Page 59 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion (Tales of a Monstrous Heart, #2)

I love you. I wanted to say, but he kissed me.

Deep and claiming. I arched myself closer in answer, revelling in my victory.

How my hands slid so greedily into his hair.

How closely he held me, as if fearful the air itself would come between us.

How ravenously my fingers dug into the muscles of his back.

Wanting to touch every inch of him. Crazed with the feeling of his skin against my own.

My magic flared and bit where his curled and stroked so teasingly.

His kiss was ruthless and my knees went weak in surrender to it.

‘What do you want?’ he whispered wickedly against the curve of my throat as I gasped for breath. The same way he had when we’d been tangled like this before.

‘You,’ I answered, as I always would.

Then I found myself on the scattering of blankets and pillows by the fire.

I raised myself on my elbows, breathing unsteadily as I looked down at my body where he suddenly knelt.

Right between my legs. My cheeks burnt, my heart racing as he crawled over me.

His lips running a torturous trail up my bare stomach.

‘Emrys,’ I whimpered, but he was clearly done with talking. The only answer to my plea was his wicked smile before his clever fingers pulled at the lacings of my trousers.

I arched my hips in answer as he expertly pulled my leathers away, only to capture my calf and lay a kiss on the inside of my knee, that hungry gaze never leaving my own.

‘You’re being wicked,’ I gasped, flushed at just how exposed I was but unable to find any shame. Not here as the firelight played over his skin.

‘It’s in my nature, Croinn.’ He stroked those words against my thigh before stilling. His thumb dragged over that small raised scar across the delicate skin. Still pink from the forsaken iron from that demonic pit beneath Fairfax. Taking longer to heal.

The wound he’d healed. He went so still at the sight of it I feared he’d withdraw. Only for those dark eyes to meet my own, burning with more emotion than just simply desire.

‘I’ve never prayed for anything. Knowing no blessed ancestors could be watching over a creature like me, but I prayed that night.’ His voice filled with such agony. ‘I told them I’d give them anything they wanted in return for you.’

My heart dropped within my chest at the weight of his words. Of what it meant. Bargains for life were the most dangerous of all.

‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ I sat up, shaking my head, but he smiled, cupping my face so gently between his palms.

‘Then I understood. Perhaps I am the darkness they fear. Because given the choice of this world or you, I’d always choose you, Kat.’

A promise. So steadfast, so certain, that everything suddenly felt safe. A comforting calmness consumed my soul, my magic nestling quietly behind my ribs as his own brushed my skin. Cool enough to raise gooseflesh as it demanded my attention, longing for it as keenly as its master.

He ducked closer, his smile brushing the flushed skin of my cheek as my fingers curled over his broad shoulders. ‘Without a thought. I’ll always choose you.’

Even if it meant the world.

Verr were devout in their loyalty . Viciously so . That warning whispered through my mind. It should have scared me but I kissed him instead. Deep and demanding. Not caring for anything but him. Not wanting anything but this.

His grip tightened on my waist to drag me closer as his other hand slipped between my thighs.

Torturously gentle. Approval rumbling through his chest at the wetness he found there.

At how wildly it undid me. Feeling the teasing desire-filled bite of his magic over my abdomen and breasts, making me arch into the warmth of his skin.

‘Say it again,’ he commanded against the shell of my ear.

‘ Eria ,’ I gasped and he rewarded me with a kiss. Slow and torturous. Devouring me as I parted my lips, wanting more, and his tongue claimed everything else, and in that wildness two fingers slipped inside. Curling wickedly as he began those teasing stokes.

My stuttered breath broke the kiss, holding onto the solid firmness of his shoulders as his lips slipped down to my jaw. My head fell back at the ecstasy of his play, as his lips continued their torment down between my breasts.

I fell back against the cushions, arching my hips, wanting more of him as his tongue dragged over my hipbone before his teeth gave a wicked bite.

Making me moan, unable to bear it. His fingers curling expertly as his thumb manipulated my sensitive nerves.

Too breathless to beg, but I didn’t need to.

The mere sight of me seemed to shatter the rest of Emrys’s control as those teasing kisses moved between my legs.

Then he feasted.

A choked, strangled sound escaped me. Unable to comprehend how good it felt. The memory of it felt like a disservice. Seeing the strong line of his shoulders, the movement of his muscles as he worshipped me. My hands curled helplessly into his damp hair.

Then his fingers continued their torment and all I could do was writhe and gasp. His other hand at my backside, fingers digging commandingly into the flesh to keep me in place. Firmly committed to the task.

Then it came, a soft fluttering that built until my back arched, my toes curling into the blankets beneath me.

A delirious tightening in every muscle, making his name escape my lips like some devout prayer.

He didn’t let me go right away, content to drag it out of me, until I was limp and trembling in the aftermath.

He caressed my thighs, watching my breathlessness with fiendish delight as he made his way up my body, fingertips barely brushing my breast as if to feel the unsteadiness of my breath.

‘Fucking beautiful.’ He kissed me, all that wickedness on his lips. My hands ran down the hard plains of his chest, nails biting in as they dragged around his waist, wanting him closer. Only for the friction of his leathers across my oversensitive skin to make me pull back.

‘You’re wearing too many clothes,’ I whispered, pushing the shirt from his shoulders before my shaking fingers curled into the waistband of his leathers.

I expected protest, for his darker thoughts to consume him.

But he reached between us to undo one button, careful and patient as I undid the last two.

Then together we got rid of them. Something so intimate and patient about it.

As if nothing else existed but us and the shadows we cast in the firelight.

The heavy fall of his boots on the wooden floor, but it was the sight of him that undid me.

The curve of his muscles and the line of those scars.

The map they made across his body. The imposing form of him.

Mine .

Such a strange primitive thought. I’d seen images of naked men before, in journals or tomes. This was different. I didn’t think there was a record of anything as magnificent as Emrys.

I pushed up onto my elbows as he braced his weight on his hands over me, so I could feel the brush of his breath at the curve of my throat.

I ran my fingers from the scars over his ribs, down his side, curving back over his hip and then to the powerful muscle of his thigh. How deep those marks were there, still pink as if they’d been made months ago, not years.

The guttural sound of a breathless curse leaving him as if the barest brush of my touch was enough to undo him. Then I let my hand move to the imposing length of him. Firm and warm in my grasp. Ready.

‘Kat.’ His hips moved towards my touch, out of instinct. I stroked him once. Exploring him with quiet curiosity.

‘Like this?’ My voice was the barest whisper, watching how he urged into my touch, wanting more from me.

How all the imposing power of him was mine to control for that moment.

Then I knew a different hunger. How I wanted him to fall apart too from nothing but my touch.

Wanted to relish in making it happen. To hear my name from his lips.

He brought his hand over mine, curling my fingers more tightly, making the movement firmer. A curse leaving his lips, his eyes closing as other darker words tumbled almost incoherently against the curve of my throat.

Verr tongue.

‘What are you saying?’ I asked, impishly. Intent on driving him to madness.

‘It isn’t for a lady’s ears,’ he half cursed, pulling my earlobe between his teeth and I couldn’t help but laugh at his helplessness as those black eyes looked down at me darkly. As if my mirth was the most seductive thing of all.

‘I’m not a lady,’ I corrected. He gave me a secretive glance, eyes crystalline with some private amusement before he ducked to kiss me again. Deeply so I couldn’t offer any further protests.

His hand left my own to its work, only for his fingers to curl into the hair at the nape of my neck, gently tugging it so my head fell back and he had full access to my mouth.

My slow steady strokes not stopping – just as he’d shown me, drawing sounds from him that he pressed against my lips. Making him curse and groan.

I could have tormented him all night, but the burning insistence between my thighs was almost a complaint at being ignored. Then I understood. He would have just been content with this. Content with what I wanted. Only I wanted all of him.

‘I need you.’ Needed him like I needed nothing else. Wanted him like I wanted nothing else. He considered me, as if seeking the lie in my words.

I let him slip from my grasp. Unknowing what to do with my hand as I let it slide across my middle, gently dragging it over my breast as I settled back amongst the cushions, let my legs fall wider.

His hungry gaze watching every movement.

Making me wonder what would happen if I used that hand on myself while he knelt there to watch.

Such devious thoughts – and I had no Verr blood in me to blame it on.