Page 156 of Scourged

So, he lowered his knee back to the floor. Dropped his hands to the cool marble.

And crawled, one agonizing movement at a time.

Her eyes blazed brighter, and her skin sparked and glowed with each step he took. His hands hit the rug beneath her bed, warm and soft, his knees following.

He didn’t stop until a bare foot on his shoulder halted him in his tracks. He raised an eyebrow, the place where their skin touched too hot and burning.

She smiled down at him, a dark queen illuminated by glowing power. “Who would’ve thought you could be such a good boy following my orders like that?”

A growl started in his chest. He sat back on his heels, snatching her foot before she could wrench it away.

“Yes, I’ll follow your orders.” He tugged on her ankle, the sound of her soft gasp as she slid across the bed shooting straight to his cock. “But only until you get in my way. Once that happens …” Andrian slid his hand up, wrapping it around her calf. He shuffled closer, hand gliding up the curve of her leg. He brushed his nose along her thigh, exhaling as he moved to the gap of bare skin between her leggings and her simple sweater.

His hand slid behind her back, thumb grazing her skin, just as his breath whispered across her stomach. Gods, her skin. Everywhere they touched, it was like lightning crackling. Raw energy and power, lust and love and heat and magic.

When she jumped at his breath, biting her lip, he smiled.

Sliding his other arm around her body, he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of her leggings. His body shook, but he at least held his hands steady. He glanced up, her gaze locked on him, raw desperation and need written across her ethereal face.

But he still needed to hear it. From her.

“Do you trust me?” His words were whispered, but she heard them. He suspected with the way their bond was singing a wild song, the raw magnitude of the moment thrumming between them, he could’ve simply thought the words and she would’ve heard.

She hesitated for a moment—just one, pausing moment—before that familiar strength, that beautiful power, retook control, and she nodded.

He nodded in return, his breaths still panting against her skin. Digging his fingers into her flesh, into the material of her leggings, he gave her a single, simple command.

“Raise your hips,nio.”

Chapter 54

Mariah couldn’t have resisted his command even if she’d tried.

She did as he asked and raised her hips. Andrian slid her leggings and underwear off in one smooth movement, discarding them behind him on the floor.

He still hadn’t broken his stare from hers. Not even as he picked up her foot and placed a painfully gentle kiss on the inside of her calf.

And then her thigh.

His breath was hot as he skimmed his lips across her skin. Her core tightened; her entire body too sensitive. Their bond sang between them, freed from the restraints she’d wrapped so tightly around it—ever since it’d been formed out of necessity and desperation. He pressed in closer, rising to his knees, hand moving up her back and beneath her sweater.

She waited for the fear to come.

But as she stared into his tanzanite eyes, it never did.

He paused when his gaze was level with hers, his heat wrapping around her. She was bare from the waist down, and frustration bolted through her, hot and wild, at the fact that he was still so clothed.

He must’ve read that frustration because his smile faltered, his eyes dimming. His burning heat was replaced with something far more serious, far more urgent.

“Are you okay?”

Gods. Of course, after everything, he misread her exasperation as something darker. Her heart squeezed. Tears—more tears—pushed behind her eyes.

She leaned forward, wrapping her legs around him. She stroked her fingers across his brow before burying them in his hair. Her body trembled, months and months of buried feelings and pain and need coursing through her, fueled only by their neglected and ravenous bond. In her soul, in that place where her magic dwelled, that bond sang as if each touch of his skin made it brighter.

It was as if all the feelings of the bonding, feelings she’d suppressed in the aftermath of her capture, were rushing back. Stronger than they’d been with any of the others, more vibrant, more alive. Somethingmorethan an Armature, something fated beyond the power of the gods.

“Yes, Andrian,” she whispered. Again, she rested her forehead against his. “I’m okay.” She inhaled once, energy thrumming across her skin. “But if you don’t fuck me right now, I might kill you.”