Page 66 of Stars on Fire

Taking a sip of kahawa, she watched the man whose head was bent again over the canvas, mixing a dance of silver and gold hues onto its surface.

Her brow lifted as she recognised the scene. It was Alphetraz, the pair of binary stars. Somehow he’d captured them as intertwining, weaving together and with movement. She shook her head in amazement.

He then lifted a vial of swirling blue liquid from a holder on the table and squeezed a drop into the paint pots he was working from. The reaction emitted a bright light, and she gasped. ‘What was that?’

‘An infusion of my metanoids,’ he answered distractedly. ‘They give movement to my work.’

Surprised, Selene stepped back, watching with awe as he continued to paint the essence of the magnificent star outside with an elegance and finesse unlikely for a man of his bulk.

‘When did you start painting?’ she ventured.

Kainan quietly worked for a few long hushed minutes before replying. ‘I’ve always sketched, even as a child, especially when my orphanage handlers left me alone for hours. And later, when I was conscripted into the Eden Guards. I found drawing helped me make sense of my reality. So much of our deployment involved long patrols and longer waiting periods between missions. Painting became a cure-all for boredom, pain, and anger. After a battle or conflict, it became an outlet for my frustration, helping me work through them. I soon became very good at it. I even thought of leaving the Guards to pursue it full-time. But it was not meant to be. After we arrived on Eden II, I needed to feed myself and my brothers, the Riders. I also cared for some orphans and street kids on Eden II. So, painting fell by the wayside. It’s only after we’d established the Group, and I was on patrol once more across the stars and badlands, that I rediscovered my brushes.’

She dug deeper, infused with a longing to know this man to the utter centre of his core. ‘What does it do for you?’

‘It gives me clarity,khamila,’ Kainan said quietly. ‘It’s where I can capture nature’s fokkin’ great beauty while washing out any darkness within by pouring it onto a bare, clean, untouched canvas. Painting is where I give myself over to lucidity.’

He looked at her and gave her a rare smile, his sapphire gold gaze piercing her soul. Then his expression fell as he considered her closely.

‘Forgive me,khamila, this is taking longer than expected. You must be hungry.’

‘I’m fine,’ she said with a small smile. ‘You do your thing. I’m happy to watch.’

Kainan returned to his painting, his hands moving with poetic beauty across the canvas.

This man.

Strength.

Artistry.

Passion.

A lover who truly challenged and entranced her.

How much more could she handle?

After watching him paint for a few minutes longer, Selene could not tamp down the growing ache in her chest. Overwhelmed with emotion, the need to either embrace or escape him washed over her.

She must have made a sound because he looked up.

Their eyes clashed, and he shot her a seductive smirk.

She felt it to the core, clenching her thighs together.

His eyes immediately fell there.

Then he moved.

Throwing his brush to the table, he stalked toward her.

She barely had time to place her cup on the floor when he crashed his lips on hers.

Moments later, he was on a hot trajectory towards her molten centre. His lips dove between her own sensual ones, his tongue attacking her clit, his supple fingers dipping into her slippery folds.

Selene moaned intensely as she rode his face, pulling at the long strands of his hair.

She crested and broke with a cry muffled by the return of his searching, hungry mouth. His large palms widened her thighs and entered her, his thick cock burning its way to her centre.

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