Page 7 of Frozen Star (Star Touched: Fae Bound #7)
The guard nods once, takes Laura, and Aerix closes the door, locking it with a decisive click and turning to face me. Something dark and hungry burns in his eyes—something that makes my newly enhanced senses sing as he stalks toward me with predatory grace.
“We’re finally alone,” he murmurs, kneeling beside me and tracing a finger along my jaw. “Now—tell me how you feel.”
My heart races at his touch, every nerve ending on fire as I somehow focus enough to consider his question.
“I feel stronger. Like I could tear down walls with my bare hands. And my senses…” I close my eyes, breathing in his scent. “I can hear your heartbeat. I can smell the winter on your skin. Everything is so much more intense.”
“And the hunger?”
“Still there. But manageable. Like background noise instead of a scream.”
“It will always be there. The chaos, the overwhelming need. But also the power—the intoxicating rush of becoming something more than human.” He leans in, his eyes glittering dangerously, his voice low and velvet-edged. “But the hunger you feel right now… is it for blood, or for something else?”
My heart slams as his words register. “Definitely something else,” I say, and then his mouth claims mine again, fierce and possessive, and I moan softly against his lips as my hands slide up into his hair.
With my enhanced senses, every kiss, every touch, and every breath is magnified until it feels almost unbearable.
I’m barely aware of him picking me up and carrying me over to the bed until the silk sheets are against my back, his weight pressing me deeper into the mattress.
He pulls back for a moment, his eyes drinking me in as his gaze trails down my body.
“What?” I whisper, suddenly self-conscious beneath his intense stare.
“It’s you,” he murmurs. “Every detail of you is sharper and smoother at the same time, like I’ve taken what was already beautiful and chiseled it to perfection. I can’t stop looking at you. I never will.”
He kisses me again before I can respond, and our clothes slip away in a minute, discarded onto the floor. My senses ignite—every nerve hyper-aware of the feather-light rustle of his wings, the silky glide of skin on skin, and the frantic drumbeat of our matching heartbeats.
Slipping behind him, I run my fingertips slowly along his spine, savoring the feel of each powerful muscle beneath my touch. When I reach the base of his wings, I pause, my breath warm against his skin, before pressing my lips softly against that sensitive spot.
He gasps, wings flaring wide as his body trembles.
“Zoey,” he breathes, my name breaking apart on his lips like he’s forgotten how to speak.
Fascinated, I repeat the motion, kissing and tracing my tongue against the tender skin where feathers meet flesh.
His breathing fractures into uneven gasps, his hands gripping the headboard with white-knuckled desperation, frost spreading outward like silvery veins as I explore him with my mouth.
Encouraged, I slide my arms around him, taking him in my hands and moving them slowly.
He shudders, his muscles coiling tight as he arches into my touch. “Gods, Zoey,” he gasps. “I can’t… if you keep doing that…”
Another gentle kiss silences him, and he groans deep in his chest, his wings straining wide. Every muscle in his powerful frame draws tight as a bowstring on the edge of snapping. A strangled moan escapes his lips, frost spiraling across the sheets as I continue my slow, deliberate rhythm.
Dark hair shadows his eyes as his head falls forward. “Stop,” he commands, desperation thickening the edges of his voice. “Or this will be over before it’s even begun.”
Even as the words leave his lips, his hips surge forward, betraying his weakening resolve.
His breath fractures into shallow gasps, every muscle in his body straining, as if he’s lost himself entirely.
From the way he’s pulsing in my grip, I can tell it’ll be only seconds until he does lose himself entirely.
And despite how enjoyable it is to see him surrender so completely, I also don’t want this to end anytime soon.
With reluctance, I release him, pulling back gently.
He exhales shakily, hands still gripping the headboard, eyes squeezed shut, chest rising and falling in rapid, uneven bursts. For a long moment, he remains motionless, his powerful frame locked in rigid tension as he regains his grip on control.
Finally, he opens his eyes, looking over his shoulder at me, gaze dark and glittering with lingering desire.
“What does it feel like?” I ask, genuinely curious.
His eyes sharpen, and for a moment, I think he won’t respond.
“Like every nerve in my body is being set on fire,” he finally says. “The wings are connected to everything. I feel each touch and kiss everywhere, magnified a hundred times over.”
“That’s incredible.” I reach up to trace the sharp angle of his jaw, heat blooming inside me from the way he leans into my hand. “You’re incredible.”
Something shifts in his expression, desire giving way to something darker, more controlled.
“My turn,” he says, and then he’s guiding me down onto the mattress and sliding his cool fingertips down my body, trailing frost patterns across my feverish skin.
When he reaches the scar on my hip, his eyes flare with heat.
“Do you have any idea how much I love seeing this here? Knowing you’re marked as mine forever? ”
Before I can form an answer, his lips press softly to the scar, sending a shiver rippling through me as he traces each letter with his tongue.
My heightened vampire senses register every feather-light touch and whisper of his breath, magnifying it until it feels like a hurricane of sensation taking over completely.
“Mine,” he whispers, the coolness of his mouth against the raised skin making me cry out softly. “Say it, Zoey. Tell me you’re mine.”
He picks his head up to meet my gaze, vulnerability flashing through his eyes. There’s a question there—the one he never asks directly, but desperately needs answered.
“I love you, Aerix Nightborne,” I tell him, needing him to know, to feel it in every fiber of his being. “Only you. Always you.”
Relief floods his eyes, so intense it’s almost painful to witness.
“And I love you,” he breathes against my skin, and even though we’ve said it to each other many times by now, the admission seems torn from somewhere deep inside him. “More than anything. No one else could ever need you the way I do. No one else will ever keep you safe the way I do.”
I tug gently at his hair, urging him back up to me. “Then don’t make me wait anymore,” I plead, desperate for relief from the overwhelming ache of anticipation he’s built within me.
Something shifts in him, and he presses his body flush against mine, lining himself up against my entrance.
“I’m part of you now,” he says as wind whips around us, a wild dance of power that leaves me trembling beneath him. “And I’ll never let you go.”
I stare up into his midnight eyes, seeing myself reflected in the tiny silver flecks there—powerful, feral, and utterly his. A fierce sense of belonging rushes through me, overwhelming everything else, even the hunger.
“I don’t want you to,” I promise, and when he sinks into me, the world narrows to nothing but sensation—his touch, his taste, and the way our magic intertwines like a living thing.
There’s only us, this moment, and the sweet surrender to everything I’ve become.