All the Sacrifice of Shadows (Starstorm #2)

Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“ A ring?”

Creslyn glanced down at the stone that sparked as though it had been heated with dragon fire. She blinked through the rain dampening her lashes and dragged her gaze back up to Drake. His mouth was set, the hard, chiseled lines crafted from stone. “You bought me a ring?”

“Ariesian mentioned you were without one.” He reached between them, easing her dagger away from his groin. “I thought I ought to remedy that.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” It was smooth yet sharp. The band was silver and twisted around the gem, grasping it like a claw. Drake rolled it between his fingers and the stone glittered, the rainbow fire glinting to life only in the reflection of shadows. “Where did you get it? Surely there’s nothing like this in Aeramere.”

“There is…if one knows where to look.” He pulled the dagger from her hand, then lifted it to his mouth, clenching the blade between his teeth.

The dark green of his eyes, ringed with fiery gold, held her, tempting and forbidding all at once, while he slid the ring onto her left finger.

Creslyn raised her hand, admiring the stone, the subtle promise of a thousand lives. Her brow arched as Drake seized her leg, his calloused palm raking along her flesh as he leisurely slid the dagger back into the sheath strapped around her thigh.

Rain continued to fall, soaking them, chilling her. She drank in the way his wet shirt stuck to his powerful frame, the way it seemed to accentuate his broad shoulders and solid abdomen. She liked how the veins running down his forearms seemed to bulge against the strain of hardened muscle, especially when he grabbed her. The small beads of water clinging to his skin only served to ignite the embers of longing inside her, pulsing between her legs.

Suddenly, she was no longer cold.

She reached for the dark, silky strands of hair that had yet again fallen into his face and twined them around her fingers. “Do not think for one moment that I will so easily forgive you, just because you’ve gifted me something pretty.”

“Should I offer you something else then?” he asked, rocking his hips forward, rubbing his stiff length against her center. “Something more fulfilling?”

Creslyn tangled her hands in his hair, urging him down to meet her. His mouth was a breath from her own, and she whispered, “Yes.”

His kiss was punishing, a violent clash of lips and tongues. Her magic roared to the surface, a spiral of sunbeams and broken rainbows, desperate to be devoured by the dark. Power thrummed between them, and the bond tying them together fused into an intricately woven pattern of slinking shadows and swirling prisms of color. He tasted of her deepest desires, of forbidden pleasures obscured by a moonless night. She vibrated against his touch, the feel of him evoking images of his hand fisted in her hair while he drove into her from behind, as he cupped her breasts, her hips, forcing her to watch her own reflection while he ruined her.

Not images, she realized.

Thoughts.

His thoughts .

The bond flamed hotter.

Creslyn tore at his shirt, aching to touch him, the ripping of fabric drowned out by the crack of thunder overhead. Stars above, he was beautiful. Not mortal, not fae, but something else altogether. Something dangerous and seductive, monstrous and powerful. She splayed her hands against his damp skin, roving over his shoulders, tracing his scars. Scraping her nails down his tanned chest, she left red scratches in her wake, marking him.

“There’s my wicked little faerie,” he murmured, unfastening his pants.

His cock sprang free, thick and full, and wrapped in sinewy shadows.

Her mouth went dry at the sight of him. Wetness pooled between her legs as Drake hiked up her sopping skirts, shoving them out of the way. He hoisted her legs around his waist, positioning himself so the tip of his shaft was nestled against her core. She squirmed, needing him to fill her. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she leaned in close, inhaled the intoxicating scent of wintry pine and frozen mountains, then she lowered her head and bit his shoulder.

Hard.

Until his blood coated her tongue.

It was like an aphrodisiac. Lush and velvety. Like drinking wine from the gods.

Damning.

“What the fuck did I say, Cres?” Drake growled in her ear, his voice tainted with untempered violence.

A shudder of delight trekked down her spine. She arched her hips, pressing herself against his erection, laving her tongue over the mark she’d left behind on his shoulder. “I do not recall exactly.”

His chest rumbled and that was all the warning she had before he surged forward, burying himself deep inside of her. He pushed into her, stretching her, and the shadows lining his shaft throbbed in time to her heartbeat, prying her open to accommodate his size. She cried out, her yelp of pleasure turning into a broken whimper when he dipped his head forward and sank his teeth into the top of her breast.

Creslyn laced her fingers around the back of his neck, holding him against her, as the searing pain of his bite sent a fresh bloom of heat straight to her core. Drake’s fingers squeezed into the soft flesh of her backside, pinning her against the stone. He swirled his tongue over the bite, licking her, tasting her, and when he finally eased back to meet her gaze, his eyes were wild with unfathomable lust.

“You.” The word was gravelly, grating. His expression was cruel, a tempest of volatile emotions. “You are my destruction. My salvation. My eternal damnation.”

He pulled slightly out of her wet heat, then pumped himself back inside. Her head fell against the stone wall and raindrops trickled between the valley of her breasts, sizzling against the heat from her skin.

Drake claimed her then, shoving himself inside of her with a fierce and endless fervor. Her legs trembled and she held on, clutching him as each thrust sent him deeper than before, as the shadows slid along her inner walls, curling, guiding him toward the most intimate part of her.

“Take it.” His warm breath tickled her cheek and ear. “All of it. All of me.”

Darkness swirled around them as he pumped into her, luring her closer to the perilous tip of oblivion. She clenched around him, and he groaned, a guttural sound that caused her nipples to pebble and her stomach to tighten.

But there was something else…a distant chorus of voices.

Male voices.

Creslyn’s gaze darted around the courtyard, and she spotted them through the misting wall of shadows. Three unfortunately very familiar figures.

“Drake,” she gasped, as he lifted her higher, adjusting their angle so he sank further into her. Sweet stars, her eyes rolled to the storm-laden heavens. He was too much. Too thick. She wasn’t certain she could take anymore.

But those voices drew nearer.

She struggled to get the words out, her body overcome with tantalizing pleasure. “Someone’s coming.”

“The only one coming is you.”

She shook her head. “But it’s?—”

“Don’t you dare say their names,” he warned, beads of water and sweat lining his brow. “Not while I’m inside you.”

Creslyn moaned then, as something cool crawled across her skin and teased the aching bundle of nerves between her thighs.

“Careful, kearsta.” Drake’s pace increased. “They’ll hear you.”

Frantic, her gaze shot to the entrance of the courtyard where Ariesian, Solarius, and Asher were about to stroll around the corner and discover them.

“Drake,” she pleaded.

He clamped one hand over her mouth, and then his rumbling voice filled her mind, his accent thick and heady.

“Come for me and I’ll keep my shadows in place. They will not see us, they will not hear us. ” He bent closer so his gaze stole into her soul. “Come all over my cock right now. If you don’t, I’ll make sure they see me fucking you against this wall.”

Creslyn panted against his palm, chest heaving. Drake shattered her as the swell of ecstasy slammed into her, breaking her, blinding her. She crested, collapsing against him. A snarl tore from him on a final thrust as he emptied himself inside of her, filling her. He gathered her against him, keeping himself firmly inside of her, as he stroked one finger along the column of her throat.

“Still angry?” he mused.

“Furious.” She mumbled the word into his chest.

He laughed, a low, throaty chuckle, then stole her into the shadows.

A moment later, they were in her bedroom, and she was flat on her back in her bed. Drake’s hand moved beneath the hem of her dress, coasting up her leg, until he retrieved the dagger strapped to her thigh. He removed it carefully, then set to work, slicing through the wet satin of her gown, peeling the shreds of fabric away from her skin.

“That’s the second gown of mine you’ve ruined.” Creslyn feigned disappointment, pouting and crossing her arms.

“I’ll buy you more.” Drake dropped the remnants of her dress onto the floor, then stood. He grabbed the buckle of his already loosened belt, yanking it off with one hand. His pants fell, and he kicked them to the side. “And then I’ll ruin each one.”

Her gaze snagged on the mirror behind him, on the tattoos of a dragon and a pile of skulls painted onto his tanned skin. She skimmed his torso next, littered with scars, then traveled over the length of his rippled abdomen and sneaked a peek further, only to find him hard again.

Creslyn’s eyes widened, and she propped herself up on her elbows. “Drake?”

“Yes, sjellhert ,” he crooned, stepping closer to the bed, that leather belt still in his grip.

“But we just, I mean…that is to say, I…and you?—”

This time, his laughter was like velvet, and the smile almost reached his eyes.

“I recall you mentioning you are still angry with me.” Drake crawled over top of her, trailing the belt up her body, the clinking of the buckle echoing softly in her ears as he planted a hand on either side of her head. Hovering above her, he kissed her chin. Her cheek. “I believe it is my duty as your husband to ensure you’re thoroughly pleased.”

Then he leaned back, and the look in his eyes told her he had no intention of leaving her anytime soon.

“Legs apart, kearsta ,” Drake ordered smoothly. “And eyes on me.”

Creslyn obeyed.