Gray's Shadow (Kings of Hell MC 4)

“Don’t be scared,” Shadow said and cupped Gray’s face in his warm hands, but it was hard to keep cool when Shadow’s teeth not only changed color, but grew into fangs as sharp as needles.

Gray took a deep breath, hesitating for only one more second. Then, all the thin threads that still kept Gray from letting go broke, and he opened his mouth, pushing back Shadow’s long hair so that he could see him in the tiniest detail.

The sight of the black canines had his stomach cramping with both fear and excitement he couldn’t rationally explain. Gently rubbing his cheek against the palm of Gray’s hand, Shadow touched the needle-like tip of his tooth to his own lip, and the skin parted as if cut with surgical precision.

Gray’s heart drummed faster, but instead of trying to crawl from under Shadow, he somehow ended up pulling him closer with his legs. His dick was growing hard, his mind clouding when his gaze focused on the black oil-like blood seeping out of the cut.

There was no room for hesitation when Shadow pressed his lips to Gray’s, but his whole body still braced itself for pain as if he were about to get shot, not have his skin scraped.

The pain of Shadow’s teeth cutting the inner side of Gray’s lip was barely a sting, and the sharp teeth were gone in an instant, replaced by Shadow’s tongue. He pressed their lips together and licked along Gray’s palate as if he were an experienced lover, not a man who’d only existed for a few weeks. The smooth touch set Gray’s body ablaze, the match to Shadow’s sulphur. He gasped for air, sucking in warm heat and the sweetness of Shadow’s blood mingling with the tartness of his own. His head was spinning, and he only realized why when Shadow finally broke the kiss to inhale some air himself.

Hot tremors ran all the way through Gray’s body, and he stared up at Shadow’s handsome face with his heart beating all too fast. Shadow smiled at him, teeth white again, but Gray didn’t understand what was happening to him. Had he agreed to something that would backfire in more ways than he could imagine? He was burning up on the inside and gasping for air, unable to speak even when Shadow soothed him with more kisses.

The fairy lights generated a warm glow that turned the spaces between strands of Shadow’s black hair into a halo. For a moment, he felt weightless, as if they weren’t lying on a blanket but drifting in the sky with stars both above and under.

“What’s happening to me?” he uttered, blinking away the blurriness that softened the edges of the world around him and turned his focus on Shadow laser-sharp.

“We’ve connected.” Shadow kissed Gray’s neck, and this time, the tender gesture caused an eruption of arousal under Gray’s skin. It took him a heartbeat to realize that he’d been rock hard for a while now. “Everything is back to how it should be between a man and his shadow.”

Gray gave a small sound, clutching at Shadow’s hair when he tried to shift all the pieces of the puzzle together, but his mind was so fuzzy and chaotic he kept ending up in a black hole where only Shadow’s touch could reach him. It was as if the truth Shadow was trying to communicate was too grand for Gray to comprehend. He was a speck of dust floating in a universe so vast focusing on any one sensation was impossible.

Shadow’s presence was his gravity in a world that turned all too quickly.

“I just... need you,” he whispered, glancing at Shadow, increasingly desperate for the comfort and stability of having his counterweight back.

“That’s how I feel. Every day. All the time.” Shadow rocked his hips against Gray in an insistent movement that spoke to Gray’s imagination and reminded him of the physical connection they could still have once he gathered the willpower to look away from Shadow’s eyes.

Gray pulled Shadow closer, his impatience growing when instead of warm, smooth skin, he felt Shadow through layers of clothing that now felt thick and rough.

They weren’t even naked.

He wanted Shadow naked.

With passion clouding his perception, he barely noticed the first buds on the demon tree in the faint glow of the fairy lights. He didn’t even have the brain capacity to try to figure out what that meant.

He grabbed the hem of Shadow’s top and pulled on it until it became a barrier forcing their lips together, but Gray felt like he was about to explode if he couldn’t touch more, unhindered by restrictive clothes. They were perfectly alone in their little piece of the world where no one could judge Gray for sleeping with a demon. But was Shadow really that? Human or not, he was the sweetest, most generous man Gray had ever met, and he needed to be closer to him, no matter the cost.