Kiss of a Demon King iad-7 Read online

  Seeming dazed, she loosened the knotted ties on the side of her skirt, and it fell away.

  "Now those." He gave a nod at her black thong.

  She worked it down to an ankle, then kicked it away, leaving her clad only in her hose and headdress. Her eyes were heavy-lidded, glowing metallic blue amid the kohl.

  "Between your thighs," he rasped. "Show me."

  As she eased her legs open for him, he thought she whimpered. A rough sound erupted from him as he gazed at her copper curls and glistening flesh. "Touch yourself there. Let me see you...."

  Her hand eagerly obeyed, and her delicate fingers began gliding over her sex. He hissed in a breath. No awkwardness. No hesitation. For the first time in his long life, he would have the type of woman he secretly desired.

  She was glorious beneath him with her braids spread out over the bed, her flames reflecting in her eyes, her body quivering as she masturbated.

  "Give me your vow, demon. Make me your queen."

  Queen of the very people she killed? But then he frowned at two lines of blood running parallel down her neck to her chest. "What is that mark?"

  She waved it away-literally, disguising it with her illusions. "A vampire tried to sink his teeth into me. But my armor stopped him short."

  "Why a vampire?"

  With a huff of irritation, she removed her hand and leaned up on her elbows, blowing a plait out of her eyes. "We're at war-he's not going to crayon me to death."

  Not killing my kind? "You're at war with the vampires?"

  "With some of them. What had you thought?"

  "I. . . not rage demons?" She'd risked her life against a mutual enemy.

  "What? You thought-"

  "Sabine, just give me a minute." Just let me mink. . .. "You can't fight against them anymore."

  "You can't stop me. I love slaying leeches."

  "We have that in common. But they are deadly foes. Just remain within the castle walls."

  "There's only one way I would stop engaging them- the possibility of conception."

  Vampires had taken the lives of his father and brother. Rydstrom would be damned if they took his queen's. The only way to keep her safe is to impregnate her. Which meant he'd have to wed her, unless he could win this battle of wills between them. He would make her lose herself, so she'd receive him-without the vow.

  "And why would I go after rage demons anyway?" she asked in a scornful tone. "That's like hunting sheep-"

  "Will you shut up?" he snapped. "I'm considering giv-ing you my vow."

  She blinked up at him. "Oh." As she gave him a slow grin, she transformed the spikes jutting from her head­dress into delicate golden leaves, with streaming vines twining in her hair.

  "I'll do it-as soon as you release me from the chains."

  "I'll release you once you've done it."

  He lowered himself until his cock rested directly on her, flesh to flesh. Hers was hot and ready for him. His throbbed so hard, he would be surprised if she couldn't feel it. But when he tried to enter her, his shaft slipped along her slick folds.

  She cried out, "Rydstrom!"

  He tried once more, and again he thrust over her. "Ahhh." Sweat covered his forehead from the desperate need to plunge into her core. "Need my hands, love."

  "Give me your vow."

  "Feed me inside you." With his jaw clenching, he grated, "And I will."

  With her other hand, she grasped his length, but instead of placing him at her entrance, she ran the crown along her wet sex. He shuddered when she circled the swollen head against her clitoris. "Marry me, Rydstrom." And all the while her heavy-lidded eyes held his. He felt as if he were losing himself in them. "I need you, demon. All of you. Can't you feel how much so?"

  "Inside you, tassia. Need inside . . ." He yelled out when the crown briefly breached her tightness. Desper­ate to sink into that heat, he shoved his hips forward, but she still held him firmly, aiming his shaft up. He hissed in pain from the movement. Give anything to pin her hips down. "Damn you, sorceress. You're mine-I want what's mine."

  "Then take me. And feel me come for you. Say the words."

  Protect her from the battle, any way you can. She'd been teaching him the rules of her game, and now he would play to win. He would make her his. But he'd do it his way.

  "Sabine, I have to have you." He tried to thrust inside her one last time, but he only ground against her sex, making her head fall back. "Look at me when I give you this vow."

  When Sabine met his gaze, he uttered words in harsh Demonish, "I will never wed you, Sabine. Not until there is trust between us. And I vow to you, I will have my revenge against you." He finished by saying, "Do you accept?"

  18

  The demon's eyes were so steady, so compelling, her heart seemed to stutter with feeling.

  "I do, Rydstrom. I accept you. But how do I know you said the vow?"

  "Because I never lie."

  She stared at him for long moments, until he grated, "I've waited fifteen hundred years for this. Don't make me suffer any longer."

  With a hard swallow, she pressed the broad head to her entrance.

  "Take more." The rumble of his voice had turned to a husky rasp. "Now!" His sweat-slicked muscles bulged, his features turning sharper.

  She shivered, then worked more of his shaft into her. "You're ... too big." It was uncomfortable, stretching her.

  "Then I want you even wetter. Arch up to me."

  "Yes!" She did. With heavy lidded eyes, she watched him blushing his lips all around her nipples. "Rydstrom, suckle me."

  At her words, he shuddered. "This will be over . . . before it begins." Finally he dragged his tongue over one of her straining peaks. When his lips greedily latched onto it to suck it hard, she cradled his head, holding him to her as she moaned in bliss.

  Her free hand dipped down to finger her clitoris, and soon the fullness inside her started to feel necessary, even essential-as if she'd die without it. She was get­ting so close....

  He released her nipple. "Deeper, tassia." He tried to thrust, but she scrambled back. "No! Take more of my cock." He wasn't even halfway inside her.

  She noticed the injured muscles in his torso were twitching. He wasn't yet strong enough to lean forward without his hands, couldn't force his hips forward. He couldn't take her as he obviously needed to.

  "I'm . . . trying," she said. "I'm too small for you, demon."

  "Roll your hips up."

  "You're too big. Just give me a second like this." As they were, she was on the verge of coming. "Another second-"

  "I can't." He stilled, his brows drawing together. "Los­ing control." He began to pull back.

  "But I'm close!"

  "Don't want to hurt you-"

  She sank her fingernails into his ass.

  He roared with pleasure, his back bowing with it. "Don't do ... that! Not that."

  So she did it harder. It was like spurring him, like lashing a beast with a whip. He began to go fully demonic, his skin darkening, sheening in the firelight. The sight of him in this state unnerved her-and aroused her. Even more.

  Gods, she wanted to lick every inch of his beautiful skin. The tone of his voice was different, his bearing changed. His upper and lower fangs had grown, and his gaze was riveted on the spot where her neck met her shoulder.

  A demon wanted to bite her, to place his claim on her for eternity. And still she was about to go over the edge with this male... .

  Between panting breaths, Sabine cried, "Oh! I'm going ... to cornel" Flames erupted as she arched her back, her nipples jutting.

  And then he felt the unmistakable clenching of her sheath. Her body was squeezing the head of his cock like a little fist. "Sabine!" He was about to ejaculate inside her. At last. He felt a savage thrill at the thought of spilling his seed into his woman, the seed he could finally give her. "Need to .. . mark you." So long I've wanted her.

  "You're turning even more?" she said, alarm in her eyes.

  "Lean up-"
<
br />   "No! Demon, don't do this. I'll fight you if you mark me!"

  "No?" he snarled. She'd told him no?. He could scarcely hear her-too far gone. "Then you'll take more of me!"

  After days of torment, that building pressure was about to be released.

  His demon strength soared through him. Need deeper inside her. Shoot my seed so deep. He leaned his forehead on the cold headboard, finally balancing himself to thrust. Positioned like this, his hips shot forward uncon­trollably, forcing his shaft up inside her.

  So tight.. Too tight? He thought she'd cried out as she writhed, pinned on his length. But all he could hear was his heartbeat thundering in his ears. Was she trying to shove him away? Screaming for him to stop?

  Virgin.

  The thought vanished when the pressure in his shaft became pain. She dug her nails into his shoulders-and he loved it.

  He gave a brutal yell as his come shot from his cock for the first time.

  The heat, the force. "Ah, gods, Sabine!" At the feel of that first hot jet pumping into her, his eyes rolled back in his head.

  He mindlessly thrust, spending until he was emptied, until the ache receded at last. When he opened his eyes, her head was whipping toward his nose. Crack.

  "What the hell?" he roared.

  "I waited five hundred years for that?" As she squirmed from beneath him, her illusion briefly wavered before the mask was back in place.

  Her eyes were watering.

  Inhaling deep breaths for control, he said, "You were ... a virgin?" Damn it, he'd warned her about going demonic, because he'd known he might hurt an experienced woman-but this ... "I never wanted to hurt you, Sabine. Why did you let me believe you were experienced when you were pure?"

  Whatever he said was the exact wrong thing. "I am experienced, and I am not pure!" As she cloaked herself in invisibility, he felt the biting slap of her palm across his face. He'd hurt her, and his fierce sorceress had hurt him back.

  Once she'd gone, he stared down at his still semihard shaft, wincing at the blood and seed. Undeniable signs of her pain, and his pleasure-which had been stronger than he'd ever dreamed it could be.

  But the guilt for hurting her wouldn't recede.

  Neither would the knowledge that the vow he'd given her was for revenge.

  19

  That good?" Lanthe asked when she found Sabine sitting on the side of her bed in a bathrobe, with her head in her hands. Though the fire was stoked, she

  was shivering.

  "Why did I even expect anything different? He was awful. If I had to decide right now, I'd say I never want to do that again."

  "It's only because he's a big demon, and it was your

  first time."

  "Maybe demons and Sorceri truly don't belong together. Maybe their kind is just too strong for us."

  "He probably just lost control of himself during his first claiming of you. I mean, you had been building up some serious steam, and-"

  "He ended up blowing in a big way. Lanthe, he wanted to mark me with his huge fangs." And when she'd told him no, he'd shoved inside her with all the strength in his body. She shuddered. "You should have seen the way he looked. He's truly a demon!"

  "I can't believe you had bad sex, and now I'll have no sex. For three hundred and sixty-four more days. That'll teach me to wager against you."

  Sabine didn't crack a smile. With a sigh, Lanthe sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Look, I think maybe we've been hurt so often that even if someone harms us accidentally, we're blind to see it that way."

  "Do you really believe that?"

  "Yes. I think ... I think that not everyone is out to get us or to use us." When Sabine only made a scoffing noise and kept her head in her hands, Lanthe added, "Granted, every being we've come into contact with in the last five hundred years has, without fail, tried to screw us over. I don't know, though. Maybe the demon's truly an honorable guy. What if he's one in a million? What if he would take back the hurt if he could?"

  Sabine peered up. "One in a million?" If Rydstrom was, then Sabine might not have been completely in the right with her actions. He had warned her about how he would lose control. Still, how was she supposed to know what would happen? She'd never done anything with a demon before! "He didn't know I was a virgin," she admitted.

  "Oh, Abie, no."

  Maybe I shouldn't have head'butted him, or slapped him, or . . . "And I left instructions for him to be punished." Her infamous temper had gotten away from her yet again. "For him to be bathed. Thoroughly. It might not be too late to take it b-"

  Without warning, the door to her chamber opened.

  Omort entered. "Leave us," he told Lanthe. "At once!"

  She had no choice but to hurry out, casting Sabine a fearful expression before she left them alone.

  Sabine sat upright, apprehensive to be anywhere near him after that earlier show of power.

  He paced the room, his cape snapping. "Your covenant . . . broke." When he faced her, his brows drew together. "I feared you would enjoy it. With him."

  "Do I look like I enjoyed that?"

  "I am sorry you had to go through it. You will not

  again."

  She exhaled with impatience. "We can't be sure I'm

  pregnant."

  "The demon's seal is no more?" When she hesitantly nodded, he said, "Then another female can breed with him."

  As Rydstrom's fated mate, Sabine was the one female who could bring forth his seed the first time. But now that that seal had been broken, Rydstrom could impreg­nate other females.

  "You will not return to him," Omort said. "Lanthe or Hettiah will take over your duties-once she has healed."

  "Hettiah shouldn't be alive right now. She almost got both of us killed."

  "She has been punished accordingly."

  "Why would Hettiah do this with the demon, any-way?" Yes, he could get her with child now, but... "The heir has to be mine. I am Rydstrom's queen." Saying that out loud shook her. I'm the true queen of this castle. And he's my . . . husband.

  Omort gazed away. "The child only has to be of his blood."

  "The rage demons won't recognize any but a legiti­mate heir."

  "I might have . . . misspoken about the prophecy.

  The boy need only be born from him."

  Misspoken? "What exactly do you know about how he will unlock the well?"

  Omort studied her face with those eerie yellow eyes. "I want to trust you. I need to. These hours have been agonizing to me."

  "You plan for us to rule together, but you tell me nothing."

  "I didn't want to put undue pressure on you." He twisted his ring. Lying to me. "The fact is that Ryd-strom's son will be sacrificed."

  "What did you say?"

  "His firstborn child will be given to the well-"

  "You mean cast into it?" She wove an illusion over

  her face as her eyes darted for a waste bin in case she vomited.

  Sabine hadn't particularly wanted a demon son-the only reason she would ever have done this was for the power-but she'd be damned before someone harmed her offspring. Demon halfling or not.

  "This is why I didn't tell you. I didn't think that you'd understand what had to be done. You're not as ... strong as you act."

  Not as evil. He was assessing her reaction. If she was somehow pregnant from that debacle and became pro-prietary about the child, Omort would just punish her,

  and still kill her son. Any sign that she might care for

  her babe would be seen as weakness.

  "What makes you think that Hettiah will have an

  easier time seducing him than I did?" Sabine didn't

  even bother mentioning Lanthe in this context. She

  would never do this.

  "The demon will be given an aphrodisiac."

  Over my dead body. "Because the heir doesn't have to

  be recognized."

  "Exactly. Sabine, open your thoughts to me."

  "Never, Omort. I'
ll tell you what I'm thinking. I couldn't care less about what I had to do to get the power from the well," she lied, meeting his gaze without hesitation. "But I am infuriated that you didn't believe you could trust me with this. Why?"

  "Sabine, everything hangs in the balance."

  "Tell me."

  He stood to pace once more. "Cadeon has taken up the charge. He has the Vessel and proves unrelenting. I wasn't going to worry about him since Cadeon has failed in every attempt to redeem himself. But in this, he continues to succeed. Because the very Vessel he's to deliver to Groot seems to be aiding him in her own

  doom-"

  "Rydstrom said that Nïx has vowed the sword can kill

  you. Is this true?"

  Omort fiddled with his ring, even as he met her eyes. "No. Of course the sword won't work. Nïx isn't infallible."

  He's lying'. Breathe . . . breathe . . . "You're not being truthful with me."

  His eyes skittered over the floor. "It is . . . possible." This explained why he'd been so unstable! "I need to trust you. Can I trust you?"

  Never! "Of course, brother." He can be destroyed!

  "This is one of the reasons I seek Nïx in particular," he said. "So I could question her about the weapon."

  To disguise her excitement, Sabine acted indignant. "Why didn't you tell me this? You keep critical secrets like this from me? This is a vulnerability we can't afford-especially not now. Especially since Cadeon might actually succeed."

  The ne'er-do-well brother of Rydstrom was that close to having the means to give death to the deathless. How to use this information? How to exploit this vul­nerability in him?

  "I should have confided in you." Omort stopped in front of her, then reached for her face, murmuring, "I love you."

  She jerked back. The last of her temper-gone. "You don't love me. You don't know what that is!"

  What was worse, Sabine didn't know if she had a grasp on it either.

  If Omort had been sleeping with one of his sisters, it hadn't been Sabine.

  She'd been a virgin for Rydstrom. After all these years, she'd remained untouched.

  What if I impregnated her? Rydstrom gazed up at the ceiling of the cell he had gotten to know too well. It was absolutely possible for her to have conceived.