Page 93 of Lord of Bones

The thought had me heating.

I’d never thought about having kids before, just because I’d never thought I’d ever find anybody worth doing it with. But with Belial…

I stuffed that thought back down into the deepest part of my mind as soon as it formed. It was too dangerous and complicated and would never be possible.

I was going home tomorrow, and this demon wasn’t coming with me.

“Demons can’t impregnate humans, little Rayven.”

Right. Of course. Good.

That should have been a good thing.

It was a good thing…

So why was there a hot, uncomfortable pang pulling under my gut and burning into my marrow?

“Fuck me harder,” I pleaded, wanting to cover the agony with a different kind of pain. “Don’t stop. Don’t be gentle.”

He shoved into me, his pistoning thrusts unforgiving and brutal.

The pain was good but it wasn’t enough. I needed him closer, deeper. I wanted him to brand himself onto my very soul so I’d never forget him.

“Harder. I won’t break,” I said, even as I felt myself shattering apart around him.

I screamed my release, the sharp spike of pain drowned out in ecstasy.

“Rayven…” My name in his mouth was a curse and a prayer all in one. A plea. A man at war with himself as he released inside me.

His seed was hot and thick and gushed inside me in several spurts. He camea lot.The combination of my slick and his gushed down my thighs and left the sheets beneath my knees cold and wet.

Belial reached around, undoing my cuffs. When they fell away, I reached up to pull my blindfold off, but before I could, he flipped me around so I was on my back, his hand pinning my wrists over my head.

His free hand pulled my legs apart and with another thrust he was inside me again. He was still hard as a rock, and this time he didn’t just fuck me. He made love to me.

It was slow and tender, and it went on for the rest of the night. The hours bled into one another.Webled into one another, until I wasn’t sure where I ended and he started. It was the closest thing to heaven that existed for me in this realm of the dead. If I died and my soul ended up on a shelf in the castle library, I knew this would be one of the memories I lived out for all eternity.

When sleep finally began to take hold of me, I imagined we’d fall asleep curled up with one another, but he continued to use me even as the darkness folded in.

Chapter35

RAYVEN

I couldn’t remember ever sleeping sopeacefully as I did with Belial beside me. Tucked into the crook of his arm, I felt so safe, so comfortable, with my head resting on his chest.

My eyes fluttered as exhaustion threatened to pull me back under, but they popped back open when a subtle thumping noise caught my attention. It was a heartbeat. Faint, but there, beneath my cheek.

So, he did have a functioning heart.

Its gentle pitter-patter had my own picking up speed, blood racing through my veins. I never imagined something as simple as a heartbeat could have me feeling more alive in the realm of the dead than I ever had among the living.

I glanced at the heavy curtains covering the floor-to-ceiling windows. Pale light–not red–spilled in through the gap in the fabric.

It was the third day, All Hallows’ Eve.

A perfect day to escape Limbo.

It was a bittersweet thought that had my stomach knotting. I couldn’t stay here, but the notion of getting out of this bed almost brought me physical pain.