“No?” His grin turned decidedly naughty.
“I might want you but I’m never going to act on it.”
“Why not?” He lowered his head and drew his lips down the soft skin of her throat.
“Because,” she whispered.
“Because why?” A hand glided over her hip, shifting her closer to him.
“I’m a hunter. I can’t want a demon. Not to mention a freaking prince.”
He looked up at her then, catching her gaze with his mocking eyes. “And yet here we are.”
She raised a hand to his face, tracing along the perfect skin. “I never had trouble following the rules,” she said. “There was no gray area when it came to your kind. I didn’t ever look at a demon and feel attraction. Why are you so different?”
Something flashed in his eyes but he only replied, “It doesn’t matter. I am different. Focus only on that.”
She shook her head. “You are blurring lines that shouldn’t be blurred.”
“Why not? What’s the worst that could happen?”
She could mistake this for more than mutual pleasure. She could start caring for him, and that slip could prove fatal. Though she was usually good with separating sex and love, nothing with Jaral would be simple. Getting involved with him emotionally was dangerous, especially if this was all part of his grand plan. How could a demon like him ever care for her in a way that was real? As much as she might secretly long for the possibility, she knew it was a foolish dream.
“We can’t,” she protested as his mouth lowered to hers.
“We can.” He kissed her before she could voice any more protests.
The instant his lips touched hers, the fire that always lay between them roared. She wrapped her arms around his neck, parting her lips to draw him in. He kissed her with raw passion but even swamped with lust Darcy felt the tenderness in his touch. Why did he have to be a demon? Why couldn’t he simply be hers?
“Jaral,” she breathed.
His mouth left her to trail down her throat. Darcy arched back, giving him better access. She felt his hands sliding over her hips to pull her closer.
“I should list all the reasons this is wrong,” she whispered against his lips.
“Go ahead. I’ll make it my job to distract you before you can utter more than a handful.” His hands moved higher, trailing up her sides until he reached the curve of her bra under her shirt.
Darcy bit her lips as he cupped her breasts. She’d never liked padded bras so there was very little separating his fingers from her skin. Still, when his hands caressed her she wished there was even less separating them. Surely she could lose the top without being pushed too far.
“Just let go,” he ordered, his mouth inches from hers. “I’ll be here to catch you.”
Before she could protest, his lips claimed hers. Darcy groaned as his tongue invaded her mouth. Nothing about his kiss was tentative. Instead he took control, dominating her with his touch. His mouth slanted over hers and logical thought trickled away. Her arms threaded around his shoulders to hold him close. She knew this was ten types of wrong but never in her life had anything felt so good. Heat spiraled through her, demanding she listen to her body’s needs. All she wanted to do was strip her demon and run her mouth over his golden skin. She wanted to taste him on her lips, see his eyes wild with pleasure, hear him roar his release. When he touched her, their loyalties and ties stopped mattering. All that existed was mutual soul-shattering pleasure.
How far was she going to let this go? she wondered, enjoying the sensations he inspired. His mouth left hers to trail down her throat. He tugged her neckline lower to run his lips over the sensitive skin even as his clever hands teased her breasts. She had to stop him before everything went too far. If she gave herself over to him, pretty soon she wouldn’t care about stopping.
Darcy threaded her fingers into his hair, pulling his head back up to hers.
“We’ll go too far,” she whispered against his mouth.
“Good.”
“No, I can’t—”
He kissed her quick to quiet her. “Hush,” he whispered. “I won’t take more than you are willing to give.”
She stared up at him. A demon would never put her pleasure above his own, yet Jaral seemed to be doing just that. Her body cried for her to take him at his word. Her mind whispered this could be one more trick. How did she figure out what to believe?
“Are you playing me?” she whispered before she could call the words back.
Jaral stilled. “What?”
The shock on his face looked real. Darcy fought the instinct to squirm under his incredulous gaze. “You have to admit, it’s the explanation that makes the most sense.”
“Does it?” he murmured.
“A demon like you and a girl like me,” she tried to joke. “Can you tell me the thought never crossed your mind?”
For a moment he looked inscrutable. “I wanted you the first night we met,” he told her. “I could have coerced any hunter in the city to help me with what I needed. Hell, I could have summoned an army of my own people if I wished.” He trailed a finger down her cheek in a gentle caress. “I pursued you, Darcy, because you drive me out of my mind with lust. This isn’t a game.” He lowered his lips to her ear. “I want you in my bed.”
Darcy shivered at his hot breath against her sensitive skin.
“Are you pretending how much you want me?” he asked her.
She shook her head.
“Then don’t doubt my desire for you.”
Her heart warmed at his words. Maybe she was foolish to believe him but looking up into his dark gaze she didn’t think he was lying. The kind of lust she felt from him couldn’t be faked. This once, she’d take a chance on the demon.
“Okay,” she breathed. “But no sex. We need to set some ground rules.”
“So many ways to interpret that restriction.”
“Intercourse,” she declared, feeling her cheeks heat. “I’m not sleeping with you.” That was a risk she couldn’t take. If she stepped off that cliff, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep her burgeoning feelings for him in check. Above all, she needed to stay clearheaded about this man.
“I like to play,” he replied. “And I’ll follow your rules. This time.”
“Promise?” She undulated under him, needing to feel their bodies touch. How could she expect him to play by her rules when she didn’t even follow them?
“I can put your needs first,” he replied. “Let me prove it.”
She nodded before she could think better of it. What was she doing? There were a million reasons to stop this right here, right now.
Suddenly she couldn’t think of one.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Fine. Just don’t leave me like this.”
“I’m here.” He pressed a hot kiss to her throat. “I’m not going anywhere. Ever.”
If only she could believe the promise. But that didn’t matter. Not right now.
His drew his mouth along her neckline, licking at the tender flesh. Darcy grabbed the T-shirt and pulled it over her head without hesitation. The material fluttered to the ground as her demon looked up at her with flames licking in his eyes. This once, she knew they weren’t born of anger.
Lying nearly naked beneath him she felt a moment’s hesitation. She wasn’t a woman who enjoyed being vulnerable, and right now that was exactly how she felt. Drawing in a deep breath, she looked up at her lover and froze. As he stared down at her, the lust in his eyes nearly burned her with its intensity. Under his gaze, there was no room for nerves. His desire made her strong.
His finger traced the outline of her bra, teasing her with the light touches.
“Please,” she begged as he pulled the lacy material from her body. She mourned the loss of the protection for all of a second before opening herself up to her lover.
“Jaral,” she tried, but he pinned her arms above her head and lowered his mouth to her breasts. When his hot tongue licked over a hardened
nipple she nearly cried out in ecstasy. He teased her with expert touches while she was helpless to respond. When teeth rasped gently over the sensitive tip she arched from the bed.
“Gods,” she whispered. “More, please.”
She felt his hot breath against her skin as he chuckled. “As you wish.”
His sucked a nipple into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue. Darcy writhed beneath him. Pleasure surged through her as she enjoyed her lover’s clever hands. She never wanted him to stop.
Except she wanted to touch him in return. She strained against his hold but there was no budging him.
“Let me go,” she begged. “I want to touch you too.”
Her hands were released instantly and she wasted no time exploring the man before her. Stripping his shirt from his body, she drew her fingers down his naked chest. He hissed in a breath as she lightly traced the contoured muscles, moving lower.
She pressed her mouth to his chest and he hissed at the contact. Darcy played with him, loving that she had the power to make him tense in pleasure. This strong warrior was invincible everywhere but here. Here she was just as strong as him, if not more so. Here she could dominate.
Her hand slid down to his jeans. She stroked his hard erection through the rough material and was rewarded with his shudder of pleasure.
“Off,” she whispered to him, moving to the clasp.
“No.” He caught her hand to stop her questing fingers. “You laid out the rules. Any more of that, darling, and there’s no way I’ll be able to walk away from this. I’ll have to be inside you.”
“Okay,” she agreed, reaching for him once more.
Jaral groaned in her ear. “You are making it damn hard to do the right thing.”
She grinned in reply. There were numerous reasons not to sleep with him but she wanted to ignore them all.
“Here’s how this will go,” he told her, unzipping her jeans. “I’m going to prove to you I can be trusted. And as a reward, you will let me taste you.”
“What?”
He stripped her jeans from her and made short work of her panties. She was naked beneath him in moments.
“Beautiful,” he told her, pressing an openmouthed kiss to her navel. His hot breath trailed over her stomach and she bit her lip to stop from begging for more.
Lower and lower he slid, until she felt his breath against her most sensitive skin.
“You don’t have to,” she said, trying to think straight with him between her legs.
“I’m right where I want to be,” he replied, kissing her inner thigh. “You might not trust me outside of bed but in this I excel. Promise.”
He drew his tongue along her slick folds before she could protest.
Darcy nearly shot off the bed at the touch. Her body radiated pleasure, begging him to continue. Jaral ran a finger along the sensitive skin and drove another cry from her.
“Still want me to stop?” he teased.
“Stop and I really will kill you.”
Jaral grinned as he returned to his play. He teased a fingertip along her slit before plunging it inside her.
Darcy threw back her head. Her heels dug into the mattress as her body writhed against him.
He drew his finger out slowly, taunting her with the easy rhythm when she wanted to race toward gratification. She opened her mouth to protest when Jaral lowered his mouth to her clit.
Darcy twisted on the bed above him as he drew his tongue across her sensitive nub. She writhed under him, her hands flying out to grab the mangled bedspread.
Only when her pleas for more were incomprehensible did he rake his teeth over her clit and slip two fingers into her.
She cried out as her climax crashed down on her. Her body stiffened, pleasure exploding through her. Never before had she felt such a powerful orgasm and he’d brought her here with just his mouth. Who knew what the man was capable of when he wasn’t working under her restrictions?
Her body was still twitching in the aftermath of her release when he gathered her into his arms.
“That was incredible,” she puffed against his chest. “Give me a minute and I’ll return the favor.”
He groaned at her words. “Darling, don’t tempt me.”
“You’re good with your tongue,” she murmured, tipping her head up to brush her lips. “But so am I.”
“And one day I will take you up on it,” he growled. “Rest assured. But tonight is too important.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed. “You need to learn I can be trustworthy. I can be someone you rely on. Someone who puts you first. Tonight is about you, not me.” Jaral pressed a light kiss to her lips. “Though I promise, my darling, there will be other nights.”
She blinked up at him. No man she’d ever dated would have turned down her offer. In fact, none of her past lovers would even consider putting her pleasure above their own. But her demon kept surprising her at every turn. He had given her release without asking anything in return, even when she’d practically begged him to come inside her. Instead, he’d stayed true to the rules she’d set and not pushed for more.
The action was…honorable.
“You confuse me,” she whispered.
A slight smile crossed his face. “Good. Once we’ve stripped away all your preconceptions, maybe you’ll start to see me as I truly am.”
“Someone I can trust?”
“Yes.” His eyes seemed to glow in the dim light as he watched her. “Someone you can trust.”
She shifted so she could look up, folding her hands over his chest and resting her chin on them.
Though she knew he must be feeling the frustration of their incomplete embrace, there was no tension in his face. Only a satisfied smile curved his lips. He looked almost happy.
It was an expression she’d never seen on his face before.
His fingers threaded through her hair in an absent touch, as if he couldn’t bear to end the contact. After everything Jaral had done for her, she wanted to give something back to show her appreciation.
“It was my mother.” The words were out before she could stop herself.
The hand in her hair stilled but he didn’t speak. She smiled at his restraint. Patience was not a word she’d associate with Jaral, yet he was trying to be good, for her.
“My mom had the problem with pills. She’s the reason I won’t touch them.” The words poured from her without filter. She’d never talked about this with anyone other than Blake. Never with a lover. “They ate her alive,” she whispered, “and I’m afraid if I let myself slip like that, they’d take me too.”
“You’re too strong to ever let that happen,” he told her. No prying questions, just a quiet assurance of her strength. Her heart raced just a little bit faster.
“My dad died when I was young and I don’t think she ever got over it. He was the love of her life. So she took a pill to numb the pain and then she took another.” Darcy closed her eyes, remembering watching her mother crush the little white pills on the kitchen counter. “Oxy was her drug of choice—in the beginning, at least. By the end she didn’t care how she got her fix.”
“How did you survive?”
“Blake.”
“Your stepfather.”
“Yeah. He started dating my mom, and unfortunately for him, she turned out to be the love of his life.” How did she tell him the years her stepfather had spent chasing after her flighty, vivacious mother? Blake was the only stable constant in her young life. When he’d swept into her life she thought he was a knight in shining armor like she’d read about in fairytales. She’d loved him instantly. He was the only reason she’d had any childhood to speak of. Whenever her mom had been too strung out to remember she had a child to care for, Blake came to the rescue. He’d raised her far more than her mother had ever cared to.
“Was your mother a hunter too?”
Darcy shook her head. “I never knew hunters existed until after she died. I was a teen by then, and an orphan. But Blake
really stepped up. He didn’t leave me, though honestly I don’t think the option ever occurred to him. I was his and no matter what, he was going to take care of me. He took me home with him and raised me as best he could.” She paused, drawing invisible symbols on his chest with a fingertip. “I think he had stopped hunting all those years he lived with us. But with mom gone, he had no one to hold him back from his calling anymore. I caught him cleaning his weapons once, and that’s when I learned the truth.” Darcy rolled her gaze back up to his. “I asked him to train me and the rest is history.”
He drew a finger down her cheek in a comforting touch. “Thank you.”
She smiled in reply. It hadn’t been as hard as she’d expected to tell him. She’d wanted to confide and allow him to know her. Not an impulse she felt often. But this once, she didn’t regret it. Maybe there was something to this trust thing after all.
“You’re having trouble keeping your eyes open,” he told her, amusement in his voice. “Sleep, Darcy. I’ll be here.”
She snuggled in closer as exhaustion caught up with her, and she drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face. She’d never felt as safe as she did in her demon lover’s arms.
Chapter Nine
The barren winter landscape flew past Jaral’s window as they traveled down the empty country road. One things humans did well was invent, he’d give them that much. They’d done a remarkable job creating ways of making their lives easier without magic.
Jaral glanced at the mortal by his side. She’d been twitchy all morning, no doubt unsure how to handle him now that he no longer fit into a convenient little box marked Evil Demon.
He should be rejoicing. Winning her trust would give him far more options. If he did follow his father’s orders, her trust might be key to keeping her in the dark long enough to end her world.
Except he had meant every word he’d spoken to her last night. He wanted to know her. Wanted to gain her trust in a way that had nothing to do with his desire to control her. Liam would laugh his head off if he could see how this one girl was messing with Jaral’s mind.
It should be an easy decision to help his father. He’d use Darcy to get the blood and pass it on to Abaddon. The king could do as he pleased. But that outcome would no doubt cost his lover her life and for the first time in centuries, he had someone he wanted to protect.
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