Page 97 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

“Why would you think I do not want this?”

“You said it yourself. I have no idea what you want,” she shot back in annoyance. His lips twitched, and she wanted to punch him. “All I am saying,” she gritted out, “is that you deserve to not have this forced on you, and I will understand if—”

She stopped speaking when Razik lifted his left hand, turning it so she could see the back where the twin flame Mark stood stark against his golden skin. “Come here.”

“But your injuries—”

“I swear to the Fates, Eliza, if you make me say it again—”

But she was already moving, all but running to him.

When she was within reach, his hands grasped her face, fingers sliding into her unbound hair and his mouth crushing against hers.

And this kiss—Gods, this kiss was everything the others had been and more.

Hot and desperate and all-consuming. He didn’t wait for her to let him in.

His tongue invaded her mouth, taking whatever he wanted from her.

“I meant what I said,” she panted into his mouth. “You’ve fucking ruined me.”

“I know,” he rumbled, hands leaving her face to grip her thighs and hoisting her up. Her legs wrapped around his waist, arms looping around his neck.

“You’re so godsdamn arrogant,” she snarled as he carried her to the dining table, setting her atop it and peeling off her tunic.

“I know,” he said again, hand cupping her face and tipping her head back so he could take her mouth once more. Her teeth sank into his bottom lip at the comment, and something between a groan and a laugh came from him.

Leaning back, his eyes dropped to her nearly healed wound. He brushed his fingertips over it, and it sent a shiver down her spine. He met her gaze as he said, “I am sorry I could not get to you.”

She was shaking her head before he’d finished speaking. “It wasn’t your fault.”

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 fin gers 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.”

Her head snapped up, eyes flying open. She glared at him as he looked up at her from between her legs. His hair was disheveled and eyes dark with hunger.

Holding her gaze, he flicked his tongue against her again, and when she didn’t look away, he went back in for more and more.

He alternated between tight sweeping circles with his tongue and sharp sucks that had her writhing on the table.

Anytime her eyes started to fall closed or her head dropped back, he would slow his motions and have her hissing curses at him.

She was right there when she couldn’t do it anymore. When she was about to tip over the edge and her arms were trembling from holding herself up. Her eyes fell closed a moment before she was about to find her pleasure—

And he stopped. Just like he fucking said he would.

Her eyes flew back open. “Razik!” she snarled, her gaze transfixed on his swollen lips.

“For someone who claims to follow instruction when it suits her needs, you’re terrible at it,” he said, dropping open-mouthed kisses along the crease of her thigh.

“I swear to Anala, if you don’t get your mouth back on my—”

And then she was crying out when his teeth clamped lightly around those sensitive nerves at the same moment his black flames swept over her, hurtling her into bliss.

She was still trembling from release when she was scrambling towards him, reaching out to touch skin and muscle that had taunted her for weeks in her bed, but he snatched her wrists in one hand before she got close.

She growled at him, and he smirked. Bracing one hand on the table beside her hip, he brought his face so close to hers, strands of his hair brushed along her cheek. “What do you want, Eliza?”

Her breath mingled with his, eyes holding his sapphire stare. Challenge glimmered there, and she pushed forward so her lips brushed across his when she whispered, “You, Raz. I want you.”

Her words shattered whatever semblance of control they were pretending to have.

Everything was desperate and needy. Razik released her wrists as his hands landed on her hips and tugged her forward so she was balancing on the edge of the table where her legs now dangled over the side.

Bare skin brushed against bare skin, and she only had a moment to wonder when in all this he had lost his own pants before he was pushing into her.

“Gods,” she gasped, feeling him stretch her. She could only cling to his shoulders, nails dragging down his arms as her mouth explored his jaw, neck, chest.

When he’d worked himself all the way in, he stilled.

Fingers wound into her hair, tightening and pulling her head back.

But gods, she didn’t want him to stop. She needed him to never stop moving, and she bucked her hips forward, creating her own friction.

Something deep in his chest rumbled as he held her stare, and she did it again.

“Move, Razik,” she rasped, winding her legs around his waist and digging her heels into his ass, trying to get him to do godsdamn anything.

“You’re not about to beg, are you?” he asked with a smug grin.

“Not even close,” she retorted, leaning back on a hand.

His brow arched as she brought her fingers to the hollow of her own throat.

She began dragging them down her chest, between her breasts.

A smirk of her own curled as he watched every move ment, his wings shifting behind him.

“I told you,” she said in a heated rasp, her fingers gliding over her navel and making their way lower.

“Others rarely make it worth my time. I can do it better myself anyway.” As she said the words, her finger slipped between her legs that she’d let fall open, letting him see everything.

Where they were joined together. What she was doing with her own fingers.

And she held his godsdamn stare the entire fucking time.

Then he was scooping her up from the table. Before she could blink, he was dumping her onto the bed, and she let out a godsdamn whimper at the loss of him being inside her.

“You’re such a liar,” he growled, flipping her onto her stomach as he crawled up the bed behind her. “Trying to tell me your fingers are better than me when you make that sound.”

“Fuck off,” she spat, pressing back against him when he hauled her hips into the air. Then she was moaning as he thrust back into her in one hard movement.