Page 144

Shifting a bit, she tucked her hand beneath her cheek, drawing his attention to her. He immediately set the book aside. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine.”

“Your ankle?”

She rotated it a few times beneath the blanket he’d draped over her. It was a little stiff, but nothing like the agony of earlier.

“Fine,” she replied again with a small shrug. He huffed a chuckle and reached for his book. “What are you reading about?”

“I am trying to find information about this name Beatrix told me before she Faded.”

She perked up at that. “Did you come across it?”

“No,” he grumbled. “But it has been guarded for centuries. I did not think it would be easy to find.”

“True,” she murmured. After several moments of silence, she said, “You created a fire dragon today.”

Sorin kept his gaze on the text, but his lips lifted into a small smile. “I did.”

“You couldn’t have come up with something more creative? I already did the shadow dragon thing.”

He was tossing the ancient book aside and moving atop her in the next blink. “You and this godsdamn tongue today,” he murmured into her neck as his lips began making their way down her throat.

She arched into him the moment his hand slipped beneath her tunic, warm, calloused fingers dragging along her ribs. “Sorin,” she rasped, one of her hands sliding into his hair. “We should eat.”

He glanced up at her from beneath thick lashes, his golden eyes nearly glowing once more. “I intend to.”

“Sorin!” she admonished around another rough laugh as he tugged at the ties on her tunic. She was about to argue that they truly did need to eat so she could draw from him and refill her reserves, and then he could sleep and refill his own. But the heat coursing through her at the moment drove all those thoughts from her mind, and it took her a moment to realize the heat wasn’t entirely from want.

Sorin’s flames were slowly licking along her flesh, starting at her toes, moving up her legs, and across her torso, burning away her pants and tunic.

“Stop burning all my clothing,” she chided breathlessly. “I am going to have nothing left to wear soon.”

“Perhaps that is the plan, Love,” he rumbled against her skin as he kissed along her navel.

“Then I want to hear no more complaints when I attend meetings in nothing but a robe.”

He paused, glancing up at her. “Good point.”

She gave him a taunting smirk. Which he returned before nipping along her inner thigh. His gaze had dipped between her legs where he watched as his thumb slid across her center. Liquid fire shot through her, and her hips bucked forward of their own accord. His eyes lifted to hers, and he held her stare as his tongue swept out and licked the pad of the same thumb, a low groan escaping him.

And then starfire was flaring, burning his clothing away without nearly the same sensual flare he had used. He chuckled darkly when Scarlett surged forward, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply. His hand came up to cradle the back of her head, fingers digging into the strands to hold her close to him, to keep her at his mouth when he sent his flames licking along her flesh again. Her gasp became a moan as she let her shadows out to tangle with the fire, and then it was Sorin’s turn to groan as his grip around her waist turned bruising.

“Let go,” she murmured onto his mouth. “Your power will not hurt me. You’ve said it yourself. It can’t. We are designed that way. For each other.” She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes. “You speak to me of fate and destiny?Youare the only fate I will ever accept.”

Sorin slid his lips along her jaw before she felt his canines drag along her throat. And then she was swallowing another gasp of surprise as he flipped them and thrust into her with one hard, fast movement. Fire danced across her stomach and up around her breasts. Hot. She was hot and wanting, and gods, she needed him to— Fuck, she just needed him.

She lifted her hips, grinding against him as he bent down and took one of her peaked nipples into his mouth, his fire flitting among the strands of his hair. He reached down, hooking one of her legs around his waist as he sank in impossibly deeper.

“Fuck,” Scarlett moaned when he sent another wave of flames over her. Sorin huffed another dark laugh that had her impatience tipping over the edge. “Damnit, Sorin.Move. Please.”

He sat back then, hands grasping her hips and tilting them up the smallest amount to allow him to drag himself slowly out before he thrust back into her hard.

“Thank the gods,” Scarlett gasped when he did it again.

“Not the gods, Love,” he growled, tilting her hips up even more and slamming into her again.

She sent her shadows raking down his chest, his arms, his back. Felt him arch into her, hitting that spot that made her see stars. He spit out a curse when she sank those shadows into his flames, and then sent her starfire to mingle with the shadowfire. Reaching up, she curled her hand around his neck to haul herself up to him. She coiled a tendril of starfire around his ear and heard him suck in a ragged breath as she whispered, “Weare the gods now, Sorin.”