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Valeen set down her bag and fell off the last step into Hel’s arms. Her lips crashed into his. His mouth opened allowing her tongue inside, and his grip on her hips tightened, his fingers digging into her skin.

“Mmm, you know what this means.”

“That you’ll want more?” she said and smiled against his lips. “I love you, Hel. I wish none of this ever happened. It was always supposed to be you. My heart is yours.” She pushed a lock of hair off his forehead and kissed the scar on his brow. “I knew it at Presco’s apartment. But I was too scared to say it. You asked me what I wanted that night. I want you. Every part of you. The good and the bad.”

“It feels like I’ve waited an eternity to hear you say that.” She hadn’t seen him genuinely happy in a long time, but he was now. He circled his arms around her waist, lifted her off the step then they were moving through darkness until they stood on the rooftop balcony overlooking the manor’s property. The cool night air swept through his hair. The stars and moons were bright enough to see the plains of his face, his body, but it was dark enough to keep secrets. The sounds of chirping crickets and the coos of birds filled the evening around them. A bed waited up here, along with a few books and a gold pot of jasmine.

He tossed her onto the soft feather duvet, and she fell back waiting for her king to take what was his. “Are you absolutely certain?” He climbed over her, straddling her body, pinning her arms down beside her head. His lips crashed into hers, and a soft moan escaped her.

I’m certain.

He let out a low growl and his lips moved down her throat, leaving a trail of heat like molten lava, the kisses intense with passion and need. “You want me to make you mine, love?”

“Yes.”

He released his hold on her and sat up. “You know my rule.” He slowly unbuttoned his shirt, agonizingly slow. “Once I have you, that’s it. There is no one else.”

“There is only you.”

His smile was pure seduction. “You’re not afraid of my darkness anymore?” She gripped the soft blankets beneath her, eagerly awaiting his touch.

“It was never your darkness I feared. It was that I craved it. Give me your serpent’s bite. Infect me with your venom. I want it all.”

He let out a wicked laugh and pulled off his top, revealing his glorious body. His low-hanging pants revealed his “V” and his KING tattoo, and she remembered achingly clearly how she used to trace those letters over and over and what it did to him. With a snap of his fingers her clothes vanished, and she was in a crimson nightgown as sheer as his want for her.

“Good gods, I knew you’d look delicious in that but damn.”

She trembled as he climbed over her, and hooked her legs around his hips. His fingers trailed across her lips, just a brush, a tease. “You’re the most wonderful being there’s ever been, goddess of night.” His light touch trailed down her throat and over to the lily mark on her arm. “I have thought about this night for months now, and how I would do this if you gave in to me.”

“Oh?” Valeen arched a brow and ran her fingers over the rune on his chest that resembled the outline of a thick, black teardrop with two arcs through it. It was for healing others, one of his few selfless runes. “Is that why you set up this spot out here?”

“At first, it’s where I came to escape when I couldn’t stop thinking about you. When I wanted to come into your room and fuck you senseless.” His warm lips met the spot below her ear; she gasped at the softness of it. “But sitting out here under the stars alone only made me wish you were with me, and I set out books you’d like, and your favorite color of blanket. Plum purple.” He flicked his wrist and lit candles appeared along the edges of the balcony. The smell of the jasmine drifted on the breeze, mixed with his delicious masculine scent.

She pushed her fingers into his hair as his lips pressed on the swell of her breast. “And did you touch yourself thinking of me while out here all alone?” He’d once teased her about that. It was fun to taunt back.

“More than once,” he admitted, and his hot breath brushed against her skin, sending tendrils of desire through her.

“And in your mind did you have me on the bed? Or perhaps against the railing over there.” She arched into his kiss on her chest. “Tell me.”

She felt his smile against her skin, and he lifted his head. His hands closed around her wrists like steel cuffs. “Naughty girl. You’re being impatient. I’ve waited a very long time for this. You’ll wait and see.”

Valeen dropped her legs from around his waist. “We can do it more than once. If I recall correctly you’re good for three, maybe four rounds.”

He chuckled and smashed his lips to hers. Restraint be damned. “Because you’re a greedy thing. Always demanding more.”

On his knees, between her legs, he dragged his fingertips down her body, tearing through the red nightgown like it was soft paper. The cool breeze pebbled her skin and she let out a strangled moan. Those hands of his left a trail like hot coals on her skin.

“You’re even more stunning than I remembered. Look at you.” She blushed and his magic slithered up her legs, her thighs and over her hips and belly like fingertips. His heavy-lidded eyes drank her in. “You’re everything I ever dreamed of and more.” He lightly touched the top of her thigh brushing his thumb over the rune mark that saved her from a pale-one bite. A breath later his mouth was on her belly, tongue dragging over salty skin. “You taste like Serenity.”

“And you look as sinful as the underrealm.”

More kisses explored her body, her shoulders, her neck, her chest, and she ached for more. Then his tongue slid along her inner thigh, stopping just before the apex, and she whimpered, body trembling. “Hel, don’t stop.”

He lifted his head with a wicked grin. “Tell me what you want?”

No more teasing, no more waiting.“Show me why you’re the god of mischief.”

All the playful banter faded for shadows and midnights. A soft pink ribbon snaked around her wrists, pulling her arms overhead, anchoring her to the mattress. He lifted her left leg and kissed the inside of her ankle, where his lips met a glimmering black kiss imprint was left tingling her skin with a pleasant sensation. The heat of the mouth lingered when he moved to the inside of her knee leaving another mark, then the soft skin of her inner thigh like new vibrant tattoos or his runes. Each imprint felt like his lips still remained until it slowly seeped into her skin and vanished.