Page 22

ALIX

M y eyes flutter open, and I stare up into Daemon’s bright green gaze.

For a moment, happiness and excitement swell in my chest. I feel safe, content, home… and then he’s jostling me and nearly screaming in my face. What the ? —

I sit up and blink several times. I don’t know where I am and it takes a long second to process that we’re out on the balcony of the castle. It’s still dark out, and I think I can smell just a hint of rain in the air. How did I get here?

Daemon cradles me in his lap as if I fainted. I tune into what he’s saying and pick out words like “sleepwalking” and “jump.”

I shake my head. “I don’t sleepwalk.”

“Yes, you fucking do. You could have killed yourself and it would have taken hours for anyone to notice.”

Seriously? Could my nightmares have really gotten so bad that I was about to fling myself off the castle balcony? “I don’t even remember falling asleep.”

Daemon glowers down at me. He’s sitting flat on the stone floor of the balcony, as if he collapsed as soon as he pulled me back from certain death. His back is up against the columns of the railing, and I’m draped across his lap.

I try to sit up and can’t help but smile slightly which only makes his scowl turn darker. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was really angry with me, but I think I do know better…or I’m starting to.

“This is the last fucking straw,” he rages, more to himself than to me. “How many ways can you nearly die before—” he breaks off, looking down at me with blatant pain on his face.

My breath catches and there’s a swooping in my stomach as if I’m falling from the balcony for real. “I’m fine. You saved my life…again.”

“But Alix?—”

I don’t want to hear whatever he has to say next. I’m sure he wants to go over and over this latest accident with a thousand questions and no more answers than we started with. I’m sure he’ll tell me that he’s just doing his job guarding me, and that there can’t be anything between us.

But I know better.

I saw his face in the ballroom, and just now when I woke up. He looks how I feel—like I’m dying every time we’re together and not touching. He makes me feel crazy—but he likes crazy girls.

I shift closer. He looks at me in wonderment when I scramble into his lap, straddling him, my knees touching the cold stone on either side.

I feel him freeze as I put my hands on his shoulders and lean in to press my mouth against his. I run the tip of my tongue over his bottom lip and hear his breath catch.

“Alix, we need to talk about this,” he says against my mouth.

“Later.”

“You almost died twice tonight.”

Yes, and isn’t it clear that’s exactly why I want to fucking do something? I don’t want to talk or wait or wonder anymore if there’s something real between us. No more back and forth or avoiding each other. I want him, and I’m positive he wants me too.

As if he can read my mind, Daemon leans forward and presses his mouth firmly against mine. His hands trail up my back and pull me more tightly against him. His fingers tangle in the fabric of my long nightgown and begin to inch it up my thighs.

I moan and rock into the hard length of him, straining against his trousers.

He pushes my nightgown up until it pools around my waist and glances down.

“Fuck, Peaches.”

I almost laugh at how his pupils dilate when he sees I’m not wearing anything under the thin nightgown. Ellender has a lot of things going for it that the human world doesn’t, but they don’t seem to have mastered comfy and functional underwear. Right now I definitely don’t mind being without my cotton hip huggers.

I rock against him, providing delicious friction between my bare thighs. My clit brushes against the rough fabric and throbs, the beginnings of an orgasm already starting at the base of my spine.

I close my eyes and tip my head back, a moan escaping my lips.

He tears the rest of my nightgown off and dips his head to take my bare nipple into his mouth, only making me moan louder. It’s not lost on me that I’m entirely naked while he’s still fully clothed. Before, or with anyone else, that might make me feel vulnerable, used, but right now, it’s the opposite. I feel powerful, like all of his attention is mine, and I’m the one in control of what happens next.

The tingle at the base of my spine grows until it's a small fire licking up my insides and burning in my lower belly. He groans deep in his chest as I rock against him. His hands trace over my bare skin and skate along my breasts while his hot tongue drags across one nipple, then the other. Flicking back and forth until I think I might scream.

I’m wound so tightly that just another minute and I could probably come from this alone, but that’s not what I want. “I want you inside me.”

He groans again, somewhere between satisfaction and pain. “Whatever you want, Peaches.”

I reach between us and fiddle with his belt. He leans back harder against the stone railing to watch, then stiffens. A hiss of pain escapes his mouth.

I stop and look up, concerned. “I forgot about your back. Are you okay?”

He blinks at me incredulously. “Am I okay ? Fuck, Peaches, I think you’re going to kill me.”

“Sorry!” I pull my hands back.

He shakes his head, still looking half bemused, half in pain, and whips a large hand out. His fingers tangle in my hair and he yanks my face back to his to whisper against my mouth. “I hope you do kill me. I can’t think of a better way to go.”

I let out a sigh and a breathy laugh as he wraps an arm around my waist and stands, taking me with him. My legs instinctively wrap around his waist and he sits me back on the edge of the railing. His large hands clamp down on my thighs, holding me safely in place before pushing my legs wider apart.

I reach for his belt again, and he bats my hand away. “Not yet.”

He sinks to his knees in front of me and doesn’t hesitate before pressing a hot kiss to my inner thigh. His fingers skate up the outside of my thighs, dancing closer to my hipbones.

My entire body shudders at the first hot lick of his tongue over my center.

He presses his tongue flat and drags it up and down, languishing me with gentle pressure. I squirm, the fire in my belly building higher.

He finally moves to my clit, sucking it lightly into his mouth and letting his teeth scrape lightly. Heat radiates through me, but I try to push it back. I want him inside me when I come. I want to ride my pleasure out together and feel how hard he grows watching me.

My hands land in his hair and twist, forcing his face up to mine. He licks his lips and smirks at me. “Something wrong, Peaches?”

I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience. I’m so hot, my skin seems to hum with awareness. I think it’s probably cold out here, but I can’t feel it. My gaze is fuzzy, but through all that, I still know what I want. “If you don’t fuck me right now, I really will kill you.”

He laughs and gets to his feet, simultaneously pulling his shirt over his head. The bandages from when he saved me the first time tonight cross over his tattoos, hiding the designs from view.

I keep my legs spread, and he stands directly between my legs and begins to undo his belt. I wrap my arms around his neck and drag my tongue over his jaw, his neck, up to the point of his ear.

His belt hits the ground, the metal clanking against the stone. Then he flips open the button and pulls his cock out.

I wrap my own fingers around his. A low growl emanates from him and he lets out a hiss as we both guide him toward my entrance.

I’m still so sensitive, so close to the edge, that as he presses into me, I begin to shudder and my legs shake. He grips them tightly, holding them open as he slides slowly into me.

Jesus fucking Christ.

He doesn’t move for a moment, just pulsing inside me, and I can’t breathe. Every nerve ending in my body is turned on and alert. I feel like I’m dancing on the edge of a knife about to fall—in more ways than one.

“Fuck,” he swears.

Then before I know what’s happening, he’s lifting me up and striding back into the castle, his cock still lodged firmly inside me. I wrap my arms and legs around him, helpless to do anything as he kicks the balcony door closed and marches me toward the bed.

“What are you doing?” I gasp.

He lowers me to the bed and braces his hands on either side of me, never pulling out. “I want to fuck you so hard my cock will form a permanent imprint inside you, and I can’t do that while making sure you don’t fall off the balcony.”

Before I can think of anything to say to that, he straightens. Gripping me on both sides where my hips and thighs meet, he looks down, watching as he slowly pulls out of me and pushes back in again.

We both take in the sight as he slowly fucks me. My breath hitches, and I hold it. I feel like I’m waiting for something, but I’m not entirely sure what.

The orgasm that I’ve been fighting since the moment he first touched me starts building again, but this time it feels deeper. Stronger. Not like a sudden spike of pleasure, but like a wave rolling in and growing.

I let out the breath I was holding in and gasp. “Oh my God,” I whisper, my voice hoarse, my breathing uneven. “Give me more. Please.”

He growls again and abruptly pulls out of me, flipping me over on my stomach. Before I even process the shift, he’s sliding back into me again. “Fuck, you’re so wet.”

I press my face into the blanket, whimpering with pleasure as he slides out again and hammers into me, building that wave inside me higher and higher.

He grips all my hair in one fist and pulls, yanking my head roughly to the side, then leans forward, his chest pressing flat against my back. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see him as he bends to capture my lips again.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Alix,” he says—not like he wants me to hear it but like he’s thinking out loud. “So perfect. So mine.”

I whimper, suddenly remembering him saying something like that on the day I learned about the curse. Does that mean it was an instinct even then?

It can’t get better than this, right?

But it does.

“Oh my God, Daemon,” I breathe.

“Say it again.”

Keeping one hand in my hair, he presses even deeper inside me, so deep I swear I can feel it in my stomach. With his free hand, he reaches around to rub my throbbing clit, and I let out a sharp half-scream. Stars twinkle on the edge of my vision, and for a moment, I wonder if it’s possible to pass out from pleasure.

“Say it again,” he repeats more urgently, his breath hot in my ear.

“What?” I gasp.

“Say my name.”

“Daemon,” I gasp. “Please.”

My body finally gives out, unable to hold back the wave any longer. I squeeze my eyes shut, my mouth falling open in a silent scream as every muscle in my body tightens around him. My vision blurs, and I’m so overwhelmed I barely hear it when he growls it in my ear.

“Mine.”