“So.You could have fucked me first, then showed me the book.”
“You seeing your father, and knowing he’s at peace, is more important than my own carnal desires, Rayven. I may be a monster, but I’m notthatkind of monster. I told you I wanted you to be open and vulnerable, and that’s exactly what I got.”
“What is this?” Her voice was laced with suspicion. “What are you playing at?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said in an over-dramatized, innocent tone.
“You’re being too nice. This bipolar thing you’ve got going on is confusing me.”
My eyes darkened as I reached for her lips, tracing them with the pad of my finger. Fuck, how I loved the way they softened under my touch. When she did that, I couldn’t help imagining when they’d been wrapped around my cock in the cemetery. “I have two very different sides.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to see that.”
She didn’t see it. But she would come tomorrow at the All Hallows’ Eve ball. At the strike of midnight, her time would be up. I’d make my third and final mark.
And she’d see me for what I truly was.
“I’ve had a taste of your brutal side…” She sucked her lower lip between her teeth, chewing it coyly. “Now I want this side of you.”
Hells. How could I say no to that?
I dragged her on top of me, her luscious legs draping over either side of my waist as my hand slipped up to tangle in her hair. Her weight on my cock made it ache with need, and I wanted to sink into her heat. To bury myself inside her and lose myself there.
But I wouldn’t. Not yet. Not until her soul belonged to me.
I would, however, savor her in other ways.
My free hand squeezed her ass so hard she gasped—hard enough that my fingertips would leave bruises on her flesh.
With her face mere inches from mine, and both her hands planted on either side of my head, I could taste her breath carrying every moan and whimper. My gaze dropped to her plush lips.
I wanted to see that mouth wrapped around my cock again, but I wanted to show her that soft side she was so convinced I had.
“I’m going to taste you, Rayven,” I whispered, my voice hard steel wrapped in downy velvet. “I’m going to taste every goddamn inch of you.”
At my words, her heart thrummed hard against my chest, and it was everything I could do to keep myself from rolling over and sheathing all of me inside her with one savage thrust.
But I was dead set on teasing out every second I had with her.
My hand smoothed down her back, and curved over the swell of her ass. “I’m going to be gentle with you this time. But I’m going to be in complete control. Understand?”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to cuff you again, just like last time you were in this bed. This time, I’m going to blindfold you too. I’ll be taking my mask off and I won’t have you sneaking a peek at me.”
I knew she wouldn’t like that last part. As expected, she opened her mouth to protest but before she could get out the words, I rolled us over and pinned her to the bed.
In the same beat, I took the sash of her gown, tugged it loose, and tweaked her pierced nipples hard enough to knock a delicious whimper from her mouth.
“No arguing, little human. Now… Do. You. Understand. Me?” Each word was gnashed out between rough breaths, punctuated with a growl.
Her skin heated. Her pulse kicked up. “Yes,” she finally said on a whisper.
“Good.”
Weeping Hells. She looked so good beneath me. With her pale flesh wrapped in firelight—soon to be wrapped in me.
Her nose and nipple piercings gleamed in the room’s amber glow. I wondered what metal they were—probably steel. Those would have to come out. Steel was Baal’s metal. My new queen would look so perfect with her rosy nipples tipped in my silver, perhaps a dainty chain connecting them.
