, Riorson.” Tomorrow is soon enough for regrets.

so I can rock back with more force, meeting the drive of his hips, taking him deeper, harder.

night air kisses the hardened peak of my nipple a heartbeat before his hot mouth covers it. The sensations spiral, spinning and coiling, forming a tight knot of pleasure so deep within me, the tension is sublimely unbearable.

“Fuck,” he curses as he takes me over and over, never stopping, turning us again so there’s cloth against my back. But it’s not the bed. It’s the curtains shoved to the side of the window.

“Xaden,” I cry out, simultaneously writhing yet holding on to him like he’s the only thing anchoring me to the earth. “I’ve got you, Violet,” he promises, his breath ragged pants against my lips. “Let it out.” Lightning whips through me, flashing so bright that my eyes slam shut. Heat flares above me as thunder cracks immediately. And I smell smoke.

That knot of pleasure builds to a breaking point as he takes me to the floor, and finally, I have all of his weight as he drives into me. Shadows fall away and the sight of him above me, his dark gaze locked on mine in intense concentration, is the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen. “So. Very. Beautiful.” I punctate each word with a kiss.

This man kisses with his whole body, rolling his hips in time with the thrust of his tongue, bracing just enough of his weight so I can breathe while stroking his chest over my hypersensitive nipples. He keeps me on the same edge he’s riding, and I don’t know how much longer I can take it before I set this entire room on fire.

“I know.” He claims my mouth again and reaches between us, using those talented fingers to stroke me into another orgasm, and light flashes again, followed by thunder and darkness as I come apart under him.

Pleasure takes me in waves, rolling through me again and again until all I can do is clutch Xaden’s shoulders and ride it out in blissful surrender.

The second I come down, his rhythm breaks, and he presses my knee up toward my chest and takes me even deeper. I rock my hips up to meet his, sweat beading on our skin as I watch him

unravel with rapt fascination. I love his loss of control just as much as I fear my own, and when I swirl my hips, he groans, arching his neck as he thrusts once. Twice.

On the third, he shouts, then shudders within me, and his power lashes out in streaks of shadows, the force splitting the wooden ta...

He looks as shocked, and as enthralled, as I feel as we lay there, staring at each other, our chests heaving in the aftermath of what can only be described as complete and utter madness.

“Me neither.” The smile morphs into a full-out grin. “Not that I’ve ever had power to lose control of before.”

I sniff at the smoke in the air. “Did I…” “Set the curtains on fire?” He lifts a brow. “Yes.” “Oh.” I can’t find it in me to be embarrassed, so I brush the backs of my fingers across the stubble along his jaw. “And you put it out.” “Yes. Right before I destroyed your throwing target.” He grimaces. “I’ll get you a new one.” I glance over at the armoire. “And we…” “Yep.” He lifts his brows. “And I’m pretty sure you need a new chair, too.”

Ironically, your bed is the only thing we didn’t wreck.”

“When did I ever give you the impression that I give a fuck what people think?” I use his earlier words against him and sit up, curling my hand around the section of his neck that bears his relic. “Stay with me, Xaden. Don’t make me beg.” “We both know this is a bad idea.” “Then it’s our bad idea.”

“Only within these walls,” he says quietly, and I understand what he means. “Only within these walls,” I agree. It’s not like we’re in a relationship or anything. That would be…disastrous given the chain of command.

He nips at my skin. “I’m not sweet. Please don’t mistake any part of me for soft or kind. That will only get you hurt, and whatever you do…” He buries his face in my neck, inhaling deeply. “Don’t fall for me.”

Finding a jar on my nightstand with a handful of spring violets? My heart swells. I’m in so much fucking trouble.

“You’re off Archives duty until we can be sure you’re not going to burn the place down. Lightning and paper don’t mix well. Trust me, Sorrengail, the scribes aren’t going to want you anywhere near their precious books, and from the looks of it, you can’t even control your powers in your sleep.”

I’m thankful I dressed in flight leathers this morning, thinking I’d have a session before lunch.

“This kind of power found in one so…” He sighs. “Would you not call yourself fragile?” “I am who I am.” I bristle. I’ve never given this particular professor any reason to think of me as different.

“Because knowledge is power. As a general’s daughter, you should know that. We can’t have someone walking around with unfettered access to classified material. They’re a security risk to the entire kingdom.” And yet Dain is living.

“Now, you don’t have to trust me, and you can even wield from your seat on your dragon if you like, but I hope you believe me when I tell you that I have no plans on killing you, Cadet Sorrengail. Losing an asset like you

“Keep your loyalties clear. You and Riorson both have exceptional, lethal power that any rider would be envious of. But together?” His bushy brows furrow. “You would be a formidable enemy who command could simply not afford to let exist. Do you understand what I’m saying?” His voice softens. “Navarre is my home, Professor. I will give my life to defend it just like every Sorrengail who has ridden before me.”

The sooner you can contain the lightning, the sooner we can both stop freezing our asses off.” “Good point.” I look out over the range. “You just want me to…” I gesture to the mountains around us. “Preferably anywhere but right here, yes.”

There’s nowhere in existence you could go that I wouldn’t find you, Violence.”

Aweee🥺

His hunger walks the line of starvation to know my touch, my taste, the feel of—

And fuck if I’m not so turned on that I have to shift my weight to ease the ache between my thighs.