23. Stella

23

STELLA

Ben’s eyes widen at Stoneheart’s question. The gargoyle’s expression is enough to make me want to run and hide or, rather, surrender.

He’s enjoying himself, and his delight is terrifying.

I bite my lip and my lower body aches with need. Please, please, please, I silently and selfishly chant. If Stoneheart was focused on tormenting me instead of Ben, he’d make me beg aloud.

As it is, I get to enjoy the spectacle of him bringing Ben to his proverbial knees.

Oh, and assuming Stoneheart is really as kind as he’s acting, I get fucked in the end. So, win-win.

Ben makes a gruff sound of frustration while a talon slips under the strap of my panties and snaps it. The back of Stoneheart’s finger coasts over the edge of my pussy as it’s exposed to the air of the conservatory, and if he weren’t watching my reaction from the corner of his eye, I’d whimper.

Ben hasn’t answered yet, his head falling forward and his gaze on the sight of his cock in Stoneheart’s grip. The ruddy head oozes precum, and I tighten in anticipation. Ben’s silence doesn’t stop the gargoyle from dragging the demon’s cock through my weeping folds. I gasp at the tease, and Ben curses.

Stoneheart spreads the mix of Ben and my wetness with a rough stroke before placing Ben’s cock against my opening. I do whimper now and catch Stoneheart’s satisfied smile as my body parts easily with the press of the flared head of Ben.

“She’s so very wet and ready for you. It would be a shame to waste it,” Stoneheart croons into his ear. “Well, Ben?”

I bite my lip to keep from reacting, but it doesn’t keep in the sounds of need from building in my throat. It would be so easy to pull him toward me by the grip I have on his lapels or to dissolve into begging, but I stay frozen for Ben to decide.

“Yes, damn you, but yes. Of course I want her.” He gazes at me, the words reverberating with need and honesty.

“Then take her,” Stoneheart growls.

There’s something so exposing watching Stoneheart in this moment. He’s so watchful even as he’s pushing Ben to do what he wants. Like if he controls every aspect of the interaction, he can…protect Ben.

With the distance of this perspective, I realize that he did the same with me even during that first night. We were just too much in the thick of it when we came together for me to see it.

Like this, I forget he’s a territory leader and when he schemed against me. He’s less the Stoneheart I’ve battled with and more the Remy I wanted to marry even while being a stranger.

Ben cradles my cheek, bringing me back to the heat of him throbbing against me. All he’d have to do is tilt forward, and he’d be inside me. “May I?”

I nod, impatient for him to be inside me, but Ben takes a breath and moves slowly. He rocks forward and sinks in part way. I clench around him, needing more, but he freezes and shudders. “Gods, you feel too good.”

I try to keep still even though everything inside me is needing more. My hips squirm as Ben withdraws a dragging inch before pressing in again.

“More,” I whisper.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Ben mutters, but I’m past caring. I blink up at Stoneheart, knowing my request is on my face. Stoneheart’s gaze is full of lust and satisfaction, waiting for me to beg.

Ben does another slow, shallow invasion, and I break.

“Please—” I start, but off on a cry, my eyes rolling back as Ben’s body crashes against me, crushing me against the piano. His hips flush against mine as his flesh throbs inside of me. Full. It’s all I can think. Full and thick.

I groan at the heavy feel of Ben filling me, but I am cut off by Stoneheart’s mouth devouring mine. He licks past my lips, stealing my sounds even as Ben curses.

“Fuck you, Stoneheart!” Ben moans against the skin of my shoulder.

The gargoyle’s mouth curves against mine, and he pulls away. “Sorry, I’m not nearly as patient for this as I thought.”

Ben’s face is frozen in a mixture of frustration and bliss. Stoneheart’s body grinds Ben’s body harder into mine.

“Will you fuck her properly now?” my husband asks, pulling Ben back enough that his cock slides almost all the way out of me. “She shouldn’t have to wait for you, she’s not the one being punished.”

Ben isn’t listening. His hips start moving as if he’s in a trance. Full, slow thrusts and halting retreats that make me pant and flex around him.

“She’s like a goddamn vise,” he breathes, not waiting for Stoneheart to ask him. “ Fuck. So hot and wet.”

Ben’s next thrust is harsher, his body thudding against mine and making us both moan.

“Better,” Stoneheart growls, pulling me into a kiss as Ben starts to fuck me in earnest.

“Gods, Stella.” Ben’s teeth rake over the skin of my neck, and I make a surprised noise into Stoneheart’s mouth when he scrapes over my mating mark. It’s sensitive in a way I didn’t anticipate, and my whole body lights up.

“Slower,” Stoneheart breaks our kiss to coax, but Ben doesn’t listen, and I fall into the dual sensations of Ben moving inside of me and the grip Stoneheart has on the back of my neck.

Stoneheart mock sighs. “You’re only making it worse for yourself when you don’t listen to me.”

Before I can wonder what he means, he releases the grip he has on me and drops his hand to where Ben’s body meets mine, rubbing circles over my clit and causing me to arch as the beginning waves of climax start to gather.

Ben grunts and Stoneheart nips his earlobe, tutting.

Something moves between us, and Ben cries out, his face twists in agony. I lean back and see the end of Stoneheart’s tail wrapped tightly around the base of Ben’s cock. Fuck , the pain of it must be keeping him from climax.

“I said, slower,” the gargoyle murmurs. “Watch her break for us. Feel her milk your cock.”

Is that me he’s talking about? It must be because both of their gazes are on me now. Stoneheart’s is full of hunger and Ben’s a tormented awe. The sensations build and layer under their attention.

Each stroke and touch expands the lava in my belly that all at once wants this to go on forever but greedily wants completion. I tilt back against the piano as Stoneheart’s slippery thumb coaxes me past the point of no return. I come.

My lips part, and Ben’s palm covers my mouth to keep in my scream from echoing against the glass ceiling.

Wave after wave of pleasure moves through me, and I gush around the demon inside of me.

“Fuck!” Ben shouts.

I blink, starting to come back to myself. I don’t know why he muffled me if he’s going to be as loud.

“A dream, isn’t she?” Stoneheart asks.

Ben’s body caves forward, shaking. I’d be worried about the torture he’s going through, except his cock is hard, and he’s not pulling away. He can disappear on a whim. This is where he wants to be.

Now that Ben can’t race toward orgasm, he tries to slow his pace, but Stoneheart presses his hips into Ben’s to keep each move inside me even. Each thrust sounds wet, and my cheeks burn. Fuck, he’s making me make a mess.

Ben swears in rapid succession the words I’m usually saying.

“I can feel how badly you want to come,” Stoneheart taunts. “Is it just to chase the physical sensation or do you want to paint her insides with your seed? Is that your secret desire? To show me how to mark up what’s mine?”

Ben’s eyes slam shut, and Stoneheart thankfully stops stimulating my clit to pull Ben’s suit jacket and shirt away from his throat. Buttons pop but the demon doesn’t seem to notice. Stoneheart’s teeth scrape against the skin exposed, and I watch with fascination as he mouths the spot where he’d left a claiming mark on me.

“I’ll let you come for a price,” the Devil says.

What’s happening clicks.

Stoneheart wants to give Ben a claiming mark. My eyes widen in surprise, but my pussy tightens around Ben causing the demon to make another pained sound.

“Anything,” Ben rasps.

Stoneheart’s mouth opens to give him a proposition, but he straightens as if he’s heard a sound, a look of annoyance crossing his face. He pulls Ben back against him. Ben lets out a desperate sound as his cock slides wetly from me.

“Fly away, shadow walker, before someone sees something that you’ll regret.” Stoneheart is all business now.

It takes Ben a moment to understand, but when he does, his gaze meets mine, and he disappears.

I try to move off the piano, but my limbs are noodles.

“Easy now, firefly,” Stoneheart says, stepping into the space that Ben vacated. His hands stroke my arms in comfort. “They’re at the end of the hall. I don’t know if they plan on coming in here. We have time.”

“That was a dirty play,” I say.

Stoneheart doesn’t try to pretend innocence. “That’s the only type of play I make.”

I tilt my head back on a relieved sigh that we aren’t immediately going to be disturbed. The sensation of Ben against me, inside me, echoes as surely as the beat of my heart.

“What would it even mean for you to mark him?” I ask. Would they be considered mates too?

Stoneheart shrugs, not answering. Instead, he grips the bend of my knee and pulls my legs wider.

“You’ve made quite a mess.” His lecturing tone is playful.

I look down and flush at the smears of my arousal on the piano cover. “Ben would be horrified.”

He’d been so reverent about the instrument that it had stung that he didn’t want to play piano for us. I understand why, but it still stung.

Stoneheart snorts. “Ben would be tantalized. You’ve christened an already impressive work of art.” Stoneheart sinks to his knees between my thighs. “But I vowed not to expose you.”

“Wha—” I cut off my words when he opens his mouth a breath away from where I’m exposed and licks the piano. I swallow as I follow each flick of his long-tapered tongue, my heartbeat sounding louder in my ears.

His gaze locks with mine as he finishes the task of licking away my mess. His brow arches, and I almost whimper.

“Allow me to clean you up?” he asks, and my toes curl. “We still have time before anyone interrupts us.”

I nod, not reflecting on the fact that I wasn’t even thinking of being discovered here. The last time he did this to me was right before his scheming came to light on our wedding night. Some core part of me wants to rewrite that memory.

It’s a mistake to allow myself to be taken in by my husband, but when we’re like this, I’m not thinking of his Machiavellian nature. In this context, his cruelty adds to the pleasure just as he’d given Ben the pain he craves.

I sigh in absolution as his mouth opens against me. His tongue curling to gather each remnant of Ben and my fucking. Can he taste him inside me?

I open my mouth to ask the question, to taunt the master at his own game, but Stoneheart gives one last flick to my clit before rising.

Denying me release.

My eyes widen as he takes my hand and pulls me to stand, pulling my dress down to drape how it should. I throb, and this gargoyle has the nerve to smirk at me.

“You’re such an asshole,” I say.

“Now don’t be angry. If I don’t leave you wanting, how else can I ensure you’ll abide my presence?”

“That makes no sense. If you never satisfy me, I don’t have a reason to want to fuck you.”

“Oh, I’ll satisfy you, wife.” His voice is dark even as his lips stay curved in triumph. “Don’t you worry about that, but I won’t give you something like that so easily and not here.”

Whatever words I was planning on saying get lost in that imagining, and I’m hit with a sudden craving to continue his game.

“Peace, wife, I keep my promises, but now we must go to work.”

I nearly groan. Returning to a crowd of people while my body thrums with lust is not my idea of a good time. “We can’t just go home? I’m sure we’ve already done enough to cause the good type of gossip.”

“That’s hardly showing your aunt gratitude for organizing this.”

I glare. He’s right. “You did this,” I say, annoyed that his sly grin is making me wetter.

“I’ll be sure to feel bad about it later,” he says, his tone letting me know that he plans no such thing.

I roll my eyes and try and take a deep breath to suppress the arousal lighting my body. At this point, I’ll need Ben around just to split Stoneheart’s lethal attention.

Stoneheart eyes the piano. “I wonder if Ariel will sell this piece to me. I’ve become quite partial to it.”

When the crowd moves to enter the conservatory it’s to my bark of laughter, portraying us as the happy newlywed couple they’d have us be.