Chapter 16

ChapterSixteen

Lust knew better than to tempt fate like this. Neither of them had to rush any quicker than they already were. She was just beginning to trust him, and he had proven that he would take his time. Even become friends with the woman regardless of how blinded she made him to everyone else.

But he’d had a very long day. They were preparing for his brother’s arrival. Tomorrow. Greed would show up with a hundred of his own people, all of them likely armed to the teeth. They needed to figure out where he was staying in the castle. How much food they needed to bring in. Dignitaries from the royalty had to meet with the others.

He had prepped everyone on what to expect. Lara was planning a party unlike any the castle had seen in a hundred years. He’d personally spoken with the cooks because there was no one else to do all this in the absence of a queen.

And it had made him think. He’d realized that perhaps there was some use to a queen after all. A partner to help him in moments like this. Lust had to shake those thoughts away, because he also recognized them for the folly they were.

Having a queen once every hundred years to make a single day easier were the thoughts of an immortal, not of humanity. Though he would remain for years to come, whoever he married would not.

Spirits were not fleeting things. Spirits of lust even less so. His kind rarely died because humans felt the emotion more strongly than any other.

The entire day was stressful, full of aches and pains and annoyances. And by the end of it, he hadn’t even thought of going to his own bedroom. He’d trailed along behind Lara, who kept giving him secretive glances and lustful stares that swept up and down his body.

She tempted him. He’d thought about losing himself in her for a few hours, or even all night just so he didn’t have to think about tomorrow. Dread filled him every time he thought of Greed walking these halls, completely untamed because this wasn’t even his own kingdom. Greed cared little for what he changed or affected here. He would take because it was in his nature and Lust could say nothing.

He’d stood in the doorway as Lara undressed. He’d let his eyes linger on all the curves he remembered so well, like she was an extension of his own body. Arms braced on the door frame, he’d even leaned inside just a bit before some thread tugged backward.

A thread that was tied to Selene. A thread that whispered he’d rather be somewhere else. With someone else.

Without a word, Lust had left Lara alone in her room, heard a glass smash on the ground from something she’d thrown, and made his way back here. He had thought to return with Selene already warming his bed. Instead, he’d found it cold.

Lust had circled the bed, dragging his hand along the silk sheets. Just that slight movement had released some of her scent. Peppermint floated up and filled the air with a wintery scent. Cold. Detached. But ever so lovely all the same.

So he’d sat. And waited. He didn’t know how long it took her to get back to his room, but those soft moments of quiet had given him time to plan. When she stood in the doorway, surprised to see him, Lust already knew what he was going to say.

“Come,” he repeated, gesturing with his hand for her to sit in front of him. “I won’t bite.”

“You’ve already bitten me before.” Her eyes flicked to the door as she considered running, but then she seemed to set her shoulders against the thought.

Did she believe this was her duty? That her mother would... what? Disown her if she didn’t do whatever Lust wanted her to do?

Minerva wouldn’t pawn her daughter off to a demon unless she thought the girl could bring him to his knees. He tried to see what the High Sorceress had seen in Selene, but he couldn’t. There were a hundred women who looked just like her, and yet, this one had made him turn down an evening of lust for yet another of frustration.

How was she doing it?

And then she wandered toward him, her hands folded primly in front of her hips and those heavy woolen skirts shushing around her. Then he knew what it was that Minerva had seen.

The woman had a spine of steel. She might do what others wished her to do, but never once did she yield. He could picture her as a child, defiantly looking up at her school teachers as she refused the homework or argued that they were wrong in their teachings. And he could just as easily see her bloodied, glaring up at a torturer and willing them to do their best.

No, she was no ordinary woman. He just hadn’t seen it because he looked for the extraordinary in the physical. But she was far more than her body.

Selene sat down on the pillows in front of him, her spine straight as a board and her hands curled into fists in her lap. “What do you think I will enjoy?”

“First of all, not being so tense.” He picked up her hair, letting the dark waterfall trail through his fingers. “You haven’t been wearing this up lately.”

He heard a sharp gulp, her surprise bleeding through all the stiffness in her body. “You seemed to hate the bun. You took my hair out the very first time we were alone here.”

“You didn’t leave it down for me, did you?” Because he could not resist the temptation, he leaned down until his breath would warm her neck. “I find it hard to believe you would choose to do anything for me alone.”

A little shiver trailed through her and goosebumps rose where his breath had touched. “Maybe I like having it down.”

“Ah, there it is. The honesty I was looking for.” Lust had pity on her and leaned back. “This is an easy game, Selene. I will answer any question you have, and in return, you will let me touch you. Depending on the question, I will touch certain parts of you.”

“That seems more like a game of lust.”

“Ah, but you are not interested in me. We’ve already been over this. And I am only interested in you because you do not desire me.” He rolled his eyes, knowing that she couldn’t see him. “However, this game is not about bending you to my ways. You said you could feel lust, and that you did not know how to ask for what you wanted. I will not force myself on you. All I ask is that we explore what you might like together.”

“That sounds as though you’re asking to touch me in places I do not wish you to touch.”

“I will avoid such places if it makes you uncomfortable.” His soul screamed at him not to make that deal. Already his fingers itched to trail over her curves, to stroke between her thighs and see if she was as wet for him as he hoped. As if that would prove she wanted him.

The stiffness in her spine eased. Just a little. “If you will avoid places such as that, then...”

The hesitancy was the opening he needed. Because while he still wished to touch her, he also would take whatever he could. Even if that was little more than her hair.

“Ask your first question,” he whispered, licking his lips as he let her long locks trail through his fingers again. “Whatever you have been yearning to know.”

She looked over her shoulder at him. “Yearning?”

“It is in my nature to hope that you at least yearn for information. You are frigid, Selene. Let that ice break a little for me.” He trailed the backs of his fingers over her cheek and watched as her eyes widened a bit at his words.

What had he said? She almost looked like she would bolt at any moment before she turned her head back to the front of the room. Swallowing hard again, she finally nodded.

But she didn’t ask questions. Was she testing him? He could sit here keeping his hands to himself for as long as she needed him to, even if that meant he would go insane.

Lust flexed his hands on his thighs and then forced them to remain still. He waited for what felt like hours before he felt her melt against his leg. She leaned against him, startlingly warm for a woman so cold.

“What did it feel like taking a body for the first time?”

His mind skittered toward sex before he realized what she was asking. “How do you know—“

Though his words had trailed off, she seemed to understand what he was trying to ask. “Affection. It talks a lot. Mostly about things I suspect you don’t want me to know.”

“It wasn’t supposed to tell you about any of that,” he grumbled. “Affection knows better than to reveal the secrets of spirits.”

“It didn’t tell me about you, if that makes it any better. It only told me about itself. The rest I pieced together, considering your name and all the rumors.” She stilled as his fingers threaded through her hair, but then relaxed against him as he gently massaged her scalp. “So?”

“So what?”

“What did it feel like?”

The question was one he normally would have exacted a great price to answer. But as his hands trailed down her neck and dug into her shoulders, he found this was pleasing enough. To feel her relaxed and pliant against him, it was rather nice.

“It felt strange. Being a spirit is freeing. There is no physical form to feed or water, and the mist that is our form is easier to slide into places that require much more effort when we are like this.” Lust waited a few moments as her head lolled to the side for him to dig a little deeper into her neck before he slowed his movements, trailing his fingers lightly down the column of her neck. “But a spirit can only live our emotion second hand. We rely on humans to know what it feels like to be angry, afraid, happy, sad. To be in a physical form and to know what lust actually felt like. It was... sublime.”

“I can only imagine such an existence is at first very confusing.”

“Oh, not confusing at all.” He moved his fingers around to her back and then gently undid the first buttons of her dress. “You never forget your first. Isn’t that what mortals say? And I certainly won’t forget that memory.”

She shifted a little before clearing her throat. “Were you always a spirit of lust?”

“That’s a question that will require much more touching.” He leaned and hummed in her ear. “Are you sure you want to pay for that one?”

As he asked the question, Lust eased his fingers underneath the heavy back of her gown. She wore another layer underneath it, damned woman, so he couldn’t feel the smooth skin of her back. But somehow, the thin cotton only made her feel all the more fierce.

He waited to see if she would answer, but she didn’t. Instead, she seemed to hover in that place of not knowing. What would he do? What was the price for the question?

Gently, he eased his hands along her ribs. His fingers brushed the sides of her breasts. Their softness was even warmer than the rest of her body, but he did not push for more than he knew she would give. Instead, he lingered on the narrow feeling of her ribcage, how delicate and fragile she was.

Her soft inhalation gave him the answer he searched for. She liked feeling small underneath his hands.

Lust pressed each of his fingers tighter against her, one by one, until he felt the softness of her breasts above his thumbs. It was enough of a touch for her to gasp, not enough to be entirely inappropriate. Still, he heard her hiss out a breath.

No need to rush, he told himself, even as he hardened to the point of pain. They were working on trust, and she’d asked him not to touch certain parts of her. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t tease the rest.

He leaned over her, too large for this space, but knowing it would only make her feel even smaller. “Well?” he asked again, rumbling in her ear. He hardly recognized the depth of his own voice. It had turned so guttural. “What price will you pay for that question?”

Lust trailed his fingers down her ribs, moving across the flat plane of her belly that flexed against his palms. The top of her dress shifted with his movement, gaping forward and revealing enough of blushed skin that he had to look away from the sight.

Wincing, he continued his blind journey. He lingered on the sensitive sides of her torso, to the arches of her hip bones. Her little gasp as he trailed his fingers past them made him hesitate. How far did he want to push her? How far did he want to push himself?

He stopped, the tips of his pointer fingers just inches from where he hoped she was warm, and soft, and wet. “Well?” he asked. “How much do you want to know the answer to that question?”

“Enough,” she whispered. “But not as badly as you want to answer it.”

Confused, he saw movement in the corner of his eye. And that’s when he realized there was a hand-held mirror on her vanity that wasn’t set face down. It angled toward them, just enough for her to see him and all his reactions.

His eyes met hers in the reflection. And oh, if she didn’t look more beautiful than he’d expected. Her eyes glowed with triumph, as though she’d caught him in a lie. Her cheeks were already flushed, her lips slightly parted, and they looked decadently wicked together.

He loomed over her, the candlelight bouncing off his horns. So large compared to her that his outline swallowed all the light. His hands disappeared into her unlaced dress as she wantonly leaned back into him. It was a painting that a prophet would use to warn young women of the monstrous demons, who wanted to take away their innocence.

Lust bared his teeth at her in the reflection, knowing before he saw them that his canines would have grown sharper and his eyes would flash with desire.

He’d never looked like this with a woman. He was meant to be desirable, alluring, a man that none could resist. But in this moment, with her, he looked like the demon she expected him to be.

And she looked like she enjoyed it.

He kept their gazes locked as she placed her hand over his. The thick brocade of her gown separated them, but he moved his palm with her as she guided one of his hands up toward her breast again. She stopped just underneath it until he was almost cupping the soft swell.

“You think this will scare me, but it does not. I knew what I would have to pay to serve you, and I was never afraid of it.” She shifted his other hand lower, his middle finger just brushing her heat.

A low growl escaped his lips, and that feral expression seemed to sharpen even further. Peppermint filled his nose on an inhale and somehow that made him feel as though he could lose control. He’d drag her up onto the bed with him, roll her underneath him, and devour her lips. He’d sink his fingers between her legs, into that warm, tight pussy. He’d suck her nipples until she begged him to stop, until he’d left marks all over her body in bright bruises from his tongue, his teeth, and his lips.

Lust wanted to do all that and more, but he would not do so unless she begged for it.

And Selene begged no one.

“Is this how you want to remember this moment?” she whispered, her voice a little breathless. “A transfer of information? A payment made?”

“No,” he rasped. “This is not how it will go between us.”

She slowly lifted her hands from his, leaving him to make the final choice. “Then I will get ready for bed. And you—“

He interrupted her before she could finish the sentence. “Will be waiting right here for you.”

Though he knew it was foolish, he intended to spend the night with her. If only to bury his face in those pillows and fall asleep with her scent in his nose.

“What?” she whispered. “No, you will...”

“Stay here. In my room. In my bed.” His fingers flexed one more time against her stomach, shifting a little lower, dragging the cloth against her clit, until he felt the buck of her hips against him. He grinned and then withdrew his hands from underneath her dress. “I promised I wouldn’t touch you in any way you don’t want, little moon. Scared that you’ll reveal yourself in your sleep?”

“Impossible. I do not desire you,” she whispered, but her eyes were bright with worry.

And perhaps something else.

He nodded and then shifted up onto the bed, knowing she’d seen how affected he was by their little exchange, and not caring how wide her eyes got before she looked away. “Then get ready, Selene. I find myself wishing for dreams.”