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His fingers skated along her skin to the Mark over her heart. “He was the one who gave you this.”

It was a statement, and she only swallowed thickly before nodding once.

“Did you believe killing him would make it fade?”

“No,” she whispered. “I’ve always known it was forever. That even his death would not free me of it.”

“Do you wish to be free of it?”

She’d dropped her hands to the edge of the table, and her fingers curled around it, eyes darting to the side. “I have accepted it, but if it is not something you can accept, I understand. It is why I had wished to speak with you before you took the Mark.”

“I already told you I know what this Mark means, Eliza,” he said, guiding her gaze back to his.

“I know, but I didn’t want you to feel obligated—”

“Obligation was the very last thing I felt when I had Cethin give me this Mark,mai dragocen.”

She felt her cheeks flush, and she absolutely hated it. “I suppose we should figure out what we’re going to do then.”

“The only thing I want to figure out is what you taste like,” he replied, reaching for the fitted undershirt.

“Raz, we’re still healing,” she said, the argument as weak as her voice when she said it.

“Me being on my knees is not going to affect any of our wounds,” he replied in that same matter-of-fact tone he said everything else in. “Arms up.”

His fingers skated along her ribs as he dragged the shirt up her torso. She was obeying the command and lifting her arms before she even realized what she was doing.

“So you can follow instruction,” he said with a smirk, his hands coming to her breasts and thumbs sweeping across her nipples.

That flush in her cheeks spread throughout her entire body.

She arched into his touch. “I believe I told you if it suits my needs, I follow orders. It’s simply rarely worth my while.”

His eyes heated, shifting to vertical pupils and glowing softly. One of his hands slid to her throat, grasping it loosely and tugging her forward. She tilted her head back to look up at him, and his mouth was hovering over hers when he said on a soft growl she felt in her core, “You’ll be begging me for orders by the end of this,mai dragocen.”

She scoffed, a snarky reply on the tip of her tongue, but the hand at her breast was moving lower down her belly and beneath the band of her loose pants. He didn’t slow as he dragged a finger over those nerves before sinking it deep inside her. She let out a gasp when he slowly dragged the finger out before plunging back in.

“Feet up.”

“It’s a table, Razik,” she said on a breath as he kept working that finger in and out.

“I’m aware of the furniture type. Bend your knees, and bring your feet up,” he growled, pulling her forward by the throat and pressing a bruising kiss to her lips. By the time he pulled back, her feet were braced on the table. She didn’t even know when she’d done that.

“Lose the pants.”

“I can’t with your hand down them,” she tried to snap, but he was pushing a second finger inside her, and she was burning away her remaining clothing.

“Open your legs,” he ordered.

“People eat on this table,” she argued.

“Perfect. I’ve been starving for weeks,” he replied, releasing her throat and pushing one of her knees wide.

And it was the way he said it—in that casual-as-fuck tone he always spoke in—that had her mouth hanging open as he dropped to his knees and tugged her forward. She fell back on her elbows.

“Seriously, Raz. We can’t—” But then her head was tipping back and her eyes were fluttering closed when he ran the flat of his tongue across her center.

“Eyes stay on me, Eliza,” he said, nipping at her inner thigh. “I’ll stop every time they’re not.”