Page 41

When we left Thailand, my family and I all went to Twilight. We decided to spend the night there together and maybe a couple of days after that. We liked to take every opportunity to get together as a family.

My bed was very full that night—full of handsome men and love. The more I held my husbands, the more relief I felt to be done with the Star situation. Amid the slide of flesh, scratch of claws, and whispered words of love, I let Star go. I released the dream and held onto my reality. And I made a wish for him—that he would know this happiness too. It was an honest wish, with nothing held back. I loved Star. That love would remain. But I knew now we could both accept that it wouldn't grow into something more than it was.

I would continue to question the Gods. And I would continue to fight for them if I saw fit. But what happened in my bed was my business alone. No matter if they had a hand in putting these men into my life, they didn't get a say in who I chose to be intimate with. This was mine. Mine and Tiernan's. And Raza's. And Killian's. And Daxon's. And Severriel's.

And no more ands, damn it!

I fell asleep wrapped in love, but I woke up while the stars were still shining. There was a strange urgency in my chest, driving me out of bed. It clawed at me, tearing me away from my sleeping husbands. I crawled out from between them and stood at the foot of the bed, listening for something. Anything. A clue to why I was feeling so tense.

Only the sweet sounds of my men's breathing came to me. And yet, still, there it was—that feeling that something was wrong. Someone was in trouble.

“Star,” I whispered.

Without thought, I pulled on a robe and laleked to him. I appeared in a dark room, only fire lighting it. The shadow of a massive bed loomed to my right, but I went forward, toward the flames. Toward him.

Star hunched in his chair, staring into the fireplace. He didn't have a bottle beside him this time. It was just him, dressed in a pair of loose trousers, undone at the waist. The fire bathed his perfectly sculpted chest in warmth, but his expression was cold. Shut off.

And then his nostrils flared, and his head jerked in my direction. “Seren?” He shot to his feet.

“I felt that something was wrong. With you. Are you all right?”

“I'm fine.” Star's face shivered. His hands clenched into fists. “Go away.”

“I thought the urges were gone? You seemed so much better.”

“Good.” He grimaced and turned back toward the fireplace. “That's what I wanted you to think.”

“Star.” I crossed the distance between us in a second, almost as if something plucked me up and put me there.

With the touch of my hands on his back, Star hunched forward again. And moaned.

“Star, let me help you.”

“How?” he snarled as he spun to face me. “How are you going to help me through this, Seren?” He waved at his erection.

“It doesn't have to be about sex.” I took his hand.

Suddenly, Star's eyes burst into green flames. He grabbed me by the back of my head to yank me into his arms. With his face inches away from mine, he hesitated a second—just long enough to see that I wasn't struggling. That I wanted the same thing. And then covered my lips with his. The kiss surpassed the others we'd shared, and that was saying a lot. Every kiss from Star was a revelation. The only exception was the kiss he deliberately soured. But this, this was beyond anything I thought was possible with a mere touching of lips and tongues.

All reason vanished. All restraint burned away under the lashing of his hot tongue. I grabbed Star's shoulders as my robe fell away, and then his erection pressed against my belly. Gasping, I jerked out of the kiss. But it was only to look at him—to see all I'd been longing to see.

And it was glorious.

Lean, hard, and perfect—King Astaroth of Hell looked as if the hand of God had carved him. A Demon made to seduce. To tempt even the most loyal of women. Even the purest of souls. But his soul was as pure as mine. I knew it because I held a piece of it inside mine.

“Seren, are you sure?” Star whispered.

In answer, I kissed him. This time, I instigated it. There was no going back now. I couldn't. My body was moving with a will of its own, arching into his solid frame. Pulling Star closer. Glorying in the proof of his lust. But it was more than lust, and that was what made him impossible to resist.

His seduction victorious, the Demon King picked me up and carried me to his cave of a bed, the black silk curtains forming a separation between us and the rest of Hell. In that soft cocoon, he laid me down and covered me with his body. We fit perfectly, with Star lodged between my thighs, our heads at the same level, and his cock nestled against my sex. Formed for each other. Two halves of one whole.

And yet, Star didn't slide into me. He didn't complete the act. Instead, he lifted himself on his forearms and stared into my eyes. “Seren.” His hand stroked my cheek. “I can hardly believe you're lying here. How did this happen?”

“I don't know. Maybe the release of Anu's magic created a vacuum.”

Star lips twitched. “And we got sucked into it?”

I just stared at him. He blinked.

“Perhaps you're right.” He bent his head to nuzzle my neck. His breath was hot on my skin, and I heard him inhale deeply. “Seren,” he moaned and rocked his hips, stroking me in the perfect spot with the long length of his sex.

My hands slid down the muscles of his back, following those corded roads to his waist and then the tight curves of his ass. Lightly, I swept my hands over him, and Star gasped, his head thrown back.

“Star, I can't deny it anymore,” I whispered and lifted my head to kiss his chest. The tight bead of his nipple called to me, and I tongued it, loving the way his whole body jerked in response. “I can't do this anymore. I'm tired.”

Star looked down at me. “I don't want to be one of many, Seren.”

“I know. But it's all I can offer you.”

“Then I'll take it.” He lowered his head until his lips brushed mine and added, “For now.”

As Star crushed our lips together, he sank into me, and the bliss of that union made my head spin. Pleasure shot up my spine and curled through my breasts. My nipples went instantly hard and my sex, already slick, tightened around him, pulling him deeper. As if I'd never let go.

It felt that way—unending. Our love and the physical representation of it. We could move like this forever, our bodies in perfect harmony. Pulsing and pushing. Grasping and growling. Digging and driving deep.

I lifted my hips to meet Star's steady thrusts and pulled out of our kiss so I could look at him. His eyes had dulled to a glow, but the intensity in them hadn't dwindled. They were full of emotions he'd been unable to express. At least not in the way he wanted to.

Star kissed my jaw and brushed our lips together as he continued his gentle rocking. “Say it.”

“I love you.”

With those words, Astaroth lost his boundless control. His expression shifted instantly, turning savage, and his next thrust hit me so hard that the massive bed shook. I latched onto his ass and pulled as I bent my knees to meet those primal pumps. My channel pulsed with every thrust of his cock, my flesh coming alive for him. My mind filled with ecstasy, thoughts focused on Star alone. His glowing eyes, the softening of his sardonic lips, and the way his hair fell forward in a silken swath. His body became a thing of bestial beauty—muscles moving with a wild rhythm that was nonetheless graceful. Star was always elegant, even now, lost to the madness of our love.

I cried out with an orgasm that felt as if it were shattering me. Clenching around Star, every muscle I had strove to pull him closer, then they all released and sent me soaring like a snapped rubber band. I sailed through heaven—no, Hell—and knew only beauty and love. Nothing negative could touch me there. I became pure energy shining in the darkness. We became two stars in truth, giving credence to our names. Two lights drawn into one.

But as I came down, Star launched even higher. He slammed into me, harder and harder. And his body pushed at mine strangely. I felt his muscles shift under my hands. When I opened my eyes, I found a monster above me. Star was in his alternate form—a demonic beast lashing the air with his glossy black horns. His eyes burned, their color complementing his rust-red skin. His wings opened with a whoosh and arched over us. Astaroth took up my entire world.

Then he wrapped a clawed hand around my throat and growled, “I'm not sharing, Seren. You're mine!” With that, the Devil locked up and arched into me, spilling hot seed into my pulsing core. It tingled, and that tingling spread to encompass my entire body, gathering in my belly before shooting up and out of my throat as a scream. Whether it was one of pleasure or denial, I'll never know.

Because that's when I woke up.

Panting, I sat up and stared around the dark room. I was back in Twilight. In my bed. Surrounded by my sleeping husbands. But my body was languid from a recent orgasm, my sex drenched, and my heart full of a man it had sworn to deny.

“It was just a dream,” I whispered. “Star did not just vow to steal you away from your husbands. Calm the fuck down, Seren.”

And that's when my scry phone rang.

With a squeak of terror, I launched out of bed and snatched the phone from the table before my husbands could wake up. I couldn't go into my office because we'd turned it into Miri's nursery. So, I darted into the hall—naked. I didn't care. I couldn't answer that scry in my bedroom. Around my sleeping husbands. Because I knew who was calling.

I swept my finger across the slice of crystal, my hand trembling. Star's face didn't appear, only mist filled the crystal, but my heartbeat slowed. My body already knew what was coming.

“Seren,” Star's sleep-roughened voice stroked me. “Tell me the truth.” He paused, then asked, “Did you just dream of me?”

“No!” I hissed. “And don't scry me in the middle of the night!” I swept my finger over the phone, but before the scry ended, I heard Star's mocking laughter.