“Big claims, big man,” I taunted, my gaze trailing over his broad frame, drinking in the strong lines of his tattoos which peaked out from his collar and the firm cut of his muscles that pressed against his clothes. “You’d better make good on that promise.”
Darius smiled darkly and I bit my bottom lip as we just looked at each other, bathing in the fact that we were alone and the stars weren’t going to do a damn thing to stop us from being together. I wouldn’t need to fight them with my magic or give any of my attention to anything other than him and I intended to brand his flesh with my touch just as surely as he had promised to do to me.
“Take it off,” I commanded, narrowing my eyes at the remnants of the suit he was still wearing. “I don’t wanna look at you wearing some outfit you were destined to marry another woman in.”
His eyes flashed hungrily and I watched as he slowly began to unbutton his shirt, revealing his tattooed skin to me inch by inch.
I watched him with my heart in my throat, running my tongue over my bottom lip as he peeled his shirt open and shrugged it off of his broad shoulders, so I was left looking at the ink that decorated his skin as my whole body clenched with need.
I gave up on trying to be patient and leaned forward to grasp his belt, slipping the leather from the buckle and running my fingers over the tattoo that marked him as mine where it curled across his hip.
“Even if it had been a real wedding, you know that I will only ever belong to you, right?” Darius asked, watching me as I unbuttoned his fly and I paused as I pushed his trousers down to fall at his feet.
Some mocking jibe was on the tip of my tongue, some deflection or joke, anything at all to detract from the seriousness of his words which were so hard for me to accept, but as I looked up into his dark eyes, I found I couldn’t speak the words.
Instead, I reached out slowly, laying my hand on the hard ridges of his abs and running it up his powerful body until it laid over his heart.
“Mine,” I said roughly, possessively, meaning it with every ounce of my being.
Darius’s lips curled up at the corners, a predatory light seeming to blossom in his eyes as he leaned down to kiss me, the heat of his mouth and force of that kiss stealing the breath from my lungs.
He kissed me like the world was ending and I was the only solid piece of it left in existence. The movements of his lips against mine were a desperate, primal claiming which demanded I be his now and forever, and I willingly gave in to that demand.
Darius’s fingers hooked in the edge of my waistband and I moaned into his mouth as I lifted my ass to let him tug the baggy old sweats down. I was half mortified to be reunited with him looking my absolute worst, but Darius didn’t seem to even notice the masculine clothes, lack of makeup and general state of me. He was kissing me like I was the most beautiful creation on the planet, and I was nothing but a slave to his desire as he swept me up in it.
The sweatpants gave little resistance as he tugged them off and Darius groaned as he found me naked beneath them, running his hands around the curve of my ass as his thumbs circled over my hip bones.
But as his hand slid lower and the rough skin of the burn scar Lionel had left me with grazed against his thumb, he pulled back suddenly, his fingertips moving over the damaged flesh as a deep growl escaped him.
“I’m going to rip him apart piece by piece,” he snarled ferociously, his fingers moving over the scar where my tattoo for him had been and the warm flood of healing magic fell from his palm to better mend the damage. “He showed me a recording of what he did to you. I can’t stop replaying it in my head, over and over again, the endless sounds of your screams ringing in my skull, knowing he did that because of how much he knew I wanted you… I’ll fucking destroy him for this, but I can’t undo it and that kills me.”
I watched him as smoke poured from his lips and his eyes shifted to Dragon slits while his muscles trembled with rage. He was a dangerous creature, violent, strong, ferocious. His father’s son. A monster just like I’d always known he was from the very first moment I’d laid eyes on him. And if I was a smarter girl, maybe I should have been afraid. Maybe I should have taken the chance to run from him now that the Star Crossed bond wasn’t making me pine for him. But there wasn’t a single piece of me that wanted that anymore, and as Darius finished healing my skin and made a move to step away from me, I caught his wrist in my grasp and refused to let him leave.
“Roxy,” he warned, his voice a growl that made a shiver race down my spine and set my hair standing on end.