Page 35 of The Midnight Arrow

“Fuuuck,” came his muttered curse, though it was muffled against me. He groaned, no doubt feeling me clamp down on him, his pace quickening, hips jerking against me in a chaotic rhythm.

Through the ringing in my ears, I heard his almost anguished moan, low and deep. When I opened my heavy eyelids, I saw his head was flung back, his long hair tangling in his horns. With his eyes screwed shut, I witnessed the beautiful pleasure cross his features just as I felt the heat of his come shoot into me, the ragged buck of his hips as he chased his orgasm down.

A veil appeared to shimmer over his face. For a moment, Lorik’s features appeared sharper yet somehow broader. His body seemed to grow around me, but my hands remained in place. When I blinked, whatever image I’d witnessed was gone. Lorik’s eyes caught mine, and he leaned down to kiss me.

The orgasms have addled my brain,I thought, dismissing what I’d seen. I closed my eyes, pressing myself into him, and he shuddered, his hips lazily rocking into me as his own climax faded.

In the aftermath, it was quiet. Lorik leaned into me, the heavy bulk of his body comforting. I had my arms wrapped around his neck, clinging to him as the sweat on our skin cooled and our hearts slowed. My fingers met the edge of the bandage on the back of his shoulder, where the metal arrow had pierced through.

He let out a long breath that ruffled my hair.

Into my ear, he murmured, “No going back now, Marion.”

Fifteen

The fire in the hearth crackled, and I felt Lorik’s hand dip from my hip bone, slowly trailing around my backside, giving a light squeeze.

“Stop,” I chided, unable to keep the wide grin that stretched over my features at bay, negating my stern word.

For his sake, Lorik looked repentant, even as he gave my ass another squeeze. “I’m sorry, healer. Forgive me.”

I chuckled, feeling a dull ache between my legs when I moved behind him. He was seated on the chair in the front room. And I was fixing his sutures. Yet again. From the feeding, from my blood, he’d already begun to heal, but I didn’t want the thread to get trapped under his skin. Even for a Kylorr, he healed remarkably fast. Though I wondered if that had more to do with his Allavari ancestry as well. Likely a combination of both, I finally decided.

“Not too bad,” I commented as I finished the last stitch. “The skin is a little ravaged,” I admitted. “But it’ll heal quickly. I put more salve on it. Try not to jostle it too much.”

“Tell that to my new lover—she’s demanding,” came his reply, and my face heated at the word.Lover. He tsked. “After tonight, you’re still shy?”

I squeaked when Lorik tugged me into his lap—his still-naked lap, and I felt the side of his half-hard cock brush my arm. His kiss came suddenly, and I stilled, breathing into it, tingles shooting into my scalp. A kiss so sweet it made my teeth ache.

“And you say I’m the demanding one,” I teased gently, pulling back. “I still have a needle in my hand,” I warned.

“What’s the old Allavari saying? A needle through eye if you’re not spry?”

I huffed out a breath and slapped at his hand when it began to wander. I grinned as I escaped his grip, smoothing my hair and my dress. Crossing to my cabinets, I used the time to get my heart under control. I dropped my tools into a soaking dish to sanitize and wrapped the remainder of the clean bandages neatly, tucking them into a lined drawer.

“I’m going to have to go into the market to get you more bandages at this rate,” I noted. For the bloodied ones, I tossed those into a basket to be burned with purple fire.

“I’ll go with you. We could go to Grimstone’s Tavern,” he said.

I sighed.

“Wouldn’t you like that?” he asked, leaning back in the chair, the tops of his wings twitching. I studied him like this, thinking it a shame that I didn’t have Aysia’s talent for art. Because I would’ve loved to capture this moment with paper and ink. To draw him just like this, frozen in time and in memory.

And Lorik would be a perfect subject. All sharp bones and maddeningly handsome features. He’d always made Rolara’s population of females swoon, even though none dared to approach him. He just had…an energy about him that warned others away.

Prey instinct,I thought. And most could sense that he was the predator. Or something like one. Dangerous. Hewas calculated while giving the impression that he was unpredictable.

“What are you thinking?” Lorik wondered, cocking his head to the side. “I can see the thoughts churning in that mind of yours.”

“Have you always had magic stronger than other Allavari?” I questioned, not wanting to tell him the entire truth.

“This again?” he rasped. “I told you before. I just know how to wield it more efficiently than most.”

“And who taught you that?”

He smiled. “Myself.”

“There was a moment in there,” I said, nodding my head to the door to my bedroom, “toward the end where it looked like you were someone else.”