by Marie Hall
He frowned. That didn’t sound like Rumpel at all. His prince lived for striking deals, for trading the temporary charms of beauty and wealth, or whatever else the patron would ask, for fealty in the future.
“Why?” he finally asked.
She shrugged, rubbing her bicep. “I always got the sense that he understood I’d grow to regret it. So now you know.” She gave him a miserable, watery grin. “Does that make us even?”
Now she sounded angry. Giles cocked his head. “Are you mad at me?”
A rumbling growl that sounded more like it should come from a wolf than a human tore from her throat. “I am angry with myself.”
Flattening her palm on the ground, Giles sensed that once again she was about to flee. Snatching on to her wrist before she could run off, he tugged her back down gently.
“Let me go,” she snarled.
And he knew he should. Damn himself to the seven pits of Delerium, he knew he should. He’d only just been telling her that his needs and wants mattered for naught. Trying desperately to convince himself that what he was feeling would pass, had to pass, that his life could continue on as it had before, but one look into Lilith’s shattered gaze and the hardness that had sustained him for so long failed to show.
“Lilith.” His voice broke with the unspoken words filling up his soul.
“What?” she snapped. “You must know. My gods, what a fool you must think me.” This time when she laughed a tear splashed down the corner of her eye, then another and another. She wiped at them angrily, but he refused to let her hand go.
“Let me go, Giles,” she growled again. “I’m warning you. I’m angry and volatile and humiliated that you should know. I tried to ignore it—I tried to will this away. But the harder I fight it, the worse it gets. And now you tell me that there could never be anything anyway and I just need to go, please. I’ll return in the morning and we can pretend this never—”
Desperate and hungry and raw himself, Giles silenced her words with a kiss. He didn’t think it through. He didn’t stop to question himself. Because if he gave himself even a second to rationalize he’d stop what he was doing.
But he needed her to know the truth; for once in his life, he wanted someone to know his dirty secret.
She mewled into his touch, then her hand yanked out of his grasp and her hands clawed at his back. Somehow she’d moved without him even being aware of it, she was straddling his lap, and her kiss was intoxicating.
Her kiss, like a siren’s deadly touch, he hungered for more even as a part of him slowly died inside. Who was he without his constancy to his prince? His willingness to die for him and him alone?
If someone else wormed their way into his heart, it would make him weak. Make him stupid. It’s what he’d always been taught, what he’d always believed, but now with her lips on him and her tongue moving against his own in a heated caress, he could barely remember his own name.
The only thing Giles knew was the he wanted so much more than this. Her movements, the way she ground her bottom onto his erection, he wanted so much more than just a mere kiss.
It was like he was a demon unleashed, reckless and wild and aching for release. His hand slid dangerously high upon her thigh. She spread them wider, so that the heat of her center was positioned enticingly against the rigid girth of his erection.
“Giles,” she moaned, then scratched the back of his skull with her claws. Not bleeding him, but driving him mad.
He moved down the column of her throat, licking and nipping his way down until he came to the hollow of it and began to lave his attentions there. Her skin was flushed a dewy rose, she was panting and writhing on him. Moving up and down on him, filling his blood with molten heat.
Licking him with flame from the inside out. Burning him alive. He felt his body begin to tingle, felt the burn of his fire start to spread outward.
A demone’s touch while heightened by too much pleasure could kill. He needed to mute his needs. She was too frail to handle him, but it’d been so long since he’d allowed himself the touch of a woman that he was finding it difficult to contain himself.
“Stop,” he panted, pulling his hands back. Not wishing to hurt her.
But she refused to let him. “No way, knight.” She slammed her lips on his and forced his hands back down onto her thighs. Wiggling back and forth over his engorged flesh. Even though they were still clothed, Giles knew he was going to come soon.
Judging by her frantic whimpers so would she. She was rubbing harder now, planting her palms onto his shoulder for better leverage, wiggling back and forth with vigor.
“I love it when you touch me—more, Giles,” she said between nips of his lips. “More. So much more.”
“But…I’ll…burn—”
“No. You won’t. I love your heat.”
His hands were heating up again and then so was the rest of him. He tried once more to shove her off of him. Trying desperately to make her understand he could kill her. But she was much stronger than she seemed.
The shifter clung to his body and refused to budge an inch. Giles could only grit his teeth under the onslaught, willing his flame to bank. To go away.
He’d only ever allowed himself to get carried away like this when he was with another demone. Only they could handle it.
She hissed, but she didn’t seem to be undulating in pain. Lilith was writhing upon him, welcoming his heat. Whimpering into it. “Gods, you feel good,” she moaned.
And Giles had no idea how she was doing this, he still dreaded to harm her. Sweating as he fought to control his infernal body, he gritted out, “Come on, Lilith, come. Quickly. Come.”
“No, not without you.” She shook her head, claiming his lips once more.
Her entire body was flushed a bright red. But she was smiling, and he couldn’t smell the scorching of flesh. Somehow, as impossible as it was to believe, she was okay.
Reaching down between their bodies, she grabbed hold of him and began to gently stroke. Grunting in shock, he gasped as his need built. Pleasure spiraled like a wave inside of him, growing into a tight, rippling band.
“Lilith, stop,” he pleaded only half-heartedly, desperate for her to continue even while he knew they should stop. “Please, love, stop.”
“Why?” she whimpered. “I can’t stop. I want this so bad. Want you so bad.” She peppered his brow with kisses and Giles could see the smoke rising from his body.
“Because I will combust. I will burn and I’m not sure you can handle it. My body is going crazy—I can’t control this.”
“Then don’t.” And this time when she took his lips, she refused to let them go.
Lilith only pumped him harder and his muscles quaked, snapped like jumping beans as the fire came closer and closer to the surface.
“If I have to die,” she whispered, “then I’d rather die this way, anyway.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her she wouldn’t die from mating a demone, but very well might die from mating with him at this very moment because no matter how much he kept willing himself down from the inferno, he couldn’t seem to stop it.
Giles gave one last feeble attempt to push her hand off, but she only gripped him tighter. Causing him to cry out in ecstasy as his seed pumped from his body.
And as he came, the fire poured from out of him. Engulfing them in a brilliant orange blaze and Lilith grunted her own release, spasming against him over and over and over as if overtaken by her climax.
Giles gazed on in horror as they burned, but his horror soon turned to shocked delight when she opened her eyes and stared at the fire covering her body that did not burn.
Then, tilting her head back, she laughed a sultry, shivery sound into the night, and Giles knew nothing would ever be the same for him again.
Lilith couldn’t believe what they’d done. She stared at Giles, expecting him to shove her off of him or to tell her that it’d all been a mistake, but instead he brought her tight into his arms and hugged her u
ntil the flames pouring from his body died down.
“See, I didn’t die,” she whispered against his beating heart.
“I thought my fire would hurt you. I am so glad it didn’t.” He traced her jaw with the pad of his thumb and she kissed it when he crossed her lip with it.
Her heart felt so full to bursting. No, they’d not mated in truth, but it had been glorious, and if that was all they could do for the rest of their lives, then she’d do it. They’d figure out a way to keep their relationship going once this journey came to an end.
“Lilith, there is something you should know,” he began tentatively.
“Hm?” She nuzzled her nose against his chest like a contented kitten.
He seemed to be steeling his nerves to speak and that caused her to sit up as a nervous knot grew inside of her.
“What, Giles?”
He sighed. “You can’t die with me. A demone is the only species in Kingdom that you can mate with.”
That didn’t make any sense. “We didn’t mate, Giles. The bond has not been formed.”
What exactly was he implying by saying she could mate with a demone? Just what did he know that she didn’t?
“Why did you do that?” she asked softly. “Just now? Why didn’t you let me leave?”
Giles gave her a look that was difficult for her to decipher. It seemed more closed off than earlier, which was strange considering what they’d just done. A bad feeling nestled in the pit of her stomach and as much as she didn’t want to, she slowly moved off his lap, refusing to look down and see the tangible evidence of what they’d done together staining his pants.
“Knight, I need to understand what you meant by my being immune to a demone. And as much as I like what we just did, I sense you do not feel as I do.” It was humbling to say those words; it wasn’t in her nature to be so open and honest with anyone outside of her pack.
Grabbing his forehead, he shook his head. “I was visited by Danika—”
“My godmother?” She frowned. “But why?”
He seemed reluctant to meet her gaze.
Her stomach dove to her knees because there could only be one reason for her godmother to come and speak with Giles. She was trying to make a love match. But surely her fairy understood that she was not at liberty to give her soul to anyone outside of her species.
What was going on here? Lilith felt more confused than ever.
“Who told you about my deal? Was it Rumpel or Danika?”
“Danika.”
The queasy pit grew. “Why would she do that?”
This time when he attempted to grab her hand, she yanked it back from him. For once not wishing his touch. Every time he did it she forgot herself.
Curling his empty hand on his lap, he sighed. “Because she wished for me to save you.”
“What?” She jumped to her feet as shame crept a humiliating path up her neck. “And how did she think to manage that?” she snapped, pacing in front of him.
“By mating with you.”
“So that’s what this was?” She damned the heat gathering behind her eyelids, telling herself she would not cry, no matter what. “A pity lay?”
He glowered and jumped to his feet as well. “You think me capable of such? After everything we’ve been through?”
Scoffing, she crossed her arms. “We hardly know one another. Up until this very second you’ve rebuffed me constantly. Now suddenly my godmother tells you to come save me and this is what you do.” Sneering, she shook her head. “I am no one’s charity case.” She turned, ready to shift and find sleeping arrangements somewhere else for the night.
“Lilith, bloody hell,” he snapped and spun her back around almost violently.
His body was glowing beneath the skin again, looking like banked embers threaded through with veins of molten lava. Gods, he was bizarre and beautiful, and her traitorous heart yearned to reach out to him even as she wished to slap him for causing her to misread his intentions earlier.
“You make me crazed.” Growling, he shoved his fingers through his hair, causing the ebony ends to stand up in different directions.
Arching a brow, she tapped her fingers on her arms, ignoring her need to pat his hair back down. “Oh, I make you crazed. That’s rich.”
Burning red eyes glared at her. “I want to save you.”
“I never asked you to,” she snapped back.
“Why is it so hard for you to let others in?”
That was so not funny that all she could do was laugh. Because if he couldn’t see her letting him in, then she didn’t have a clue how else to show it. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I’m totally serious. I want to help you. It’s what I’ve wanted to do all along. I want to make things right for you, Lilith, but I’m confused.”
“That’s just it, Giles, I’m not your prince or your king, and you don’t need to fix me. I made that pact with Rumpel, it is my cross to bear. Yes, I liked you. And yes, I’ve wanted to sleep with you since the moment we met. But I had no ulterior motives, I didn’t ask Danika to come and rescue me. And how she thinks you possibly could is beyond me.”
“What was your deal with Rumpel, exactly?” he asked cutting her off.
Wetting her lips, she said, “That I could mate with no creature of Kingdom aside from a wolf shifter.”
He took a miniscule step in her direction. “I am not a creature of Kingdom.”
“You live here, you are a creature.”
Giles smile was wide. “Rumpel’s deals are absolute in their wording, so unintentionally or not, you provided yourself a loophole.”
“I wasn’t the one to come up with the wording, he was,” she reluctantly admitted. “Rumpel refused my deal three times before finally relenting and only on the premise that I use his wording precisely.”
“Huh, that is interesting.” Giles scratched his jaw, staring off into the distance as though he’d suddenly put two and two together.
“What’s interesting?”
“He did this on purpose. He knew.”
“Knew what?” She hugged her arms tighter to her chest, wishing she had the guts to just leave him. These past few weeks had been a mixture of misery and elation and if this was love she wanted no part of it. It was maddening and exhausting.
“Tell me, what were his conditions of your deal?”
“In return for killing me”—she snorted; gods, she’d been an ignorant fool to have struck such a bargain—“there would be a specified date and time in the future when a man would come for me.”
He shook his head. “But it’s impossible that he could have known the future. He’s never known it before. Rumpel only just discovered the possibility of the chalice a few weeks ago,” he murmured beneath his breath.
She tossed her hands up. “Nevertheless, that was the deal. Written and sealed in my blood.”
Suddenly he was looking at her differently, gazing at her with something akin to wonder in his eyes. It was a look that filled her with nerves.
“What?” she snapped.
“Nothing.” He blinked and shook his head as though coming back to himself.
Giving him a withering stare, she turned ready to sleep this night away. How could she have gone from such joyous highs to such rotten lows in the span of a few minutes? Life seemed utterly unfair sometimes, but she’d been a fool to even believe it could ever be otherwise for her. Even if only for a second. Reality was cruel and harsh. She’d made the deal; she’d live by its rules.
“Lilith, I am not of Kingdom,” he said.
“Giles,” she said on a sad sigh, her anger spent. Her heart was broken and bruised. If he was right, and she could mate with a demone and not incite the curse to react that was great. If they’d fallen in love. But she would not mate for pity, no matter how kindly meant the gesture might be.
Leaning in, she rubbed his cheek with her palm. “If I didn’t know what I know now I would have jumped at this chance, but worse than being stuck in a marriage with someone
I don’t love is being bonded to someone who I do love and who does not feel the same back.”
“But it could happen.” He grabbed her wrist, but the words were half-hearted at best.
He was playing hero again. And she shouldn’t be surprised that he was—it was what Giles did. He saved people. He looked at helping others first, always putting himself last. It was why she’d fallen for him as she had.
But she deserved more than that. And so did he. She may never find her true love with a wolf, then so be it. She’d go through life a merry maid and never give herself a chance to wonder what she was missing out on.
“I say we focus on getting that chalice to the boy and forget that this night ever happened.”
“But Lilith—”
Dropping her hand, she took a step back. “For the sake of what few dregs of pride I have remaining, you will drop this now and never bring it back up again.”
His jaw clenched forcefully before he finally muttered, “Yes, I will speak of this no more.”
For the entire next week all they did was sleep, eat, and travel with very little conversation to be had in between.
Giles felt horrible for the way he’d handled himself that night. He’d been confused and unsure how to go about broaching that topic. So he’d bungled it right out of the gates.
With matters of war, he was a master of precision. Matters of the heart, he was hopeless. It was why in all his years he’d never left his bachelordom—he did not know how to interact with the opposite sex outside of the bedroom.
Stepping over a fallen log, he watched as she jogged ahead of him. Her pelt was slick with sweat. Lilith had set herself a punishing pace these past few days, as though she were trying to outrun something.
He suspected that something was him.
How he wished for a do-over, wished he could summon Rumpel and demand his prince give him the answers. He’d even pay the price if it meant he could figure this mess out.
It bothered him more and more each day the thought of her plight. He’d run scenario after scenario through his head. Wondering if maybe he could figure out a way to take her back with him to the castle and help her find a mate among one of the other members of the staff.
