Page 24 of The Demon’s Collar (The Bard’s Demon #1)

“No,” I bit out—then cried out loud as the shadows wrenched my legs apart, leaving me spread-eagle, angled toward him for his viewing pleasure.

As if that weren’t humiliating enough, two more tendrils of shadow snaked against my pussy and spread it open wide—like curtains revealing the main stage.

“B?k!” I cried.

“What is your name?” he asked again.

“E-Ero,” I gritted out.

Another tendril teased my wide-open entrance before slipping inside.

The cold lit up every nerve as it filled me, eliciting a high keening moan.

I couldn’t take even a beat to enjoy it, though, because more silky wisps crawled down my spine toward my ass, and fear overwhelmed the temporary pleasure.

“Please,” I begged—not even knowing what I was asking for. Please fill me up and make me come apart? Please stop? Please not back there?

I shook with desperation from warring desires.

I expected B?k to ask again who I belonged to. This time I would be ready. I would give him what he wanted. The words he needed—for whatever reason—to hear. Because whatever he said, this was a game. If I had to bend to him in order to get away, I would. It didn’t have to mean anything.

Only he didn’t ask.

The shadow inside me curved forward, tickling the spot I knew he would hit, undulating against my inner walls. I tasted summer. I smelled rain. I invented a new religion.

A light touch breezed across my clit—so faint it almost felt like an accident until it happened again, in rhythm with the motion inside, demanding my pleasure.

The shadows crawling down my back reached my ass, swirling around the tight ring B?k’s finger had breached as he’d threatened me two nights before. I knew it was useless, but I whined a desperate plea anyway. It was too much—I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t handle it all at once.

The shadow slid into my ass without hesitation .

It was hard to concentrate on any one sensation as the pressure on my clit increased and the rocking inside my pussy grew harder and the shadow in my ass swelled, straining in a way that hurt as much as it thrilled.

I was so full everywhere. So close to the release I needed in no time at all. I was a meager handful of thrusts from oblivion.

“What’s your name?”

“B-B?k!” I cried. It wasn’t the correct answer. It was all I could say. And technically, he’d only told me to answer when he asked a question. I didn’t have to be coherent or right.

Thrust.

“That’s my name, kitten.”

Thrust.

“What’s your name?”

Thrust.

“Please!” I screamed.

The tendrils froze in place. I choked back a sob, feeling the orgasm that had been exactly one thrust away recede from reach.

No.

Fucking no!

I yanked my wrist, thinking of not one single thing except my need to touch myself before I lost the promise of the best undoing I’d ever had.

The shadows, of course, did not allow that.

My pussy clenched angrily, and I rocked my hips forward—hoping the friction from that one motion would be enough.

Only there was no friction. The shadows could touch me with their solid and tangible caress, but it seemed I couldn’t do the same to them.

“What do you want, Ero?”

“Fuck me,” I pleaded in a breathy, pathetic voice I didn’t even recognize .

The shadows moved again, but the rhythm was all wrong—too slow, torturously so. The cold tendril snaking up my ass thickened, stretching it in agonizing discord with the soft tickle at my clit—which took on a texture suspiciously similar to B?k’s tongue as it traced lazy circles.

Tears rolled down my cheeks. I needed a release more than I’d needed anything in my entire life.

More than I needed the book that would lead me to my family.

More than I needed water. More than I needed air.

Had B?k requested my soul in that moment, I fear I would have given it to him and asked if there was anything he would like on the side.

The tongue shadow teased me to the edge again. So close, I felt the outline of the wave and knew it would crash down any second. When the shadows froze again, I sobbed plaintively.

“I belong—” I gasped desperately, “—to you.”

I opened my eyes. The morning sunlight shocked me with its brightness. The world slid jaggedly into ?view. B?k still leaned against the tree, still looked so unbothered staring directly at my splayed pussy.

My words didn’t move him.

The shadows began the cycle again. My clit throbbed, too sensitive to withstand more. My whole pussy screamed for release. The cruel shadow stretching my ass barely thickened, but it threatened to split me in two as it poured deeper into me.

“More, kitten?”

“No!”

The shadows dissipated at once.

I fell.

My tendrils caught me—not B?k. Nice of them to finally show up. I trembled, lying where they left me on the forest floor. He remained where he was, arms still crossed. No sign of feeling, like he wasn’t moved in the least .

Dried pine needles pressed into my cheek.

I tried to breathe. I wheezed a plea that I’m not even sure included actual words.

My next breath came with a mouthful of forest shrapnel.

It stuck to my tongue, which was bone dry from so many panted breaths.

I spluttered and spat the detritus back out with difficulty.

I don’t know how long it took to get my body back under control, but with each receding wave of pleasure, my fury grew.

I pushed off the ground—ready for a fight.

Ready to goad B?k until he fucked me for real.

Until the air heated with proof that he needed me too.

I needed to hit him. I needed him to bend me over and?—

The forest was still in the morning light. I was the only movement in the serene space.

B?k was gone.

And so were my clothes.