Page 33 of Where the Dark Knelt (Worshipped by Darkness #1)

“Handsome?” he finished for me, his mouth curving into that unbearably smug smile.

I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt. “Yes. You compliment yourself better than anyone else. Are you drowning in pride, or…?”

He chuckled softly. “Maybe. But it’s not the most dangerous sin I commit on a daily basis.”

His grin turned feral as he reached out, taking my hand in his much larger one.

He bent down, brushing his lips over my knuckles in a gesture so tender it made my heart twist painfully.

He knew how to act like a gentleman too.

But I couldn’t forget our first meeting…

how he bent me over on the altar, how I—

“Why are you blushing, ashpetal?” he teased, his voice low and intimate as he straightened up and tugged me gently towards the waves. The cold foam lapped at the sand just ahead of us, glittering silver under the moon.

“Nothing,” I muttered, refusing to meet his eyes. “I just… remembered our first meeting.”

“You liked that, didn’t you?” he murmured, pulling me flush against him so suddenly that my hands landed on his bare chest. My fingers trembled, but they automatically sought out the cold silver chains draped across his taut, muscled body.

I gasped, feeling the heat radiating from his skin beneath my touch.

“What are you… you’re doing…” My voice shook.

He leaned in so close I felt his breath against my ear as he purred, “I’m seducing you. Don’t you understand that yet?”

My eyes widened, my pulse hammering in my throat. “So you didn’t come here to beg forgiveness for your sins… but to create new ones?”

He threw his head back and laughed, the sound deep and wicked and echoing under the moonlit sky.

This is definitely a damn test, I screamed internally. A test before my vows. I’m not buying this shit! Ten years passed and then he shows up to ruin everything, pfffff. I snorted involuntarily at my own thoughts, my anger mixing with something dangerously close to desire.

He laughed again, louder this time, and wrapped his arms around me so tightly there was no air left between us.

My chest heaved against his, and in sudden defiance, I squeezed the chains on his chest and yanked sharply.

He let out a low hiss through clenched teeth, his entire body shuddering at the sensation.

Then he tilted his head up to the sky, and I watched in stunned fascination as his forked tongue flicked out to run slowly over his lips. Goosebumps rippled across his skin, and mine too.

“Damn…” he growled, his voice thick with lust, “do that again, little saint… and I definitely won’t let you go tonight.”

“S-s… do what?” I stammered, my voice small and trembling.

His eyes snapped back to mine, glowing with that eerie emerald flame, pupils narrowed into slits of predatory hunger. “Pull on the chains,” he whispered, and there was something almost desperate in his plea.

“Please.”

That single word… it broke whatever resistance I had left.

My hands moved of their own accord, fingers curling around the silver links as I pulled again, this time slowly, deliberately.

His reaction was immediate, he pressed forward, crushing me against him until there was no space left, until I could feel every hard line of his body against mine.

His breath shuddered as he lowered his face to mine, his lips brushing my ear with a whisper that sent a violent tremor down my spine.

“You have no idea… what you’re doing to me, ashpetal.”

I felt the rigid, throbbing heat of his immense erection straining against the confines of his pants, a brand of desire searing into my flesh.

As realization crashed over me like a tidal wave, I glimpsed the glint of metal peeking out from his trousers, some manner of intricate chains encircled his manhood, a cruel and delicious torment.

I gasped, my cheeks flaming with a fever that matched the emerald blaze of his predatory gaze.

“Oh God...” I choked out, my heart hammering wildly in my heaving chest. I tried desperately to pull away, to flee the overwhelming onslaught of sensation, but his grip remained unyielding, as immovable as the very chains that bound his desire. I was trapped in his arms.

“Please... I must... I have to go...” I stammered, my words tumbling out in a panicked rush.

But he would not release me, would not grant me the mercy of escape.

Instead, I felt the unmistakable press of his hard, heavy length against the soft flesh of my stomach, a brand searing into my very being.

“Please, Desmond,” I begged, my voice rising in pitch as the first tendrils of terror coiled around my heart. “You must let me go!” But even as the words left my lips, I knew it was futile. He had me ensnared, caught in the web of his dark desires, a fly tangled in the strands of a spider’s web.

I shuddered as he leaned in, his breath hot and ragged against the sensitive skin of my neck.

The rough, wet rasp of his tongue dragging over my flesh sent electric jolts of sensation ricocheting through every nerve ending.

I felt myself melting, dissolving into the scorching heat of his embrace, a snowflake in the face of a raging inferno.

Some distant part of me mourned the loss of control, the surrender of my own will.

But a larger, more primal part reveled in the exquisite agony of his touch, craved it with a hunger that defied reason.

I was lost, utterly and completely, a willing sacrifice to this demonic man’s all-consuming lust.

I shuddered, my eyes fluttering closed as I unconsciously tugged at the chains once more.

The motion caused him to surge forward, the rigid heat of his engorged cock digging into the soft flesh of my belly, the pulsating rhythm of his arousal throbbing through every layer of our entwined bodies.

A soft moan spilled from my lips, my skin prickling with gooseflesh, a symphony of tremors dancing along my curves as the energy between us crackled with unbridled passion.

Then, in a gesture that caught me utterly off guard, he captured my lips in a tender, almost vulnerable kiss.

My eyes flew open, widening with surprise at the soft, almost reverent brush of his mouth against mine.

Before I could gather my wits to respond, his tongue, hot and sinful, plunged past my parted lips to engage in a deadly dance with my own.

The slick, forked muscle twined around mine, stroking and teasing, stoking the flames of my desire to new heights.

I surrendered, a surrender so complete and absolute that it stole my breath away.

I clung to the chains as if they were a lifeline, my fingers wrapping around the cool metal until my knuckles turned white.

The chains rattled with each shudder that wracked my frame, each gasping moan that tumbled from my lips as he squeezed and kneaded the globes of my ass, pulling me impossibly closer.

“Damn you...” he growled, his voice a low, guttural rasp that sent fresh waves of heat cascading through me.

“You’ve driven me to the brink of madness, Eveline.

I’ve craved you, ached for you, for longer than you could possibly know.

And now, feeling you tremble in my arms, tasting your sweetness on my tongue.

.. I know I can never let you go. You’re mine, now and forever.

” His grip tightened, a silent vow of possession, as his hips undulated against mine, the chains clinking and clanking like a wicked symphony of our darkest desires.

I moaned into his mouth, unable to stop myself.

Gods… it had been so long since anyone touched me like this, so long since I felt wanted.

My body was ready to surrender completely, to give him everything right there on the cold sand under the moonlit sky.

But my heart, my heart was screaming, don’t do this.

It thrashed against my ribs, pleading with me for peace.

You never needed men, it whispered desperately.

You never needed any of this chaos, no matter how divine and godlike he seems.

I tore my mouth away from his kiss, panting, my lips swollen and stinging where he’d bitten them in his passion. “What abilities do you even have,” I gasped, glaring at him, “except for talking with that silver tongue of yours… this is all… so… so weird… how did I even end up in your hands?”

Panic began to rise in my chest as realization dawned on me. What was I doing? I was committing a sin, a real sin, right here and now. My thoughts spiraled, chaos screaming in my mind. What was all of this… why did it feel so… good?

Because the truth was, my body didn’t seem to obey me. It felt as if I was under some spell, and the worst part – the most terrifying part – was that I liked it. I craved his touch, his presence, his dominance over me.

And in that moment, as I looked into his dark, burning eyes, a cold shiver ran down my spine.

Was he really just a man… or something far more powerful, far more dangerous… something special?

He only grinned down at me, his hands tightening on my waist, fingers pressing into my hips in a way that made my knees buckle.

“Oh, ashpetal,” he purred, voice dripping with lust and amusement, “I have many abilities… far beyond anything your sweet little mind could imagine. Super extraordinary… and extrasexual, if you want to call them that.”

My breath caught, a trembling rage and desire mixing dangerously within me. “Then let’s try it,” I spat, trying to keep my voice cold and contemptuous. “Undress me with words, if you’re so powerful.”

He chuckled low in his chest, a sound like thunder rippling deep in the earth. Then he leaned down, brushing his lips against the shell of my ear, and whispered softly, silkily, “There’s a snail… in your bra.”

For a split second, his words didn’t register. But then my blood ran cold, a piercing icy fear shooting down my spine as sweat prickled across my skin. My stomach clenched in terror.