Page 39 of The Demon’s Due (Bedeviled #5)

“They were Artoo and Threepio,” he said haughtily, “and you should be so lucky. You’ll have to settle for my five-hundred-thread-count Egyptian cotton.”

“In that case.” I batted my lashes at him. “Take me to your bedroom.”

My back hit the bedroom wall as Ezra’s mouth found mine. He trailed kisses down my neck, his stubbled jaw scraped deliciously against my skin, and the heat of his body pressing against me. I ran my fingers along the muscles of his back, feeling them flex under my touch.

“What’s going on in that beautiful mind?” He traced my lower lip with his thumb.

I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. “Wondering how I got so lucky.”

“Funny. I was thinking the same thing.”

Twilight cast the room in shades of deep blue and pearl, like being underwater at sunset, a painting framed by windows draped in heavy charcoal silk.

His massive bed dominated the space, the dark wood carved with subtle, intricate patterns that caught shadows. Crisp Egyptian cotton sheets in deep slate stretched across the mattress.

I slid my hands under his shirt, mapping the planes of his chest, committing every inch to memory.

“Mi cielo.” The familiar teasing glint in Ezra’s eyes had been replaced by something deeper, more vulnerable.

My heart thundered against my ribs.

“You’re not just my sky,” he said, “you’re my North Star. When I’m lost in the dark, your brightness leads me back.” The way he looked at me, like I was some rare astronomical phenomenon he’d discovered, made my stomach flutter.

I’d envisioned myself as different types of fire: a bomb, a spark, but Ezra looked at me and saw a star—a much bigger, more radiant blaze than anything I’d imagined myself as.

“Come here,” I murmured, tugging him closer by his belt loops.

His breath hitched when I nipped at his lower lip. “Demanding, aren’t we?”

“You love it.” I grinned against his mouth.

“I love you .”

My heartbeat careened, my fingers still hooked in his belt loops, and the taste of him on my lips. Was this simply post-battle feels or had he seized the moment since we couldn’t be sure what tomorrow held?

He caught my gaze, his own so tender, but when the silence stretched out, it skipped away.

Say it back. I opened and closed my mouth, trying to get sound past my thick throat. The words were right there for the taking—had been there for so long, pressed against my ribs like a secret.

When Ezra looked back at me, it was with the careful gentleness of someone trying not to startle a wild animal. He unbuttoned his shirt.

Sexy time is a go. At last. My body was on board with that, even if my chest was hollow and I wanted to rewind time.

He shrugged out of his shirt.

I blinked stupidly at the masterpiece of cosmic art sprawled across his chest, an expanse of inky night sky dotted with delicate stars in familiar constellations.

Dominating the scene, positioned deliberately over his heart, was a single star whose rays stretched longer, its light pulsing brightly over its celestial neighbors, as if it alone could pierce the deepest dark.

“That must have taken hours,” I said. “How did you sit still for so long? Didn’t you have to pee?”

Ezra frowned. “I etch my love for you on my skin and that’s your takeaway?”

I flailed my hands. “How am I supposed to explain that seeing this makes me feel like I’m made of feathers and one half-hearted gust could blow me away?”

His frown deepened. “That sounds like something I’m doing to you. Like the thrall.”

“No! We’re not in that dynamic anymore, and what I’m feeling now is nothing like that. That was like a haze that came over me, but this is a mess.”

“That bodes well,” he said dryly.

“I feel vulnerable and alive. It’s scary and wonderful and almost overwhelming but I feel it coming from you, too, and that makes it precious.”

“Nope.” He screwed up his face. “Still not quite getting what you mean.”

I shoved him. “I love you so much, you idiot.”

“Okay, I’m going to need to rephrase that grand declaration in the retelling. Maybe throw in some adjectives about my magnificence.”

“Ezra?”

He cocked an eyebrow.

I pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I love you with all my heart and soul.”

He grinned and kissed the pulse fluttering under my jaw. “Was that so hard?”

I laughed.

He took his time undressing me, his gaze following each newly revealed inch of skin with such reverence that I had to fight the urge to cover myself.

I’d never felt so exposed, so completely seen by another person. With anyone else, this level of vulnerability would have sent me running. But with Ezra, I wanted to stay forever in this moment, suspended between heartbeats.

When he finally lay me back on the mattress, I couldn’t stop touching him, running my hands through his dark curls, tracing the strong line of his jaw, mapping the constellations of those gorgeous stars on his chest. Each touch was like a confession, every kiss a promise.

He made slow, lazy spirals down my body with his lips.

I bunched the cool sheets in my fists.

Ezra sucked on one nipple.

I whimpered, threading my fingers through his soft curls and tugging him up.

His fangs scraped over my neck.

I moaned wantonly and hooked my leg around his waist, rubbing myself against his hard cock.

Ezra made a sound halfway between a hum and a growl. He pinned my legs between his knees, holding my hands in his above my head.

No matter how much I squirmed underneath him, I couldn’t get relief, driven higher and hotter by his bruising kisses and the slow grind of his hips.

“Have mercy,” I begged in a breathless voice.

“This isn’t doing it for you?”

I tried to free my closed legs to get to my clit, but I was trapped. “No,” I snarled.

“What about this?” He brushed his nose against mine.

“That was great, baby. I don’t plan on replacing you with a battery-operated appliance at all.”

He laughed and rolled onto his side. He also nudged my legs apart to stroke my clit, while claiming my mouth with kisses that blurred at the edges, melting into each other like watercolors in the rain.

I canted my hips, desperate to quench the fire burning me up. “Inside me.”

Ezra stretched back, reaching for the bedside table, but I stopped him.

“No condom,” I said. “I want to feel you. I’m clean if you are, and I’m on the pill.”

His lips quirked. “Thank you for that rundown. I, too, am clean and would very much appreciate being inside you with no barriers between us.”

“Asshole,” I said, laughing. “Stop making my sincere feelings awkward.”

He slid inside me, and I let out a breathy sigh. “Oh good,” he said. “I was worried you’d keep laughing.”

I patted his shoulder. “Your ego may remain intact.”

We fell into a slow, perfect rhythm. His hands never stopped moving, stroking my hair, caressing my face, holding me like I might disappear if he let go. His whispered endearments made me shiver.

A bead of sweat trickled down my chest to my stomach, the two of us wrapped in the tangle of our heat.

I scratched my nails across his back.

Ezra thrust hard, and my orgasm tore through me. His body bucked, and with a hoarse cry, he came as well.

We remained intertwined, Ezra’s head against my racing heart.

I idly played with his hair. “The earth moved.”

“I know.” He bucked his hips, cracking a smile. “I’m a sex god. Heap your praises upon me.”

“No.” I sat up. “The earth really mooo—” I grabbed him as a quake rocked the bed. His moody oil painting of a stormy sea crashed to the ground.

I shrieked, dropped to my knees, and crawled like an Olympic medal was at stake into the office next door, taking shelter under a wide desk. I was a Vancouverite; the safest places in these events had been drilled into us.

“Babel doesn’t get earthquakes,” Ezra called from the bedroom.

“Beg to differ!” My voice was high and pitchy.

At long last, the tremors stopped.

Ezra crouched down in front of me, holding out his hand. He now wore boxer shorts and slippers.

Damn, I’d never get tired of seeing that night sky inked on his chest, with the place of honor for that single star.

Still, I gave one last look at the nice solid desk before I let him pull me to my feet.

He carried me back to his bedroom, gave me a long T-shirt to sleep in along with my own pair of slippers, then we set his bedroom back to rights.

The room whispered of wealth without shouting it, of power held in careful reserve, and of a man who valued both aesthetics and order. I replaced the oil painting on the wall and straightened a stark black-and-white photograph of ancient ruins.

Ezra was in his custom closet with its cedar interior and smoky glass door, rehanging clothes.

I pushed the antique mahogany bedside tables back against the wall.

Luckily the crystal carafe was empty, and neither it nor the sleep lamp had broken when they hit the plush carpet.

I nodded in approval at the hardcover mystery book that had been on the bestseller lists last year. It was a good read.

“Almost done,” Ezra said.

Minutes later, I was back in his arms. “Well, that was exciting,” I said. “Let’s have less natural disasters next time.”

“Agreed.” He kissed me. When he pulled away, his eyes were mercurial. “I want to bite you.”

“Saucy.” I turned my head to give him access.

“Not your neck.” He tapped his bare chest above his heart. “A more permanent mark. A blood bond.” He blurted his words, his blush adorable.

Except…

I sat up and crossed my arms. “You flinched when I mentioned it, remember? Before we first thralled?”

He sat up as well and clasped my hands in his. “They’re more precious than a wedding vow. Even if it had worked, it would have been a healing treatment with me unconscious, instead of letting me cherish the moment for the rest of my immortal life.”

I met his eyes, my heart beating against my ribs at the seriousness of his voice. “Have you ever wanted to bond with anyone else?”

“Never.”

“But you thought about it with me? Before now?”