And he needed reassurance right now.
“Terrible,” he grumbled and twisted his hands again, the need to wrap his arms around her utterly wrecking him.
It was all he could think about. He wanted to hold her to him and never let her go, because he wanted her to cuddle into him and show him again and again that she wasn’t going anywhere.
He hadn’t ruined everything.
“I am sorry.” He searched her eyes, seeking any trace of fear in them, any sign that he had hurt her and she harboured resentment, her feelings for him diminished by what he had done.
“I know.” She placed her palm over his heart again and stared at her hand. “Do you hurt?”
He shook his head, feeling like a bastard who didn’t deserve this caring, wonderful female before him. He had been the one to harm her, to scare her, to attempt to do something terrible to her, but she was asking if he was hurt. He should have asked her that first.
Hell, she shouldn’t have asked him that at all.
He didn’t deserve this tenderness.
“Are you… did I… hurt you?” He tried to see her throat, but her hair obscured it and fear gripped him again, squeezing his heart in icy talons as he imagined the worst.
He could remember how tightly he had held her, how he had pinned her by her delicate neck.
A neck he had wanted to sink his fangs into and mark.
She shook her head and gently brushed her hair back to reveal her throat.
It was unmarked.
Relief rushed through him, so powerful that the strength he had clawed back together shattered again and tears threatened to line his lashes, burned in the backs of his eyes as he stared at her.
“I am truly sorry, Suki,” he grated, throat tight and voice hoarse as emotions bombarded him, an overwhelming tangle of relief, fear, doubt and regret.
“You said that already.” She moved onto her knees and grimaced as she looked at his left wrist. “I’m sorry too. I think I tied them a little too tight.”
He didn’t care. Her safety was more important than his comfort. He was glad she had tied him down and had done it tightly, protecting herself from him in case he was still filled with an urge to bite her when he came around.
She shuffled to his hand and untied his wrist, and surprised him by taking hold of it and bringing it up to her lips. His chest warmed as she gently kissed the deep indentations on his wrist and smoothed her thumb over them.
“They will heal.” He could heal anything except the pain that would have destroyed him if he had hurt her.
She placed the rope down beside him and he frowned at it.
“Um. I owe you new sheets.” She smiled sheepishly.
He added resourceful to her list of talents, one he was glad she possessed as she moved to his left ankle and untied it. He bit back a groan as she clambered over his legs and untied his other ankle, and then crawled up the bed towards his right arm, looking seductively sinful.
“Perhaps you should leave that one.” He wanted to be free, but he didn’t trust himself around her, not when she looked so tempting and his body was responding to her, was growing harder by the second.
She shook her head. “Nah. Now you have your strength back, I can just take you down again if you get a little too frisky.”
She untied his right wrist and tossed the rope onto the pile to his left.
The light left her delicate features, her fine eyebrows meeting hard as she kneeled beside him and gazed down at him.
“What happened?”
He wasn’t sure how to answer that question. He needed to explain so much to her, but he feared the outcome. He worried that she would bolt if he told her that she was his fated one and that was the reason he needed to bite her. He needed to be sure she was in love with him before he told her that she was his mate and that he didn’t just work for the Second Realm, he ruled it.
“A demon thing?” she said, sending another wave of relief crashing over him.
He seized on that as the reason, nodding vigorously in response.
Her eyes narrowed and he expected her to say something as suspicion formed in them, but then she shrugged and twisted away from him.
A groan tore from him as she crawled away from him, her plaid skirt swaying and in danger of flashing heaven at him.
“Where are you going?” he croaked.
The little look she tossed over her shoulder at him said she was doing it on purpose. “I’m a little peckish. I gave you energy back to heal you and now I need a little taste of you.”
“This is not a wise idea, Suki. Not right now.” He still wasn’t fully in control. It only took a look at her thighs to have him wanting to seat himself between them.
She stopped near his knees and pulled the furs draped over his lower half down, the brush of them over his sensitive cock sheer agony as he tried to keep his focus on stopping her.
“Don’t worry.” Her eyes devoured every inch of him that she revealed, growing brighter in that way that entranced him. “I gave you back enough energy to handle this.”
“That is not what I meant.”
She smiled again. “I know. But I don’t want to stop. I want a taste.”
She leaned over and licked up the length of his cock, ripping a groan from him as his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed against the pillow again.
He muttered, “Maybe you should tie me back up.”
She giggled, and gods, the sound bewitched him. Stole his heart completely.
“And spoil the fun?” She stroked her tongue over him again. “I liked what we were doing last night… before you got a bit too fangy.”
He sensed it as the light drained from her and looked down at her, meeting her deadly serious gaze.
“Keep your fangs in check or you’re taking another nap.”
He nodded stiffly, even though he wasn’t sure he would be able to manage it.
He would try his hardest for her though, would cling to the thought that one day he would explain the reason he needed to bite her and that she would accept it from him that day. She would wear his mark.
“Would sex help curb your growly need to mark me?”
That question yanked him back to her where she sat beside him.
She feathered her fingers down the valley between his stomach muscles. “I was just thinking. This is a territory thing isn’t it? I’ve seen men behaving in a similar way and you did want to kill every guy who looked at me in the fae town… because you haven’t had me yet. I’m, um… it’s like I’m not… yours.”
A pretty blush stained her cheeks and she averted her gaze, following her fingers with it as she traced his muscles.
“Let’s just pretend I didn’t say that.”
No. No way was he going to pretend she hadn’t just said that and not only because it had revealed she already knew where his behaviour stemmed from and therefore there was a chance she would easily accept that she was his mate when he told her.
He wasn’t going to pretend he hadn’t heard her because she had just proposed being his.
And the look that had been in her eyes coupled with how awkward she felt now said that she wanted to be his.
He shot his right hand down, snagged her wrist and pulled her to him. She fell onto his chest with a gasp that he swallowed in a kiss. The sweet spiced taste of her flooded him, drugging him in an instant, and he groaned as he clutched her to him and kissed her deeper, needing more from her.
Needing all of her.
She was swift to catch up, shifting so she was laying half on him, her hands skimming over his chest and shoulders as she wrenched control of the kiss from him. She moaned and he felt the drain on his energy as she fed on his pleasure, on the bliss she had given him with only a shy look and a handful of words.
“Gods, I need you,” she whispered against his lips between kisses and he groaned, dropped his hands to her backside and gripped it hard as he pressed her against him.
Her hip met his cock an
d he rocked against it as he claimed her lips, stealing back control from her. He drew her higher and dipped his hands lower, wedging his fingers between her thighs. She shivered and moaned as he pulled her thighs apart and stroked her, and he growled.
She was so wet.
“I was having naughty dreams.” That soft confession floored him at the same time as it ignited his blood.
She had been dreaming wicked things while sleeping with him.
He skimmed his hands up over her bare bottom and her hips, followed the curve of her waist to the small black top she wore. He hooked his fingers beneath it and pulled it up, groaned as her breasts brushed his chest, skin on skin for the first time. She broke the kiss for only as long as it took for her top to pass between them, panting against his lips as she grabbed it and threw it away from them.
Her fingers danced down his chest and stomach, tantalising swirls that cranked him tighter. She moaned when he flexed for her, kissed his chin and then the space between his collarbones, and down his chest. He relaxed into the bed, closing his eyes as his focus fixed on her, on every place she kissed or licked, branding his flesh.
She traced her tongue around his right nipple and then lightly bit his stomach, circled his navel with kisses, and drove him out of his mind by briefly taking the head of his shaft between her lips.
He growled when she pulled away, his eyes flicking open. The growl died as he stared at her, watching her fingers as she kneeled on the bed beside him and worked on the fastenings of her skirt.
She peeled it open and his mouth dried out as he got his first glimpse of her bare curves.
“Gods, Suki, you’re beautiful.”
Another blush stained her cheeks.
“Shut up.” She slapped his thigh, her admonishing look turning wicked as she glanced at her hand.
What was she up to?
He didn’t have to wait long to find out.
She skimmed her hand up his inner thigh, cupped his balls and pressed her fingers beneath them. His hips jacked up off the bed as a wave of pleasure rolled through him and he scowled as she grinned at him, one full of victory.
He grabbed her arm, pulled her up and twisted her beneath him, kissed her breathless as he pinned her, her warm soft body cushioning his and their legs tangled. When he drew back, her gaze was glassy, her lips crimson and cheeks flushed.
“Stop trying to make me climax by kissing me. It won’t work this time.”
He smiled down into her eyes. It would work, but it wasn’t what his female needed. He trailed his fingers down over her breast, gaze tracking them, the whole of his focus locked on her. He knew what she needed this time, and he needed it too.
She swallowed and trembled, arched into his touch as he swirled his finger around her nipple, the peak stiffening in response. He had bedded many females, but as he lay tangled with her, his right arm beneath her back as he explored her with his left hand, he couldn’t recall any of them.
Because none of them had been her.
The first female who had shared his bed and slept with him.
The first female who had known him as just him, not royalty.
The first female he loved.
The only female he would ever love.
She was it for him, no matter what decision she made when she discovered what she was to him. He would love her and only her forever.
“Make love to me,” she murmured, a tightness in her voice that revealed her nerves, fears that ran rampant in him too.
They would both be new to this too.
He lowered his head and kissed her softly, reverently, with all the tenderness and care that she deserved. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held him to her, her kiss as soft and light as his was, stirring warmth inside him.
He skimmed his left hand over her breast to her stomach and onwards, dipped it between her thighs and groaned in time with her as he cupped her, teasing her with his fingers. She rocked into his touch, her breaths coming faster as he felt the pleasure building inside her, could practically taste it in her kiss.
“More,” she breathed.
He stopped.
Her eyes flicked open, she scowled and cuffed him around his head, hitting his left horn. “You dare stop again.”
He grinned and kissed her, showing her that he had no intention of stopping. He just hadn’t been able to resist it since he had used that word for her safety one.
“I’m picking… a new… word,” she murmured between kisses. “Later.”
He kissed down her jaw and her throat, moaned as he tasted her skin and felt her pulse fluttering against his lips. The urge to bite her returned but he tamped it down, focused on the need he could feel inside her, one that drove him to satisfy it. She sighed and tilted her head back, arching her breasts against his chest as he kissed her and fondled her bundle of nerves.
When he sensed she was close, he couldn’t hold back any longer.
He grasped her hip and moved between her thighs, rubbed his aching shaft along her core and shuddered as the heat of her scalded him. She moaned and rocked to meet him, her face twisting as he ground against her.
She captured him around the back of his neck and drew him down, kissed him hard as she worked her body against him, threatening to have him spilling before he was even inside her.
He pulled back, breaking contact, and reached between them to grip his length. His nerves rose again but were quickly vanquished by the thought of filling her and fulfilling the need to claim her in the only way he could right now. She was right about him. He needed to mark her and make love with her, so he would know she was his. Hopefully then he would view unmated males as less of a threat and the urge to claim her would no longer be as strong, would be tempered by the fact she was his female now, giving him the strength and patience to wait for her to be ready before he claimed her properly and bound them as mates.
He eased his cock down, groaned as the head pressed into her folds, and then into her core, disappearing from view. She moaned and fisted the furs with one hand and clutched his horn with the other, her head tipping back further as he sank deeper, stretching and filling her.
Damn, she was tight and hot, seared him as he slid deeper. His breaths shortened, the urge to sink deep and fast into her riding him. He resisted it, savoured their first coupling and how well they fit as he eased into her.
“Oh gods,” she whispered on a sigh that tugged at him, had him lifting his gaze to see her face as he filled her.
Pleasure flitted across it, bliss that had pride stirring inside him.
Her grip on the furs and his horn tightened as he reached as deep as she could take him and slowly withdrew before rolling his hips forwards to fill her again. She dragged him down to her and kissed him gently as he rocked into her, her grip loosening again as she breathed in time with him, as her lips played against his.
She wrapped both arms around his neck again and held him to her as he kissed her, as he gave her long, slow thrusts that had him withdrawing almost all the way before driving back into her. Her moans mingled with his as he broke away from her lips, as he buried his face in her throat and held her to him, pressing one hand into her back beneath her and clutching her hip with the other, holding her in place as he lost himself in her and the pleasure building inside him with each deep thrust, each joining of their bodies.
“Suki,” he breathed against her throat, needs clashing inside him, pulling him in different directions as she began to move with him, restless beneath him, reaching for her climax.
The dark need to claim her rose again but he battled it, told himself this was more than enough for now. He was claiming her in a way. In a beautiful way. He wasn’t sure he had ever made love. No. He was sure. Nothing he had experienced had ever been like this. He felt as if more than their bodies were entwined.
He felt as if their souls were entwining too, twisting together to become one.
He kissed her throat and lifted her hip so he could slide deeper into he
r, taking more of her. She moaned and arched, clung to him as she wrapped her legs around his hips and pressed her heels into his bare backside. She spurred him on, in danger of unleashing his darker needs as she drove her feet into his buttocks whenever he withdrew, stealing control from him.
He growled against her throat and resisted her, curled his hips and kept things slow.
She didn’t relent.
She groaned and trembled, her skin on fire against him as she grabbed his horn and yanked his head up. Her lips claimed his, fierce demand in her kiss. He groaned and shuddered against her as she raked short nails down his shoulders and grew wild in his arms, the pleasure he could sense in her reaching a crescendo.
When she bit his lower lip, snagging it between her small fangs, the battle he waged with himself came to an abrupt end.
On a low snarl, he angled his head and fused their mouths, claiming control of the kiss as the needs he had been fighting to deny roared to the fore. He beat them back, focusing on his body as he thrust into her, joining them and claiming her in a small way, but he couldn’t stop himself from shifting his right hand to her nape.
He tangled his fingers in her hair and clutched her nape hard, gripping it in his short claws as he kissed her, as he plunged into her faster now, the pleasure spiralling towards climax inside him seizing control and driving him to find release.
The urge to bite her faded as he grasped her nape and mastered her mouth. He spread his legs, driving hers further apart, and pressed his knees into the furs, pumping her harder and deeper as he held her hips off the furs. She moaned and arched, gripped him tighter as he thrust into her, making her feel every inch of him and what she did to him, how fiercely he needed her.
He flexed his fingers around her nape, tried to convince himself to be more gentle with her but it was impossible as she kissed him, matching him in the way she had promised. She rocked her body against his, clawed his back hard enough that the scent of his own blood hit him, and pleaded him for more.
Seduced by a Demon King Page 27
