Page 76 of Golden Queen (Idrigard #1)

He flinched, sucking in a breath. "Fuck, Sera. What are you thinking about?"

The question startled me. My cheeks grew warm, despite the fact that we were both completely naked and my bare breasts were directly beneath his gaze. "Nothing," I said.

He shook his head slowly, and a half grin curled his lips. "Liar," he accused.

He moved his hand straight down to the dark curls between my thighs. He casually slid his finger along the center through the tell-tale wetness.

"I told you, I can taste it," he breathed.

He lifted his finger and I saw wetness glistening on the tip. And then he put his finger into his mouth, closing his eyes as though savoring the taste of me. He groaned. "Your desire—It tastes just like that."

"It does?" I asked, breathless.

He opened his eyes and I saw the fire in them for only an instant—gold and bright, just like his hands. And then it was gone, and those beautiful black eyes raked over my body. "What were you thinking of, you wicked, beautiful girl?"

"That's none of your business," I replied mischievously.

"Oh?" he asked, arching a brow. "If you don't tell me, I can't give it to you, now can I?" He trailed his hand over my breast, cupping the round weight that fit nicely in his big hand.

"You can't give this to me anyway," I said, being purposely coy to frustrate him.

"I can," he insisted. "I will give you anything, Sera." He pushed me back until I was lying on the mattress under him. He lowered his head to my nipple and flicked his tongue against the taut peaked flesh, making me moan. “Tell me what you want, my love. Let me give it to you.”

"We would burn the entire brothel down around us if you gave me what I want right now."

He raised his eyes to mine as a slow grin of understanding spread across his face.

He laid his hand on my stomach and let the dark flames spread out from his palm.

They licked across my skin sending little darts of heat over me.

Tingling warmth swept through me, banishing all the darkness from the deepest corners of my soul and replacing it with an exhilaration that sent my heart racing and my breath catching in my throat.

"I'll do it for you, Sera. I'll burn the whole world if you ask me to." His deep voice was raw and feral. The truth of it sent chills skating over me.

And then he lifted my hips from the bed with one hand and slid his fiery fingers into me. I moaned, breathless and shaking.

His fingers stilled and he closed his eyes, tilting his head and flaring his nostrils. "Dear fucking fates, Sera. I can feel how bad you want me."

"Good," I said darkly. I knew it should have felt like a violation to have him in my mind like that, but it did not. It made me glad to know he could feel how the need for him nearly tormented me.

I slid my hips back, along the length of his fingers and then pushed forward again and again.

I watched him as I moved. Flames danced and writhed in his eyes. But his gaze was locked on the fingers sliding in and out of me. He watched with a hunger that stunned me.

Tension built inside me, and my body edged toward release. He smiled wickedly as he took his fingers away.

I felt the absence for only a moment as he lifted my hips higher and slid into me, slow, and deliberate, until he was seated fully, until my body could take no more of him. He pushed against that deep ache, sending fierce pleasure through me, beginning that winding again of all the tension.

I felt him shudder and watched the thick, corded muscles of his chest flex as he slid out and roughly, forcefully seated himself inside me again and again.

"Sera,' he growled, and it was a plea. Somehow, a plea from him felt like the greatest honor that could ever be bestowed upon me. I suddenly wanted more—I wanted to give him more.

He responded to the desire that was building in me by pulling me up until he was holding me against his chest. He let his dark flames billow out around us until we were surrounded by them.

"Tell me, Sera," he demanded as the flames raced along my nerves, exciting every part of me. "Tell me what you want."

He thrust up into me and it was deeper somehow, it sent wild spasms through me low in my belly.

"Tell me," he commanded in a deep voice full of authority.

I wanted to bristle at the order, but I couldn't. This was Io and he was mine, and if he demanded to know what I wanted, I would tell him. "I want your blood," I said. "And to give you mine."

The flames retreated as he flipped me back onto the bed, still buried inside me. He roughly bit into the flesh of his own wrist. When he pulled his mouth away, blood covered his teeth and lips. It dripped onto my chest and neck as he laid his wrist against my mouth.

The taste exploded on my tongue, sweet and wild. I drank, deeply, greedily as I felt the sharp bite of his teeth on my neck. Pain shot through me, but it was quickly overshadowed by the sweet fire of his blood spreading through my chest, burning through my body.

Release followed quickly as wracking pleasure shook my body. I groaned against his wrist, sinking my teeth savagely into his skin.

The blood had lit a fire in me. I tasted him, felt him, consumed him.

I felt the darkness and the light warring with each other and with some wild, quaking force of nature where the entire world was wrapped up in a hurricane of power.

It was chaos and insanity. More beautiful than anything had ever been.

I felt it all coursing through me as I shuddered against him, as he filled me, the hard length of his cock fanning the flames of that fire until I climaxed again just as I felt him shudder, his body stilling as he groaned harsh and guttural with his own release.

He didn't stop, though. His thrusts became long and deliberate again. His lips left my neck so that he could grin down at me wickedly. He looked like a wild beast after a slaughter with my blood on his lips, his chin, and running down his neck.

He clamped his mouth over mine, kissing me deeply, our blood mingling together.

When he rose over me again, hips still moving, long arms tensed on either side of me, I reached for him. I was shocked to see faint tendrils of shadow seeping out of me, twisting and swirling around the length of my arm.

I knew that if I could have seen my eyes, the pale gray irises would have been a swirling mass of darkness as I shared in his power.

He laughed darkly as he continued to fuck me. I savored each hard thrust into me. "My wicked, dark, girl." he said, deep satisfaction plain on his features.

Darkness streamed from him—darkness so complete that no light escaped it. It mingled with the shadows coming from me until they curled around each other, his reaching out to me, and mine to him. Where his shadows touched me, they sent an icy kiss across my skin.

The room around us was obscured by the beautiful shadows from this beast of midnight and nightmares. They wreathed him, surrounded him, blocked out the whole world around us.

I was not afraid.

I lost count of how many times I climaxed. Each time release came, that dark, merciless grin would appear, and the shadows would darken, pressing in, seeming to breathe as though they were alive.

They curled around my arms, my neck, my breasts, sending torturous sensations across my flesh. I felt my mind fall away into oblivion as rapturous pleasure opened within me.

Only Io's own harsh groan brought me out of my stupor. He brought his mouth to mine, biting down on my lip as he pressed his hips against me for one final thrust, spilling himself inside me again with a roar of release.

He lowered himself to his elbows, dropping a kiss on my shoulder.

And then he raised himself up to look at me as the shadows around us dissipated just where they were, wafting away into nothing to reveal the room around us again. The shadows in his eyes slowly streamed away as though retreating back into him. The blue in his eyes seemed suddenly brighter.

The daylight outside the windows had turned to night. Somehow, hours had passed while we were lost in that swirling madness.

Io gently pulled himself out of me and fell limply to the bed beside me—as though he was just as melted inside as I was. I felt his arms slide around me, turning me so that he could pull my back to his warm, solid chest.

"You are amazing, Sera," he said.

"Well, thank you," I said sleepily. "But how so?"

He huffed a laugh. "For one, you’re lying here, covered in my blood, and not the least disgusted."

"Why would I be? Your blood tastes wonderful."

He made an incredulous sound. "I have never tasted anything like your blood. It's like it's made of starlight."

I snorted. "What does starlight taste like?"

"Like infinity," he said, chuckling.

I laughed. "Well, that clears it up."

He smoothed the hair back from my cheek. "But most of all, because you have never been afraid of me—not once. Even in the dark, when you were scared, you reached out to me instead of running away."

My heart broke a little at the emotion I heard in his voice. "Why would I ever fear you?"

"Everyone eventually does—at one point or another when they encounter the shadows. But you don’t even flinch."

I turned in his arms, and told him earnestly, "Why would I flinch away from the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen?"

His half smile took my fucking breath away. "Thank you, Sera."

He kissed me tenderly and then settled his head on the pillow beside mine. And then the Lord of Darkwatch, who I knew had struggled with insomnia his entire life, was asleep within a single minute.

I watched him for a long, long time. Trying to memorize the exact line of his nose and curve of his mouth—the way his thick fringe of black lashes lay against his dusky cheek.

My eyelids eventually began to grow heavy, and I knew sleep was coming, so I reached out and pulled the blanket over us both, being sure to tuck it around his shoulders up to the line of his chin where black stubble was now prominent.

And then, for what I knew would surely be the very last time, since outside the window was a clear, star-filled sky, I curled up against my love and let the sound of his heartbeat follow me into a dreamless sleep.