Page 61 of Darkness Births the Stars #1

“Mmm,” Belekoroz sighed. A slight bite to the place underneath my ear made me writhe against him, seeking release for the incessant need pulsing between my legs.

“I would say it was worth a lot more than that little compromise, my queen. I would level entire kingdoms to feel that sweet mouth around me once more.”

I might have gained the upper hand in our endless game for a few precious moments, but I could feel the tables turning again, my damnable weakness for his touch dragging me under.

His hands glided over my leg, raising my dress on their way.

He brazenly cupped my ass and kneaded the flesh.

I was not burning anymore but close to exploding, my skin feeling too tight for the roaring fire that rolled through my veins.

I wanted him to stop. I would die if he did.

My conflicting feelings made me whimper as those elegant fingers trailed up my thigh, agonizingly slow.

“Shh, don’t fret.” A rough whisper against my ear. “We are going to take care of you now.”

My moan held a broken edge as his fingers dove beneath my underthings, stroking me.

Oh, how could something so wrong feel so good?

My hips canted up, need gnawing at me like a savage beast. He indulged me, sinking two fingers inside me.

A soft whine escaped me at the sudden intrusion.

Not enough. I wanted more, pressing against him in a near frenzy.

I needed him to fill me, to thrust inside me in that relentless rhythm my body somehow craved.

“Oh, Baradaz,” Belekoroz growled, his fingers twisting, pressing against a spot that sent shockwaves of pleasure through me.

“You are so wet for me. So eager for my cock.” His hungry mouth trailed over the line of my jaw.

“When did you start thinking of fucking me?” he breathed on my skin. “During our dance?”

The truth tumbled from my lips before I could stop it. “When you kissed my hand.”

“Ah.” A deep, satisfied sound escaped him. He did not taunt me with the admission of my desire, his hands finding my dress instead, pushing it up even more, baring me for him. The cold air of the Other whispered against my heated skin.

“Oh, lyr .” My fevered exclamation as he dropped to his knees was close to a sob, my hands clawing at his shoulders.

He was going to pleasure me with his mouth again.

The mere thought of that insolent tongue between my legs incinerated the last pitiful remnants of my control.

Sparks of my power rose in the air around us, reflecting endlessly on the gleaming black stone.

Belekoroz noted it, his eyes gleaming as he pressed a kiss to my stomach. “Are you going to take my side regarding the lyr -stones?” His voice was deceptively conversational, considering his position.

“What?” I didn’t even understand the words, my mind too clouded with lust.

He laughed, the puff of hot breath against the thin material of my underthings making my hips buck.

“I think it’s only fair if our little arrangement is mutually beneficial in every way,” he explained, fingers dipping beneath the fabric, dragging it down.

“It would be invaluable if you helped me against M’tar during the next Council discussions. ”

Oh, that bastard. Trying to use my desire against me. Too bad he did not know I had already planned to take his side without any incentive. Not that I was above reaping the rewards now.

My fingers combed through the silky strands of his hair.

“I could ask the king to approve an investigation of the stones,” I said hesitantly, as if I had to contemplate what exactly to offer him.

“Perhaps give the task to Masir? A private mission. Without the need to inform the entire Council.” I shamelessly pushed his head against me, sighing contently when his hot mouth found me.

“Oh, I like the sound of that. And the sound of your moans even more.”

A teasing lick over the little bud at the apex of my thighs followed every word.

The need inside me built up to near insanity as I watched him caress me, his tongue twirling over the perfect spot in exactly the right way.

The sight of his face buried between my legs, all flushed cheeks and rapt attention to his task, sent another wave of desire through me.

He groaned. “So fucking wet and eager for me, Baradaz. Maker, you taste divine. Hot and sweet.”

I squirmed against that clever mouth as he worked me to a fever pitch, my trembling moans loud in the endless space of the Other. Soon I was beyond any words, even in the drumming connection between our minds, one thought eclipsing everything else: more , always more .

Oh, I was good at this game. And people called him cunning. I wouldn’t mind negotiating with him more often, especially if I so clearly came out on top—

“You always planned to investigate the stones.” The firm hands holding my thighs wide open tensed up, a partly disbelieving, partly annoyed flash in our connection as Belekoroz caught on to the reason for my giddy triumph .

I shook my head, not in denial, but to clear my thoughts. “You cannot blame me for seizing the opportunity.”

“Ha.” Sharp teeth sank into the soft flesh of my thigh. “I should punish you, you little minx,” he growled. “Bring you to the edge and make you beg for release.”

When he resumed his ministrations, he was merciless, teasing me until I tensed up, so close to taking the plunge, only for him to stop at the last possible moment. He was using his grip on my mind to torment me in the cruelest way possible.

“Again, and again and again,” he threatened. I groaned. Would he do this for hours if I didn’t swallow my pride and beg? I feared I knew the answer. Yet the undercurrent of amused delight I sensed from him triggered my suspicion.

“Wait,” I gasped, tightening my grip in his hair to tilt his face up to me. “You always wanted to help us, didn’t you? Against the Kritak.”

“Clever little queen,” Belekoroz laughed, something fierce awakening in his gaze as he took me in. Then he stood up.

“What are you doing?” Under any other circumstances, I would have hated the panicked whine my voice had become. He could not stop now.

I nearly sobbed with relief when he kissed me in answer. A greedy claiming of my mouth, all tongue and teeth, fueled by a relentless need that left no room for finesse.

“I need to be inside you.”

The hoarse words in my mind were my only warning as strands of power came to life around us.

Not Darkness but Earth. Stone groaned and dust rained down.

I fell. Strong arms caught me, setting me down on the newly made surface behind me.

Belekoroz had cut out part of the hard black stone, creating a flat opening just large enough for me to lie on, caged in by stony walls.

Not exactly comfortable. I couldn’t have cared less, though; his hands were on my dress next, another flash of magic ripping it off me.

He was even less careful with his own tunic and breeches.

All my protests died as I took in his face—eyes alight with the darkest of flames, a hungry smile showing glinting teeth.

“Better,” he said as he took in my naked form, sprawled before him like an offering on an altar.

One long-fingered hand closed around my wrists above my head, pressing me down as he moved above me.

His other hand grabbed his cock, hard and straining in his grip.

Oh, yes. I writhed beneath him, so ramped up that for a moment I feared the initial stretch as he slowly entered me would make me climax immediately.

The thought devastated me. I needed him properly buried inside me, filling me. Why couldn’t the cursed man just move?

Instead, he covered my stomach with his hand, pressing down. Heat spread out from my core, pleasure tingling through me.

“ Lyr , you’re so close,” Belekoroz groaned, watching me with hooded eyes. “I can already feel it.”

So could I, the first spasms of my climax sending delightful little shivers through my entire body. No. He needed to join me, our magic and our minds entangling inextricably once more as we drowned in each other.

“Please.” I slung my legs around his hips, desperately trying to press him deeper inside me. “Take me. Please, Belekoroz. Please.”

All my pride, my resolve to keep a clear head this time, had left me. Only need for him remained.

The little smile on his lips held a tenderness I couldn’t place. “Since you are begging so nicely, I won’t be so cruel as to deny you what you want so much.”

Then he shifted his hips, thrusting deep, and all my thoughts scattered.

Yes. This was what I had needed, that hard length filling me again and again as I shattered around him.

I cried out, my pleasure spilling over, my Light crackling over my skin and his.

He held me down, neither allowing me to bury my fingers in his shoulders nor my magic to mingle with his.

“Fly for me, my queen,” Belekoroz growled into my mind.

My body obeyed his command as if it were made for it, tensing up in one peak after another. He didn’t slow down, muscles bunching enticingly with every hard, deep thrust. My eyes fluttered closed, the sensations overwhelming me. Firm fingers closed around my chin, shaking my head in reproach.

“Don’t you dare close your eyes.” Belekoroz’s gaze captured mine, his expression feral. “I want you to watch while I fuck you. I want you to know that it’s me doing this to you and no one else.”

Something in his tone called to me. Something reaching so far beyond our games, beyond the physical pleasure we used to sink our claws in each other, to tear each other apart. Something vulnerable and raw. I had to answer to it, a flash of power freeing my hands.

Belekoroz froze when my fingers found his cheek, our bodies still joined. My touch trailed down his jaw, featherlight on his lips. So often his beauty seemed like the ice of the north to me, flawless and unforgiving. Tonight, pleasure gilded it with warmth, an unexpected softness that made me ache.

“I know it’s you,” I said, giving in to the feeling swelling inside me. Such deceptively simple words, but they said so much. I see you. I want you. Be here with me.

Letting all my shields fall away was temptingly easy with him. An offer. To become one completely once more, to share our powers and our minds.

I wasn’t sure he would take it. He hadn’t joined me yet, holding on to his control with single-minded determination.

A control so incredibly hard-won, his breath labored, every taut line of his body quivering, beads of sweat dripping down the firm plane of his chest, the shadows around us roaring like a captive beast.

“What are you doing to me, Baradaz?” The emotion flickering in those dark eyes above me, trickling from his mind to mine, felt astonishingly close to fear. Fear and longing. Perhaps I wasn’t the only one afraid to take that first plunge and soar into the sky.

“Condemning us both,” I answered truthfully, one of those strange premonitions we immortals sometimes had, before burying my hands in his hair and dragging his mouth back to mine.

“Some things are worth burning for,” Belekoroz gasped between deep, biting kisses.

I cried out in bliss as he finally allowed his magic to intertwine with mine at the same time as he plunged inside me once more. “Oh, Light, oh, Light—”

“No, my queen.” A hoarse whisper, full of the promise of more pleasure to come. “Tonight, Darkness rules here. And you will enjoy every single moment of it.”

I moaned, my body rising instinctually as the immensity of his desire for me filled our bond, as deep and dark as the Abyss.

“Hold on to the stone.”

I heeded his command, one of my hands closing around a piece of jagged stone that jutted out above my head, my heart racing.

“Good.” A tight smile, his eyes lost in dark fire. Then, he let go.

Darkness raged around us, stealing all the Light.

My world consisted only of him. I took everything he unleashed upon me with greedy hunger, every hard thrust that threatened to loosen my grip on the stone, every surge of power that made my magic flare up in answer, every rough kiss that captured my hoarse cries.

At last, my mind was quiet. All thoughts, all doubts gone, only pleasure remaining, burning everything else away.

I didn’t even startle when the stone beneath me crumbled to dust, safe in the knowledge the shadows would catch me, hurling me toward another precipice until we both fell over it, until the bleak plains of the Other exploded into a gleaming whirlwind of Darkness and Light.