Page 44 of The Devil and His Goddess (Sinners Do It Better #2)

Perseus

“YOU CAN DO THIS,” I said, tucking the dark hair behind Harper’s ear.

She smiled nervously but nodded. “I can do this.”

“If you need anything—”

“All I have to do is call your name,” she finished for me. She stood on her tiptoes to place a soft kiss on my lips. “I know.”

I squeezed her hands, wanting to give her strength for the day ahead, but there was no need anymore. My girl already had more strength on her own than I had to give.

With a final, quick kiss, I let her go so that she could leave my office and start her first day back at Silverlight.

The break-through she’d had when dancing blindfolded had been exactly what she needed, and the emotion had poured out of her, washing over each person I’d brought to watch. The power of her performance could’ve knocked even the most hardened humans to their knees, and each time she’d danced after had been the same. She’d finally found her spark and embraced it as she embraced herself.

When she’d started talking about coming back to Silverlight, I nearly went into protective mode again, wanting to ask if she was sure, but I’d held back from doubting. She’d never been more ready.

I’d prepared the staff and administration teams for her return, and they were thrilled to know that everyone’s favorite ballerina had recovered from whatever had happened to her. Her fellow dancers were even more excited, especially the ones who were restarting their work on Dancing in the Dark alongside her.

Preparations for the show resumed, and with so much already done at the start of the season, it was just a matter of getting all of our pieces in a row again. After multiple meetings that morning, I was itching to check in on Harper. Today wasn’t just her first day back but also her first time dancing with someone other than me.

Not wanting her to get distracted by my presence, I merged with the shadows and appeared in the practice room she was in with the dance master, répétiteur, and Elijah. The two dancers were mid-practice, working on their first pas de deux of the third act. It was the same routine that Harper had tried when she’d rushed to work the day after her attack, but unlike that time, she was stunning . The raw beauty and confidence in which she performed this piece about love, celebration, and empowerment was worthy of a fucking stage, not just this practice room.

When it ended, the répétiteur and dance master clapped, letting out a happy laugh. Harper and Elijah hugged tightly with bright smiles on their faces.

“Oh my God, it’s good to have you back,” Elijah chuckled into her hair.

Her smile widened, and her arms tightened around his neck. “It’s good to be back.”

Seeing that Harper was more than okay, I returned to my own work. I was more excited than ever to get her on stage so that others could witness her brilliance.

By the time we returned home that evening, I was charged full with a sense of happiness that showed no sign of ever expelling again, even as I thought back on how I’d found myself here.

It wasn’t just Harper that had changed after that night of her attack. I had, too. I’d realized what it meant to be truly helpless, not a demon with vast power but a mere man forced to watch the suffering of the person he loved. I’d learned what it meant to be afraid, something I’d stupidly thought I was immune to all of my life. I’d even told Harper as much once upon a time, but that belief had been shaken and destroyed. I feared —not for myself, but for her.

When she found herself again that day she danced, she found me, too. She saved me from the jaws of the beast I’d been standing in, and as she flew free with strength, those gusts from her wings made my own power grow that much brighter.

The joy I felt now was so fierce, I could’ve skipped around the goddamn room while throwing flowers into the air.

A throat cleared behind me from where I’d been closing the curtains of the bedroom window. I turned to find Harper with a smirk on her face. A white silk robe wrapped around her, and when she sat back in the plush chair in the corner of the room, the fabric parted to expose her bare, crossed legs.

She flipped her glossy black hair over her shoulder and sat up straight. “Peasant. Your goddess has a request for you.”

Chuckling, I faced her fully and held my hands out by my sides. “Of course. What does my goddess require?”

Her smile grew, and her blue eyes gave me a slow once-over where I stood in only sweatpants. “On your knees.”

The order made blood rush to my cock, and my eyes narrowed a fraction with hunger. “Yes, Goddess.”

I knelt where I stood, resting on my knees across the room. A nice rosy flush swept up her cheeks, and her eager gaze traced every definition of my arms and torso before settling on the outline of my thickening dick.

She licked the lips I desperately wanted to claim and cocked her head. “Crawl to me.”

A shiver traveled down my spine as though it were her finger tracing down the center of my bare back. The command was demeaning, reducing me to a status far lower than hers, and I fucking loved it. I loved holding her sultry gaze as I crawled like a dog on all fours to her feet, letting her hold all the power between us.

My palm cupped the ankle of the foot resting on the floor, and I dragged it slowly up her calf. “What next?”

Her breath hitched when I reached where her legs were draped, and I lifted the limb to part her legs on either side of me. The robe opened on her lower half, exposing the sweet sight of her bare and dripping cunt. The smell of her arousal made me dizzy with need, and a growl nearly tore from my chest as I impatiently waited for her to give me the order to pleasure her.

Staring down at me, she grabbed the sash of the robe and gave it a good tug. The silk parted fully, falling off her shoulders and catching on her arms, which draped over the armrests of the cushioned chair. Her round breasts made my mouth water, especially when her nipples hardened under my lustful attention.

“I’m your goddess, aren’t I?” she asked with a raised brow.

“Always.”

She smiled and opened her legs wider. “So worship me, Peasant.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I gripped her inner thighs and held them apart as I dove in. The first sweep of my tongue through her pussy was fucking sinful, gathering her need on my tongue and filling my gut with the bright essence of her pleasure. She let out a soft gasp as I curled my tongue over her clit. Her frame shook under my flick and roll, and the trembles of pleasure only got more intense when I reached up to palm her breasts and pinch her beaded nipples.

I sucked on her clit, which earned me a moan, and with a wicked grin, I pulled back to look up at her from between her legs. “How am I doing, Goddess? Do you feel my praise?”

Her body was flushed, and she stared down at me with needy desire clouding her shuttered eyes. “You’re doing well. Though, I’ve never been one for praise.”’

I smirked and let out a husky chuckle. “No. You haven’t, slut.”

The name made a fresh wave of carnal hunger burst free from her, crashing into my Incubus senses. She bit her lip and opened her legs wider, and my gaze flicked back to her wet folds. I leaned in but stopped just shy of actually touching her, letting my breath tease her sensitive core.

“This is how you actually like being worshipped, isn’t it, Goddess?”

“Perseus,” she panted weakly, moving her hips in an attempt to make contact with me.

I grinned and flicked her clit once before pulling out of her reach. “You like being tormented and denied your praise like a filthy girl.”

Her body trembled, and she tried squeezing her legs together to get some sort of friction where she ached, but I dropped my hands back to her thighs and kept them apart so she got no relief. Her head fell against the cushion, and her back arched as her fingers dug into the chair’s arms.

The withering desperation had precum leaking from the slit of my cock. I wanted to keep teasing and denying her, but that meant denying my tongue the taste of her. I couldn’t do that, not when I was fucking addicted.

I hooked her legs over each of my shoulders and leaned in to stroke through her seam with my tongue. Her hands shot to my hair where she gripped the strands tightly as I toyed relentlessly with her bundle of nerves. She gasped and bucked her hips to meet my mouth where it worked her with expert precision. I moved at the speed and angle she loved most, and it wasn’t long before she shattered on my tastebuds.

I soaked up the delicacy of her release in both the physical taste on my lips and the one that danced around my gut, fueling me while simultaneously making me hungry for more .

She let go of my hair as her legs turned to jelly and slipped off my shoulders. I grabbed her hands and pulled her off the chair so she straddled my lap in the floor, her robe still hanging around her bent elbows.

Her eyes met mine as she trailed her hands up my neck to tease the skin along my jaw. “Your goddess has more to her request.”

Smiling, I ran my own hands from her back to her waist. “And what would that be?”

She paused and searched my gaze. Stroking my cheek, she asked, “Do you still have the mask?”

Raising a brow, I nodded.

“I want you to wear it,” she said slowly. She swallowed and finished, “I want you to chase me and fuck me when you catch me.”

I knew this was one of Harper’s fantasies. It had been from the start. While we’d been having plenty of sex, we hadn’t done anything that extreme since before . I had no doubt that Harper was doing amazing in her journey of healing, and I didn’t doubt her strength.

Still, the part of me that had learned to fear hesitated and made me ask, “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I am. He’s taken enough from me. I don’t want him to have this, too.”

My brave girl was unwavering in the way she spoke and watched me. She wanted this, and I was nothing if not a slave to her commands. So long as she wanted something, I’d do everything I could to give it to her.

I didn’t look away from her face as I held my hand out to the side, only for the black-and-white skull mask to appear in my palm. Her chest hitched as an excited gleam entered her eye. My demonic form appeared, and I worked the mask down my horns. “You better get to running, Goddess.”

Arousal permeated the air. She leapt off my lap and raced through the bedroom, pulling her robe back on as she went. I finished pulling the mask on and tucked my hair into the back of it as her pounding feet darted through the house and out the backdoor.

I stood and went to the window to pull the curtains back enough to see out into the moonlit backyard. The water of the pool glittered under the glow of the stars as Harper’s white-clad body ran past it and for the woods beyond.

Smirking, I appeared in a plume of shadows at the edge of the yard, watching her run into the maze of trees. I followed behind at a leisurely pace. Her pants echoed in my ears as she navigated the dark woods in nothing more than a silk robe and bare feet. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had on shoes and real clothes, though.

I’d always catch her.

In a blur of shadows, I appeared right in her path. Her eyes widened, and she slammed into me, unable to stop her momentum. She quickly pushed away to run in the opposite direction, but not before I snagged the belt that held her robe closed. The sash blew in the wind as I watched her bolt while trying to hold the robe closed with her hands.

My dick throbbed at this point, loving the wild chase. I smirked and let the filthy ideas of what I’d do to my prey once caught bounce around my head. I twirled the silk sash around my finger and resumed my stroll through the woods, keeping that flash of white in my field of view at all times.

When I caught sight of her stumbling, I appeared in front of her again, catching her only to spin around and pin her between a tree and my body. She gasped and held my upper arms as her robe fell open. Before she could process what had happened, I pulled her hands off me and wrapped them behind the tree, tying them up with the sash. With her secured, I stepped back and surveyed the state she was in.

Her bare breasts were exposed as the robe slipped off her shoulders, and they heaved as she tried to catch her breath after running through the woods. Her face was flushed from both exertion and hot desire, which pulsed around her body like the brightest beacon on my demonic radar.

“Look at you,” I growled, putting a slight veil over my voice to distort it into the one she associated with this mask. “What a fucking slut. Standing there like you can’t wait to be ravaged.”

Her legs shook, and she wiggled in her bindings. “So what?”

“So a girl like that needs to be punished.”

I made a casual walk around the tree, tuned into every change in her breath and smell of her desire. I traced a clawed finger up her arm, starting where her wrists were bound and circling the tree to end on her collarbone. Her fiery blue eyes fluttered, and she tilted her head almost subconsciously to give me more access to her throat.

Grinning under the mask, I wrapped my clawed hand around her neck while my other reached down to touch between her legs. “That’s right. You know who your master is, don’t you?”

She let out a condescending scoff that was nearly strangled by a pleasured groan as I rubbed her clit. “Certainly not you.”

“Oh no?”

I withdrew my finger from between her legs. Her brows immediately slammed down, and she gave a tug on her bindings. I tightened my grip on her throat, and her lips parted at the clear threat.

“Who’s in charge?” I demanded.

She didn’t answer. She stared defiantly at me, her mouth turning into a bratty grin.

Growling at the sexy sight, I used my free hand to shove the waistband of my pants down. My hard cock stood tall, and her hazy eyes locked on it as I stroked it. She bit her lip and groaned, rolling her hips slightly like she was trying to move to the slow rhythm in which I pumped myself.

“Only girls who behave get rewarded,” I gritted out, swiping my thumb over the tip of my dick to gather the precum there. “So I’ll ask again. Who’s in charge?”

She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, I shoved my thumb into her hot mouth. Her eyes shut as she moaned around my finger and sucked on the clawed digit, all while wiggling her hips restlessly.

I yanked my hand back, which earned me a whimper. Grabbing the back of her thighs, I lifted her legs and pinned her back to the tree as I stepped into her. The head of my dick barely pressed against her entrance.

“You want it?” I demanded.

“Yes,” she answered breathlessly.

“Who’s the slut?”

Her body shook, and she arched her back to rub her breasts against my torso. “Me.”

“And who’s in charge?”

She gave me a sex-crazed grin. “Me.”

I let out a pleased chuckle. “Damn right!”

I shoved into her as I tugged her down. Her head fell back as she gasped into the night air. Pleasure swept through me, flooding my fully-seated cock, and I held onto her tightly as I pumped my hips. Her body bounced between me and the tree as I fucked her hard, unrelenting in my pace and the way my cock touched her inside. I angled her hips so that I brushed her clit and the sweet spot deep inside her pussy, showering her two favorite places with attention. Her breath hitched, and her body shook in my arms as the pleasure built inside of her. She burst with a sweet cry, clenching around my shaft.

I pounded in and out of her, basking in the heaven of her orgasm. The satiated feeling in my gut paired with the hot and constant grasp around my dick had me spilling my own release into her.

I breathed hard and stayed buried inside of her as we each came down from the high of the intense sex. She pressed her forehead against mine, mask and all. As I peered at her through the black fabric over the eyes, I caught sight of her biting her lip as it trembled.

I froze, and terror seized my lungs. A thousand panicked thoughts swarmed my head. Had it been too much after all? Had I hurt her? Had I sent her back to that dark place without realizing it?

“Harper, I—”

She met my eyes and released her lip. Her mouth stretched into a euphoric and relieved grin as she confessed, “I was here . I was here with you the whole time.”

The news made my heart clench, and the panic was immediately replaced with an overwhelming sense of glee. It wasn’t pain that had tears filling her eyes. It was relief, happiness, and love.

My girl was going to be okay.