Saer gripped the blankets so tight, his knuckles ached.He cleared his throat, though his voice still rose rougher than normal.“Undoubtedly.”
Something wicked and delighted gleamed in her desert bluebell eyes.Neyu stepped forward, her hips swaying in the most distracting fashion possible, and her voice lowered.“Then you’d best dress me up.”
Hells help him.
Not trusting his voice any longer, Saer shook the first blanket out and snugged it around his waist as quick as he could manage.The instant he finished, he grabbed the second, then closed the distance to wrap it around her torso.The edge of his palm brushed the side of her breast, and her breath caught, drawing his gaze to hers.
Saer hadn’t meant their skin to touch, but something about the contact shot like a lightning bolt through him, and he was suddenly all too aware of how near they stood.
“Was that…?”He didn’t even know what he intended to ask, letting the sentence trail off, but Neyu smiled at him, and his focus narrowed to her lips.
“I think I’ll quite enjoy the surface with you, Dearest,” she whispered.
Dearest.
Saer swallowed and worked his fingers in slow motion, wrapping the blanket the rest of the way around her body, then tucked one corner at her back, next to her shoulder blade for security.The majority of her shapely legs would remain on display, but it would suffice.
This close, his breath caressed the silver crescents framing her face, and they shuddered.
Shouts from behind broke the spell.Neyu blinked, turning towards the first humans she’d ever encountered.
It had taken Saer years of observation to blend with humanity.
Neyu pulled away and walked towards them as though she knew them.What could he do but follow?
The people Saer and Neyu approached held startling differences and similarities to humans he’d encountered before.Their flesh closer resembled Runeak’s human form—a deep, dark brown.They spoke a language not at all related to the one Saer learned from Ruki’s tribe.
But the languages of pride and lust were universal.
Two peripheral guards whistled at one another and approached them.A hungry glaze overtook their expressions, and a sense of protectiveness drew a growl from Saer’s throat.Neyu shot him a look of warning.“I’m pulling on them, as you taught.Let me work.”
He hated and admired her brazenness when she stepped away, her pull guiding them beyond the village’s eyesight.The pair of soldiers didn’t spare him a glance, but elbowed one another as they leered at Neyu.One mimed a lewd gesture on his wooden spear, a motion Saer recognized from young men in his time with them.
Hands balled into tight fists, Saer reinforced his stance to keep from ripping their faces off their skulls.A small, inner voice, under his rage, questioned the ferocity of his reaction when envy didn’t belong to him.
But, envy didn’t discriminate.Nor did any of the other sins Lucifer sculpted Its creations from.
Neyu’s fingers moved in a rolling, sinuous pattern as she pulled on the men’s lust, raising it to a boiling point until both their jaws slackened.Their pupils dilated as they reached for her.
In two steps, perhaps three, Saer could have put himself between them and Neyu.He bared his teeth and rooted himself in place.
One groped forward, his hand nearing her breast, and Saer couldn’t hold back his barking growl.It left him the same moment Neyu’s hand snapped up, gripping the man’s wrist with herDaemoenicstrength.The man cried out in alarm and twisted, but the demoness held fast, turning her glared focus to Saer.The other male froze, suddenly unsure.
“Settle yourself, Pride,” Neyu said, the calm antithesis to his fury.
Saer couldn’t find words.He snarled and twisted away, raking both hands through his hair before curling them on the nape of his neck.Sounds haunted his back as Neyu resumed her course, a man’s gasp, a pleased chuckle from her throat, then a trembling, male cry.The feel of his own sin increased, originating from the males.
As Neyu fueled their lust, pride also rose off the men, a link he hadn’t anticipated, but made perfect sense.
Saer’s fingers ached from squeezing so hard.“Hellsfire.”Had he been a fool this whole time?Was he just the first imbecile to succumb to her wiles?The way the human men looked at her, begging to touch her without words—wasn’t that how he felt every time he found himself near her?How he’d felt mere moments before?
The pride scorched from the two men, searing into his shoulder blades.
A groan met his back, something between pleasure and agony.
Screaming, Saer whirled andpulledon what was meant to be his.His hands clenched the air between him and the trio, and yanked back.He siphoned the men’s pride with reckless ferocity—a metaphysical and physical wrench.
The males whimpered and fell to their knees.Still clothed, all of them.
