Page 164 of Fallen Stars

She looked down at herself and saw that indeed she was, silver rippling off her skin. It danced towards the water in her lap, where it swirled and mixed with the iridescent waters.

When she looked back, Enzo was still staring at her, his gaze so intense that she could viscerally feel it.

“How did I get so lucky, hm?”

“I’m the lucky one,” she whispered back. “I thought love like yours existed only in the books I read. Yet here you are.”

He brought her face to his lips again and kissed each eyelid, so reverently that she could have wept. “Here I am,” he whispered. “Finally, back where I belong. Finally home.”

He brushed the sleeve of her dress softly, tugging it down so a shoulder was exposed. Elara shivered, the tantalising pace that he had set making her positively vibrate with want.

“Every inch, Elara. I’m going to worship every inch of you,” he reminded her before pressing his lips to her collarbone.

She let out a soft moan.

“Don’t,” he said onto her skin. “Or I will lose the barely reined control I have. And I want to make good on my promise.”

She bit her lip as Enzo did the same thing with her other sleeve, peppering kisses over her shoulder and collarbone.

Then with a twitch of his lips, he pushed her dress further down.

Her breasts were now exposed, the air playing over them and Enzo’s stare pebbling her nipples.

A rumble caught low in his throat then as his mouth skimmed down her chest before taking a nipple between his teeth.

Elara arched her back at the sensation, water splashing around them as she gasped. Enzo took her other breast in his hand, kneading it, his thumb brushing back and forth over her nipple as his tongue circled the other, Elara’s pants beginning to fill the night.

“Your skin tastes like the night,” he murmured, groaning as he sucked hard on her peaked breast, earning a curse from Elara. “Look at how beautiful you are,” he murmured, more to himself than her. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in as she allowed herself to savour the precious moment, the feel of his mouth on her, the honey that dripped from his words. Reverent. Adoring. Everything that she had admitted she desired, he had listened to. Listened to and given her.

She swore that she could hear his smile. “My light in the darkness,” he whispered, his mouth finding its way to her lips again. “My beacon calling me home.”

One of his sure hands splayed against her sternum as the other pushed her dress down to her hips, her navel now bare.

Enzo took his other hand, both now cinched around her waist as his tongue traced a line from between her breasts to her navel.

Fire coated every inch of her in his wake, and it was then that Elara realised just how cold her world had been without him, how much she had needed his flames.

Enzo must have read the desperation in her eyes because with the next push of his hands, Elara’s dress was off her, floating upon the waves. Enzo grasped it with one hand, the other pushing himself up onto the small ledge with Elara.

With one strong arm he turned them so he was underneath her, and she gasped as she straddled him, feeling his length pushing against her, not a stich of clothing between them.

“You know,” he drawled, kneading her hips. “I’ve been thinking about how far away you are from your throne with all this travelling. How a queen should never be without one.”

He gave a wicked smile as he pulled her towards him.

“I’ve made you a new one for the time being,” he said before lying back in the shallow running water. He gestured to his face. “Sit.”

“You have got to be joking,” she breathed.

“Do I look like I am? I want to taste your climax at least twice before I take you. Like I said, princess, I’m dragging out every second of this.”

Elara’s breathing quickened as she pulled herself further up Enzo. His large hands gripped either side of her waist.

“Mmm,” he rumbled. “Gods I love your hips.” He sunk his fingers into them, pulling her down over him.

He looked up at her, pinning her with his stare as she hovered centimetres from his mouth. His grin was rakish. “Let me show you how loyal I am to the crown, my queen.”

He pulled her down onto him, and she gasped at the new sensation, as his tongue lapped against her. She moved, and then moaned again as the friction against his face reverberated through her.