Flame and Starlight (The Esteria Series Book 1)

by Dana Isaly

  “Everyone is upside down.” He swung me back into his arms. “Well, this feels familiar,” I said, waiting for my head to stop spinning. “At least I haven’t been beat to shit this time.”

  He laughed and pushed us through the door into the snow. I let my head loll back, keeping a grip only my tiara, and tried to catch some flakes on my tongue.

  “You’re drunk.”

  I looked back to his face. “Thanks, Captain Obvious,” I slurred and laughed at my own joke. “Your face is so pretty,” I said, stroking a finger down his cheek. His jaw ticked, and his wings unfurled on either side of him. “So are they.” Before I could stop myself, I reached over his shoulder and ran my fingers across the slick feathers. They felt like the softest silk.

  “Alys,” he growled. But I ignored him and pushed my entire open palm against the flat underside of his wing. He shot into the air, and while my left hand gripped onto his neck, my right hand that had been touching his wing grabbed onto the hard spine of it instinctively. “Shit, Alys,” he groaned into my ear. I let go and held on to his neck with both hands, suddenly much more sober.

  “I’m sorry, I wasn’t ready!” He breathed heavily through his nose as the air whooshed around us. “What does it feel like?” I asked as my fingers drifted back to where they came out of his back. A very long minute passed in painful silence as my fingertips grazed their softness again.

  He groaned again and shifted me so that I was straddling his waist, my dress riding up to my thighs and his hands gripping me against him in dangerous places. If it weren’t for the layer of fabric under his hands, I knew he’d be able to feel how much I wanted him. My arms were around his neck, trying to keep me from falling, and I buried my face in his neck.

  “Some warning would be nice!” I hissed.

  “You asked what it felt like,” he whispered into my ear. The deep tenor of his voice had me shamelessly pulling myself closer to his body.

  “Yes,” I whispered back.

  “Kind of like this,” he said as he trailed light kisses from just below my ear all the way down my neck. He went painfully slow, his breath warm in between each kiss. When he reached my shoulder, he nudged my head to the side, and I relaxed, giving his mouth more access to my skin. My breath was coming short and fast now as my magick hummed through my veins, begging for a release. Was I imagining what was happening? Was the alcohol turning this into more than it actually was?

  “Mm, there’s that power again,” he said, and then with the tip of his tongue, he left a trail of flame back up to my jaw where he nipped me with a fang. “Am I the catalyst to that raw magick, Alys?” A whimper escaped my lips, and his throaty laughter that followed lit my blood on fire. I had to actively try to not move against him as my sensible side fought against my drunken side. He pulled his mouth away, and I opened my eyes to find his as we landed in front of our cabin.

  I wiggled, and with another groan, he let me slide down. I quickly pushed through the door and into the warm living room of our cabin as I saw him adjust himself out of the corner of my eye. I smirked and headed straight for the bar in the corner and poured us a couple of drinks. His shadows, even though we were across the room from each other, still reached out from him and clung to me. I had a feeling I was going to need that drink.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “What did Zemira have to say?” I asked as I turned around and offered him a glass. He stalked over to me, and I watched the thick column of his throat move as he downed the entire glass.

  “I don’t want to talk about Zemira right now,” he said, sitting the glass down on the bar behind me.

  “Oh?” I looked anywhere but his face as I tried to finish my glass as well, but my stomach wasn’t going to let that happen. He took the glass from my hand.

  “If you drink any more, you’re going to really regret it tomorrow.” If I had been in this situation with Tom, I would’ve jumped at the chance to take him to bed. But he had never looked at me the way Asher had been these past couple of days. I hadn’t ever felt this strong of a connection with Tom either. What I was feeling for Asher went much deeper than what I had felt with anyone else. It was like the magick and dark power that was inside me ever since I changed called to the darkness within him.

  “Where’d you go, Alys?” he asked as he gently took my face in his hands. I looked up at him and met his gaze.

  “Do you still see Theron when you look at me?” Liquid courage was the only reason I was able to get that out. He stroked my cheeks with his thumbs, and a sad smile crossed his beautiful mouth.

  “No, Alys. I never should have said that to you. His eyes hold darkness and evil. But yours,” he said with a sigh, “are shining citrine. They hold happiness and life, and I get lost in them every time I look at you.”

  The breath was knocked out of me at his words. My heart swelled, and I couldn’t stop the hope from blooming in my chest. My fingers curled into the bar behind me painfully.

  “Then why say it?”

  His hands tangled themselves in my hair. “I wanted to be the villain in your story. Part of me still wants to be the villain.” He took a breath. “I thought it would keep you safe, Alys, because everything I love gets taken away from me. And if he finds out you’re mine, he will increase his efforts tenfold, and I cannot stand the thought of losing you. I don’t want this life for you.” He lowered his head and pressed his forehead against mine. I reached up and held his hands in mine while they rested around my neck.

  “You’re not a villain,” I whispered. “You’re not my villain. You saved me, Asher. You gave me a world I never even dreamed of. I want this life for me.”

  He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, searching mine. “Alys, you were mine the moment I saw you lying broken on that bathroom floor,” he said in a low voice, and it sank right to my core. Our emotions mixed together, fogging my brain with heady desire. “I am the Night, and I would swallow this world whole before I let anyone take you from me.”

  His lips gently brushed against mine as he held my gaze. I sighed into him and let my eyes flutter closed. I opened my mouth to him. Our tongues brushed against each other, and he swallowed the moan that escaped my mouth. He tasted like whiskey and honey, and I couldn’t get enough. I kissed him like I was starved for him. He tugged lightly at my bottom lip and broke the kiss, panting. I stumbled forward at the sudden absence of him.

  “Don’t look at me like that, Alyssandra.” He leaned away from my face and started gathering the fabric of my dress in his hands, bunching it up at my thighs.

  “Like what?” I held on to the bar behind me to keep my knees from giving out.

  “Like you’re worried I’m going to stop.” He slowly lifted the fabric up. “Arms up, little duck.” He pulled the dress up and over my head, leaving me in the black slip I wore underneath, which barely came below my butt, and my heels. “I am putty in your hands, princess. I will never be able to stop unless you want me to.”

  “I don’t want you to,” I said when I found my words. I reached up with trembling hands and slid the jacket off his body, letting my hands run across every muscle in his arms. He threw it on the chair behind him as I started to work on the buttons down his shirt. It took me much longer with my nerves and the alcohol blurring my vision, but he was patient and just watched me, playing with my hair the entire time.

  When I was finally able to push that off him, I let my hands wander over the hard planes of his chest and down further over his stomach, taking my time to follow the design of his tattoos. In the firelight, the blues and silvers in his skin glowed warm, and I watched as it moved under my touch.

  I kicked my heels off, and he gripped me under my butt and picked me up. I wrapped my legs around his hips and my arms around his neck. My mouth found his with ease, and I was lost. Kissing him was like finding the other piece of myself that I didn’t know was missing. He pushed through the bedroom door and put me down. I reached up to take the tiara off, but he grabbed my wrist.

 
; “Leave it on,” his voice rumbled, and he backed me up against the wall. He knelt in front of me and ran his hands so slowly up my legs it felt like the sweetest torture. “I love these,” he said as he squeezed my thighs. His fingertips found the lacy edges of my thong and began to pull it off. I gasped at the nerves churning in my stomach. He had lived for hundreds of years, and here he was on his knees in front of me.

  “Hey,” he said, pausing. “Is this okay?”

  I smiled and ran my hands through his hair. “Yes,” I said through a small laugh. He pulled it down and helped me step out of it before he shoved the flimsy fabric in his back pocket.

  “These are mine now,” he said with a wicked grin before he leaned forward and threw one of my legs over his shoulder, placing kisses across my inner thigh, nibbling on the skin around the sheath holding the dagger. “You’re so beautiful.”

  My brain was on overdrive. The man that had been so cold and distant was nowhere to be seen when I looked down at him now. His normally icy eyes were filled with warmth and want. He smiled up at me, showing off his beautifully white teeth as he scratched his fangs down the sensitive part of my thigh. My breath hitched, and I leaned my head back against the wall, closing my eyes and pressing my hands flat against the wall. I had never felt anything like this. His mouth left me feeling scorched and needing. His shadows, in stark comparison, were cold and floated over my skin, clinging on like they couldn’t get enough.

  “Look at me, Alys,” he said, his voice deep and rough. I reluctantly opened my eyes and found his, not used to the intimacy he was asking for. “I want to see the pleasure on your face when I taste you for the first time.” My lips parted, and my breath was coming fast and uneven.

  He held my gaze as his mouth closed around me, sucking the little bundle of nerves into his mouth. My hands flew back to his hair, tangling in the soft stands there and tugging him closer to me. My world tilted, and the sweetest pleasure coursed through every inch of my body, making my limbs weak. His name escaped my lips in the faintest whisper, but it was all the encouragement he needed.

  He growled into me, and it vibrated through my body as he grabbed my other leg and threw it over his shoulder. He pushed me further into the wall and held me there on his shoulders, completely at his mercy. He devoured me like he was starved for the taste of me. The sight of his face between my thighs was almost enough to send me over the edge. And when his hand snaked underneath me and he pushed a finger into my wetness, curling it deliciously, I broke around him, splintering into a thousand pieces as I moaned his name.

  His movements were languid as I came down from the high. He let my legs slip gently from his shoulders, and I pressed my hands into his shoulders to keep myself upright. His hands found my thighs and gripped them again as he licked me off his lips.

  “You taste like the sweetest starlight,” he said breathlessly and began to lift my slip from my body while he stood up. He towered over me again, and I was naked in front of him other than my bra, and I silently thanked the Gods I had decided to wear a pretty one. There was an emptiness low in my core that begged for him, and I reached for his pants, trying to untie them and get them out of my way. I pushed them down and stared at him in all of his glory as he stepped out of them. His boxer briefs were black and hugged tightly against his very impressive hardness.

  My hand found it, and he leaned over me, both of his hands braced against the wall. His eyes closed, and his mouth was in a tight line, nostrils flaring slightly as he tried to breathe evenly. It sent a shock through me to see what I could do to him, how I could make him feel.

  He grabbed my mouth with his, and it was a clash of lips, teeth, and tongues. I could taste myself on him. His hand found my throat, and he pinned me against the wall with it, squeezing just enough to make me feel it. He took my hand off him and pushed his entire body flush with mine.

  “Tonight is about you, princess. Just let me feel you.” He sucked my lip into his mouth and bit until I tasted blood. I groaned into his moving hips and struggled to try and push his last bit of clothing from his hips. He reached behind me, and with a flick of his fingers, my bra fell from my chest. His knuckles grazed the hard peaks there, eliciting another whimper from my mouth.

  “Fuck, Alys,” he moaned into my mouth. “I love the way your body responds to me.” He finally relented and pushed his boxers down and stepped out of them. I stared shamelessly at him, following his tattoos down over his hips where they stopped at the top of his thighs. Asher let me take every inch of him in, and I licked my lips in anticipation. His patience ran out as he bent down and scooped me up.

  Once we got close to the bed, he threw me down onto it, and I bounced once before he was on top of me, his wings out now in all their dark glory, kissing every square inch of skin his lips could find. His kisses were frantic. He left a trail of heat from my swollen lips to my nipple where he sucked it into his mouth and teased it with his teeth before doing the exact same to the other. I pushed my hips up and into him, begging to feel him inside of me.

  “Asher,” I pleaded, gripping and pulling his hair tightly in between my fingers. He looked up at me, his lips wet and a grin spread across them. He grabbed himself and teased me, sliding up and down before slowly pushing in. I moaned and arched my back, digging my nails into his shoulders. My head pushed into the bed behind me, and he suddenly stopped and grabbed my jaw in a bruising grip.

  “Eyes on me, little duck,” he said and squeezed until I looked up at him. “Good girl.” In one sinful push, he was inside of me, stretching me and filling me up.

  He paused there, hovering his face over mine, making me be patient and feel every hard inch of him. I pushed my fingers through the feathers on his wings, and he buried his face in my neck before pulling out and slamming back into me with so much force I thought I’d see stars.

  I continued my assault on his wings, moving in and out and gripping their hard spines. With every thrust inside of me, he touched new places I didn’t know existed. Warmth pooled in my core as he hit every nerve ending in just the right spot. When the familiar tingling started deep in my belly, his wings disappeared, and he flipped us over, him sitting up on the side of the bed and my knees on either side of his thighs.

  “Bring your wings out for me.” His fingers dug into my hips, making me move in circles against him. I closed my eyes and brought them out, stretching them like tight muscles. “Take what you need from me, Alys.” And I did exactly that, taking the pleasure I wanted from him. I moved slowly on top of him, grinding him deeper inside of me. His hands found my wings and stroked them softly from top to bottom. Pleasure rocked through every part of my body, and I moved harder and faster against him.

  “Oh, my God,” I murmured as I found his eyes and held them as the pressure between my thighs built. My magick pulsed along with it, just under the surface, and just as I broke, shattering around him into a million little pieces, my magick flew out of me and shook the entire room. Our eyes never left each other’s, and just as I was coming down, he caught my lips in his and groaned into his release. He planted sweet kisses all over my face and then cradled me against his chest as I tried to catch my breath.

  After a few minutes, he kissed the top of my head and brought my face even with his. He pushed strands of hair off my cheeks, damp with sweat, and out of my face.

  “You are beautiful,” he said, kissing the pulse point below my ear. “Your power is beautiful.” He kissed along my jaw. “Your eyes glowed a brilliant warm glow, just like Nyxa’s. It was magnificent. My own personal Goddess.” He kissed my cheeks and finally claimed my mouth. Too tired and satiated to worry about the fact that my eyes had fucking glowed, I sighed into his mouth. He unlatched the dagger from my thigh and sat my tiara on the table next to the bed. His fingers gently unclasped the necklace and sat it next to the tiara.

  He stood up and carried me to the bathroom, still inside of me. I lay quietly against his shoulder, breathing in the scent of him and twirling my fingers through h
is shadows. My wings hung limp from my back, and it took everything in me to magick them away before we made it inside. He snapped his fingers, and the bath was full and steaming. He lowered us slowly down into the warm water and eased himself out of me. My muscles melted, and my eyes were so heavy I could barely keep them open.

  “Rest, princess,” he said as he began to wet my hair. “I’ll take care of you.” My eyes closed and darkness found me.

  Chapter Twenty

  I awoke to the sun shining in through the wall of windows, and surprisingly, my head wasn’t pounding. Asher’s and my limbs were tangled together, and my head was tucked into his chest. I breathed in the sweet smell of him and ran my hands up his back as I looked up at his sleeping face. His face was relaxed, lips slightly parted while he breathed evenly in sleep. The shadows encased us both and lay still against our skin. I reached up and pushed the stray strands of his midnight hair back out of his eyes.

  “I was thinking about teaching you how to fly today, but if you keep looking at me like that, we won’t leave this bed.”

  I smiled wide. “I thought no one could see my wings?” I asked between the kisses I planted along his jawline.

  “Zemira, after scolding me for not teaching you how to use them and your powers, told me I could take you into the mountains to teach you today.” He finally opened his eyes and lazily stroked my hair.

  “My eyes glowed last night.” It was a statement and a question, and my cheeks burned at the memory. I buried my face in my hands.

  “They did,” he said with a small laugh. He peeled my hands away from my face. “All magick, all power is different. You have parts of Nyxa in you. It’s really not a surprise that your power would mimic hers.” I watched him stretch and stand up out of the bed. His shadows lingered on my body, letting me see more of him in all his naked glory. “I’ll go get you some coffee, and when I get back, we’ll head out.”