Circle, circle... He picked up speed.
Goose bumps spread, and she rocked herself against him. “Keep trying. I’m sure I’ll scream sooner or later.”
He nipped her bottom lip. “You want me to see your breasts. Show them to me.”
Yes... “I’ll do it because you believe you’ll die if I don’t.” Hands shaking, she unhooked the gown’s collar. The top fell, baring her breasts to his blistering gaze.
Air hissed between his teeth. “Exquisite.”
Had any man ever looked at her this way, as if he’d never beheld such beauty? “You want your mouth on me,” she rasped. “Do it.”
“Yes...because you need me to.” Appearing dazed, he lifted her, placing her piercing at the same level as his mouth. But he didn’t lick. He stared, hard, his entire being promising wild, wicked things.
Taliyah hovered at the razor’s edge of suspense? Would he? Wouldn’t he?
Would she stoop to asking?
“Roc,” she said, as much a command as a complaint.
“Yes.” At last, he stroked his tongue over the piercing.
She gasped, inundated by an avalanche of sensation. All the heat, all the wet, all the pleasure.
When he sucked the distended crest into his mouth, he wrenched a hoarse groan from her. Taliyah was too far gone to care. “Harder.” No mistaking the command this time.
Releasing a deliciously rumbly sound, he flipped her to her back, splaying her across the pillows and trapping her wings. He pinned her arms overhead with a single hand, positioning himself above her. A warrior without equal. So big he eclipsed the rest of the world, keeping her attention centered on him.
His breaths turned choppy, his gaze fierce. With lips wet and puffy from suction, he looked wonderfully lewd. He was...what...that scent. What was that? She whimpered. Had anything ever smelled so scrumptious?
If he smells this good, how good must he taste? Mmm. A sip. Just the tiniest sip... A soul-light glowed from his pores, growing brighter, leaving her dizzy.
“You snarl and you shout, harpy,” he said with a husky chuckle, “but the right touch makes you mewl like a little kitten.”
Both the statement and the chuckle dripped with wonder. Slowly she opened her legs to cradle his lower body against hers.
Upon contact, they both moaned. He was a furnace, his warmth a sublime drug.
She wanted to kiss him... She needed to feed... Desires warred. “Touch me, Roc.”
“Yes.” With his free hand, he traced the column of her neck, then her collarbone, leaving a trail of tingling heat.
“More.” She tilted her head, granting him better access.
“The things I plan to do to you...” He stroked between her breasts, so tender. Was this how he treated all his lovers? So...irresistibly?
A flare of jealousy surprised her.
He kneaded her bare breast, his skin like fire, branding her as surely as the iron. Taliyah reveled, the jealousy torched.
Rubbing her knees up his legs, she croaked, “Tell me everything you want to do to me...and maybe I’ll let you.”
“I’ll start with—” He frowned, his gaze glued to the area he’d just touched. His head tilted. His eyes widened. Rearing onto his haunches, he lifted his hand into the light, then did the same to the other. His gaze returned to her, sweeping over every spot he’d caressed.
Her pulse leaped with confusion. And maybe, just maybe, a pinch of vulnerability. “Roc?”
Almost crazed, he jumped to his feet. “You... I... Do not leave this room, Taliyah. Do you understand? You will remain in here or you will regret it.”
“What happened?” Colder by the second—angrier by the second—she eased upright. Fix her gown? Hardly. Let him look at what he wouldn’t be seeing again. Had this been his plan all along? To get her worked up and leave her to suffer?
He shifted his gaze. “I’ll return in an hour. Two hours. Possibly tomorrow. You’d better be here.” With a final glance at his hands, he stomped from the bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
Stay here? Screw that! Taliyah jumped to her feet and stormed into the bedroom she’d claimed as her own, where she donned a tank top and shorts. Forget waiting until he fell asleep to visit the Realm of the Forgotten. Something had happened to him, between them, and she needed to know what. Then she would feed.
Nothing—not even a shockingly sensual Astra—would stop her.
15
A jumble of emotions, Roc headed for...somewhere at a clipped pace, his stomping steps seeming to shake the entire palace. He needed to burn off excess energy and fast.
Taliyah was... She... He hadn’t wanted to believe it when he’d been in the room with her, and he hated to believe it now. But he could not deny the evidence staining his hands.
He flinched as he brought his palms into the light. A glittery powder coated his skin. Stardust.
Chaos hadn’t sought to teach him a lesson: the god tried to warn him. Taliyah was his gravita. The woman who challenged him at every turn belonged to him, body and soul. No wonder she’d drawn him so strongly, so quickly.
Where was he supposed to go from here? How was he supposed to treat her? Ignore her? Enjoy her while he could? Attempt to build an immunity to her charms? Was resisting her appeal an impossibility now that he’d tongued those pretty pink nipples, sucked that piercing and heard her soft cries of pleasure?
He remembered the advice he’d once offered Solar, when his Commander had faced this very situation. Starve your body, feed your duty. The desire will go away.
A snarling laugh left Roc. He doubted lust this all-consuming ever faded.
As he stormed down a winding staircase, he rubbed the spot above his heart. The awful, horrific things he’d done to acquire the missing alevala teased the edge of his mind. Actions he’d taken against Solar and his siren gravita.
Taliyah must be payback.
Roc didn’t understand how he’d found her. Why now? Why her? What had broken past his defenses and summoned the stardust to his palms? The sight of her in that slinky black dress? Finally getting his hands on her curves? Conversing with her as equals, enjoying her wit and flavor? The nipple ring? Those wings? Was it the way she melted for him while challenging him?
Whatever the reason, something had changed for him. The second he’d flipped her onto those pillows and run his hands over silken skin fevered by his touch, he’d simmered with heat like never before. To cool down, he’d needed to overcome more of her chill. To touch more—all—of her. But everywhere his fingers had traveled, a sheen of something glittery remained behind.