Chapter 22

ChapterTwenty-Two

Selene sighed as she trailed her fingers over warm skin. She had no idea how he looked like a bronzed statue, but it didn’t matter right now. The red welts up and down his back called out to her.

Running her fingers through the grooves between twin marks, she hissed out a long breath. He shouldn’t let himself get hurt like this. And even though he’d said he enjoyed the slight pain, it made her wince to see the welts.

Unlike the first time they’d done this, Selene didn’t feel the need to stop herself.

She stepped closer, her fingers trailing down one line before she pressed her lips to the other. His deep groan was the same as he’d made when he kissed her. The sound echoed through her mind until she couldn’t think of anything else.

His reaction made her entire body turn inside out. Lust didn’t hide what his emotions were. He let her know that he wanted her. He stood there, holding onto a post of her bed, waiting for her to do whatever she wanted with him.

And by the seven kingdoms, she wanted to do everything. His warm skin against her lips encouraged her to move further. She pressed her palm flat against his ribs, holding him steady as she trailed her tongue down the marks. He tasted like whiskey, bitter and biting but oh so warm.

Her fingers skated over his warm skin, too warm, but she didn’t care. His back flexed underneath her touch and he shuddered as though holding himself still for her. Exactly how she wanted him.

Selene hadn’t realized how desperately she needed to be the one in control. He overwhelmed her. Made her feel like she was losing bits and pieces of herself every time he touched her. But now, she was taking from him.

Slowly, she tucked her fingers underneath the waistband of his pants. They were flush against him, leaving marks of their own on his waist and lower as she moved her fingers against the round globes of his ass. He tensed, and she refused to stop playing. Selene moved her fingers underneath the tight waistband, skating her fingers over his hip bones to the muscles that pointed right where she wanted to go.

She pressed her front flush against his spine, moaning at the heat that coursed through her body. “I’ve wanted to know what this felt like since the moment I saw you,” she whispered, pressing errant kisses through her words against his spine. “There are rumors about you, you know. That you change your form to please every woman who sleeps with you. That you have unnatural control over the... appendage you use to bring them pleasure.”

The first time she’d heard those rumors, Selene had found herself in her own bedroom with her fingers between her legs. She’d bitten down so hard that she’d tasted blood when she came at the thought of a man who could fully satisfy her, no matter what her preferences might be.

His stomach flexed against the tips of her fingers, so muscular, so smooth. Not a hair on his body even as she dipped her fingers lower. Would she find him hard? Of course he was. Iron hard and aching for the touch she had denied him for so long.

The button of his pants was icy cold, and then she drew her hand deep to find—

A crash of something metallic outside jolted her awake. Selene sat straight up, her hair cascading in front of her vision as she tried to get control over her breathing.

Had she really almost orgasmed from a fucking dream? A dream of him?

She could feel the slickness between her thighs. She was soaked, desiring him as she’d desired no other before, and even in her dreams. And damn it, she ached for him. For his touch. For someone to touch her other than her own hand, which had been lacking lately.

Instead, she thought about his long, lean fingers like the talented digits of a pianist. He probably knew all the places to touch a woman that would bring her to a blinding orgasm, and she knew nothing in comparison.

But then she thought of his hand between her legs, that stupid, sarcastic grin on his face as he watched her come apart around those long fingers and...

“Fucking hell,” she hissed as she laid back down and pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes.

She was not doing this right now. She wasn’t. Selene did not care that he was handsome or that she was having sex dreams about a certain demon who had no right to slither into her mind.

Maybe that was what he’d done. Demons could sneak into people’s heads while they were sleeping. Perhaps he’d done the same to her. She didn’t know that he was there, nor did it feel like he’d somehow possessed her, but demons could. He’d gotten into her dreams. That was his new tactic to wear her down.

But damn it, why should he have to? Her mother had practically told her to seduce him, so why was she holding out?

Rubbing her eyes again, she sighed as she admitted to herself that she enjoyed being the only person he couldn’t seduce. She liked seeing the frustration on his features, but now that frustration had bubbled over into her own mind. She wanted him. He wanted her. Why was she putting them both through this madness?

All it would take was one look. One cocked finger and a raised eyebrow to tell him she wanted him in her bed and he’d come running.

But then she feared what was between them would gutter out and die, like a candle she’d dunked in water. He wouldn’t want her after she’d given him what he wanted.

Therein lay the issue. She couldn’t afford to lose his attention or his regard, but she also feared what would happen if she didn’t give in to him.

Another image of her dream flickered through her mind. What would happen if she touched him like that? Would he groan like he had in her dream?

She felt her entire body flame with a blush. Of course, he would groan like that. He was comfortable with his body. He’d even let her explore him if that’s what she wanted, and he wouldn’t raise a finger to interrupt her. That’s who he was, and damn it, that made her want him even more.

A flush of lust burned through her, and she knew it was dangerous to feel. But she was so overwhelmed with other emotions and the thought of him without his shirt, those pants riding low to reveal the dimples above his hip bones, and all that lovely, velvet skin just waiting for her to touch him.

Someone knocked on her door. A quiet three raps, as though they didn’t want to interrupt anything that was going on in the room.

Blushing, Selene pressed the backs of her cool hands against her cheeks. “Thank you, I’m all right for now! Please come back in an hour. I’d like to rest!”

The knock repeated itself, insistent.

Was she supposed to entertain Greed more today? Was she expected to get ready for yet more embarrassing events?

With that, though, came reality barreling in right behind it. Lust. She was in Lust’s bedroom and he’d slept with her the night before, so why hadn’t he last night?

Frantic, she looked around the room to make sure he wasn’t here. And thank goodness he wasn’t, or she would have died from embarrassment. There was only the open balcony with wind blowing through the thin curtains. She sighed in relief and pressed a hand to her thundering heart. Or maybe the thundering was the damned knocking that continued as though that would make her come open the door quicker.

“Of all the ridiculous ways to wake someone,” she muttered, swinging her leg over the side of the bed and standing. “Yes, yes, I understand you need me to come to the door right now. Why can’t this just—“

She swung the door open and stopped, slack jawed, staring at the demon on the other side.

Lust had one palm braced on the top of her door, his arm raised over his head in a way that put all his muscles on display. He hadn’t buttoned his shirt, and it left far too much space for her to stare at the wall of muscles in front of her.

Selene slammed the walls down in her head, shoving everything underneath the surface of the glacial lake until she almost felt the frigid bite in her body. He couldn’t know. Couldn’t guess. She was nothing but a calm piece of ice that stood before him with no emotions, no thoughts, nothing but cold.

Slowly, she looked up into his eyes to see they had flashed to a deep, glowing purple.

“Can I help you?” she asked. Did her voice sound breathless? Would he guess what she’d been thinking about just moments before he came here? He couldn’t guess. She’d always kept things under wraps and this was no different from that.

But then he captured a wayward curl with his free hand, coiling it around his finger and giving it a gentle tug. “What were you doing?”

“I was sleeping,” she said with a frown. “You woke me.”

“Ah. That is good to know that, of all people, I was the one who woke you.” He tugged on the lock of hair, forcing her to lean closer to him. His voice dropped low and gravely. “Your lust was the sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted, Selene. Better than mead, or wine, or honey. Sweet, just as I believe you will taste.”

She hissed out a low breath, pulling away from him while ignoring the sharp spike of pain from her scalp as she nearly ripped her own hair out. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You can’t hide it from me.”

“We both know very well that I do not feel lust!” she snapped. Selene needed to get control over this situation. She needed him to back away from the door so she could think and not stare at those washboard abs that were quite distracting.

He chuckled, and her entire body clenched at the sound. “Oh, Selene, of all things you could lie to me about, this is not one of them. I can taste it, you know. It is the emotion I feed off of, and every person has a flavor. Yours is my new favorite.”

“And one you will never taste again, I promise you that.” Was it hot in the room? She felt like her entire body was on fire and she needed to... well, she didn’t know how to help herself. Back home, she would have walked outside into the snowy wonderland. But here, near the castle, they were too far away from those peaks to get snow.

He smiled down at her, far too amused. She wanted to slap the expression off his face, but the other half of her wanted to kiss him again. This time under her own terms, knowing that she controlled the kiss and that he was just as affected as her.

His eyes rolled back as he inhaled, deep and long and flexing those muscles as he did so. “Ah, even now I can taste you. What was it that set you off, little moon? I want to know so I can do it again.”

“Absolutely nothing you did,” she snarled, and then slammed the door in his face.

Pressing her back against the wood, she tried to calm her breathing. How did he know? She had everything under control, didn’t she? She had tucked it all away and there was no way that he’d sensed her again. No. He couldn’t have. Not again.

It wasn’t possible. She was chosen for this role because he couldn’t control her with his power. She knew how to control herself and her emotions, even in the wake of his power. Her unique power was born with her, given to her by the gods so that she would be able to take on this role and change the realm.

Right?

She didn’t even have the space to consider all these thoughts because he was knocking on the damn door again.

“What?” she shouted, the word harsh even to her own ears.

But he just laughed. Chuckled as though he thought her aggression was adorable. “Have you ever been on a hunt?”

“No.” Where was he going with this? “I have no interest in chasing down wild animals just to take their lives.”

“Ah, so you have never met a bloodhound, then. They’re remarkable creatures. If you give them the scent of any beast, they will take it and run. They will track the scent throughout the entire seven kingdoms if they must, but they always find their prey.” A soft thud on the side of the door suggested he leaned against it as well. “You’ve given me a taste, Selene. Now I know what you taste like and I will not forget it. You cannot hide any longer from me, although I do wish to know how you hid yourself for so long.”

She swallowed hard. “I will not be another one of your puppets, Demon.”

“Haven’t we been working so hard to prove that you are not? Trust, Selene. That’s what you said I needed to work on and I have proven myself trustworthy to you time and time again. Perhaps you need to work on trusting someone other than that family of yours.”

Her breath shuddered in her lungs, and she heard him walk away from her. As though he hadn’t dumped a flaming pile of shit in her lap and told her to figure out what to do with it.

He could sense her now? Even if she shoved all those emotions away until she had to deal with them later? What was she supposed to do now?

But before she could sink into her panic, she heard him walk back again. He knocked on the door again, and she snarled.

“What is it now?” Selene might have sounded hysterical.

“I don’t think I can control you,” he added. “I did already try to send lust through the door, and I’m not sure you even felt it. Just thought you should know, in case you were worried that changed as well.”

She hadn’t felt it, but maybe that was because she was so panicked that she’d gone a little numb. “Two can play at that game,” she replied. And then she chipped a hole in the lake in her mind. Just a tiny bit, no more than a tablespoon if it had been real.

The amount of lust and desire and passion that flooded through her was overwhelming. She slid down the door to sit on the floor, her hands in fists at her sides so she didn’t take care of her problem herself. Her fingers itched to circle her clit, which appeared to have a heartbeat all of its own, to fill the aching hollowness between her legs.

An answering groan echoed behind the door and he slammed his fist into the wood. “Cruel woman.”

“Go away then, Lust.”

“And let you suffer on your own?”

“I will be managing this on my own, whether you stand outside that door or you leave. You aren’t coming in.” Maybe she should do just that. It would serve him right for being such a prick.

Another groan echoed down the hall. “And I wonder if you make any sounds when you take care of it yourself.”

“Go away, Lust.“

“Fine, but this conversation is not over.”

She hadn’t ever thought it was.