Page 24

Chapter twenty-two

A strid yanked against the simple gold bangles caught on Dimitri’s talon. His harsh caresses tormented her, and worse, her body betrayed her, reacting to his touch. Softening as his warmth and the scent of winter nights in a darkened forest surrounded her.

His fingers found her clit and a spike of pleasure ricocheted through her. Dimitri toyed with her piercing, and she twisted in her bindings.

“I want you to see how wet you are, neva.”

Astrid blinked up at the thin gold bands anchoring her to the top of his wing and cursed the mystically-reinforced metal.

Another reason to eviscerate Keres when she escaped.

Cold metal chilled her knee and Dimitri’s sword flanked her memory. She jerked as her heart drummed—and stilled when she realized it was the mirror from the hall.

“And you’re going to watch while I fuck you,” Dimitri rasped.

He held her, open and exposed. A coward’s act to intimidate her. Astrid knew she was wet. The heat pooling between her legs was undeniable, but this wasn’t about proof. This was about power. A show of how much he wielded and how little he believed she held.

Astrid glanced at him over her shoulder. Firm lips and the strong cut of his jaw filled her vision. “Is that what you want? For me to watch, my lord?”

She turned back toward the mirror when he didn’t reply. Did he expect her to contort herself and cry? To hide from him? Her body was a weapon, and like the rest of her arsenal, she wasn’t ashamed of it.

“I prefer to be called by my name,” Dimitri said, casually toying with her piercing.

The heady sensation consumed her. “Is that so, my lord?”

Wood groaned, and she found him opening the top drawer of his nightstand with the clawed edge of his wing.

He hooked the round tin, setting it on the bed.

The black velvet pouch followed. He’d said he’d fuck her with the metal plug in her ass, but she’d hoped he’d get caught in the moment and forget himself.

She gazed skyward and concentrated on the illicit feel of his hand between her legs.

“Watch the mirror, neva.”

It was too soft to be an order. Astrid recognized the skewed words he conveniently posed as a suggestion.

This is a test.

Astrid lowered her lashes and met the gleam of his molten gold eyes in the glass.

He’d angled it so she’d see exactly what he did to her while having a view of his predatory gaze.

What was meant to shock her instead felt like a layer of separation.

Now this was a narrative she could lose herself in.

The reflection was a female with a noble who loved and cherished her. A scene from a book played out before her. Astrid moaned and rolled her hips in time with Dimitri’s touch. She would pretend tonight, and focus on her imagined couple. A letter to her cousins was all that mattered.

Navigating her emotions was infinitely easier when she considered her enemy in terms of war. She would win on this battlefield and position the next front. But it didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy the warfare.

Astrid’s midnight eyes met Dimitri’s. “Do you think she wants you?” she asked, rocking into his hand. A smile teased the corner of his mouth as the tension thrumming beneath her skin intensified.

“I think I own her,” Dimitri purred at her ear. Before she could argue his point, he brought the third plug to her face.

Astrid’s temper flared and she turned away. “I said I would give myself to you, not sink into your perversions.”

Dimitri’s palm pressed into the corner of her chin and forced her to face the mirror once more. The way he held her made the phallic metal tip press against her lips and Astrid thrashed.

She only accomplished the scrape of gold on bone and Dimitri’s dark laughter.

“Shh,” he soothed. “It’s clean. Open your mouth.”

Astrid clamped her teeth shut and glared at him through the corner of her eye.

“I won’t make you swallow it.” The politeness in his tone waltzed with her rage as he shrugged and added, “Tonight.”

Astrid didn’t budge. Her jailor was absolutely—

Dimitri’s shrouded death magic engulfed her without warning. She moaned as the gentle serrated teeth entwined with her soul, seeking every crevice. Owning every part of her.

Astrid came hard, tremoring against the unyielding planes of Dimitri’s chiseled body.

She kept her jaw tight as her captor drew out each wave of bliss as they rained over her.

He teased her clit in unhurried circles and her pleasure intensified into rapture.

A second orgasm crashed over her and Astrid’s lids fluttered closed.

“Open for me, Princess,” Dimitri purred. “It’s this or I have a ring made for that pretty mouth of yours. Decide.”

If he commissioned a ring, it would undoubtedly come equipped with the metal plug he held. She would choke while he forced it down her throat.

“You only have to take a few inches.” Dimitri kissed her temple and smiled against her browbone. “Show me how badly you want to suck my cock. Convince me, and I won’t work it into your ass.” He chuckled and raised a brow, catching her reflection’s gaze. “ Tonight .”

Shame branded her, leaving fissures in her soul. Astrid swallowed her pride and shored up her cold logic as waves of ecstasy battered her resolve. His desire was her weapon. And if the plug was in her mouth, he couldn’t shove it in her ass.

Astrid went rigid and parted her lips, ready for him to jam the phallic metal into her teeth.

The assault never came. She hesitated in the space between her heartbeats, then opened wider.

Its weight rested against her mouth, cold and heavy.

Astrid leaned forward, licking the tip as it breached her lips.

“Take the head in your mouth,” Dimitri crooned from behind her.

She obeyed, sliding the smooth steel past her lips as she sucked. Dimitri stopped teasing her clit and Astrid sighed at the reprieve. He unfastened his pants, and she stilled as the hard length of his cock glided along her pussy.

“Did I tell you to stop?” Dimitri asked.

The plug at her lips pressed deeper, forcing her to open wider, but stopped before she gagged. Astrid struggled to time her breaths as its girth slid in and out of her mouth.

“Spread your legs for me, neva.”

Another order. She hated them, but complied nonetheless, fantasizing about the dawn finding his mutilated corpse.

Dimitri took himself in hand and the broad crown teased her clit, then moved lower. He wedged the blunt tip into her cunt and Astrid arched her back, unable to escape the invasion.

He thrust a knee between her thighs, hooking her leg over his. Astrid braced herself, squeezing her eyes shut. She was too vulnerable in this position—could do nothing to stop him from impaling her.

“I’ll offer you a bargain,” Dimitri purred.

Astrid’s attention darted to the glass, but his amber gaze was fixed lower. The veined length of his cock stood proud, poised at her entrance.

“I’ll stop fucking your mouth for the night, but only after you’ve buried my cock in your pretty cunt.”

Astrid cursed as she looked away. Serpents devour you.

Dimitri palmed her breast, pinching the tight peak until she cried out around the steel trapping her voice.

Humor colored his words as he said, “Watch the mirror.”

Astrid cast her eyes down. The sooner she fulfilled his bargain; the sooner she could rest the ache developing in her jaw.

She rolled her hips tentatively and watched the reflection beneath her.

The head stretched Astrid’s opening and electricity fired through her.

The serrated teeth of his death magic caressed her as the golden hue of her soul shimmered against Dimitri’s shadows.

He drank, savoring her with quiet pulls. Pinpricks of glittering light caught in the current of his appetite swirled around her. Dimitri’s shadows curled, darkening the room until she was surrounded by a night sky lit with pieces of her flickering soul.

Dimitri tugged on her nipple, teasing the very tip, but Astrid kept her eyes fixed on the reflection.

This was the lady and her nobleman, Astrid reminded herself. She clung to her invented narrative, envisioning silk, candlelight, and fresh flowers.

The head of Dimitri’s cock spread her open and pressed inside.

A night of lovemaking after years of pining at court.

Her lashes fluttered with the next fall of her hips.

He would take his time, working his cock into her with gentle strokes.

Tension strung her tight as she rose and fell slowly on Dimitri’s cock. A bitter corner of her mind wondered how many females Dimitri had taken to his bed to master his specific brand of cruelty.

He knew when to hurt her. When the bite of pain against her tight nipples would add to the crescendo of pleasure building inside her. More than that, the soft touch he administered after the hurt beckoned something dark crawling through her.

She could deny the desire he kindled in her, but her traitorous body sang and ached for him. She couldn’t stop the orgasm threatening to break her. Couldn’t stop from arching her back and taking his cock deeper. Her cunt rhythmically squeezed his thick length and Astrid cried out around the steel.

Dimitri’s groan answered. “I’ll never get enough of your greedy cunt coming on my cock.”

He continued fucking her mouth and Astrid tossed her head. The phallic gag remained firmly in place and Dimitri chuckled.

“I said I would stop when you took all of me, Princess. You still have another inch.” He leaned back and Astrid gasped at the change of angle. A callused hand squeezed her ass, and he added, “Maybe two.”