Chapter Six

Wren

My mate.

My sole desire.

My universe.

I unleash all that I am, all that I want to give her. My shadows engulf her, my essence sliding against her skin, teasing her breasts, thighs, and ass. Having spent the last decade focusing on her pleasure, I cheat by going straight to the touches I know she likes best.

Skimming a shadow over her dark hair, I stop at the purple highlights, the color so close to my magic's. "Is this for me?"

"Y…yes." She stutters, my beautifully articulate Hayden, as I cheat by stealing her attention with parting her thighs to slip between.

I slide my mouth near the upper curve of her ear, my tongue teasing the delicate skin there in what I know will make her shiver. My magic plays with the fabric of her dress, tugging at the material until it slides up to her waist.

Hayden reaches down, her fingers closing around one of my shadows. I pulse for her, making sure the shadow she has grabbed grows beneath her fingertips, and she shivers when I send a throb of power to zing against her hand. She gasps, her lips parting as the energy sparks against her, my shadows enveloping us both—to keep her safe, to keep her hidden, to keep what's mine exclusively for my pleasure alone.

"Beg me, my beauty." I need to hear those sweet cries she makes when she submits. "Beg for what you want, what we both want. You coming on my shadows. Scream for it."

A whimper falls from her lips. She glances down between us. My shadows pulse under her touch while the raging violet of my magic lights her in a flickering play of darkness and light. She looks exquisite riding my shadows, chasing her own pleasure.

"More. P…please." There's that lovely stammer again. The proof she's as lost in desire as she has been for thousands of nights beneath my touch. Except this time it's real.

My magic swirls between her thighs. I need her. My hunger is like an ocean that won't stop rising. I could take us both below its waves.

She rocks her hips and squeezes her thighs tight against my shadow. "I n…need more. I need all of you."

Ah, so she remembers from our fantasy play how stretched she feels when I fuck her fully. She knows this is but the tiniest tease.

I play with the edge of her panties, slicking a thin shadow through her silky wetness.

She lifts her chin. A challenge? A test of my patience?

She will fail.

My mate, my lover.

"Take what I give you," I tell her. " Trust what I give you."

Hayden surrenders herself completely into my hold, letting me keep her body suspended while I toy with her. Controlling her pleasure, knowing I can make her scream? It's intoxicating. I use my shadows to strip her panties from her, tracing each inch of skin as they pass from her thick thighs to her knees and finally slipping over those toes painted with purple polish.

She doesn't struggle when I lift her into the air, parting her thighs to bring her sweet pussy to my face. "Gods, your scent is addictive. You will be my undoing."

Fear should have her fighting against bringing her most private places within nipping range of my multitude of fangs, but she gives herself to me the same as she has every night.

"Spread your legs wide for me," I demand.

She lets me hold her open, wrapped in my darkness with no light except the violet of my magic painted vivid with lust flickering across her skin.

I lick into her, and the taste of her is exhilarating—even more than the dream version. Not bothering with slow or gentle, I devour her.

My obsession grows stronger than the already monstrous level that had me sending her back to this life.

I will never get enough of her.

One decade has only made me need more. I can't imagine being less ravenous if we get another dozen together.

I want to mark her skin, and when my fangs skim her inner thigh, I nip her gently.

She moans and squirms against my shadows.

I lift my head from between her thighs to gaze into her face, needing to see every expression, every change, as she comes. I can do more with my tongue than any human male could with his cock, changing its shape, form, and length to dive wickedly inside her. With my shadows, I caress every part of her, savoring the weight of a breast, the softness of her belly, the space where her spine dips in a delicate curve above her ass, and, of course, her clit.

She clamps around me, her cries filling the darkness.

My Hayden comes so beautifully, so divinely. Her mouth falls open, and her eyes flutter shut, her hair a wild mess of waves from the tug of my shadows against her. The sound of her ecstasy has my erection throbbing, but I ignore the ache.

I can't.

We can't.

Not yet anyway.

Not until she understands the stakes. Fucking in fantasies is one thing. But sex with my fated mate in reality? It would seal the mating bond. She would be mine forever . Yet the demon's bargain requires her consent with full understanding of the consequences.

As much as I despise the demon prince, he's not wrong.

I pushed Hayden into the last ten years because I wanted her. Forcing her back into her body, back into this life without a choice of going to the After Worlds? That was because of my obsession, not out of consideration for her.

Letting her down until her feet almost touch the ground, I straighten her dress, although her panties…those I don't return.

"Even better in reality than the hottest fantasies," she whispers.

"So much better."

A lazy smile curves her lips, and she slides a hand through my shadows. "And we've only begun."

At that, I finally let her go, sweeping a shadow along her jaw. "No, I have to woo you properly first."

She rises on her tiptoes, pressing against me. "Consider me wooed."

"There are things you have to know before we?—"

"I thought we knew each other pretty well after ten years of shared secrets."

"Yes, but—" I stop mid-sentence, lifting my head at the sounds from the gate that shields the property and pushing her behind me. I've warded her van against revenants. What I failed to ward was the property against outsiders. Damn . "Someone's here."