Massive, dark, and ridged around the head, it’s the largest cock I’ve ever seen in my life. Releasing his tail, I skim my nails along his sides and wrap my hand around it. Well, I try. My fingers aren’t long enough. I use my other hand and stroke from base to tip, running my thumb over the bead of moisture that forms on the head of it. His purr grows stronger, but reality sinks in. I haven’t been with a man in years. This thing would wreck me.
“You’re beautiful like this,” I say, “but maybe... for our first time....”
A bark-like laugh rumbles from his chest and he digs his claws into my hair. A moment later he’s transformed in my arms to his human shape. The lights flicker back on. “Is this better, little dragon?”
I shrug and flash him a coy smile. “I rather like the tail, but this will do.” Trailing my nails up the back of his neck, I dig them into his hair. “Is that the only thing you have to show me?”
“Yes,” he says with a dose of relief in his voice.
“Then will you stay with me tonight?”
“You’ve been teasing me with that little blue dress all evening. Did you think you’d be rid of me so easily?”
The way he looks at me sends a rush of heat straight to my core. My heart springs to a gallop, and my inner musclesclench in anticipation. I want him. I’ve wanted him for weeks. Like always, he’s waiting for me to make the first move. I may no longer have the candle, but he won’t act without an agreement, without my consent.
I reach behind me and unzip my dress. His stare is a palpable thing as I brush the straps from my shoulders and let the dress fall in a heap around my pumps. All dark grace and lithe muscle, he wraps a hand around my waist and draws me hard against his chest, a hairsbreadth between our noses. My breath comes in pants, and my nipples strain against the black lace of my bra.
“Turn around,” he commands. The low gravel of his voice does sinful things to my insides. My lids flutter. I turn in place and find I’m facing the oval mirror mounted to the wall. Self-conscious, I glance away from my reflection.
“Oh no.” His arm slides around me and props up my chin. Gaze locked on my reflection, his lips brush my temple as he says, “Watch, Eloise.” My name on his tongue is erotic as hell. “You’ve seen the real me. Now it’s time for you to see the real you. Look how beautiful you are. How powerful.”
My eyes lock on the reflection as he unhooks my bra and lets it drop to my toes. The dusky pink tips of my full breasts pearl, and when his hands smooth around my sides to pinch and roll them between his fingers, shivers travel down the very center of me, causing my body to twitch and my core to throb with need.
“You like that, little dragon?” His lips brush my neck, my hair, as he continues to cup and knead my breasts, plucking at my nipples. Arching, I grind my ass against him. He’s hard, and I glory in the feel of his erection against the back of me, as well as the growl I elicit. I’m drawnflush against his body, held in place by one iron hand pressed into my sternum.
I gasp.
“Oh, Eloise, are you offering me this tight little ass?” His hand snakes between us, sliding between my cheeks and circling the puckered skin of my rear entrance.
I stiffen, my pulse ratcheting. “I want you, but not that way. Not the first time.”
His lips trail kisses down the side of my neck as his fingers move from my backside to my belly, stroking up to brush under my breast and then down to just graze under my thong. I lean my head back against his shoulder, throbbing with need, wanting his fingers to ease the ache between my legs.
“Howdoyou want me… the first time?” He licks behind my ear, sending heat surging through me.
Will there be more times than this? I don’t know. But if this is our one and only time together, I’m determined to make it count.
“Face-to-face, so I can see you.” My voice cracks. Have I ever felt safe enough to ask for what I want from a man? With Damien, I can. He’s always done as I asked. Maybe that was because of the candle. Maybe now that he is free, he’ll turn into the monster Maeve insists he is and take me as he pleases. I’ll let him. I’m so wet and needy that I’d probably go along with anything.
But he turns me gently in his arms and takes my face in his hands, his eyes going soft in the firelight. “Face-to-face, then.”
33
Connections
DAMIEN
Everything I believed to be true is wrong, and I am shaken. I believed the candle’s curse was eternal, and it wasn’t. I believed the woman in my arms was only human, and based on the way she destroyed the candle, I now highly doubt that presumption. And I thought Eloise desired nothing more than pleasure tonight, but there is so much more in her eyes.
It’s been centuries since a woman looked at me like this. Centuries since someone wanted me for me and nothing more. And the way she makes herself vulnerable, handing herself over to me —knowing my true form, knowing I can easily overpower her or drain her of her blood— shows a trust I never thought I’d experience. Not on Earth. Not on Tenebris. Never.
“Face-to-face,” I whisper again, and then I bury my fingers in her red curls and kiss her. Gods, her mouth is as sweet as her scent. I breathe her in, savoring her bouquet like the finest wine, parsing out her fruity and floral notes —pomegranate and narcissus, layered over leather, bone, and a hint of smoke. Her scent has developed over the time I’ve known her, becoming more complex, more enticing. Every time I touch her, I notice something new.
Eloise Harcourt is no simple human, of that I’m certain.
As I explore her mouth, I have the fleeting thought that perhaps I died when the candle was destroyed. Died and gone to paradise hereafter.
I draw back and look into her wide green eyes, almost innocent in their clarity. How long since she’s been with a man? It would have been a human man. Anyone else other than her husband? That derelict certainly never showed her any passion, any kindness. I can’t ask her now. The answer would surely drive me insane with jealousy and come across poorly in the moment, as if I were weighing her past or judging her number of partners. But she might as well be a virgin for how much experience she’s had with a monster like me. If I take her now, as I am tempted to take her, hard and rough, claiming her flesh with possessive violence, I can’t guarantee I won’t lose control and damage her fragile mortal body. I’d definitively terrify her. That’s not how I want her to remember this.
