“You brought them for me?” I run my hand down his chest, not caring about the dresses at all.
“Ariadne couldn’t safely come to the castle, so I met her halfway and delivered them here myself while the queen was distracted with her Harvest Festival meeting. Ari will be pleased they fit.”
“I’ve only tried on one so far.”
He works his fingers into the strings of my corset. “Well, little dragon, let me help you undress so you can try on another.”
He pushes the overcoat from my shoulders.
“You want to watch me try on dresses?” I tease, lifting my eyebrows.
He takes my jaw between his large, rough hands. “Eventually.” His lips crash down on mine, all the pain and frustration he’s undoubtedly been carrying loaded into the way our mouths thrash, our tongues tangle. He kisses me with an urgency I haven’t felt since Night Haven. He invades my mouth, his tongue stroking mine, our fangs long enough that we have to angle ourselves to work around them. Even then, we nick each other, the kiss catching my bottom lip and his tongue. Our blood mingles, and he moans into my mouth.
It undoes something inside him. His hands are everywhere, untying my corset, pulling my top over my head. I toe off my shoes and grapple with his fly. He smokes out of his pants instead, forming again in front of me, completely naked.
Damien’s shadows swiftly shimmy my bottoms down my legs, leaving me naked as well. But when I reach for him, he dodges my touch, searing me with a wolfish smile.
“Oh no, little bird. I’ll have you just as I want you tonight.”
Shadows circle my wrists, my waist, my ankles, lifting me onto the bed and spreading me open, as wide as my limbs will go. I test the restraints, and although I’m not motivated to fight the shadows, I find them secure.
Damien kneels at the end of the bed, his gaze raking over my vulnerable flesh. My most sensitive parts throb with need, and I feel hot and wet between my quivering thighs.
“Damien, please,” I beg. This is torture. I need him to touch me.
He grins a fang-filled smile, and still more shadows lick up my ankles and wrists. A thousand cool tongues massage my calves, the backs of my knees. My inner elbows. He caresses along my armpit and the outer curve of my breast with the lightest touch.
My nipples harden to sharp peaks, and I arch my back as shadows lick across my belly, and lower still, nearing the place I desperately want more friction, the place aching with the need to be touched. But the shadows stop at the tops of my thighs and slowly slip down the outside of my leg before beginning their climb again. More shadows tease my collarbone, cool ribbons winding behind my neck. They sift through my hair, my scalp, awakening, tingling. Cool air weaves around my nipples, cascades beneath my breasts.
I moan and arch, all my cells reaching for him, desperately wanting more. “Damien…ahh!” The shadows slither along my spine, a cool tongue working between the mounds of my butt cheeks and teasing my back entrance. I inhale sharply, and the sensation is gone.
I growl and tug against the shadows. “Damien, I need your hands on me, now!”
“So impatient, little bird,” he grits out through a wicked grin. He’s enjoying this, possibly more than I am! He crawls between my legs and lowers his mouth toward the aching nub between my legs. The heat of his breath is pyromancy. It’s dark, sexual magic. I arch for him, desperate. With a laugh, he finally obliges me.
His tongue skates between my folds. Its slightly rough texture draws another moan from me as tiny shocks of sensation cascade out from that single point of contact. He devours me, alternating between spearing, sucking, and flicking until I’m writhing against his face and on the edge of ecstasy. The sounds I’m making are more animal than human. I’m so close, teetering on the edge.
The shadows return, pushing into me, even as his tongue continues to flick across my bud. The fullness and pressure are everything. Patterns of light explode behind my eyelids. My head tips back and I cry out as I fling myself into intense sensation, my climax carrying me into a weightless sea of light.
When I come back down and open my eyes, I see Damien staring at my inner thigh. His fangs are elongated, and his expression is famished.
“Do it,” I order him.
He shakes his head, his expression suddenly tortured. “I don’t deserve it,” he mutters. His gaze flicks up to mine. “I don’t deserve you.”
I growl. “Why would you say something like that?”
He sits back on his heels, his erection painfully hard, the muscles of his throat swallowing over and over. He turns his face away from me.
“Because of her? Valeska assaulted you, she stole your confidence in your own strength, your own worthiness.”
He squeezes his eyes closed. “Eloise…”
“And now, your last cornerstone of safety, your home and your kingdom, is gone.” Damien is a warrior at heart, but he’s been beaten down and stripped vulnerable through no fault of his own. What he needs to realize again is that as long as he gets back up, the fight isn’t over.
Now he looks at me, and his expression is wretched. “I have failed to give you the life you deserve.”
I use all my strength to wrench my wrist free of his shadows and sit up to grab his bottom jaw. “You listen to me. You’ve denied yourself long enough, Damien. Stop punishing yourself for something you could not control. You are free, and you are my mate. No mate of mine will wallow in self-loathing and denial. I will have all of you—or none of you.” I squeeze until my nails bite in. “Her ashes sifted through my fingers, Damien. She is gone, and I will not allow her ghost to come between us. Do you understand me? Now, feed from me. As your mate, I command it.”
