Kiss of a Demon King (13 page)

18

T
he 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 brushing 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
come
!” 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—”

“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

T
hat 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, anyway?” 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 Rydstrom’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 proprietary 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.

Conceived my child
. He found himself wanting it to be true—even as he knew the clock would begin ticking down on his life. If she was pregnant, they would have no more use for him. More than ever, he had to escape.
Take my female, take my child, return for my kingdom….

Rydstrom needed the sorceress here. He’d hurt her, and he wanted the chance to make it up to her. But he was uneasy over more than the pain he’d given her. Though he’d taken Sabine, she wasn’t his wife, and he hadn’t completely claimed her as his mate.

He needed to mark her to satisfy his demon instincts.

Rydstrom tensed when he heard loud footfalls sounding down the dungeon steps. Shortly after, three large males entered the cell, all clearly Inferi slaves. He recalled Sabine’s fury—had she left orders for him to be beaten?

The largest one began unchaining Rydstrom. Which meant a chance to escape. He stilled in readiness. Three Inferi could never control a demon—

Again a powder stung his eyes.
Gods damn them…
Yet this time Rydstrom remained awake, seeing.

Only he couldn’t move.

There was something in the men’s eyes as they gazed at his prone body. Once Rydstrom recognized it, his heart went cold.

Lust.

When they strung him up in the shower and stripped his pants from him, Rydstrom couldn’t move a muscle to fight them. As they washed his deadened body, he was impotent to do anything but stare at the ceiling as a scalding hatred blazed inside him.

She’d done this to him. Sabine had ordered this, knowing how much he would despise it.

Once he escaped, he’d humiliate her in front of a thousand demons, he’d
give
her to them to use. As soon as the thought arose, rage erupted in him, possession burning hot….

He lost himself in that rage, going awash in it, again vowing for the cruelest revenge. An exact reprisal to her, for every wrong she’d dealt him.

I won’t rest until I’ve made her pay.