He pulled me to the balustrade to face his royal minions. “My mate-intended has fought well today, as only a queen could. I must reward her.”
I’ll help you, but not without something in return.
His comment earned a smattering of smirks and chuckles. I was too worn out to do anything other than go along with things.
He opened a portal and swept inside, dragging me with him. And when the portal closed and the screams of the crowd snapped off, my knees buckled.
I fell forward into Carmine’s arms, and he sucked in a breath as our bodies aligned. His ink designs were under my cheek. My palm was against his chest.
“I can’t stand,” I whispered.
“Are you injured?” he hissed.
I shook my head. “Just weak.”
“I gather,” he said after a beat. “Where shall I carry you? To the shower?”
I would love nothing more than to wash chunks of flesh off my body, but a shower wasn’t an option. A woman’s body changed after giving birth and feeding a baby, and though brutal, unhinged training had sculpted my body so much otherwise, it couldn’t hide the changes to my boobs. My nipples had changed in pregnancy, and for feeding Adeuto too.
Carmine might guess the truth if he saw them.
Though that was less and less of a consideration as fire lit my body.
I gasped against the lust that gave me the strength to lift my head and gape at Carmine. “Get away.”
“I won’t take advantage of you,” he said calmly.
So calmly.
Toocalmly.
Lust crashed on me in waves, one after the other, a vicious storm. I couldn’t get my head above water. My hands roamed over Carmine as a foreign strength filled me, and I was able to claw my way up to hook my hands around his neck, and my legs around his body.
He strode down the hall with me in tow. Walking with me but otherwise ignoring my groping.
This wasn’t normal. The denied mating affected us both. But the part of my mind that whispered such things was distant.
I moaned and set my lips to the base of his neck. His smell, his taste. I licked a trail up his neck, and the demon king went rigid.
I smirked.
“Enough,” he growled.
I set my teeth against the edge of one of his crimson scales. I’d never thought to do such a thing, but the challenge felt natural. I released his scale to moan, “I want you.”
Mother be, but I was panting with how much I needed from him.
Carmine set me against a wall and captured my gaze. “You don’t want me. You hate me.”
“I want you more than I hate you,” I snarled, and tears squeezed from my eyes too.
I’d never wanted him more.
Carmine grunted and pressed his forehead to mine. “You would regret this, Syera.”
The change in movement had pushed me lower. On to the very thing that I wanted.
My hips were grinding on his rock-solid erection before I’d had the thought to do so.
