Page 30 of An Unexpected Ascension (A War Between Worlds #1)

The Demon

Iwatch the little flame ignite in the angel’s soul, flickering and building with each word. It roars inside of her now, fueling her every breath, running wild. So wild, it consumes me, alighting my entire soul.

The energy swarming her jade eyes shines so brightly, I’m nearly blinded.

This.

This is the wrath I seek.

“You’d like to see me free from pain?”

My mouth tilts up teasingly.

“Yes,”

she admits.

“I was wrong to accuse you of lacking a soul. Your hatred for me is hardly just, but it doesn’t mean your heart is empty.”

I grab her hips and pull her between my legs, resting my hands along the outside of her thighs. Her gaze casts down past her pert, little nose as a burn sears my shoulders from the grip of her fingers.

“I see the way you stare at the cut on my face, wince at the bruises you left. I can see how much you regret it.”

A flush washes over her cheeks.

“I’ll tell you what. I’ll get rid of them when you kiss me of your own free will.”

She scoffs, pretending she doesn’t hate looking at the pain she’s caused.

“Whatever, it’s your face.”

“I think I like you better when you’re nice.”

“I don’t like you at all.”

“Not at all?”

I goad, my fingers working towards the buckles of her knife holsters on either leg.

“No.”

They hit the rug without a sound, and I work my way toward the buttons of her jeans. Deliberately slow, I peel the material down her legs, waiting for her to stop me. She doesn’t.

“Not even when I do this?”

I plant my lips along her bare hip bone.

She shakes her head in denial.

Pushing to my feet, I trade places with her, forcing her body to the bed before stripping her bare. Even naked, nipples peaking with desire, she denies me the truth.

“And what about when I do this?”

I kneel at the edge of the bed, her knees hiked up and my face between them. She glistens with arousal, telling me everything she isn’t saying. With one long swipe of my tongue, she groans but only grants me with a menacing smile.

“Even less.”

“A week in Hell and you act like you were born here. The lies come so naturally to you, don’t they?”

Another lick sends a wave of shock through her. Her knees wobble, closing in on me, but I wretch them apart as I begin to devour her to the core. Her slender fingers slip into my hair, holding me to her while she writhes against my mouth.

“But they taste so sweet,”

I murmur against her flesh.

My teeth graze and my tongue thrusts until she’s screaming and squirming, nearly ripping the hair from my head. It does nothing to stop the ravishing. Instead, I shove a finger into her and then another, my mouth working her into a maniacal frenzy.

This time, she allows me to bring her to the highest peak of pleasure with an act as intimate as she claims it to be. Her moans ring throughout the tent, drowning the forest’s whispers and on the tail end of that beautiful song, my name. It echoes like a curse, taunting me for everything I am and I... despise it.

Hermes, the title of a soulless demon. A messenger from Hell. The Devil’s soldier.

A name given to me by the fearful, the righteous, the damned.

When my name flutters out of the angel’s mouth, I find myself loathing that vapid epithet. Though, I can’t bring myself to have any other name on her tongue. So, for now, I will be just that to her – a soulless demon from Hell.

Crawling up her body, I swipe my tongue into her parted mouth, sucking away the ragged breath from her lungs. Her lips dance with mine, never leading, but always ready to follow. Still spelled by her climax, she chases every kiss until that fog starts to wane and she remembers who I am.

Then, the angel slips from beneath me, crawling to her knees.

“Lay down.”

My brow quirks in question as her demanding tone fills me with amusement.

“For?”

“Well, your turn obviously.”

Her face flushes a dark shade of pink, surely from my chuckle.

“I don’t need you to reciprocate.”

“That doesn’t seem fair. What do you get out of all that?”

“I get a bit of fun.”

She rolls her eyes, already making her way under the covers.

“Fun? I didn’t think you knew what that was.”

I strip myself of my clothes and follow after her, wrapping my arm around her body to pull her to me.

“It’s subjective, isn’t it? We all have our definition of fun. For me, it’s watching you come all over my tongue.”

A shudder rolls through her, her shoulders vibrating against my touch. Lazily, I trail my fingers from her breasts to the center of her stomach, laying my palm along her belly and tucking her tighter to me. I may loathe this woman, but she is a woman after all. Her soft against my hard, it’s a comfort I didn’t know I wanted or rather, liked.

“I think it may be you who likes to hold me,”

she teases.

“Mmmm. Perhaps. What does it make me if I enjoy the feel of a woman’s body?”

“A man.”

“A man, you say? Not a demon or a beast?”

“Definitely all those things, but under it all, just a man. With a heart?—”

“Not a heart. Not for you, Angel. Just an appreciation for pretty things.”

“Tell yourself that all you want, but you wouldn’t spend your eternity trying to get vengeance on Gods if you had no heart, no soul. You just pretend like you don’t, you’d rather shut out all the good things because with the good most always comes the bad.”

She wriggles her body onto her side to face me, my hand travels with the movement up onto her hip. Even with the lantern’s light extinguished, the round gems of her eyes still sparkle like emeralds gilded by the sun. I wait for that spiteful beast of hatred inside of me to rear its head, to lash out at that familiar stare, but all I see is the angel. I see her dark hair like a veil beneath her, rosy cheeks flushed with desire, lips waiting to be devoured.

Her face inches closer to mine ever so slowly as if she’s about give in and lay that kiss upon me. Only, she doesn't. Her breath flutters over my mouth, her lashes nearly brush my cheek, my nose.

Delicate fingers graze over the bruise still coloring my face while her thumb caresses the cut. After a few days of letting it sit, the purple and blue washed into a gnarly greenish yellow.

I wait.

Patiently, I wait.

For her to close the gap between our lips.

Finally, I tilt my face towards hers, letting her off the hook, but she retreats just the slightest, keeping the distance between us. A sly smile graces her face, and I realize it’s the first real one she’s ever given me. The very image of it slithers deep inside of me as if it were something of magic. It heats my blood, softens my bones, it... cracks my heart in two.

I’m going to kill the Devil when we return for sending her here with me.

Enough with the merciless teasing from this wicked woman.

At last, I wrap my palm around the back of her skull and force our collision. Her mouth crashes into mine and I swallow a yelp of shock from her. I work her lips, her body, her blood until she sings for me once again.

And this time, I let myself lose control to the madness, fucking her well into the night.