Page 46 of Knight’s Dominion

James was an amazing fighter dedicated to the cause. He was also loyal to the knights, loved them like family, but he’d gotten sick of seeing them and his people suffer and not being able to help.

So he’d sought her out after the knights found out about her. She’d been wary at first, worried that he was a spy, but in the end he’d proven himself more than trustworthy.

And right now, she was finding it hard to focus on what her friend was saying with Chaos watching them so intently.

He stood with his arms folded over his massive chest, thighs braced apart, and a look on his face that she was sure would’ve wilted a great deal of the demi who had stood in this room before her.

She was determined to master her power, though. True to his word, Chaos had not let her leave the compound, and she was going out of her damn mind. At night, he and his brothers left to hunt the beast, and she was forced to stay behind. She had people counting on her, one of them still missing, and a freaking job. Still, Chaos refused to budge.

Three nights she had spent in his bed. Three nights in his apartment filled with his things, his maddening scent—him. He’d given her the bed, had insisted on it, while he’d taken the couch. It was pure torture. The more time she spent in his presence, the louder the bond between them called. She was in a constant state of arousal, and with Chaos in the next room, she couldn’t even get herself off. The whole situation was making her seriously cranky.

She needed out of this place and away from Chaos before she did something she could never take back.

He dropped his hands to his sides, veins and tendons roping them, his strength evident in every inch of his body, in every move he made. The male was all warrior, honed to perfection. Lethal.

And if you asked him, he’d drop to his knees and worship you.

Dammit, she needed to stop thinking about that. Unfortunately, it was all she could think about. The words he’d said to her kept playing over in her mind. To have any kind of control over the male in front of her seemed ridiculous. But instinctively, she knew if she became his, if they mated, he would do anything for her. Anything. Like having her own personal guard dog.

Yeah, no, that was too tame. More like a guard dragon.

But tying herself to another being for the rest of her life was not something she would ever do. Especially not to a knight. It would be a betrayal of the worst kind. Her parents would be disgusted with her for even being in the same room as him.

“Can we get this over with already?” The fact she had a power she never knew about had blown her mind, but she was confident she could control it. It felt…natural. They’d trained the last three days, and she’d managed to do what she had with Chaos in that alley to James twice. She’d also managed to use James’s power like it was her own, before she’d given it back.

Chaos glanced at her, and Grace shifted in place as he sent James away.

James grinned and gave her a double thumbs-up behind Chaos’s back before he disappeared out the door. Smart-ass.

“What’s going on? I thought we were training?” she said, trying not to show how much being alone with him affected her.

Chaos stepped closer. “We are. But today you’ll be using me.”

The way he said that sent a shiver dancing down her spine. Her blood instantly heated and her mind conjured up all the ways she could use him. “Why?”

He started toward her like a prowling animal. “We know your power is strong, let’s see just how strong.”

Without thought, she took a step back. “But in the alley…with you, it was too much, you were too powerful.”

He ignored her retreat and closed the gap between them. “The whole point of this is to learn your limits. Until you can do that, you won’t have full control over it.”

His voice was deep and rumbly, gliding over her skin like velvet brushing between her thighs. Curling her fingers into a tight fist, she forced herself to ignore it. “Fine, let’s get this over with.”

He grabbed her shoulders and turned, changing positions, so his back was to the padded wall.

She raised a brow.

“My instinct will be to pull away. This way, I can’t.”

He took her wrist, his rough, thick fingers, hot and strong, curled firmly around skin and bones that seemed far too fragile all of a sudden. She’d only ever felt that way with him. She hated it, but also craved it. He could easily crush her if he chose to. But he held her like she was delicate, as breakable as she felt right then, precious, and lifted her hand to his throat, holding her fingers against his skin.

They were close, too close. His unwavering dark eyes were aimed down at her, so intense, like he couldn’t look away from her.

Dangerous.

This is dangerous.

She forced herself to look away, to ignore how his skin felt against hers, how the muscles under his shirt rippled every time he moved, the way his breathing had grown heavier, the way he still held her wrist like he didn’t want to let go, and focused on what she had to do.