Shadowlander by Theresa Meyers Read Free Book Online Page A

and let the blouse slip off her shoulders. The material slithered down her arms and fell to the floor. The curtains at the windows billowed up as a warm breeze scented with salt and sea caressed her bare skin. For the first time, Cate felt deliciously wanton. She didn’t have to occupy half of herself with deliberately ignoring the fae, didn’t have to keep her reactions in check so as not to reveal her ability. For a moment she was utterly free to do exactly as she pleased.
    Cate unbuttoned the back of her skirt and unzipped it, then slid her hands up along her sides, around the outer edges of her breasts, and to her neck, threading her fingers through her own hair as she rocked her hips side to side, letting the short skirt shimmy down around her ankles. She glanced over her shoulder, the dark curls of her bob bouncing with the movement. “This more what you had in mind?”

Chapter Five
    Rook could barely breathe, let alone respond. He didn’t know if the buzzing, light-headed feeling spreading from his head to the rest of his body was because he wasn’t getting enough oxygen or because all he could manage to focus on was the smooth length of Cate’s bare legs. They were naked all the way up to her bottom. A mere scrap of dark blue material stretched over, but didn’t cover, her peachy curves.
    He swallowed hard as she straightened and stepped out of her skirt, then pivoted on one foot so that she now faced him clothed only in her bra and panties. His fantasies didn’t do her justice. Every good intention, every self-made promise to keep his hands off her until she chose him and to do his forsworn duty, went flying out the window on leathery Glaxon wings.
    She reached for the shirt on the bed.
    “Wait!”
    Her hand froze mid-motion, her vivid green gaze flicking up to meet his, the sultry siren quality of her voice stripping away the last of his sanity. “Do you want something?”
    That was quite possibly the understatement of the century.
    Morgolath had a special Hell for fae who reached above their caste, but for a chance with Cate, Rook was willing to face the gods’ wrath. For a split second Rook forgot everything he knew about interspecies relations. Forgot he was a proud member of the elite Ragnor caste. Forgot he was the Shadow Prince, heir to the throne of Shadowland.
    All that mattered, all his brain could wrap itself around, was the sight of the barely clad Catherine a few steps away, her supple skin and feminine curves so enticing, he trembled with barely leashed need. He’d stayed to intimidate her into realizing this world wasn’t her own and that the rules here were different. But she’d turned that upside down and inside out with just a few moves of her nimble fingers on the fasteners of her garments. He wanted her in a way that bordered on physical pain.
    “Yes.” It was about all he could coherently speak when she had his tongue tied in knots. He moved quicker than the mortal eye could track, wrapping his hands around her waist and hauling her up against him, indulging in the feel of her soft, sensual body against his. The heat of her bare skin seeped through his clothing to singe him everywhere it touched. His senses filled with the spicy sweet smell of her skin and the fragrant brush of her hair against his face.
    Rook locked his gaze with hers. His jaw throbbed from how hard he was clenching his teeth. “Tell me if you don’t want this,” he growled low between his teeth. “Tell me and I shall stop.”
    Cate’s elevated breathing caused her breasts to brush against his chest in a maddeningly erratic rhythm that made his own breath catch. “Why should I?” she demanded, eyes glittering with heat and—dare he believe it?—desire. “Maybe I’ve wanted you longer than you realize.”
    Rook crushed his mouth against hers, tearing away first the scraps of lace and satin that kept him from his goal, and then his own clothing. He filled one hand with the warm, silken weight of her