Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #2) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,20

sparkled brighter as if sensing my magic. Looking to my left, I noticed an entrance to another enormous room and paused. On the table, in the middle of the room, sat a massive bird-like skull with shark-like teeth. Beside it sat a lot of big feathers of varying colors.

I lifted a feather, holding it to my nose, then set it down when I saw what appeared to be a giant nest in a darkened corner of the room. My eyes narrowed, and I tilted my head, studying the materials used to make it. Feathers, blankets, and other miscellaneous items intricately woven together, and upon close inspection, I could see the nest had been well-used.

“What sort of creature is this?” I asked, knowing that Knox was listening to me.

“You tell me, Aria. What is it?” he countered, closer than he’d been moments before. I spun, staring into ocean eyes that were inches from mine. I could feel his breath fanning my lips, and everything within me begged to step past the barrier holding him away from me.

I peered down at the spelled quartz encircling my feet, pressing my lips together before lifting my attention back to him. I drank in the sight of Knox, thirsty for more. His lips curved into a knowing grin as he watched me. He inhaled, and his smile faltered, replaced by a scowl as his expression turned cold.

“You want to explain to me why I can smell mutt on you?” he inquired, lifting a brow as he gave me a pointed look.

“I may have let one kiss me,” I confessed, withholding the disappointment of that kiss to myself.

Knox grinned with heat smoldering in his eyes. I didn’t need to tell him I’d been disappointed. The smug look in his eyes and the tilt of his lips told me he already knew. I wanted to lie, to say Dimitri bent me over and wrote his name on my uterus, but this was Knox, and he just knew shit. He could smell that I’d simply touched Dimitri’s lips, so lying about fucking him, well, it would be pointless since he could scent the lie in my lack of arousal, and something as mundane as my mood.

His expression told me he wasn’t worried about Dimitri in the slightest, and mine told him to get bent. Knox tilted his head, and his smirk turned conceited. Fiery eyes told me he was silently considering how he would bend my ass over and show me how he intended to get bent inside me. I swallowed, and his eyes sparkled with the challenge, daring me to lie.

“It could have happened that way!” I snapped, and his head shook slowly.

“Nah, Little Monster. It wouldn’t have. You and I both know that I’ll be the one satisfying your hunger when you reach your limit.” His voice was laden with gravel, scraping over every nerve ending in my body, causing a chill to shiver up my spine.

I loved the sound of his deep, sexy voice when he lowered it to that come, ride me woman octave. I swallowed, turning my head to stare into the room behind me. I whispered the spell for light, and candles lit within the room.

I felt Knox stiffen without needing to see him do so. His heated breath fanned my bare shoulder, and I shuddered involuntarily, sending a carnal wave of lust rushing through me to pulse against my apex. My shoulder throbbed where his mark adorned my flesh, and I felt the whisper of his lips against it, causing my core to clench, as all the blood in my body lowered to my nether region.

Knox’s scent was an aphrodisiac that drugged me, more potent than any potion or spell. He projected it on purpose, watching me fight the need to shed my inhibition and abandon my course to do what every instinct within me wanted.

It was an endless fight against doing what my body required, and what my mind knew we should leave alone. Neither could agree, and with every moment I was this close to the man my body desired, I wasn’t sure which would win the war.

“I bet Dimitri’s lips brushed against yours, and you saw me instead of him. I’m going to guess your creature didn’t even stir in his presence because she found him so fucking lacking that she couldn’t be bothered to notice him. Your body didn’t respond to Dimitri because you need and want the intensity that comes when we’re together, and everyone else